Nailing your messaging — here’s how to do It

How many times have you landed on a brand’s website, read their copy, looked at their imagery, and been left with no idea of what they actually do?

In our experience, it happens a lot. Tons of businesses, particularly in the SaaS and tech space, are guilty of massively overusing jargon, technical terms, and that dreaded word “solutions”.

The result: no one but the business owner and their employees even understands their product. And more often than not, they are not the buyer or target audience.

Nailing your messaging is key. It will set up everything you do from your website content to google ads and social advertising copy. And most importantly, result in an increased number of leads and conversions.

Now here’s how to do it properly:

1. Research the market

Your messaging needs to make it clear how you’re different from, and ideally better than, your competitors.

That means you need to start by finding out exactly what your competitors are saying. How do they position themselves? How do they refer to their product? What are their USPs? What tone of voice do they use?

You don’t want to sound like everyone else. But if there’s common, widely understood terminology in your market, you should probably be using it.

2. Ask your audience

There’s no point describing your business as ‘a revolutionary pure-play commerce solution’ if your customers call it ‘a shop’.

Often, there’s a disconnect between the words you use and the way people outside your business would describe you. It’s what your audience thinks that really matters.

Speak to your customers, prospects, and even people who’ve rejected you in the past. Find out how they refer to you and your services, and use it to guide your messaging.

By knowing your audience, you’ll learn how to communicate in a way they understand and that’s based on their needs, not in your product.

This helps you determine whether you are relevant. What need are you meeting? What problem are you solving? What opportunity are you creating? If you’re not able to get that across, then you’ll just leave them with no imperative to consider you.

3. Work on your brand & messaging

Once you’ve done your research, it’s time to build your brand.

Start by drafting an overarching positioning message that succinctly explains what you do, without any confusing jargon or overused buzzwords.

Then pick out the key USPs that truly set you apart from the competition. The more distinctive and unique the better, but only if being unique in that way adds value to the audience. And they should all support the one key message positioning message you’re aiming to land.

4. Tell the story in your own words

Now that you’ve got the detail down, it’s time to elevate and personalise your messaging.

Get creative to give your USPs some real wow factor. The last thing you want is for a potential customer to read them and think: ‘So what?’

Make sure they’re written in your brand’s tone of voice. If you’re friendly and chatty, don’t lace them with complex technical terms. And if you’re formal and professional, steer clear of slang and emojis.

Need help building your brand and getting your messaging on point? Get in touch today.