How to Create Brand Messaging

What Is Brand Messaging and Why It Matters

Simply put, brand messaging is how you convey your brand’s value proposition to your audience. It’s how you communicate what your brand does, the products or services you offer, and the reasons why customers should choose you over your competition. (For the last point, we know there are plenty of reasons. Let’s hear ‘em!)

Also a plus: brand messaging helps position your brand in the market.

Brand messaging isn’t just an external statement; it embodies your core values, culture, and mission statement. It’s an internal guide, reminding your employees of what your brand represents and providing clear direction on how to effectively communicate this to the outside world.

Brand messaging establishes consistency, strengthens customer relationships, and sets you apart from the competition in the market.

Ideal, isn’t it? 

We can tell you’re excited about this, so let’s get you started.

Step 1) Know Your Audience

In the world of business, understanding your audience is non-negotiable. Your messaging needs to resonate with potential customers to draw them in.

However, attempting to target a general audience simply won’t suffice. Your brand messaging, along with your brand image and strategy, must zero in on specific wants, needs, and pain points. That’s how you attract your audience.

But how do you identify your target audience? 

User personas can help answer that question for you.

A user persona is an invented, research-based character who represents your perfect customer. Essentially, it’s a depiction of the type of person you’re targeting with your product or service.

You craft a detailed profile of your ideal customer by researching audience preferences, buying behaviours, and demographics. 

Your brand messaging should align with this ideal customer. So, if your demographic is more on the senior side, consider avoiding modern slang.

Step 2) Define Your Brand’s Core Values and Goals

Your brand messaging is heavily informed by what your company stands for. This is where your core values come into play. Core values are the fundamental beliefs that define your company and steer your brand story, actions, behaviours, and decision-making.

Common values include innovation, customer focus, accountability, and excellence. These are more than just words; they’re the driving force behind everything you do. Your company needs values to have a purpose, a sense of direction. 

Without them, it’s much harder to become a standout on the market. 

Step 3) Establish Your Brand Voice and Tone

“Elegant, delicate, and undeniably effective. That’s our exquisite loo roll, perfectly encapsulated. No other loo roll can match the joy and gratitude our one brings — it’s truly unparalleled. A luxury that’s accessible to everyone.”  

This tone positions the brand as a purveyor of sophistication and luxury. It elevates a basic product, like a toilet roll, into a desire, regardless of the materials used to make it.

Your brand’s tone of voice defines its identity. It goes beyond product descriptions; it’s also used in customer interactions, both verbal and written. A consistent and unique tone helps build strong brand recognition and loyalty, shaping customer perception.

As your brand recognition strengthens, maintaining a consistent tone across all interactions becomes even more crucial. Even minor inconsistencies can create confusion, undermine trust, and damage your reputation.

To maintain this standard, develop clear and well-defined tone of voice guidelines for your brand. These guidelines also act as a reference for your employees, reminding them how to convey your brand’s personality.

Step 4) Create Key Messaging Pillars

With all these details to keep track of, how is one meant to master brand messaging without getting overwhelmed?

Three words: brand messaging pillars.

Similar to physical pillars, brand pillars form the foundational support that holds everything together. However, instead of supporting buildings or monuments, these pillars uphold a brand’s identity and purpose. They’re kind of a big deal.

These pillars help align your brand messaging with your core values, value proposition, and unique selling proposition. They ensure you don’t stray from what makes your brand, your brand. 

Think of brand pillars as stylists, choosing the best clothing items to suit your persona. If you’re a happy-go-lucky person, dark clothes won’t portray you as you really are, right?

It’s the same for brands. If you’re a sustainable brand, then your brand pillars will guide you towards having a value, purpose, perception, and identity that align with sustainability. Your brand pillars will ensure your messaging aligns with sustainability, as well. Otherwise, you’ve run into trouble.

Don’t want to get into trouble? 

Phew! That’s a relief. To avoid trouble, then, familiarise yourself with the five pillars. Let’s think of them as coaches who want to make your brand messaging as strong as it can be:

• Coach #1, ‘Purpose,’ asks you to reflect on what the foundational reason for your brand’s existence is
• Coach #2, ‘Perception,’ asks you to figure out how your brand is perceived by its target audience and the general public
• Coach #3, ‘Personality,’ asks you to define your brand’s unique character and voice, like its tone, style and how it interacts with the audience
• Coach #4, ‘Position,’ advises you to set out how your brand differentiates itself from rivals — think about your unique selling proposition (USP) 
• Coach #5, ‘Promotion,’ works with you to discover the best channels and strategies to communicate your brand messaging and engage your audience. This coach specialises in advertising, image building and customer interaction

Wow, these coaches really know what they’re doing! You’re in good hands.

Step 5) Tailor Messaging for Different Channels (Optional)

Although brand messaging requires a level of consistency, it can’t be applied in the same way to every channel or platform.

Every channel has its own social setting, with varying demographics, interests, and behaviours. In fact, different channels — whether it’s email, social media or websites — speak to different people in different ways. Sometimes, you have to adapt.

Just as you speak differently during work meetings compared to informal conversations with friends over dinner, your brand messaging should also vary by channel. It’s natural.

Tailor your messaging while maintaining consistency in your tone and personality. It’ll help you reach a wider audience.

Step 6) Test, Refine, and Stay Consistent

Always test your messaging with your target audience, and see how they respond. 

You can test your messaging through several channels, depending on what you do: blogs, social media posts, email campaigns, or ads. There are also tools to help you along the way, like A/B testing, data collecting, eye tracking, or heat maps.

Refine your messaging depending on your findings.

It sounds like hard work, but it’ll pay off, especially if you repeat this process (which you should because your product, customers, and the market are all continuously changing). 

As you test and refine, just make sure that you’re staying consistent and not morphing your brand into something else, something it’s not. Your customers love you for you, there’s no need to completely change!

Grow Your Audience with Zap

If you’re still lost at sea, unsure about your brand messaging, don’t worry. There’s a lighthouse in sight, called Zap.

Yeah, that’s us.

We’d love to get to know you better and help you craft your brand messaging. We’re marketing experts — we know all the tricks for customers choosing you over competitors. 

Wanna find out what they are? Contact us.