About 20% of all businesses fail within their first two years in operation. Part of the problem is an undeveloped business plan.
A business plan is a detailed blueprint that you can follow to steer your company toward success. One section of your business plan should include your brand messaging.
What is brand messaging and how do you develop it? There’s a lot that goes into it. You need to do competitor research, come up with an interesting tagline, and of course, get to know your customers.
Over time, you’ll create your own unique brand voice. Check out this guide to learn more.
What Is Brand Messaging?
Brand messaging is how your brand communicates with your target audience. Since its main purpose is to tell your unique business story, it needs to be consistent over all pieces of media.
If you don’t take the time to plan out your messaging, your brand will become disjointed. Your target audience will lose track of who you are and what you do.
Why Does Branding Matter?
People don’t spend money on a product or service just because they need it. Consumers want to ensure their money is going toward something they care about.
If you use your brand messaging to stand up for a cause, that passion is likely to draw others in. Your branding allows you to make a real connection with your target audience.
There’s also a little something called word of mouth. If you make a huge impression on a customer with your brand messaging strategy, they’ll tell their friends about your business. Those friends will tell their other friends, and so on and so forth.
Brand Positioning Statement
The first step in building your brand messaging framework is to create your positioning statement. It tells your audience who you are and where you’re going.
Figure out what your company message is. From there, brainstorm a few ways to achieve your goals.
Think about why your mission matters. Who is it going to help? What sort of pain points is it going to address?
At the end of the day, customers don’t want to hear about the benefits of your product. They want to know how it’s going to solve their specific problems.
Decide on Your Tagline
A tagline is a short and to-the-point statement that summarizes what you do. It should be one to two sentences at most. You’re not writing up your entire story.
It can be tricky to convey emotion when you only have so many words to work with, but your tagline should make your target audience feel something.
Study Your Competitors
When you find yourself at a loss with establishing your brand identity, take some time to study your competitors. By learning how they talk to your target audience, you can find out how to differentiate yourself.
For example, if your competitor uses a professional and put-together voice, you can do something a little more quirky to stand out.
Of course, you might want to reel it back, depending on who you’re marketing towards. Fun and excitement may work with kids, but it’s less effective for stuffy businessmen.
The Three Pillars
The three pillars are three themes or selling points of your brand. Using your competitor research, come up with three things that make you unique. Write down the various benefits of all three of these things.
You can assign phrases and keywords to each one. Make them a talking point.
Get To Know Your Customers
It’s good to make your customers part of your personal branding. Instead of spending your time telling your customers why your product is great, have a conversation.
If someone makes a post on social media stating how much they love your product, engage with them. Thank them for using your product.
If someone leaves a negative review, ask them about their experience. You can’t change if you don’t know what you need to fix. It also makes customers feel heard.
Make a Tone Guide
Again, your branding needs to be consistent across all platforms. If it’s not, that will send mixed signals to your customers. That’s why it’s important to make a style and tone guide to share with your employees.
This will let those in sales and advertising know how to present your brand without breaking character.
Be Willing to Change Things Up
Your customer base isn’t going to hold the same values and interests forever. There will come a time when their priorities begin to shift.
You may start your business marketing to one crowd, but then as your product develops, you realize it would fit another demographic way better. Change is okay when it’s for the better.
Revisit your branding message often and alter it according to your target audience and the current market. You don’t have to rebrand your entire company (unless you want to), but little shifts in direction never hurt.
Craft Your Brand Messaging
Your brand messaging is crucial to the growth of your company. If you don’t spend time developing your unique voice, you won’t be able to stand out from your competitors.
You’ll become lost in a sea of others who are developing the same type of products as you.
Don’t let yourself fade into the background. Use the tips that you’ve read here today to get your target audience’s eyes on you and keep them there.
For more advice that will help you with your marketing efforts, visit the Business and Finance section of our blog.
