When making a marketing message, your primary objective is to convey an idea to your target audience. This idea is always based on the fact that they need to interact with your organization. Regardless if you’re a corporation or non-profit, you want them to:
- Buy
- Hire
- Get engaged
- Donate
- Get informed
While all of these items are pretty straightforward and simple, sometimes, it’s not enough to just tell people what you want them to do. People are wary of marketing messages and have developed resilience towards it. So, you might want to find a way to deliver a simple message while bypassing this type of resistance.
Now, every marketing message is unique, and there’s no such thing as a recipe for success. Still, some of the most effective marketing messages have a couple of things in common. Here’s what your next marketing message absolutely needs to have.
Start With 3 Strategic Ideas
When approaching your marketing message, it’s important to do so from a strategic standpoint. This means that before wording the message or stating your offer, you need to tackle three strategic ideas. These are:
- Capturing their belief: People are far more likely to adopt something that already agrees with their preexistent beliefs. This is why you need to create a customer persona as soon as possible – you need to know exactly who you’re talking to.
- Figuring out how it benefits them: It’s human nature that you’re up against, and your customers always care about what you can do for them, not how they can benefit you. Therefore, start focusing on the problem that your customers have, not on the problem that your product/service solves. In an ideal scenario, these two would be one and the same, but there’s no guarantee.
- A reason to believe: Why would your target audience believe what you’re saying. Sure, if you’re offering something pragmatic and confirming something that they already believed was true, you’ll be on the way to effortlessly gain their trust. However, including a showcase or a testimonial might be a good idea to further strengthen your arguments.
Remember that your success in enrapturing these three concepts determines just how impactful your message actually is.
Include Your USP
One of the first things you need to think through is the value that you offer to your patrons/clients/customers relative to your industry. This is your unique selling proposition (USP). This is especially true in industries like health care or dental care, where your customers are actual patients. In the case of the latter, you need to approach the issue from the standpoint of dental management, examine the market and see what major bottlenecks are.
If we continued with the same example (dental industry), it would be smart to explore the reasons why people postpone going to the dentist (or find the reason not to go). Some of these reasons are:
- The cost
- No time to go to the dentist
- The office is too far away
- Not accepting their insurance
- The belief that they don’t need it
Once you understand what the problems are, it becomes a lot easier to come up with an enticing offer. You could work longer hours (so they can come after their shift has ended), include their insurance, lower the costs, or pick a better location (closer to your target audience). Include this perk into your offer, and they will thank you for it.
No Further Explanation Needed
In theory, you want to have people so interested in your brand message that they want to learn more about it. At the same time, you need to acknowledge that not everyone will be as dedicated. Also, you don’t want to pique the interest through your marketing message. This needs to be clear, simple, and understandable to everyone.
The best example of this is – Feel better, Tylenol. Another great example is Red Bull gives you wings.
Seeing as how one of them is a medication while the other is an energy drink, the brand messages that they send are quite straightforward. This is another point you need to understand – you have your target audience that understands the context of your statement. Sure, Red Bull was once sued because it didn’t actually give wings to one of its customers, but these scenarios are incredibly rare (not to mention outright absurd).
A Sense of Urgency
One thing you need to keep in mind is that you don’t just want to persuade them to come along. You want this to happen as soon as possible. So, how do you do this? One of the most common marketing methods is creating a sense of urgency. You need to:
- Set a deadline
- Mention limited quantities
- Use the right wording (the right CTA phrase)
Remember that the choice of the right phrases can also be tied to any of the above-listed methods. You can go for a “limited-time offer.” Other than this, you can also mention that a huge portion of supplies (70% or something just as ridiculous) is already out of stock.
Other than this, you can also investigate some other FOMO methods. They don’t want to be left out. Therefore, what you’re aiming for is to make a suggestion that everyone else is already doing it. Everyone else is already taking advantage of this offer that they’re (clearly) missing out on. It’s one of the cheekier tactics, known to provide an incredible sales market.
Do Not Restrict Yourself
Previously, we’ve mentioned that your brand message needs to be clear, short, and concise. Sure, its spirit needs to encompass these traits, but you shouldn’t feel like you need to restrict yourself. When going for a billboard advertisement, you want to keep it 5-6 words max, seeing as how people usually don’t have more time to read it. There are, however, other formats that will give you more space to fully express yourself.
In other words, you need to focus on the message, not the form or format. Take as much time and space as you need to say what you have to say. Sure, it’s more efficient and memorable if you can say it in a more concise manner, but by focusing too much on this, you’ll get too shortsighted and forget about what really matters.
While you’re at it, you need to understand that the form itself makes a difference. The choice of shape, color, and even a cunning use of contrast may impact the visuals of the message and, therefore, the message itself. Just keep in mind that you’re not the only one with the finger on the trigger. Your users can always switch to color inversion mode self-initiatively. While this shouldn’t be your starting point, it’s an eventuality that you should definitely consider.
In Conclusion
The last thing you need to understand is that without a marketing message, there’s no marketing campaign. In other words, this is the foundation on which you’re about to build your presence within the industry. What you need to do is profile your target audience, put yourself in their shoes, and think about what would make you respond if you were in their shoes. At the same time, you need to accept the fact that you may not be your own target audience. Therefore, try to put more faith in surveys and market research.