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How to Craft Marketing Messages That Motivate Your Audience

Words have a power that many people don’t realize. When you read even a short message, it can bring tears to your eyes, make you angry, or even drive you to action. And when you learn to harness that power you can start creating truly great, effective marketing messages that align with your small business marketing goals.

And that’s what we’re going to discuss — specific, proven ways that you can create or even intensify your small business messages to hit just the right note with your audience and get the results you want.

Before we explore how to create your own small business marketing messages, let’s make sure we’re on the same page with the question, what is a marketing message?

What is a Marketing Message?

A marketing message is the words you use to communicate with your audience to convince them to do business with your company vs. another. A message has the power to draw in new customers — but it also has the power to repel them and steer them toward your competitors.

When you do hit the right message, it not only helps you to gain new customers but also help retain your current customers. As prospects consistently see your message alongside proof of it, it builds trust that they want to continue to do business with you.

So how do you create a message that works in your favor

Let’s get into the individual steps that will help you to create a message that supports your small business business marketing and gets you the results you want.

How to Create Marketing Messages That Win Over Your Audience

1. Know Your Audience

This is the first, crucial step in crafting a meaningful message. After all, if you’re not on the same wave length with your audience, you might as well be speaking a different language.

Learn as much as you can about your audience. Think competitor research, surveying your current audience, and practicing social listening. All of these are great ways to extract gems that can later be used to hone your message.

2. Price Strategically

High and low price points both have their place. It depends on the kinds of customers you want to attract. Some customers are constantly on the hunt for a bargain, always going after the lowest prices. Other customers are willing to pay more in exchange for perceived value or a better product. Which customer do you want?

Once you make a decision, it’s time to tailor your message to that group. If it’s the group that wants a bargain, highlight your flexible pricing plans and how your product or service can work within a small budget. If you’d rather shoot for high-paying customers, focus on the value you bring and why you’re worth a higher price points. These shouldn’t be run-of-the-mill features, but valuable items your prospective customers couldn’t easily get on their own.

You might create different packages that together capture both of these groups. Have a bargain package tha includes basic services and features and another, more elite package with all the value that your high-paying customers would want.

3. Don’t Complicate It

Keep your marketing messages short and sweet. After all, attention spans are short — you can’t expect your audience to stick with you as you drone on and on about your features and benefits.

Trim your messaging down to a few words that get straight to the heart of your message. At the end of the day, your message should be both concise and clear. Get to the point about how your product solves a problem. And don’t muddle it with long-winded explanations and statements. Get straight to the meat.

4. Highlight the Benefits

Notice that I didn’t say features. Features are about you. Benefits are about your customer.

What can your customer expect to get from your brand? Think about it from the customer’s perspective. This goes back to doing your audience research and knowing your customers’ pain points.

Even in your wording, avoid words like “we” or “our” and put your customer in the narrative by using words like “you” and “your”. For example, instead of saying “Our brand decreases the amount of time you spend on XYZ,” shift it to “Get back an hour of your day.” Notice, the second phrase doesn’t mention you at all. It keeps the focus on your audience, where it should be.

5. Avoid Jargon

Nobody likes corporate jargon. Simplify terms so that your message is light and can be understood by everyone. Pay attention to how your customers talk about your product, perhaps on social media or in person. Most likely you’ll find them talking about it in simpler, more everyday language. Try to emulate that.

Do the friends and family test — if your friends and family, who have no knowledge of your industry, can understand the meaning and value of your message, it passes the test.

6. Choose Emotional Words

Your words need to spark some kind of emotion in your audience — whether that emotion is empathy, pride, hope, or something else.

How does emotion help? Research shows that as humans, emotions influence and guide our decision-making — including decisions about what products to use.

Consider the example of a product like Dawn dish detergent. Its message is that it’s tough on grease, yet gentle. Remember the Dawn commercials about wildlife saved by using Dawn to clean them after oil spills? Even today I buy the product because of the feeling of safety that message created. If it’s safe for wildlife, it’s safe for your family.

As you craft your message, use this psychology to your advantage. Think about what emotions could help your audience choose your brand. Is it a feeling of security, maybe trust? Perhaps it’s excitement and anticipation.

Whatever emotions you decide, purposefully choose words and phrases that ignite those emotions.

7. Showcase What Makes You Unique

In your marketing message, you want to stand apart from your competitors.

Take a step back and look at your message so far — perhaps even take a few of your competitors’ marketing messages and put them side by side. Does your message blend in, becoming indistinguishable from the others?

If you notice that your message doesn’t stand out, think about what makes your product original and different from your competitors. Is it your brand’s personality? Do you offer benefits that your competitors don’t? Seek ways to use those points in your message.

8. Test the Waters

It’s always a good idea to test your message with a sample group before you share it with your audience.

This doesn’t have to be formal. You might test it with a small group of your employees and customers to gauge their response. Ask them questions, such as what they think about the message or if they feel like it aligns with what they already know about your company. Seek honest feedback. If the response isn’t what you wanted, return to the drawing board and find ways to tweak it or replace it altogether.

Concluding Thoughts

It may seem like a lot of work to create a short marketing message. But remember that marketing messages, when done right, have the power to convince your prospects to become your customers. And that’s the goal of any small business marketing strategy.

Take time to work on your message and highlight the qualities of your brand you’re most proud of and that distinguishes you.

Ready to to create your own marketing message and start seeing the power that it has for yourself?

Photo by Anuj Yadav on Unsplash

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Wendy Marx

Wendy Marx

Wendy Marx, author, coach and marketing and branding authority is the founder of Thriving at 50 Plus, a coaching program that helps baby boomers find more purpose and meaning in life. Wendy over the last 30 years has helped many business owners and executives become well-known, going from Anonymity to Industry Icon™. Her business articles have appeared in The New York Times, InformationWeek, Inc., Advertising Age, & Fast Company, among other outlets.

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