Digital marketing: Align your strategy, brand and message
Every once in a while, I hear someone put the em-PHA-sis on the wrong syl-LA-ble, and it distracts me to the point where I miss the meaning. The lesson? Messages need to be clear and delivered correctly. (With bonus points for brevity!)
Your name in lights
Similar disconnects happen when an organization’s digital marketing messages clash with its established brand. It’s something people know when they see it. Brands can evolve over time, but not recklessly. Consumers harbor expectations, sometimes deep ones, about how a branded product or service will work—fail to deliver at your own peril.
Lining up the pieces
And then there’s a strategy. Not a business strategy designed to maximize profit, but a messaging strategy to focus intelligently on a common theme or value proposition. Sometimes distance helps: Many bad messaging strategies are developed by people who are too close to their offerings to spot embarrassing connotations. (Oops!)
Technology marketers may feel more pain than most when it comes to messaging strategy. Because they’re promoting complex products, they want to explain (and sometimes over explain) not just what each offering does, but why it’s better than the competition. At its heart, though, a good messaging strategy should clearly show how buyers will better survive and thrive with your products or services.
Making your meaning clear
Here at DeLaune, we’ve been in the business of explaining technology from more than 18 years. We’ve built a reputation for taking the time to understand your strategy and study your brand before we ever start working on the messaging for a specific asset.
We believe that lasting client relationships are the result of both a high standard of care and an insatiable curiosity about what you do. If it makes sense to us, we’re sure it will make sense to your clients and prospects, too—and if it doesn’t, we’ll tell you.
Many vendors have products that offer a horizontal value proposition, like being faster, or cheaper, or more reliable—or all three at once. Building a campaign for these types of offerings is a challenge, though, if you focus only on their features.
Instead, our team asks “How can we show the advantages to your customers?” We craft a benefit statement that speaks to a particular buyer segment—or to several segments at once. If faster performance can save lives, or dollars, we’ll ask you to say it, and help you say it well.
Of course, many clients already do a great job on strategy development and branding for their digital marketing assets. They just need a trusted partner to extend their bandwidth. Experts say the average consumer is exposed to 4,000 or more marketing messages per day. That’s a lot—and those companies producing more of those messages are getting better generic search engine rankings.
Let us help you improve your numbers by off-loading some of the bandwidth.
Leave a Reply