There are just so. many. things. related to your business brand, right. There’s your logo and your colors and everything that makes up your brand visuals. Then there’s your website and your social media platforms which also visually represent your brand. But when it comes to the words you use for your business, we are tip-toeing into the land of brand messaging. So what is brand messaging? Why is it important? And when is the best time to figure out what the message is for your business?
Brand messaging is the underlying purpose and heart behind your business brand. That is the most basic way to explain it. It is who you are and what you do as a business, but it is also the business-specific language and words used in your copywriting and content. Brand messaging is the words used to convey the heart of your brand.
On a deeper, more strategic level, brand messaging is the way that prospective customers / clients come to relate to your brand by the way you make them feel through your words, and how you make them think through what you say.
It is how you motivate your audience to action.
It’s how you inspire them to achieve more or achieve something better.
The words you say, therefore, are very powerful, if you haven’t noticed yet. But don’t be intimidated! This is the exciting part.
Brand messaging is how you bring your audience to know, like, and trust you. You bring them on this trip from simply knowledge of you, to then deciding they like who you are and what you’re doing. That persuasion turns into them feeling like they can trust what you say and what you offer. Eventually that persuasion turns into conversion—or, in more everyday language, gets them from observing your brand to buying from you. Sales.
Brand messaging is the way you communicate to your audience. This is done primarily through the words that you use in your content, but also by the way you make your audience feel about your product or service.
Best case scenario: nurturing the opinion and perception of prospects through brand messaging should always be intentional and purposed. We should have a big-picture plan of how messaging contributes to the overall image of our business. Because life happens and things often get done sporadically or done without strategic plan in place, this nurture is often forgotten, overlooked, or just doesn’t get done.
It is never intentionally overlooked. We never intend to forget the strategy within our brand message. It is simply the by-product of busy entrepreneurship.
However, if we neglect to see the importance of brand messaging in that big-picture outlook, we will lack the consistency that prospects need to see in order to fall in love with our brand.
The best time to figure out your brand messaging is in the beginning of your business. Ideally, this would be a part of grand business plan right from the start, your messaging would be right on target with your audience, and you’d convert followers to sales immediately.
This, we all can see, is not reality. Many of us started this path of entrepreneurship with a dream in our pocket and a little bit of hustle to get us going. If you are just getting started, great! Take time in the beginning to research and write down specific points to your brand messaging. But if you have been in business for a while and have never gotten the chance or made the time to work on your copy, now is a great time to start.
