Does Your Brand Messaging Speak to Your Audience?
What if you are spending thousands of dollars on branding content but it’s speaking to the wrong person? If your brand’s messaging is targeting the wrong audience (or no audience at all), it can be creative, colorful and even “professionally” branded but you are creating a paved road that may be leading nowhere.
In case there’s any doubt about the importance of this, let’s check out some numbers:
In a SproutSocial report, 40% of consumer survey respondents reported that they resonated most on social media with businesses that provided memorable content, a distinct brand voice and a compelling story.
According to the Content Marketing Institute, 89% of B2B marketers have determined that brand awareness is the most important goal.
In his book Building A StoryBrand, New York Times bestselling author Donald Miller, takes a deep dive into the fine art of clarifying your brand’s message, so your customers listen and purchase your product or service. Donald Miller's StoryBrand process addresses the struggle many business leaders face. This is at the heart of why many businesses fail or plateau in their respective marketplaces. Below are key strategies that I use with clients consistently, many inspired by Donald Miller's StoryBrand framework.
4 Strategies To Create Your Brand’s Messaging
1. Define the main characters of your story. It seems obvious that you should define who your customer is, right? But, you’d be surprised how many businesses skip this step, make incorrect assumptions or neglect to see a shift in their audience that takes place over time. It’s also an easy mistake to confuse the “customer you want” with the “customer you actually have.” These two groups could look very different.
Knowing your audiences well will help you craft the right messages and chose the channels where they will see your brand. Imagine putting a young adult novel on the shelves of the mystery section in a bookstore. The right audience (young adults) wouldn’t be seeing the book written for them!
The same analogy can be applied to areas of business and marketing. For example, if your audience doesn’t use the social media app, Snapchat, it wouldn’t make sense to spend precious budget resources promoting your product line there.
Take that necessary step and start with a clear definition of who your current customers are and, by all means, identify those aspirational customers too.
2. Be the guide, not the hero. It’s an easy mistake. When creating your brand story, the hero of the story is not you, nor your product or service. The hero is your customer. Your job is to be the guide, not the hero, as Donald Miller says. The more that you speak to the customer’s needs, wants, fears, challenges and desires, the more your customer will sit up and begin to take notice. The customer will realize the story is theirs and you are there to guide their path.
3. Tell a story that solves your customer’s problems. Once you’ve outlined who your audience is, it’s time to define problems and solutions. Your brand must demonstrate that you fully grasp the issues at hand and offer the solution - your product or service. Examples include:
Showcase your expertise with clear takeaways
4. Provide the road map to take action. Finally, once you share the solution you offer, tell your client exactly how they engage your product or service to help them solve their problems.
How does the customer do business with you? Answer that question clearly and provide a clear action plan showing examples of you solving problems with your offering. Given them the exact call to action needed to benefit from your solutions.
Cabanas Consulting helps brands develop clear messaging that can be used across platforms - from presentations and proposals, to website copy and media interviews. Once your messaging is clear, all your communication can flow easily. Sound like something you’d like have? Email katie@cabanas-consulting.com and Get Started Today.
