Get clear on who your customer is, what you’re really selling them, and how you’ll communicate your value in a way that resonates.
You know who your target market is, but you’re not clear on what they want: their pain points, values, and driving motivations.
Your brand message centers your company, rather than your customer. (Pro tip: Check your website’s home page. How many sentences begin with “we”?)
If you asked ten employees to explain what makes your business unique, there’s a good chance you’d get ten different answers.
If someone asked you to give an elevator pitch explaining what your business does and why, you’d be forced to come up with something on the spot.
When communicating with a new agency or vendor, you struggle to explain your brand and provide clear guidelines on what “fits”.
Your brand identity and content is all over the place – voice and style vary widely depending on the situation and the person behind it.
It’s certainly not easy to convince people to purchase a product or service. In fact, in today’s saturated market, it’s not even easy to convince people to give you a moment of their attention.
To make a compelling case for why your ideal customers should choose you over the countless other companies fighting for their attention, your message needs to be crystal-clear: What is the solution you offer, and why does it matter to your customers?
Get to know your target audience(s) on a deeper level – their values, driving motivations, pain points, and what they’re looking for from you.
It’s a good idea to develop detailed buyer personas to ensure everyone on your marketing team has shared language and understanding of exactly who you’re talking to.
At its core, what a business really sells its customers isn’t a product or service – it’s a solution. Your most effective messaging will be centered around that solution, so it’s crucial to have a deep understanding of the core problem you solve for your customers, why they choose you to solve it, and how they feel when their problem is solved.
When you really understand customers and the problem you solve for them, you’re ready to craft a clear, compelling message that cuts through the noise. The goal is to reach your ideal customers with a great story that inspires emotion that leads to action.
Make sure your brand message is memorable, consistent, and makes it easy to understand exactly what you do to solve your customers’ problem.
This handy workbook from guide from our friends at Convergo guides you through the process of defining exactly who your ideal customer is, what matters to them, and what they look for from you.
If you’re still working on crafting a clear, cohesive brand message that truly resonates with your customers, we highly recommend Donald Miller’s Storybrand framework as a place to start. Check out our blog to learn more about Storybrand (and why we’re such big fans).
Pinpointing the specific problem that motivates your customers, the outcome they expect when they buy from you, and how you deliver that outcome can be surprisingly tough. Use this worksheet from our friends at Convergo to help you organize your thoughts and better understand your ideal clients.
Call it a 30-second elevator pitch; call it a one-liner – whatever you call it, the cornerstone of every memorable brand message is a clear, concise statement that communicates the problem you solve, who you solve it for, how you solve it, and how it feels afterward.
If you’ve struggled to distill those four key tenets into a statement people can remember, this in-depth guide from our friends at SCP Marketing will prove invaluable. It even includes a downloadable checklist to help you track your progress!
Pinterest boards are an excellent tool to help you define and communicate your brand vision to your creative team. If you haven’t been leveraging Pinterest as a branding tool, this recorded webinar and in-depth guide from our friends at SCP Marketing will give you the direction and inspiration you need to get started.
