Marketing Messaging: What it is, why it’s important, and how to clarify your message
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Customers of all types are inundated with information and pleas for attention all day long — it’s true whether your ideal customer is a retail consumer, patient, or decision-maker at a company you’d like to pitch. With every brand vying for attention, how do you ensure your company’s voice is heard? Beyond that, how do you ensure that what they hear actually resonates with them? The answer to these questions lies in effective messaging. In this blog, we’ll discuss the what, why, and how of messaging, unpack the different types, its importance, and strategies for clarifying your message.
What is marketing messaging?
Let’s start with the basics here. Marketing messaging is your brand’s way of communicating it's value proposition to the right audience. It’s the words, tone, phrasing, and personality that your team uses to convey what your brand stands for, what it offers, and why that should matter to your target customers. If you take only one thing away from this blog, let it be this: in order for messaging to be effective, it must be clear, consistent, and audience-specific. You’re probably heard the saying, “if you’re talking to everyone, you’re talking to no one.” The same line of thinking applies here. Marketing messaging should be specific and tailored for the audience segment you’re engaging.
Different Types of Messaging: Marketing Message vs Brand Message
You might hear the words “message” and “messaging” in different contexts, the top two of which are likely marketing and branding. Let’s break those down because there are some key differences:
Marketing message: This type of messaging is directly tied to your customer’s pain points and your solution or service’s ability to address those pain points. Marketing messaging typically speaks to what your company offers, it’s unique differentiators or competitive advantages, and builds rapport and engagement with your audience. Really strong marketing messaging does all of that, and has an unwavering understanding of their audience’s situation, speaking to and empathizing with their needs — ultimately telling a story in which the customer is the Batman, and your company is Robin. Out-of-this-world marketing messaging, does all of that in a clear, very concise, and consistent way. Looking for more? Read: The Ultimate Guide to Messaging: Crafting your company’s voice for impact and alignment.
Brand message: On the other hand, brand messaging zooms out to tell your brand’s overarching story. It communicates your mission, vision, values, and the core promises you make to your target market or customers. While marketing messaging should vary based on circumstances like platform, audience, current events, or consumer trends, brand messaging tends to be more enduring — it’s designed to build long-term relationships and brand loyalty. Looking for more? Read: What goes into a brand identity? Understanding the components of a brand and defining the ROI of a strong brand identity.
Overarching Messaging vs Audience-Specific Messaging
Overarching messaging communicates the core messages of your brand — it communicates the key differentiated value that you bring to your target audience, and it’s what your team should beat the drum on over and over again. Conversely, audience-specific, or targeted messaging, zooms in and addresses the unique needs, pain points, and aspirations of different segments of your market. Not sure what differentiates your company or solutions for each audience? You might benefit from value mapping take our quiz to find out.
Example:
For example, let’s say you’re a health technology company, focused on delivering technologies that streamline and ease health journeys for a wide range of patients, while maintaining a warm and approachable brand so that customers feel comfortable and safe reaching out to customer support teams. Your overarching message might be: "Easing Your Health Journey with Compassionate Innovation."
This message captures the essence of a healthcare company focused on using technology to improve patient outcomes and experiences without adding additional stress or complexity. It speaks to a broad audience by emphasizing "easing" the journey and "compassion" in innovation, which are values that tend to be universally sought after by several market segments in the healthcare industry. More specifically, the message is designed to resonate with both tech-savvy individuals and those less familiar with technology, highlighting the benefits of innovation in a way that's accessible and reassuring to all patients.
Let’s say your target audience tends to be split between tech-savvy, younger adults, and tech-wary older adults. For tech-savvy millennials, targeted messaging might delve into the specifics of the technology, showcasing apps, wearables, or online platforms that empower patients with data and connectivity. For less tech-savvy audiences, like some aging populations, the communication could focus on the ease of use, personal support, and the tangible health benefits of the technology, ensuring the message is relevant and comforting to those who might be wary of new tech.
Why is Messaging Important?
Most markets are teeming with choices and information, and it’s easy for consumers to get overwhelmed or to simply ignore marketing efforts instinctively. Clear, compelling, and consistent messaging helps your brand and your solutions stand out. Messaging is crucial for:
Building brand recognition and loyalty: Clear and consistent messaging across all platforms (website, socials, video, print, etc.) strengthens your brand identity, making it more recognizable, memorable, and credible to your audience(s).
Driving customer engagement: Well-crafted messages resonate with your audience, sparking interest and encouraging interaction with your brand. This is important for a few reasons. First, it begins a customer funnel in which someone begins to trust your brand and nurtures them as a future customer. Second, customer engagement fuels the customer feedback loop that every brand needs in order to successfully serve their target market. Hearing from and engaging with your audience allows you to build better services and solutions, and to create stronger messages that resonate.
Supporting business goals: Effective messaging resonates with your audience, solving their problems and addressing their personal objectives, and aligns with your business objectives, whether it’s boosting sales, increasing awareness, or fostering loyalty. Looking for more? Read on:
How to Clarify Your Messaging
Clarifying your message means refining it to be as clear, concise, and impactful as possible. Here’s how you can achieve clarity in your messaging:
Understand your audience:
Talk to your audience as much as possible. Remember that feedback loop we discussed in point #2 in “why messaging is important”? Engagement with your audience is essential to understanding your audiences challenges, preferences, and language. The better you know them, the more clearly you can tailor your message to resonate with them, and the more people you can help with your services or solutions. Looking for more? Read on:
Differentiate your brand:
Get extra clear on what sets your brand and solutions apart, both at an overarching level and at an audience-specific level. Clear messaging articulates your unique value proposition, distinguishing you from competitors. Two things to remember here: (1) there’s a difference between competitive advantage and competitive necessities, and (2) your messages have to be prioritized, the last thing you want is to overwhelm your audience, keep it engaging and get the most important differentiators out in front. Looking for more? Read on:
Be consistent:
Ensure your messaging is consistent across all channels and touchpoints. Consistency reinforces your message and aids in building trust. One of the most critical success factors for any business is an aligned team. Your entire team should be up-to-date on key messaging — for your brand, for your audience types, for different channels. Each team member should be speaking from the same brand identity, and promoting the same differentiators. Looking for more? Read on:
What is Messaging Strategy?
A messaging strategy is a plan that guides how you create, deliver, and maintain your messages across different contexts. It ensures that all communication is clear and aligned with your brand’s goals and resonates with the intended audience(s). The importance of a messaging strategy lies in its ability to:
Align your team: A clear messaging strategy ensures everyone in your organization communicates in a unified voice, amplifying your brand’s message cohesively. Keeping your approved messages readily accessible across teams and departments is a huge part of effectively maintaining alignment and message consistency.
Measure Effectiveness: An approved strategy allows you to set benchmarks and assess how well your messaging resonates with your audience, enabling continuous improvement.
Messaging is how your company communicates with its target audience. There are different types of messaging (brand, marketing, advertising, even socials), but ultimately your message will dictate your audience’s understanding of your company, product, or service, and either lead to a positive connection with potential customer, or not. Crafting clear, consistent, and impactful marketing messaging is not about making noise and drawing attention to your solutions — it’s about making a connection with your audience. It’s an essential component of your brand’s identity and a crucial driver of business growth and success. By clarifying your messaging, maintaining team alignment for message consistency, and employing a strategic approach, you ensure that your brand not only speaks but also engages, converts, and endures.
Is your brand's message getting lost in the shuffle?
EnticEdge can help you clarify your marketing messaging, ensuring your brand's voice is effective. Contact us today to refine your messaging and make every word count!
