Your messaging strategy is what determines and drives your choices when it comes to what you say and why you say it. If you don’t have a clear, consistent and effective rationale for answering these questions, then you don’t really have a messaging strategy. This is a major piece of the marketing puzzle that could be costing you big time. Whatever you put out in the form of paid advertising, organic search, social media or word of mouth, you want your message to be strategically differentiated and highly relevant to your audiences. If it’s not, you’re burning time, energy and money that could be much better spent. That’s why it’s always important to have a clear, effective up-to-date messaging strategy.
But there are phases in the journey of growing a business where gaining a strong messaging strategy seems to be especially key. Clients typically bring me in to help them with their messaging strategy at one of three points:
- When they are launching a new brand, product, initiative or company. This is, of course, a great time to develop your messaging strategy, because why start with trial and error, which can consume time most startups don’t have, and lead the entire business model astray, when instead, you could start with a message that is strategic, aligned, and ready to drive business.
- When the client has outgrown having no messaging strategy. Some businesses do just fine being sales-driven organizations that speak to each prospect individually, without a coherent overall message. Up to a point. Then, when they want to leverage broader market awareness, it’s time to figure out their messaging as a whole.
- When the brand or business is under-performing. When things aren’t going the way you want them to go, it’s a great time to re-evaluate your message to see if you are really connecting with your audiences, out-flanking the competition, and driving the growth you want.