Marketing message strategy.
You might have already heard that ‘if you have nothing to say, say nothing.’
When it comes to your marketing message, we’d like to give you a head start by adding: ‘if you have nothing to say that your target customers would care about, say nothing.’
You might be thinking, ‘well, of course, I’ve got something to say: I want to promote my business!’
However, that’s unlikely to be what your audience wants to hear right now.
Before helping you create a marketing message strategy that will allow you to stand out against your competitors, let’s start from the beginning and clarify the most important thing.
What is a marketing message in business?
In business, a marketing message describes the way you communicate with your target customers to talk about yourself, your offer, and what you can do for them.
It’s a lot more than a generic hard sale: it’s about grabbing the attention of a specific group of people, making a more or less implicit promise, and being sure to be remembered by them.
Basically, a marketing message is the element that can make or break a campaign:
If you haven’t got one, your audience won’t really know what you’re trying to tell them;
If you do but it’s not clear or relevant to them, they simply won’t care.
But why does it matter so much?
Well, did you know that your customers are exposed to between 6,000 to 10,000 marketing messages a day, as well as yours? That’s a lot of white noise.
The right marketing message strategy is one that allows you to stand out among all of them.
That’s why each campaign, whether that’s a short ad or a longer email, must contain these three elements and answer the ‘who,’ ‘what,’ and ‘why’ questions:
- Your target audience (who do you want your marketing message to be seen by?)
- Actual message (what do you want to tell them?)
- Relevance & memorability (why should they care and remember it?)
Let’s look at each element in turn.
Your target audience: who do you want your marketing message to be seen by?
A common mistake is to try and please everyone, especially as a small business, usually because we’re scared that we’ll miss out on more sales if we don’t.
However, the opposite is true: when you try to please everyone, you please no one.
Think about it! If you’re selling Scandinavian-inspired bamboo socks, to whom do you think you’d be more successful at marketing them: anyone with feet or vegans with a passion for hygge but who’re tired of always being bombarded with ads about woollen socks?
Yep, the second demographic.
When you’re creating your marketing message, you want it to be specific and relevant to your target audience. If you don’t know who yours is, now is the time to conduct some marketing research and identify it (we can help!).
Furthermore, depending on each campaign, you want to figure out who exactly is going to see that specific ad or read that piece of content.
While your B2B service might be perfect for a type of company, the points that you cover in your marketing message and the tone you use to communicate them will probably change depending on whether you’re sending it to—for example—its CEO or marketing manager.
Actual message: what do you want to tell them?
The essence of your marketing message strategy is the content of your campaign: what are you telling your audience?
No, not that you’re great! They already have thousands of other companies trying to tell them the exact same thing.
Here’s the secret to standing out and grabbing their attention: you must tell them what problem of theirs your product or service can solve, and why your company is the best one to do this specific thing.
A strong positioning statement and some relevant points to support it, basically.
You don’t need to tell them your entire company history, though: you must make all this clear within a few sentences, as time is most definitely not a luxury when it comes to ads and marketing materials.
Just make sure that this marketing message aligns with your company’s goals, mission, and overall brand, too.
It would be pretty pointless to try and get new leads by using an eco-friendly spin if your potential customers won’t then find a sustainability page on your website and, instead, notice lots of products relying on single-use plastic.
Relevance & memorability: why should they care and remember it?
If you know exactly who you’re talking to and you have a clear marketing message, you’re pretty much set for success. Well, almost.
As we mentioned before, we see around 10,000 ads a day: why should your target customers remember yours instead of the other 9,999?
If you’re simply interrupting their day to tell them how good you are, that ‘you’re delighted to announce,’ or using the same predictable copy that they’ve already seen twelve times before they could even have breakfast, they won’t.
That’s why it’s important to spend some time making your marketing message unique and unmissable. For example, it could be because you’ve used a catchy slogan or answered that extremely relevant question that was already in your dream customer’s head.
But, now that you’ve understood the theory, how do you actually put all this into practice? Simple: keep reading!
Here are the Ketchup Crew's’s best tips on how to create a marketing message strategy that catches the attention of your specific target audience and that, most importantly, gets them to remember you and to click on your call-to-action.
How do you write a marketing message that cuts through the noise and gets remembered?
Always have your target audience in mind
Once you’ve identified your target customers, you can’t afford to lose sight of them ever again.
This might seem painfully obvious, and yet trust us: it’s so easy to go back to putting your company first without even being aware of it.
For example, you might not realise that, because you know your small business like the back of your hand, you’re subconsciously taking some things for granted. Perhaps you’re using some technical terms that you personally didn’t know when you first started out, or assuming that everyone already has a clear idea as to what you sell. However, all these points might not be obvious to someone who’s heard about you for the first time.
With your specific target audience in mind, start creating your marketing message by figuring out:
- What problem of theirs can you solve?
- What do they already know about you?
- Instead of scaring them away with fancy jargon, you also want to articulate your marketing message in a tone and language that’s familiar to them.
- No waffles: get to the point
You have two seconds to grab your target customers’ attention before they scroll down or click away: you can’t waste a single one!
This means that you must make your marketing message as immediate and as quick to understand as possible, getting straight to the point without wasting time by giving them information they don’t need nor care about.
For example, which marketing message do you think would stop your endless scrolling on a lazy Sunday morning?
‘As a company with fifteen years of experience in the mattress industry, we offer a wide range of options for all needs.’
Or how about:
‘Sore back after what should have been a good night’s sleep… again? Don’t worry: spending years perfecting the right mattress for back pain, we’ve basically lost sleep so you no longer have to.’
