A critical element of growth for any business is strengthening the brand. However, improving your brand image can only be done with successful and effective brand messaging. This kind of messaging involves using specific words to properly communicate your brand image to prospective customers. The messaging that you put out is important for your ongoing success since the modern customer will only have a few seconds when viewing your ad or visiting your website to gain a first impression of your brand.
In order to implement effective brand messaging, you should first identify what you might want to communicate to possible customers. While brand messaging can include many different things, the basics of a brand message include how your brand stands apart from the competition, what your brand stands for, and why your brand matters. The value of your brand should also be defined within your brand messaging. Many brands will tell a story with their messaging, the most notable of which include Apple and Nike. By telling a story, your messaging will be more appealing to prospective customers.
When looking at how effective brand messaging is in the marketing industry, it’s been shown that a consistent presentation and display of a brand can increase revenues by as much as 33 percent. It’s also important to note that 89 percent of all shoppers remain loyal to companies and brands that share their values. With the right brand messaging that focuses on company values, you can substantially increase customer loyalty. If you want to implement strong and successful brand messaging, this article takes a look at six key areas of focus for any brand messaging.
Key Takeaways:
- Brand messaging is essential when connecting with your customers to create a customer loyalty.
- There are two types of brand messaging which are internal and external brand messaging.
- Our article discusses in depth the six main components of brand messaging to better understand what your company might be missing.
2 Types of Brand Messaging You Should Understand First
Before you get started with improving your brand messaging, it’s important to understand that there are two separate sides of brand messaging, both of which are essential if you want your brand messaging to be effective at appealing to current customers and bringing in new ones. The two types of brand messaging that you should be aware of include internal brand messaging and external brand messaging.
Internal brand messaging centers around how the people within your company define the brand. The company values, mission statement, and vision should reflect beliefs that are held within the company itself and shouldn’t solely be aimed at consumers. Try to develop company values and vision early on in the development of your company. Your company values, mission statement, and vision should play a significant role in your brand messaging.
As for external brand messaging, this form of messaging is designed to be aimed at the public and your potential customers. This messaging should include your slogan, any value propositions, and differentiators of your brand. These core aspects should remain consistent if you want the public to believe in your messaging.
Main Components of Brand Messaging
1. Mission
There are six main components of brand messaging, the primary of which is the mission statement that you create. This is a very short and simple sentence that basically provides an answer to why your business exists in the first place. Before starting your mission statement, answer the question of why your company exists. Create several different versions of this statement to compare the results and better determine which mission statement matches your company.
Focus on why you love the kind of work that you do and the products/services you provide. Every word that you place within the mission statement should evoke aspects of your brand. These words should be simple and straightforward to provide customers and employees with a clear understanding of what your company represents. If you want to properly highlight diversity and inclusion in your mission statement, it’s important that you use positive language that’s inviting and welcoming. Words like innovation, individuality, and celebrate can be highly effective when you’re trying to create an inclusive mission statement.
2. Vision Statement
The next area of focus for your brand message is your vision statement. This statement is supposed to look to the future with what you want your business to accomplish. The goals you have should be clearly displayed within your vision statement. Keep in mind that the vision statement should reflect what you believe will happen in the world as a result of the things your company does. You can better envision this by filling in the blank after our company will be ________.
Just like the mission statement, you should consider several options when determining what your vision statement will be. Keep in mind that it’s important to look at the competition and compare your brand. If the competition has a strong brand message that’s bolstered by a clear vision statement, this could be a key component of their success. However, you shouldn’t let the vision statements of competitors influence your decision too much. It’s possible that your statement will be too similar to the competition, which could hurt your reputation.
3. Values
The values of your company will be the base of your brand message. As mentioned previously, nearly 90 percent of shoppers remain loyal to companies and brands that share their values. These values determine how you perform business with your customers. In the event that you view your values as the key to future success, these values should guide the decisions that your company makes in the future. Follow up the phrase “we believe” with a large number of values that you feel like your company represents. Some of the more common values that companies hold include:
- We believe that design has no limitations
- We believe in putting our customers first
- We believe that the journey should be adventurous and fun
- We believe in people working together to foster success
With these values in place, you should have a better idea of the direction that your company should take in the future. Keep in mind that straying away from these values at any point could significantly worsen your brand reputation with current and prospective customers, which is why the values you settle on are highly important.
4. Positioning Statement
Your positioning statement should focus on the who, how, and what of your company. This statement is important for the ongoing success of your company and brand because of how many people will view it over time. Positioning statements are highly detailed in that they include your industry, your audience, your evidence, and your promise to customers. While it’s easy to include the industry and audience information at the beginning of this statement, it can take some time to create the perfect promise.
To identify the right promise to use with your positioning statement, hone in on the benefits that your services and products provide. The marketing that you perform in the future should be based heavily on your positioning statement. The promise that you make should cause customers to purchase the product or service that you offer. A sample template that you can use is “For [your main audience], [your company and brand] is the [your primary market] that best delivers on [your final brand promise].
5. Brand Voice
The brand voice will represent what people hear when they think of your business. Brand messaging is much more than the things you say. What matters is how you say these things to your customers. The voice you create for your business will dictate what your business personality is and will officially bring this personality to life.
Maybe your company is professional or witty. The voice that you craft should mirror the brand image you want to create. This voice should then be used in all of your marketing materials if you want it to be persuasive with current and potential customers. Over time, these customers may start to emotionally connect with the brand you’ve built.
6. Logo
Your logo will oftentimes be the first thing that people see when they think about your company or view marketing materials. As such, it’s important that you ask yourself if your current logo represents your brand well. Your logo shouldn’t have ample amounts of creative flourishes if your brand is supposed to have a more modern and sophisticated feel to it. When your logo matches properly with your brand, it will aid in the identification of your brand, the differentiation of your brand from the competition, and the recall of your brand when the logo is seen.
When you have designed your logo and have made sure that it accurately reflects your brand image, it’s important that you implement this logo in many aspects of the media you put out. For instance, television commercials and online ads should end with a shot of the logo. Over time, this should help to strengthen your brand image.
Now that you know what’s involved with creating successful brand messaging, you should be prepared to grow and strengthen your brand in the months and years to come. While it can be difficult to determine what your values and mission statement should be, taking time to formulate the right ideas for your brand message should pay dividends in the future.
