Brand messaging is the way your brand connects and engages with your customers and communicates how you are different and better than everyone else.
- Be clear on who is your customer
Review your customer personas. Are your customer goals aligned with your values and what you offer?
- Be clear on who you are
What does your target customer care about?
What kind of messaging will connect and engage them?
How are you different and better than your competitors?
What is your purpose?
What do you value?
Why should your customer care about your product or service?
- Write your brand message.
Your message starts with you noticing how what your customer cares about aligns with your values. How does your being different and better relate to your customers? What do your beliefs and your customer needs have in common? Put the two together for your draft message.
- Brainstorm your message
Share your message with employees, friends, and family. Ask an expert. Listen to feedback. You know your customer and your brand best, sieve through what you hear and take what feels right to you. Expand, and play with your messaging. Make word clouds. Imagine what if’s. Google and browse images that appeal to you. Google and browse images relating to your message. Save the images. Make notes. Park everything in the back of your mind, go for walks.
- Gather your notes. Craft one paragraph of core content. Craft your tagline.
Keep everything simple. The simpler your message, the easier it is to understand and remember. Simple, and consistent messaging connects with customers.
Revisit your customer personas. Is your messaging saying something your customer cares about? Does your content convey your values in a way that resonates with your customer’s needs?
Does your tagline communicate who you are and how you are different and better than your competitors?
- Test your message
Start using your message everywhere, in everything you do. Whether you’re writing content for your website, slogans for packaging, announcements for marketing events, writing a newsletter or an email, crafting ads or social media posts, use your brand message and be consistent in how you use it.
Your messaging need not be perfect, it needs to be relevant to your customer needs at the time. Tweak your message if you need to. When you do, be consistent throughout.
Your brand message is verbal and nonverbal. It’s not just your words but your design, color, mood, tone, and personality. (Coming soon)
- Document your message in a Brand Guide. Give a copy to employees and people helping your business. That way everyone starts from the same strong foundation and builds a loved, and trusted brand.
