How to Improve Your Brand Message (and Why It’s Important)

Your brand message helps distinguish you from the competition. It gives the customer an idea on your ideas and values, giving them more reason to do business with you.

A strong brand message can drive future marketing and content-writing decisions. Wal-Mart’s revolves around pricing, and their slogan “Always the low price.” Their website touts their every-day low prices. Much of their advertising and marketing revolves around this theme. (This is also why competing on price can be a bad idea for small-medium size businesses, but that’s a different conversation.)

Nike’s brand message revolves around its “Just do it” slogan. It makes sense for an athletic brand to push an active lifestyle. You get the idea.

Your brand message should be you telling the world what makes you different from the competition. It should include a simple explanation of why customers should buy from you, instead of your competition. It should be conveyed clearly, and with digital marketing, it’s never been easier.

With a little creativity you can strengthen your brand message and build trust in your company.

8 Places for Your Brand Message to Be Conveyed Front and Center

Your Website

Your home page content is some of the most important brand message real estate that your company has. It’s frequently (but not always) the first online exposure that a customer may have to you. There’s a simple formula that really works for home page content to strike home with your audience.

• Identify with your customer’s problem. This is huge. It tells them that they’re not alone, and that the challenge that brought them to you is normal. It also conveys that you understand them, which is key to building trust.
• Focus on your brand message. Highlight your story. Maybe you’re a third-generation family business of widget-makers. Maybe it’s talking about how you are the athletic apparel company for the athletic type. Or maybe you’re the largest retailer in the U.S and can afford to sell your product on price. Whatever distinguishes your company, and however you identify with your audience, tell them.
• Offer your solution to the problem. This is your product or service. It’s critical to do this in a way that shows how your solution will improve their lives. This means concentrating on benefits over features. The guy who buys a Corvette likes freedom. He likes the feeling of wind blowing through his hair at 85mph. He may not even know how much horsepower the engine has.
• Create a powerful call to action. Give the reader a glimpse into what life with your product may look like. Contrast that with where they are now. Give them a reason to buy.

The about page and services pages are places where you can use your brand message to identify with your audience as well. It should be a recurring theme throughout your website. But placing that message front and center is critical — especially when your readers are only likely to scan what you put in place.

Blog Posts

Have you used your website to build a content library? Your blogs are a place where you can consistently publish posts that revolve around your brand message. Here are a few ideas for ways to center your blog posts around your brand message.

• If you’re touting your industry experience you can talk about previous customer experiences.
• If you’re highlighting a particular customer benefit that your competition may not always offer, you can write blog posts about that particular benefit. For example, I frequently stress my journalism background as a selling point. Readers love stories, and they help build trust with your customers. I’ve written blog posts about why stories are important and how to tell them.
• If your brand message revolves around expertise, informative blog posts that help your customers learn how to take specific actions can convey your value hand help build trust.

Writing blog posts that revolve around your brand message can give your content a strong theme and a sense of continuity. It can establish you as an industry authority and place you in a position of trust. Blogging in general is one of the best ways to use your website to attract new customers.

Readers are more likely to identify with your business and act on your content when the brand message is strong.

Social Media

Who are you looking to attract? Social media is the place to talk all things lifestyle with your target customer. I mentioned Nike above. Their Facebook page is filled with sports posts. The cover photo is a simple black image with the words with their slogan printed across it. They are appealing to those who want to live active lifestyles.

Social media is a place to offer generalized information regarding the lifestyle of your target audience. If you’ve found some industry news with a wide appeal, social media is the place to share. You can communicate your brand message without a sales pitch here. It’s another way to distinguish your business and improve your value.

Share industry posts your audience will find helpful. Join and become an active member in industry-related groups. Social media gives you the opportunity to share the content that aligns with your company’s brand message and values.

What social media platform does your audience spend the most time on? It makes sense to develop an active presence in the places where a conversation about your industry is already taking place. That will mean different platforms for different businesses.

White Papers and Case Studies

For technical, more complex industries, white papers and case studies make sense. These are another excellent way to develop your brand message and showcase your expertise. If your company has developed proprietary methods for helping customers, a case study is an excellent method for showcasing that expertise. It tells a potential customer that you are the company for them.

White papers are also a way to showcase your industry expertise. Both are an extension of your website’s content library and can be highly effective ways of communicating your brand message in a meaningful way.

Sales Letters and Landing Pages

Sales letters and landing pages have similar characteristics. Both require an overwhelmingly persuasive message. They require a quick and convincing explanation of what makes your company different and exactly why your audience should be willing to do business with you.

They require a rundown on every way that your product or service will make your audience’s life better. Sales letters and landing pages also thrive on social proof. This means data on the effectiveness of your product or service, as well as testimonials.

Your brand message should be an overarching theme to a sales letter or landing page. It should drive exactly how you are talking with your target audience.

Email Messaging

Email still offers one of the highest ROIs of any marketing medium. When your message lands somewhere as intimate as the inbox, it means that your reader likely has a higher level of trust. When your brand message permeates your customer emails, the message is likelier to resonate and your company will see a higher level of conversions.

PPC Ads

In a PPC ad, every character matters. They’re often as short as a tweet. Again, to go back to Walmart and Nike, theirs go back to price and lifestyle respectively. They show a strong command of their target audiences.

A strong and centralized brand message tells the reader “this is for me.”

Elevator Speech

Every business should have a powerful and concise elevator speech. It’s the 30–60 second version of what your company does. Depending on the nature of your business, this elevator speech is either aimed at your target customer or investors. When you are able to convey key differentiations and customer values, it can garner a higher level of interest.

The goal is to quickly excite your target customer within a short few seconds. You do this by telling people why they should hire you, versus the other identical service providers in the room. Your elevator speech should definitely convey your brand message and a strong brand identity.

Conclusion

Your brand message is critical to your online presence. If your online marketing efforts have fallen stagnant over time, it may be time to reevaluate your brand message. This is true whether your business is in the b2b or b2c space.

Do you have questions about your brand message, or how to develop one? A freelance copywriter can help you determine your key differentiators and highlight them in your marketing materials. Contact me today!

Matt Brennan is a Chicago-area marketing copywriter and copy editor. He is also the author of Write Right-Sell Now.