Behind every great brand is a great brand story. Whether you’re selling shoes or building spacecraft, it’s essential to communicate with your prospects in a consistent, concise, and compelling way. When people see, hear, or read anything from your brand, they need to immediately know that it’s you doing the talking. They should know who you are, what you stand for, why you do what you do, and where you’re positioned in the marketplace. It’s here that brand messaging steps into the spotlight.

Brand messaging tells the world who your business is, what you do, and what sets you apart from the rest of the pack. We can think of brand messaging a bit like somebody’s personality. Consider anyone you know and chances are, you’ll know roughly how they’ll react when confronted with a specific topic. You understand their values — and the very same goes for your brand. By developing a brand messaging strategy, you can let the world know what matters to you as a business. Your audience should immediately recognise your brand voice, your position in the market, and even your core beliefs — all across different touch-points. In a world as loud as ours, breaking through the noise with clear messaging relies on delivering that message in a unique way, and it’s here that a well-crafted brand messaging framework can make all the difference. Boring, wishy-washy, or cookie-cutter messaging won’t get you anywhere… so, how do you stand out with a strong brand message?

Crafting a clear, consistent brand message is a cumulative process. You need to put the groundwork in and then you need to spend time reinforcing those values with your target audience.But when it comes to getting started with a brand messaging strategy, here’s how you can begin:

Every brand messaging journey starts the same way: deciding on or revisiting your core value proposition. What can a customer get from you that they can’t get from another brand — both in terms of your product or service, but also through the experience of interacting with you?Being able to answer this question in a clear, single-minded way is essential when it comes to brand messaging. Your value prop is the foundation on which everything else is built, so don’t worry if it takes you a while to define it. To borrow one of the most famous and long-lasting brand messages in the world: good things come to those who wait.When you do land on a value prop that feels unique and fitting, write it down and let it permeate the process as you’re working through the remaining steps.

Your value proposition is about how your brand is perceived externally, but it’s equally important to look through this same lens from an internal perspective, too. So it’s time to reconnect with your business’s mission statement, in whatever guise it was originally written — if it was written at all! Don’t worry if it’s been gathering dust in a years-old business plan (and probably bears no resemblance to the current iteration of your brand), a work-in-progress statement will give you something to respond to nonetheless.Remember Google’s old brand mantra “Don’t be evil”? The jury’s out on whether it still applies today, (it probably doesn’t), but it was a guiding light for the brand in its early days. Your mission statement allows you to simply communicate why you do what you do. Do you want to save people money? Create a positive societal change? Or simply help other businesses grow and succeed? Whatever the case, understanding this mission will help crystallise your brand message going forward and help give your brand a voice.

Not a single word has ever been written without a target audience in mind, and brand messaging is no different. Before you finalise your strategy, you’ll need to understand exactly who you’re talking to. Part of developing brand messaging is understanding who your target customer is, what they want, and how best to reach them. That way you can ensure that any communications coming from your brand will resonate with your buyers.

Think of the biggest brands in the world: Nike, Amazon, Coca-Cola, even the BBC. Chances are, you’ll instinctively know what these brands would say and what they wouldn’t. That’s the power of brand messaging and a brand’s tone of voice in particular. Your tone of voice document will outline exactly how your brand should use words to align with brand values. Whether it’s a 60-second TV ad, a social media post, or a placard for a guerrilla marketing stunt, your tone of voice framework keeps everyone aligned and reinforcing your brand.

Brands are living, breathing entities; great brands change with the times and the people responsible for building them will change over the years too. For that reason, the final step in creating your brand messaging strategy is to actually get it all down in black and white. Take the time to create a single document that outlines everything we’ve covered above. Call it a style guide, call it a brand bible, call it whatever you like, its purpose remains the same: to clearly and concisely explain how your brand communicates, both internally and externally, to anyone who needs to know.

• Brand messaging is the way that businesses communicate who they are, what they do, and why they do it. It encompasses both high-level mission statements and values, as well the minutiae of language use in written output.
• A well-defined brand message is necessary to make businesses more memorable, more engaging, and more relevant to both new and existing customers.
• Our advice is to create a brand messaging guide or bible, to make sure everyone on your team is up-to-date and aligned with the message you’re putting out into the world.

Every great brand has a story to tell. Get in touch with the Don’t Panic team today and let us help tell yours. Or, if you’d like to see how we’ve already helped other brands refine their brand messaging, you can view our work here.