In December’s blog, we spoke about the importance of a marketing strategy for businesses, and in particular why formulating your target markets is critical to your marketing success. Today we’ll be discussing another important component of the strategy – messaging.
It’s harder than it looks
Like several components of a marketing strategy, messaging is a critical piece that many businesses give little consideration. As we know, one of marketing’s key objectives is to generate sales and revenues for a business. In order to do this effectively, marketers need to develop content, stories and messages that resonate with each of their target audiences, motivating them to buy.
What makes this equation that much more complicated is the growing sophistication of consumers today - they have a much clearer understanding of what they want and expect from a business. In order for marketers to connect with these consumers, they need to develop very clear and compelling messages and stories that resonate with these target groups.
While this may appear to be a fairly straightforward exercise, in reality it can be a very involved and difficult one. This is perhaps why some companies are fearful of engaging in this effort. This is where market research and customer insights become truly important. These tools help to identify the how and the what in the messages that need to be crafted to deliver results.
3 keys for developing compelling messages
When attempting to craft your marketing messages for your campaigns and programs, there a number of fundamental things you need to consider. These would include the following:
1. ‘Be’ your target customer
When you create messages for your target market, you need to think like them. Leverage the research and insights noted above and use them to delve into the psyche of your customers. Identify what matters to them, what they need and want and how your products or services meet those needs. Craft messages that connect with them in a meaningful manner!
2. Does it accurately embody your products/services?
The ideal messages in marketing are those that closely align a customer’s needs with the key attributes of the product or service in a coherent and impactful way. In other words, for a message to truly work, it needs to align the key product characteristics with the expectations of the customer.
3. Does it pass the Friends & Family test?
Once you’ve come up with your messaging, the next thing you MUST do is ensure it’s easily comprehendible to the group you’re targeting. To validate this, test the messages out with friends or family members that fall into your target market.
Do they easily understand the message (without you having to explain it)? Does it resonate with them and can they relate to it? Do they have any concerns about the content or tone? Make sure you test your messaging out and use the feedback collected to make changes or tweaks as is needed.
Getting marketing messages right is by no means an exact science and takes a fair bit of intuition along with solid insights and a good understanding of one’s clients - plus a fair bit of luck! Done correctly, it can create the wins that famous brands like Nike have enjoyed with their now infamous ‘Just do it’ message and tagline.
If you’re looking for some assistance with either crafting or refining your marketing messages, please give us a holler! We’d be happy to meet with you to discuss how you can better position your messages to connect on a deeper level with your customers and prospects.
