Launch message house: a one-page template for startups
A launch message house is a single page that fixes what you will say before anyone designs or writes launch assets. It covers who the launch is for, the change you promise them, a few supporting points, and the evidence behind each point. Write it before you brief a studio, get one named person to sign it off, and check that every claim on it has proof you could show.
When a startup needs one
The usual moment is a few weeks after a round closes. There is a launch date, a funding announcement to time around it, and the first real campaign budget. Several people are about to produce assets at once: a studio, a freelancer, perhaps a first marketing hire (see what to hand over to a first marketer), and the founders writing posts.
Without an agreed page, each of them makes their own call on the message. Design reviews turn into arguments about copy. The homepage says one thing, the announcement says another, and the sales deck says a third. A message house moves that argument to one meeting, before production starts.
What goes on the page
Audience and promise
The roof of the house is one sentence about who the launch is for and one about what changes for them.
Name the buyer by role and situation, not by segment. "Finance leads at UK accounting firms with 10 to 50 staff who still match invoices by hand" is usable. "SMBs" is not.
The promise is the change, said the way the buyer would say it. A quick test: if a competitor could put their logo under the sentence without changing a word, it is not specific enough yet.
Pillars
Pillars are the reasons a buyer should believe the promise. Three is the common format and fits on a slide or a homepage section; two strong ones beat four weak ones. Each pillar is a short claim the buyer cares about, such as speed, cost, risk or fit with how they already work, written as a sentence rather than a label.
Proof under each pillar
Under each pillar, list what backs it up: a product fact, a customer quote you have permission to use, a number you can document, a security certification, or the name of an investor you have announced.
In the UK this is more than good practice. The CAP Code, which the Advertising Standards Authority enforces, says that before a marketing communication is published, marketers must hold documentary evidence for claims that people are likely to take as objective. Comparisons with an identifiable competitor have their own rules, including that the products compared must meet the same need. If a pillar has no proof yet, mark it as a gap rather than writing around it. If you advertise in other countries, check their rules as well.
Words to use and words to retire
Add two short lists. The first holds words customers actually use, taken from sales calls and support emails. The second holds words to stop using: the old product name after a rebrand, internal codenames, and category jargon your buyers do not use.
What the page leaves out
The message house is not the tagline, the campaign idea, the visual direction or the channel plan. Those come after it and are judged against it. Keep it to one page so people read it.
The template
Copy this into a doc and fill it in. Square brackets are prompts; delete them as you go.
LAUNCH MESSAGE HOUSE
Company / product: [name]
Launch or campaign: [what is launching, and the date]
Signed off by: [one name] Date: [date]
AUDIENCE
Who: [role + company type + situation]
What they do today instead: [the current workaround, in their words]
PROMISE (one sentence)
[what changes for them]
PILLAR 1: [claim, as a sentence]
Proof: [fact / quote with permission / documented number]
Status: [ready | needs evidence]
PILLAR 2: [claim]
Proof: [ ]
Status: [ ]
PILLAR 3 (optional): [claim]
Proof: [ ]
Status: [ ]
WORDS TO USE [customer phrases]
WORDS TO RETIRE [old names, codenames, jargon]
CAN WE NAME? [customers / investors / partners cleared for public use]
OPEN QUESTIONS [anything not yet decided, with an owner]A filled example
The company below is an invented example, written to show the level of detail.
Company / product: Tallyform (example), invoice matching for accounting firms
Launch: Public launch + seed announcement, 3 March
Signed off by: CEO
Who: Practice managers at UK accounting firms, 10–50 staff,
matching supplier invoices to bank lines by hand
Today instead: "Two people spend month-end in spreadsheets"
PROMISE: Month-end matching is done before the partners ask for it.
PILLAR 1: It reads invoices from the inbox the firm already uses.
Proof: Product fact: Gmail and Outlook connectors, live in beta
Status: ready
PILLAR 2: Every match can be traced back to the source document.
Proof: Product fact: audit log export; demo video
Status: ready
PILLAR 3: Firms in the beta cut matching time.
Proof: None documented yet
Status: needs evidence. Do not use until beta data is written up.
WORDS TO RETIRE: "Project Ledger" (codename), "AI-powered"Pillar 3 is the useful part of the example. Without the status line, it could easily have reached the homepage as an unsupported claim.
Writing it in an afternoon
- Collect raw material: notes or recordings from recent sales calls, support emails, the pitch deck and any customer quotes you already have permission to use.
- Draft the audience and promise alone first. If the founders disagree here, stop and settle it; the rest depends on it.
- Draft the pillars, then fill in proof. Mark every gap.
- Write a homepage headline, a LinkedIn post opening and an email subject line using only the page. If you need information that is not on it, the page is missing something.
- Get the named person to sign it off, and put the date on it.
Using it to brief a studio
Attach the signed page to the creative brief. It gives the studio a fixed message, so their job becomes finding the campaign idea and visual direction that carry it, and you can review their routes against the page instead of against personal taste.
If you do not yet have positioning to put on the page, start there. Our brand and website work begins with positioning and key messages for that reason, and the message house is a convenient format to agree them in.
FAQ
What is a message house?
A one-page structure for a message: an overall promise at the top (the roof), a few supporting points beneath it (the pillars) and the evidence for each point. Teams use it so that everyone producing content says the same thing.
How is it different from a positioning statement?
A positioning statement describes where the company sits in the market. The message house turns that into what you will say in a specific launch or campaign, with proof attached to each point.
Who should sign off the launch message house?
One named person, usually the CEO or whoever owns the launch. Several people can comment, but one person decides, so that disagreements are settled before production rather than in design reviews.
Can we change it after launch?
Yes. Update it when evidence changes, for example when beta results are written up and a pillar moves from "needs evidence" to "ready". Change the date and tell everyone producing assets.
Sources
- ASA / CAP, UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising, Section 3 (Misleading advertising): https://www.asa.org.uk/type/non_broadcast/code_section/03.html. Rule 3.7: "Before distributing or submitting a marketing communication for publication, marketers must hold documentary evidence…"; Rule 3.33: comparisons must cover "products meeting the same needs or intended for the same purpose."