How Clear is Your Marketing Message?
Is your marketing message clear enough to speak to your target audience without bogging them down with too much info? This blog may help.
Whether or not you know it, you are always communicating with your customers and potential customers. Your marketing message is a 24-hour a day communication tool that is out there to attract business. While you and your employees are sleeping at night or working hard during the day, your marketing message is speaking for your company. Through social media outlets, your website, your blog, eletters, and advertising, your message is being put “out there.” Anyone can access it at any time.
Now, this is a lot to think about, if you really take the time to think about it. Every post you share on your social media outlets and every bit of content on your website and every ad should convey the same general, clearly-read message. It should convey your company’s marketing message. Let’s say you work for a bakery that specializes in chocolate chip cookies. You have set up all of your social media outlets and you have writers working weekly on relevant blogs. The content on your website is perfect for direct sales, you believe, and your print ads are outstanding. Now let’s say that I am a lover of chocolate chip cookies and I want to buy a local product. I Google and find that you are a midwest company. Great! But wait, when I go to your website I find that you have so many specialties that you like to talk about and in so many different ways, that I am confused about the chocolate chip cookie I sought after. I feel overwhelmed and so I leave your site. Bad news for you, right? Break this down into one simple theory. Your marketing message was not clear enough and you gave away entirely too much info. Your logo was great, you had amazing content, your ads were top-notch, but what you did not do was give me your message in such a way that I felt it was a simple transaction to work with you.
Customers want simple. They want to understand your message and they want it to carry through every product you make and every marketing effort you do, like a thread through all of your outlets. From your blog to your Facebook posts to your print advertising, they want to feel like it is easy to do business with you. They want to know what you promise and what you will deliver. Here’s the catch. They want to know these things without you giving away too much information. They want to know all about the product they are after, but at the same time, they don’t want to be bogged down with info that you feel is relevant, but that they don’t. If you are unsure about the kind of content that your customers feel is relevant to them, ask them. Put out a market survey. When you know exactly what people want, give it to them. You must understand your audience so perfectly that when you deliver your message, it sticks with them and it draws them to you, time and again. When writing your message, remember the 5 C’s. Your message needs to be clear, connecting, compelling, communicative, and most importantly, concise. Is yours?
