You know brand messaging matters. It’s the thread that ties together every piece of content you create and every communication you send out. It articulates your company’s value, stirs up interest in what you have to offer and ultimately makes people want to buy from you.
But as interaction with clients, prospects and partners has shifted from digital-sometimes to digital-only, brand messaging has taken on a new, more critical importance. The reason is simple: it has to do more work. You can’t rely on in-person presentations, explanations or demonstrations to prop up a weak, confusing or complicated message.
You also can’t depend on messaging that doesn’t resonate in this current business climate. The COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t just transformed how you interact with clients. It’s altered priorities and changed why, what and how your clients buy—possibly for the long-term. And your messaging needs to reflect that.
Now is the time to be proactive in evaluating and strengthening your brand messaging to clearly convey who you are as a company, what you do and why it matters to your audience as they push forward in this new reality.
6 Tenets Of Mighty Brand Messaging
- Understandable enough to allow prospects to grasp how and where you “fit”
- Differentiated enough to cut through marketplace clutter
- Credible enough to establish your ability to deliver on promises
- Capable enough to communicate value on its own
- Provocative enough to evoke emotion and encourage action
- Flexible enough to evolve in a changing market
1. Understandable
When it comes to brand messaging, simplicity wins. But as anyone who has ever tried to craft a simple message will tell you, simple doesn’t mean easy.
That’s because your “simple” message still needs to pack a punch, loading a whole lot of story into a clear, concise and compelling statement.
- Does your message resonate with your specific audience?
- Does it grab and hold their attention?
- Do they understand how and where your solution fits into what they currently want and need?
If not, your message probably focuses more on what you’re selling instead of what your clients are getting. Flip the perspective and look at it from your audience’s point of view. Create messaging that helps them easily connect the dots between their current problem and your solution.
2. Differentiated
Your clients and prospects are inundated with messages right now. Having a strong, differentiated position is key to cutting through the competitive clutter.
- Does your message convey a unique selling point?
- Does it promote a distinct solution for your audience’s current challenges?
- Does it create emotional hooks that stick with them?
Generic messaging isn’t notable, but neither is overly flashy messaging that doesn’t really say anything. Emphasize the unique and beneficial aspects of your solution and your clients will sit up and take notice.
3. Credible
You believe what you say about your company’s value, but that doesn’t mean your audience will. Your brand messaging needs to demonstrate your ability to deliver on your promises.
- Does your message highlight your methodology?
- Does it convey your experience or expertise?
The tone of your message also factors into establishing credibility with your audience. Steer clear of overly braggadocious statements and aim to create connections using more genuine sentiments. For example, “We never do anything wrong.” vs. “We don’t stop until we get everything right.”
4. Capable
With more buyers doing more research on their own before reaching out to your company, your brand messaging needs to be able to clearly communicate value on its own.
- Does your message explicitly convey the problems you solve or the challenges you overcome?
- Does it communicate what benefits your audience gets when those problems and challenges are solved?
Your message needs to go beyond products, services and methodology to create a vision of your clients’ world and how your existence in it gets them closer to their ideal state.
5. Provocative
As your audience takes more ownership over the decision-making process, they aren’t looking to be told what to do. They need to be convinced.
And no one will care about, let alone act on what you’re selling unless you can make an emotional connection between their specific challenges and your unique solution.
- Does your messaging evoke emotion?
- Does it encourage action?
- Does it generate comments or questions?
Ideally, the brand story you create is so compelling that your audience feels pulled into your messaging instead of pushed by it. Listen to your audience describe their issues and use those insights to inform your messaging.
6. Flexible
Brand messaging often acts as a conversation starter, and you need to make sure you’re having the right conversation with your audience at all times.
- Do you have a plan for periodically evaluating, testing and validating your messaging?
With COVID-19, the market has changed. And it will continue to change over the next weeks, months and even years. Your messaging needs to be flexible enough to allow for the evolution of your services and solutions to address your audience’s emerging needs.