Offer a practical solution to one of their existing problems
As you’ve probably figured out by now, one of the most common mistakes is to make your marketing message all about your company, but another one is to concentrate on all the fancy features of your products.
Sadly, this makes it too easy to lose your potential customers’ attention and leaves room for misunderstanding. For example, ‘automated invoicing solutions’ might not trigger an epiphany.
Instead, offer a clear solution to the problem that you know your target audience is already experiencing, and sell the benefits that your product will bring into their lives.
For example, ‘This invoicing software will spare you three whole hours of boring admin tasks a week: how are you going to use them instead?’
Don’t be vague
63% of customers are highly annoyed by generic ads and marketing messages, and you know what? We can’t blame them.
Be honest: if you were to see a confusing ad by a company that you’ve never heard about, would you spend five minutes of your life trying to decipher it or would you scroll down to the next familiar piece of content on your feed?
That’s why, when you tell your target customers what your product can do for them, it’s vital to be as clear and specific as possible.
Is it going to improve their life? Well, so can other hundreds of ads they’ve seen today, apparently.
What aspect of it do they improve or facilitate? How exactly? Can you use numbers to help them put this into perspective, perhaps?
Establish an emotional connection with your target customer
Emotional connection is considered the most predictive driving force behind consumers’ purchasing decisions and, at the same time, their long-term loyalty to a specific brand.
If your marketing message can inspire it, it’ll be much more likely to be remembered.
There are several strategies that you can consider to establish an emotional connection and it obviously depends on both your offer and audience, but here are some ideas:
- Impress them by showing them that you know about that problem that’s been annoying them (they could even have an ‘OMG, they’ve literally read my mind’ moment);
- Show them empathy: you know how annoying or painful their problem is, and that’s why you’ve decided to find a solution for anyone who’s experiencing it;
- Prove to them that you care about the same ethos as they do;
- Be as personal as you can.
Consider adding a humorous or unpredictable twist
Another idea to create a successful marketing message strategy is to add a funny or bold twist that your target customers are bound to remember and, perhaps, even share with their friends.
From puns to brave captions and statements that challenge the most widely accepted opinions on the matter, has your marketing message got shock value or a funny punchline? Then it’s already ahead of all the boring ones that rely on the most predictable sentences.
For example, Meatless Farm, a vegan food company, went viral for their m* f* campaign. While the ‘this is a m* f* burger’ slogan on their ads and posters actually meant ‘meat-free’, it turned heads for… well, obvious reasons.
Showcase your brand’s personality
It’s easy to fall into familiar patterns that we’ve seen before or that we’ve found on free online templates, but that’s what everyone else is already used to: how are you going to stand out if you’re saying the exact same things in the exact same way?
Instead, don’t be afraid to showcase your brand’s personality.
From a distinctive tone of voice to a catch-phrase and whether or not you use emojis, it’ll be much easier to grab your dream customers’ attention.
Be different from your competitors
As we mentioned before, telling your customers what problem your products can solve is key to a successful marketing message strategy. However, if you leave it at that, they might think, ‘Well, I already know this company that sells the same item.’
Of course, you know that you’re different and oh-so-much-better than that specific competitor, but your potential customers don’t. Yet!
That’s why the most effective marketing message strategies include your company’s USP in one way or another.
For example, someone producing coffee pods could mention how they use biodegradable materials ‘instead of the usual plastic that takes up to 500 years to decompose.’
Create a sense of urgency & tell them exactly what to do
Remember where your parents would ask you to clean your room and you’d just promise them, ‘I’d do it later’? And then that ‘later’ would turn into ‘never’?
Likewise, you don’t want your target audience to see your ad and think ‘I’ll just look into this company later.’ They’ll forget.
You must give them something unmissable by getting them as excited about your product as you are. Still, that’s not enough. They might be convinced that you’re the coolest kid on the block, but they won’t know what to do with that piece of information right now. So what can you do?
You give them a clear call-to-action. Whether that’s to subscribe to your newsletter, to click on the ‘buy now’ button or to book a free consultation, you must present them with something that they won’t want to postpone, and make it as effortless as possible for them to follow through with it.
Be timely
We all know that it’s important to say the right thing at the right time.
While it can sometimes be tricky in our day-to-day life (like that time the waiter said ‘enjoy your food’ and you immediately replied ‘you too’), in marketing you have a great advantage: the benefit of data!
Send your marketing message at the right time for your specific target audience.
This could be the time when they’re most active on a social media platform, the day right before the weekend, or even the right time of the year. For example, it might be hard to create a sense of urgency if you’re selling Christmas lights in April.
Think of the channel on which you’re showing your marketing message
Your overall marketing message strategy should be consistent since all your campaigns must align with your brand and mission.
Still, the channel that you use for a specific campaign plays a big part.
A detailed three-sentence explanation that could get your dream customers to click on the link at the end of your email might not work as a snappy Instagram ad of which they can only see the first line.
That’s why you should always take your medium into consideration when planning a campaign, adapting your marketing message to its features and strongest points.
We hope that you now have a better understanding as to what a marketing message is, why every single one of your campaigns needs it, and how to create a marketing message strategy that can grab your target audience’s attention.
Need some more guidance? The Ketchup Crew would love to assist you. We can help you identify your target audience and fine-tune your marketing message to match their needs so that you can stop wasting your marketing budget by relying on guesswork. Check out our marketing strategy services and book a free one-hour consultation to tell us all about what you do.