Why the Message Is the Crucial Part of Marketing

You may be the best at what you do, but do your potential customers or your clients know exactly what you offer, why you’re unique, and why you’re the best solution to their problem? If they don’t, by default, they’re going to someone else. So remember, consumers do not buy what you sell; they buy what has value to them.

How Are You Going to Solve Your Customer’s Problem?

A passion and a drive to share skills, knowledge, or an amazing product are often the seeds of creating a business, but it doesn’t create great messaging. By that I mean your potential customers need to know how you’re going to solve their problem, which is all they really care about at the end of the day. Every time they visit a website or read an e-mail or social post that you put up, they’re asking, “What’s in it for me?” or “Why should I spend my time or money on this?” They may not be consciously asking this, but this is what they’re thinking.

Authentic Messaging

Authentic messaging creates effective marketing. The entire point of investing in marketing is so your potential clients and customers know who you are, what you do, why you’re unique, and most importantly, why they should work with you or buy your product instead of going to the competition. You want people to take action, whether it’s to buy something, sign up for something, click something, or like something.

I often borrow the architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s quote: “Form follows function.” It translates easily into what I’m talking about here around messaging, and that essentially means delivering the right message to the right audience in the right way. When your messaging is clear, when you’re talking to the right people the right way, it will resonate with them and it’s so much easier for them to take action because it feels natural to them. They understand what you’re trying to say and they see you as the expert showing them their solution.

6 Key Elements of Messaging

Your messaging helps your customers fully understand your business. It essentially captures the voice, the culture, the mission, and the vision of your company. In order to do this, you must first determine all of the elements of messaging for your business.

So the six key elements of messaging are: 1) goals and objectives; 2) core values; 3) having a clear vision statement; 4) having a clear mission statement; 5) knowing your ideal client profile and having that down; 6) and, of course, your unique selling proposition.

By identifying and defining all of those messaging elements before you create your marketing strategies and materials, you’ll save time and money because all of the marketing pieces will come to life. It will truly reflect your business and its benefits, not just its features. When you’re clear on your messaging, working with writers and designers and focusing on your branding and your copy design become so much easier. You will save time and money and make the most of your marketing dollars.

About Deb Goeschel

Deb and her team create effective, branded marketing materials that clearly convey: 1) what her clients do, 2) identify them as experts and solutions to the customers’ problem, and 3) highlight why her clients are unique and should be hired versus their competition. Deb approaches each client project by first focusing on her clients’ messaging in order to ensure all materials and platforms are on target, branded, and speak directly to the clients’ ideal customers.

Deb possesses 17 years of communications experience and offers her skills and knowledge to women-owned and small and mid-sized businesses, the wellness industry, and local businesses making a positive impact. She speaks frequently about messaging and marketing and offers both group and one-on-one messaging workshops and intensives.