Making Your Message More Effective
There is nothing more important to your business than messaging effectively. Tell people who you are and what you do. The problem is, it’s noisy out there in marketing world. Unless you want to try shouting louder than everybody else, you might be better-placed singing from another song sheet. This will mean your prospects naturally tune into something alternative. Shouting loudly never achieved anything other than increasing the noise level anyway.
Message effectively and see the difference
But taking the decision to do ‘something different’ is the easy part. Making your message effective is rather harder. Most of your competitors will be focused on telling their potential customers who they. They should be focusing on who their customers are. Change that around, and you have a another more attractive proposition and a way to message effectively.
Know your customer and message them effectively
Remember, all your customers have one thing in common; they need a solution which you can provide for them. Keep your focus on the solution. This is more positive rather than your customer’s current lack. It’s a much more effective way of demonstrating how efficiently you can turn things around for them. Bring your solution into the present – for example. If your client solution is to provide them with an app to interact with customers on mobile platforms, talk about your app in terms of it already being in place. Also mention how it’s helped to increase business. People want proof not just boasts or empty promises.
Who are your customers how do you message them effectively?
If you don’t know your customer base (for example, if you provide a solution equally valuable to a variety of age groups and social demographics) do some targeted market research. This will help you to get a clearer idea of who you’re selling to. This may be the best thing you can do to improve your messaging and effectiveness. If the core of your customer base is aged between 25 and 45 and enjoys new technology as soon as it hits the market what message will they need? Will they respond favourably to marketing which targets a 70+ age group? It’s too easy not to segment your messaging.
What do customers want?
Simply put, your customer wants what they want, and they want it now. Add need to want, and they actually want the goods or service sooner than now. Take a restaurant chain, for example; focus groups and online surveys – where snacks and beverages are to hand – might suggest that customers want healthy options and a relaxed atmosphere. Add hunger into the mix when your customer is out and needs food, preferably hot and quickly, and those carefully quantitative-researched salads will stay in the chiller. The takeaway for you, the marketer? Address nutrition throughout the menu. Your customer wants a healthy option, but they also want the instant gratification of the fast food meal. Can you offer both?
The message here – we know that you, the customer, wants a healthy option, but you also want the instant fix of fast food. Therefore, we’ve given you the best of both worlds by addressing nutrition across our whole menu, whilst still giving you the fast food fix you want.
How to improve your messages
- Making sure the customer gets the ‘best you’. This means making sure all staff are marching to the beat of the same drum. They must offer the same level of service. You need to have a physical response if the customer asks a question at 3am. If those questions come once in a blue moon, a chatbot will do. If they’re coming frequently, you might need to look at outsourcing to a call answering service. The message here – we’re always here, 24 hours a day.
- Make friends on social media. Literally as well as figuratively. Some companies, such as Wendy’s, have built a huge following on social media by insulting users, who will actually invite abuse. However, Wendy’s have a finely-tuned respect for the line. They never cross it (unlike this ill-judged campaign from GBK which struck a sour note with vegetarians and meat-eaters alike). Additionally, the social media messages don’t necessarily have to relate directly to your company. The quite brilliant decision to let the teenager on work experience take over the Southern Rail Twitter account did more for the beleaguered rail company’s PR than any customer apology ever could. The message here – social media is the quickest way to engage positively with your customers, but if you’re hesitating over ‘post’ with that tweet, delete it.
- Offer value. If you’re selling a product which requires instructions or updates, don’t make your customers chase you down to get replacements. ‘How to’ and other instructional content on your website will make your customers come back for more. If that’s not relevant to your company, think about a ‘coffee break’ style blog. These are informational takeaways for your industry customers to devour in five or ten quiet minutes. These will keep them visiting you (and therefore buying from you) on a regular basis.
In summary, this can boil down to: be you, be true, be useful. If those three things are at the heart of your branding and your message, your customer response will be what you’re looking for.
If you are looking for someone to work with you on your messaging then contact us right here.
