Marketing is complicated. Because people are complicated. And delivering value to them is complicated. But your message can’t be. Because people have so much complexity going on that their heads will blow up if you add to it. It’s a cause and effect whirlpool you don’t want to get caught in. That’s why you need a strong messaging strategy to navigate your way through.

A good messaging strategy makes brands accessible and relevant to their audiences no matter how complex they may be. And it does so quickly, almost in the blink of an eye. Because that’s how long people might give you before clicking on to the next shiny thing that shows up.

You may not have time to adequately explain who your organization is and what it does. It’s faster to focus on them. What is relevant to your audiences? It’s not what you care about, it’s what they care about. It’s not what you find exciting about your model and offering, it’s what they get out of all the cool stuff you do. It’s never really about the cool stuff, it’s about what the cool stuff does for them. That’s why the more complicated your brand is the more it needs a messaging strategy.

Another source of complexity is the fact that very few brands can stand out simply on what they are doing – most of us are competing with brand that have similar offerings. Or even if they can’t really offer the same thing, they sound like they can. This is particularly frustrating to those of us who actually take pride in delivering excellence. We know the other guy doesn’t add up, but how do we let our audiences know?

Certainly not by making all the same claims they are. That doesn’t make us stand out, it makes us disappear into the crowd.  All the more reason to develop a messaging strategy that creates not only high relevance for your audiences but strategic differentiation from competitors.