The Three Most Common Messaging Mistakes Growing Companies Make (And How to Avoid Them)
By Karen Davis, Founder & Director, KAD Advisory
When companies grow, their communications need to grow with them. Yet too often, organisations that are scaling successfully on paper find that their messaging doesn’t keep pace — leading to confusion, missed opportunities, or even lost trust.
At KAD Advisory, we see it time and again: strong businesses weakened by unclear, inconsistent or outdated storytelling. The good news? These mistakes are avoidable — and often, a few simple shifts can make all the difference.
Here are the three most common messaging mistakes we see growing companies make — and how to avoid them.
1. Talking to Everyone and Reaching No One
The mistake:
In the rush to appeal to every potential market, company messaging becomes broad, vague, and diluted. Phrases like "end-to-end solutions" or "innovative platforms" sound impressive - but mean little to the people you’re trying to reach. They are great examples of buzzword bingo.
How to avoid it:
Get specific. Know exactly who your primary audiences are, what problems they need solved, and what language they use. Build your messaging for them first. Clarity will travel further than generalisation ever will.
2. Messaging That’s Stuck in Start-Up Mode
The mistake:
Many companies keep using the same story that served them well in their earliest days even as they scale into new markets, products or partnerships. What once sounded entrepreneurial and bold can now sound narrow, naive and completely disconnected from current reality.
How to avoid it:
Evolve your messaging as your business evolves. Reframe your story to reflect your growing impact, your strategic vision, and your new audience expectations - without losing the energy that made you different to begin with.
3. Inconsistency Across Channels and Voices
The mistake:
One version of the story appears in investor decks. Another version is told to employees. The media hears something different again. Without deliberate alignment, you create gaps and gaps create doubt.
How to avoid it:
Invest in a strong internal messaging framework. Define your elevator pitch, key message platforms and proof points. Train leadership, sales and customer teams to deliver a consistent, confident story whether they’re delivering to the board, at a conference, to their teams or online.
The Bottom Line
Messaging isn’t just a marketing exercise. It sounds easy, but messaging is actually a very hard exercise to do. It's about establishing the framework of trust, growth and leadership that aligns to the company’s purpose and vision. If you want your company to scale its influence as well as its operations, your story needs to stay sharper, stronger and more aligned at every step.
At KAD Advisory, we help businesses find the words that move people - from the C-suite to customers, from investors to teams. In an online world shaped by AI and deep research, every word is captured, scrutinised and remembered. When your messaging is clear, consistent and anchored in what your company truly stands for, you don’t just communicate - you connect, align and establish your brand and presence.