The Importance of Having a Clear Brand Message

Whether you are developing marketing and advertising campaigns, communicating with your customers via phone or email, or building engagement through web content, blogs, or newsletters, defining who you are and how you differ from your competition is vital to having a clear brand message.

When making buying decisions, a person’s dominant thought is, “What’s in it for me?”

Although that might seem like a shallow proposition on the surface, the truth is your customer has the right to know what to expect when working with your company. The burden of overcoming that resistance rests squarely on the success of having a clear brand message.

Companies that can answer that question clearly and overcome objections enjoy greater conversion, ROI, and revenue rewards.

Clarity is one of the hallmarks of successful brand messaging. Spending time defining who you are, your uniqueness in the market, and how you will serve your customers will result in greater success in your overall marketing and conversion.

Successful brand positioning integrates three messaging pillars: Unique Selling Proposition, Value Proposition, and Calls to Action.

Utilizing these concepts in every piece of communication will help ensure that your brand messaging is compelling, speaks directly to your target audience, and prompts your target to act.

Unique Selling Proposition differentiates your brand from others in the market.
Value Proposition focuses on how your product or service will enhance or improve your customers’ lives.
Calls To Action prompt your reader to take action and continue the engagement.

Brand Messaging Framework

The best branding reflects the company’s core values and clarifies what customers can expect from your brand.

Within the first 5-7 seconds of interacting with your brand messaging, a reader should know exactly what you do, who you serve, and what you promise to deliver in goods and services.

Your brand voice should align with your company values, create strong engagement with the reader, demonstrate expertise about your product or service, differentiate your brand in the market, overcome objections, and create a call to action.

Identify Your Target Audience or Ideal Buyer:

You’ve heard the phrases “know your audience” and “read the room.” To whom you address your message is just as important as the message itself. Identifying your ideal buyer persona will help guide your entire brand messaging.

Examples of buyer personal attributes include age, gender, occupation, annual income, hobbies, core values, behaviors, and buying habits. Along with the three messaging pillars of branding, knowing your buyer is the foundation for all messaging.

Create Clarity and Adoption

By defining your USP (unique selling proposition) and Value Proposition, you set the tone and direction for all your external and internal messaging.

Many companies excel in focused branding for their external customers but neglect to consider their internal customers (employees). By including your USP, Value Proposition, and Core Values in every company communication, meeting, and written asset, you create adoption and a culture that focuses on those values.

Your employees will bring focused branding into their customer interactions and reinforce your core messaging. The net effect is an elevated customer experience, further differentiating your company in the market, and enhanced conversion and revenue metrics.

Use Targeted Vernacular and Casual Voice

In 2022, most business communications will border between professional and casual.

The reason? With myriad distractions from 24 hours news cycles to Instagram feeds and picking up the kids from school, you have a precious few seconds to grab your reader’s attention.

A casual tone creates an accessible medium for readers to engage. Nobody wants to spend time slogging through a densely written email or article. Although proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation are essential when crafting your messaging, keep in mind that you are not writing an English term paper.

You are connecting and engaging with a human being who wants to feel valued and recognized, and you have a few seconds to do it.

Using the vernacular and terminology your buyer persona uses in everyday interactions helps quickly establish trust, rapport, and engagement.

A social media post intended for the public, for example, will read very differently than a letter to current customers and stakeholders.

Get to The Point and Keep It Simple

Good communications accomplish precisely what they intend and don’t drag the reader on. They speak clearly and effectively, then end with a professional closing or call to action

There’s nothing wrong with long-form content when appropriate. However, a simple, to-the-point approach is typically more successful than a long-winded one for many other forms of marketing and advertising, such as social media posts, emails, pay-per-click ads, texting campaigns, flyers, and landing pages.

Demonstrate how your product or service will help your customer solve for X. Developing your USP and VP will help your business “get to the point” quicker and clarify what you will do for your customer.

Remember the words of Eleanor Roosevelt “Keep It Simple!”

Create a Call to Action

Asking for a sale is one of the most straightforward and essential principles in sales and marketing campaigns. Essentially, this is what a call-to-action attempts to accomplish.

Remember that just because you are ready to sell doesn’t mean your customer is prepared to buy. Therefore, engaging your leads and customers until they are prepared to buy is the foundation of inbound marketing and sales.

Often, you aren’t directly asking for the sale but for the reader to take action, which will continue their engagement in the sales process. For example, a strong call to action can prompt your reader to sign up for a newsletter, drip campaign, webinar, download an eBook or whitepaper, book an appointment, schedule a free trial, or request a customer testimonial.

These forms of engagement continue to keep your brand top of mind until the customer or lead is ready to commit to the sale.

Keep these following brand messaging guideline questions in mind to reach existing and potential customers with your products or services successfully.