Have you ever given thought to what is the one element in marketing which ties up all the content created and promoted for your business? It is Brand Messaging.
Brand Messaging is known to be the underlying message or value proposition which is conveyed with aspects like the language or tonality in your content. Brand messaging is what makes buyers connect with your brand. A good brand messaging strategy will always comprise of the following qualities:
- Inspiration
- Persuasiveness
- Motivation
- Attachment
In short, brand messaging is the underlying reason behind customers wanting to buy your product.
Brand messaging leaves an impact on growth marketing strategies, social media marketing strategies, digital marketing services, creative services, taglines used, slogans and so much more. If your company still does not have a clear brand message, I recommend you to recognize and build on it or work with creative design service experts.
Some of the most popular brand messages include ‘Just Do It’ by Nike, ‘Save money. Live better’ by Walmart and many more. These brands have used brand messaging as a tool to build connections with their customers; this is what kept them going, still is and will continue to as well.
How to Create a Successful Brand Messaging Strategy?
Brand messaging is the very language and phrasing which is clearly visible to users in forms like website content, social media engagement, marketing messaging, product messaging – everything in between as well. It’s a lot beyond slogans and taglines. So, let’s look into the prime steps to create a successful brand messaging strategy:
1. Have extensive USP information: Unique Selling Position is the aspect that highlights the unique point about your brand, in the long run conveying to buyers why they should buy your products rather than of your competitors. An attractive USP is what makes the crux of your brand messaging strategy. Let’s understand this with an example; Subway, for instance, over the years has built its brand with the USP in relation with fresher and healthy alternatives to what is offered by other fast food chains. Key points you need to figure out for extensive UsP information:
- What problem(s) your product can solve?
- What is the element which helps make your customers’ lives better?
- Why would someone buy your product and not your competitors’?
2. Understand your audience in-depth: Without knowing your audience, it’s impossible to create a successful brand messaging strategy. They’re your buyers and promoters as well somewhere down the line. Do not disappoint them instead, know them by getting the following information:
- Who are you marketing to?
- What is the need for your audience?
- What do your customers care and value the most about your product?
- What language and tone will they respond to?
You can actually get parts of the above information via Google Analytics. They provide demographic data which is amazing to explore for optimum brand messaging outcomes. You can also roll out surveys via tools like SurveyMonkey however, the questionnaire needs to be well prepared.
Pro Tip Do not forget, a great brand message will cater to multiple target audiences. Try being versatile.
3. Brand Story? Yes, it’s needed too!: Whether you believe it or not, every brand has its story. This story is what can give you the base to connect with customers on a personal and emotional level. In the long run, this attachment will not just increase but stabilize sales too. Remember, a core aspect of brand strategy needs to be your brand story. Here’s the questions you need to ask yourself for the right brand story:
- How did your product come to existence?
- Why is your product existing?
- What is the role of your product in your life?
- Above all What does your product mean to your customers? (can be, if your product is brand new)
A good brand strategy will add emotions to your product and create class content. For instance, take Apple. The brand story there was and still is to create class products with the idea of minimalism and amazing technology. It still works for the world, right?
4. Your brand’s goal: Your brand’s goal is what adds value to the brand story and brand messaging strategy as well. Your brand should try to be able to showcase good things which resonate with your ideal customer market. In simple words, your brand’s goal should be to increase its social consciousness.
Your product needs to have the brand message strategy from the perspective of how things can change with your business’s product. This is the bigger picture, with the capacity to handle your company’s turnover, financial goals and more.
A renowned Australian toilet paper brand, Who Gives a Crap is a great example. It’s an eco-friendly brand, producing toilet paper without trees and donates 50% of its profits to charities that contribute towards building toilet facilities for those in need. This brand goal by itself becomes the brand message! Find out yours too.
5. Brand message guidelines: In order to create a kickass brand messaging strategy, the above points or aspects need to be catered to and taken very seriously. Aspects like brand story, taglines, brand objectives and so on should be well- thought and framed well as well. Once the brand messaging strategy is taken care of, even freelancers can create quality content for your brand based on these guidelines.
What’s next?
Once your brand guidelines are set, there’s some more work to be done. Following are suggestions given by top marketers with regard to keeping brand messaging strategy in the loop:
a. Create brand content style guide: This document should be the bible for all strategy and creation related teams. Without the brand content style guide, any content created is almost in vain. Reason being, the guide creates an ambience to the work which will be created and published. It’s consistent, accurate and well- researched as well. One piece of work off that guide means 0 outcomes.
b. Update website copy: Your website is the virtual address for your business. Brand messaging strategy needs to be catered here in the form of on-page content, website copies and more. When you look at your website content, you need to ask yourself if the website is in-sync with personas you need to know based on latest decision making preferences and styles. If not, work towards your brand creative services.
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c. Revise marketing collateral, sales templates and more: Marketing collaterals like handouts, brochures and so on are what need to be looked into here. The brand message strategy needs to be synchronized here too for optimum results and consistency in work. The same applies to sales scripts as well.
d. Inform team about the same: As a business owner, you need to make your employees aware of the brand messaging strategy, especially the internal digital marketing team you have or the digital marketing agency you work with otherwise. Training programs need to be optimized for the same and rolled out for quality execution of brand messaging strategy.
Final words:
The brand messaging strategy framework is not designed to be set and kept aside. It needs to be evolving and catering to the trending business needs. There is complete empathy from our end, for your company. However, you need to understand that once you take the first step in brand marketing, the rest of your marketing strategy will be eased out by 3X.
Priyanka Mehta is a popular blogger amongst digital marketers and has been in the industry for about 5 years. Currently working with Encircl, she’s truly passionate about writing about trending topics about different Technologies, Marketing, and more. She follows research-based blog writing and shares ROI- based tips in the most classic manner.