Your brand is a vehicle for communication. If you’re only thinking about your brand as a style your business embodies—you’re selling yourself short.
The main characters, the conflict, the journey, the transformation, the tone—every brand has all of the components for a great story. Some just don’t know it yet. This is what we clarify and define through brand strategy and your strategy becomes the script for how to market your business.
But if I had to create a simple brand messaging guide to help you improve your marketing, here’s how I’d have you do it.
CONTENTS
1. UNDERSTANDING YOUR MAIN CHARACTER’S CONFLICT
Let’s be clear, you are not the main character of your brand story. Your ideal client is. So it’s super important that you really understand the nuances of what they’re going through.
What your brand messaging needs to do is communicate how you get your clients from point A to point B. These become your basic storylines.
A. Where they are → B. Where they want to be
A. How they’re feeling → B. How they want to feel
A. Who they are → B. Who they want to be
These A to B scenarios represent different facets of your main character’s conflict:
The functional problems: where they are versus where they want to be
The emotional problems: how they’re feeling versus how they want to feel
The identity problems: who they are versus who they want to be
One of the fundamental components of the brand strategy work I do with clients focuses on audience profiling and digging deep to understand where their target audience is emotionally, functionally, or in how they see or express themselves.
This is point A.
Brand Messaging Guide Task 1: Identifying Point A
Make a list of problems your main character (aka, ideal client) is facing for each of the three facets: functional, emotional, and identity. This will give you a starting point (Point A) for various brand storylines you’ll be able to use in your marketing.
Here’s one example of an emotional storyline for a creative agency whose ideal clients are ambitious solopreneurs:
Point A: their main characters are worried that working with various creative freelancers to shape their brand image will take too much time and coordination, leading to inconsistent results.
2. PAINTING A PICTURE OF POSSIBILITY
Sometimes, your audience is so stuck where they are and need help understanding what’s truly possible for them. That’s where you come in.
For your marketing to connect with your audience, your brand messaging must paint a picture of possibility for them. Because we’re drawn to brands that know what we want.
Knowing how to articulate what’s possible for your future clients is one way to forge a true connection with them.
Remember, what they really want and are willing to hire you for is the transformation.
In task one, you identified the starting points for the various brand storylines. The next step is to identify the transformation that exists on the other side of hiring you.
This is point B.
Brand Messaging Guide Task 2: Identifying Point B
Go to your list of brand storylines and next to each Point A, write the transformation or the result they’ll experience. These will be the Point Bs in your brand messaging storylines.
Continuing with the same example as before:
Point A: their main characters are worried that working with various creative freelancers to shape their brand image will take too much time and coordination, leading to inconsistent results.
Point B: they embody confidence, have stepped into their power as an authority in their field, and are booking aligned opportunities with ease.
3. YOUR SOLUTION COMPLETES THE STORY
By now you should have a list of starting points (A) and ending points (B) to a range of brand storylines. But we have yet to show them how they can go from point A to point B.
This is where your offer comes in. The journey from where they are to where they want to be is made possible because of the solution you have to offer them.
Brand Messaging Guide Task 3: Complete the Journey
Here’s where you’ll start creating the narrative around each of your brand storylines.
Point A is all about acknowledging and empathizing with the problem they’re experiencing.
Point B is the happy ending they desire.
As concisely as you can, explain how your solution will give them that happy ending. Back up your claim with proof points, if possible.
Continuing with the same example as before, here’s how we might summarize this storyline:
You’ve got more important things to do than become a project manager for your own brand development. Coordinating with various creative freelancers can be confusing and time-consuming. Our team of creatives works together on a unified vision that will amplify your authentic expertise making it easier than ever to scale your business. We’re determined to accelerate your growth so you can start booking aligned opportunities that will shape your reputation as an authority in your field.
This is just one summary, but this storyline has the ability to inspire many future content ideas.
BONUS: MAKE IT PERSONAL AND PURPOSEFUL
If you want your brand messaging to convert with more ease: lead with purpose.
When you remember that your purpose—aka, the reason you got into business in the first place—is to help others in the best way you know how and you LEAD WITH THAT, your audience will be drawn the authenticity of your marketing.
According to a combined research study by Porter Novelli:
Purpose-driven messaging has a greater ability to capture the physical and emotional attention of respondents compared to functional narratives.
Brands that lead with purpose are 83% more likely to gain consumer loyalty.
So ask yourself: how does your purpose intersect with the person your ideal client is striving to become?
When you infuse your purpose into your messaging, it forges a connection with them because you are pursuing something that supports who they're trying to become.
To wrap up this simple brand messaging guide, remember that knowing how to empathize with that problem from different angles and being able to consistently communicate what’s possible through your marketing is how you facilitate trust.
Believe in your offer, stay aligned in your purpose, deliver on your promise and your authenticity will support your growth too.
Here's what Melissa had to say about using brand strategy to improve her brand messaging:
"Working with Jenny has been the best investment in my business as I look to rebrand and expand my service offerings... She guided me in articulating what I do in a way that resonates with my audience - therefore empowering me to speak confidently about my services... I cannot recommend her enough for anyone looking to elevate their brand and gain the confidence in their brand, messaging and visuals."
If you’re ready to capture the attention of your future clients through your brand messaging and marketing, let’s strategize and develop your brand foundation for optimized brand messaging and marketing. Your brand strategy guide will support your every move as a brand in connecting with and serving your audience.
Apply now to see what’s possible for your business.
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Jenny Henderson Studio develops memorable brand experiences and strategic brand foundations to improve recognition and revenue for service-based small businesses.
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