diff --git a/docs/usage.rst b/docs/usage.rst
index 6417cd853..a14cce4ec 100644
--- a/docs/usage.rst
+++ b/docs/usage.rst
@@ -66,8 +66,8 @@ Keyed messages
 
     # HashedPartitioner is default (currently uses python hash())
     producer = KeyedProducer(kafka)
-    producer.send_messages(b'my-topic', b'key1', b'some message')
-    producer.send_messages(b'my-topic', b'key2', b'this methode')
+    producer.send_messages(b'my-topic', b'some message', key=b'key1')
+    producer.send_messages(b'my-topic', b'this methode', key=b'key2')
 
     # Murmur2Partitioner attempts to mirror the java client hashing
     producer = KeyedProducer(kafka, partitioner=Murmur2Partitioner)
diff --git a/kafka/producer/base.py b/kafka/producer/base.py
index 3c826cdb9..f85773c32 100644
--- a/kafka/producer/base.py
+++ b/kafka/producer/base.py
@@ -329,7 +329,7 @@ def cleanup(obj):
         else:
             self.sync_fail_on_error = sync_fail_on_error
 
-    def send_messages(self, topic, partition, *msg):
+    def send_messages(self, topic, partition, *msg, **kwargs):
         """
         Helper method to send produce requests
         @param: topic, name of topic for produce request -- type str
@@ -346,7 +346,7 @@ def send_messages(self, topic, partition, *msg):
         All messages produced via this method will set the message 'key' to Null
         """
         topic = kafka_bytestring(topic)
-        return self._send_messages(topic, partition, *msg)
+        return self._send_messages(topic, partition, *msg, **kwargs)
 
     def _send_messages(self, topic, partition, *msg, **kwargs):
         key = kwargs.pop('key', None)
diff --git a/kafka/producer/simple.py b/kafka/producer/simple.py
index 13e60d984..c07c2be53 100644
--- a/kafka/producer/simple.py
+++ b/kafka/producer/simple.py
@@ -45,13 +45,13 @@ def _next_partition(self, topic):
 
         return next(self.partition_cycles[topic])
 
-    def send_messages(self, topic, *msg):
+    def send_messages(self, topic, *msg, **kwargs):
         if not isinstance(topic, six.binary_type):
             topic = topic.encode('utf-8')
 
         partition = self._next_partition(topic)
         return super(SimpleProducer, self).send_messages(
-            topic, partition, *msg
+            topic, partition, *msg, **kwargs
         )
 
     def __repr__(self):