Defining how your brand communicates its value to customers is one of the most important marketing processes you’ll undertake. With a clear voice and sense of personality, your brand will be better able to reach its target audience and hold its own amongst competitors all vying for market attention. It can be rough out there, so the more ways you can stand out from the crowd the better!
From the tone of your website right down to how you communicate in emails, your brand needs to tell the story of who you are and what you’re hoping to achieve with every piece of content you put out. If you’re familiar with our business, you’ll know that we like to have a bit of fun with our brand messaging (some call it “sass,” but hey, it works!), but we’ll be the first to admit that this style of messaging isn’t for everyone.
We do it because it best reflects the energy we want to inject into the businesses we work with, and once our clients meet us in person, they see that our messaging really does match who we are. As with everything though, what works for us, might not necessarily work for you.
If you’re currently in the process of developing your brand messaging or you’d like to upgrade what you’re currently working with, we’ve compiled a list of helpful tips so you can figure out what your voice should be.
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Even though it can sound like a complicated process, creating a brand message mostly just requires confidence and belief in your own products or services. You chose to establish a brand because you saw a need for the product or services that you provide. Now, it’s time to share that vision with others.
Whatever products or services you provide, they offer value to a specific type of customer that you should be speaking directly to with everything you do. Everything that your brand publishes must showcase a cohesive sense of personality, from how you word your content, to the images you use on your social media channels.
The best way to get your specific brand messaging on point is to start off by being as specific as possible with who you’re targeting. Creating customer personas might sound like something from an outdated marketing 101 book, but trust us, the process works every time! Outlining examples of who you think your customers are, profiling them as accurately as possible and then familiarizing yourself with their traits will allow you to understand who you’re speaking to and develop a more effective form of communication.
Have you noticed how brands have shifted more towards a “friendship” style of communication in recent years? With the rise of social media and online interaction, brands now understand that they can reach you through the same channels as friends, family, and peers. Scrolling through your Facebook, Instagram and Twitter feeds, you’ll find that ads from online brands don’t look out of place amongst posts from your network of contacts anymore.
This conversational marketing style aims to speak to the customer as if they are your friend, establishing an immediate sense of trust and relatability. This concept can be extremely effective, but it’s even more vital that you get your target audience right if you want to make them feel part of your inner circle. Speaking to your customers as though they’re friends is currently working for a lot of brands — just be careful to remember where the line is!
For your brand messaging to stand out, you need to know what makes your brand special. Finding your value proposition is easier than it sounds, you just need to ask yourself what would make you want to buy from your own brand?
If you’re struggling to conceptualize what unique value your brand offers customers, you can always ask customers to shed some light on the matter. Again, focus groups might sound like marketing 101 (we know, *yawn*), but the fact is, asking customers how they see your brand is still the best way to make improvements.
Thankfully, focus groups no longer have to be held in tiny rooms with people who are only there because they were offered a coupon for a free sandwich; they can now be held online. Since it’s now easier than ever to get feedback on certain aspects of your brand, utilize this opportunity to get direct feedback from the people you’re trying to reach. Find out exactly what kind of brand messaging usually seals the deal on their buyer’s journey and adapt your voice accordingly.
All of the campaigns your brand carries out should try to remember one thing; be clear with what you’re trying to say. To do this (yep, here comes the tricky part!), you’ll need to get things clear in your own mind first. Nothing is more chaotic than brand messaging that doesn’t know what it’s trying to say. That’s why it’s always important to understand your own objectives before trying to send the message out to prospective customers.
Strip it back and ask yourself what end goals you hope to achieve with your business. Are you trying to change the world or are you just trying to make small differences to the lives of your customers? Whatever you’re trying to achieve, tell you customers all about it! As your business grows, you can expand on your level of communication, but try to start off small — that’s how clarity is achieved.
Pick some key points you want your customers to know about your business and find different ways to communicate these points through your campaigns, marketing materials and overall digital presence. Don’t be repetitive though! Shake up how you deliver these messages through different mediums. We live in a technologically-rich society, so start off by making good use of video, photography and apps that automatically make your messaging more interesting.
Reading about and implementing some of the latest marketing trends and digital tools will also help you find new and interesting ways to get your message across (while growing your brand in the process!). Brand messaging will become second nature to you once you’ve had enough practice, so start off small and allow your delivery methods to grow as your brand’s presence expands.
Overall, the main thing to remember is that your brand messaging is your opportunity to speak directly to your customers, so putting time into understanding who these customers are is a great starting point. As children, we all need to learn how to speak — so even if it takes a little time for your brand to find its voice, it will come to you if you focus on identifying what people want to hear from you.
Did you find this blog post helpful? If so, we’d love to share some more wisdom! You can book a call directly with Mel (we swear she doesn’t bite!), or schedule a call via our online scheduling app.
We’re in the business of helping other businesses grow, so reach out to find out what we can do for you!
