What is Brand Messaging and Why Do You Need it?
If you’re in the dark about the importance of strong brand messaging, look no further. Let’s start with the basics. Hubspot handily defines brand messaging as:
“The way your brand communicates its unique value proposition and personality through its verbal and nonverbal messaging. Your messaging can inspire and motivate [your customers], making them want to buy your product.”
Why is brand messaging important, you ask? Well, it’s critical for several key reasons:
Brand messaging helps differentiate you from the crowd
Think about Nike’s “just do it” messaging. It’s consistent across their ads, their clothing, and their owned and earned media. The fact that their messaging is the same across all their marcomms channels reinforces what their organization is all about to both prospective customers and loyal evangelists. Nike’s messaging strategy clearly elevates them above the myriad of other sports brands out there.
An organization that invests in creating a strong, innovative voice that’s consistently communicated across all channels, is well on their way to standing out in a noisy marketplace.
Helps inform your marketing strategies and produces strong leads
Once you’ve differentiated yourself from Johnny Nobody, you can focus on creating unique marketing that highlights your strengths, and in turn attracts customers who are more likely to engage with your business. Creating content that actually speaks to your target audience is critical for filling up your funnel with the kind of leads your sales team has been asking for. When I help my clients build out their 90-day marketing plans and sprints, we make sure the company’s brand messaging is crystal clear and creatively communicated across the content, ads, designs, videos and more.
Helps to increase your sales
Piggybacking off the first two points, having strong messaging can ultimately lead to more sales, and more money in your piggy bank. Let’s also think about intent and the goal of creating more cohesive customer experiences. Customers that feel connected with a brand are more likely to invest their time, energy, and (dare we say) money. Think about the way that you interact with your favorite brands. It’s not so different, is it? And, remember, the best kind of customers are the ones that become evangelists. These are people who can’t help but share you with their friends, network, community, etc. These are the customers that dreams are made of.
Ways to Use Brand Messaging to Strengthen Your Inbound Marketing
Let’s chat about some ways you can use inbound marketing to strengthen your brand messaging (now that you’re an expert on the latter).
Website
Once you have your brand messaging locked down, you need to SHARE it. And, where better to do that than on your very own amazing website? The brand messaging will inform the language you use on your site as well as the imagery, tone and overall content. You want it to resonate with your audience and to convey your authentic self to your customers. Don’t have a website? Then, what the heck are you waiting for??!
Marketing Campaigns
With your messaging and website in sync with one another, it’s time to go full on holistic in your approach. This means that even your marketing campaigns will be driven by your brand messaging. At the end of the day, your brand messaging can help you decide where your campaigns will be best received and most seen by your intended audience. Who are the people you’re selling to and what do they value? What can you offer them that your competitors can’t? It’s time to get to work, people! Staying agile in your marketing efforts (cue our 90-day marketing plans!), using data to make strategic decisions, and championing the activities that are actually working for you is how we get things done here.
Blogging
Lately it seems like everyone and their dog has a blog. However, not everyone (nor their doggos) are infusing their brand messaging throughout their blog posts and content. This is where we will differ. Instead of writing out the same boring listicles and how-tos like everyone else, you will use your unique brand messaging to speak to your readers like the smart and savvy people they are. You will give them content that they actually enjoy reading. You will, won’t you? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered on content creation if you don’t.
Social Media
In the same vein as blogs, social media will also receive that same injection of brand messaging. Social posts shouldn’t be some regurgitation of something you saw online, but rather, it should contain useful and helpful content for your audience delivered in your very own unique style and messaging.
Paid Media
One of the greatest advantages of paid media is that you are fully in control of who, when and where your message gets delivered to. This means you can use your brand messaging to hypertarget that niche audience that you’ve been craving to catch the attention of.
Public Relations
This always seems like one of those things that people think they don’t need… until they do. PR should always be communicating and responding in ways that directly align with and support the brand messaging. Your entire company should be aligned on how to respond and deal with things in a way that doesn’t make you cringe in the future. Your audience should be seeing a cohesive brand message from your company, regardless of where or from whom it originates.
The goal is to be the best “you” (aka. brand) that you can be. Try out some of these tips and let me know how you do! Not interested in jumping into the deep end on your own? Drop me a line and let’s see if we can work together to make your website and business really stand out!
