What is brand messaging? Literally everything you need to know.
Brand messaging is probably one of the most misunderstood things in business and misvalued things in business
It’s so important to absolutely everything to do with marketing with promoting your business with signing clients with working with the right people
But it’s also something that people really don’t know that much about
A big part of the problem is people focus on visuals instead of what they’re saying, especially when they start a business
But the issue is if you are not saying anything that stands out or is different than the conversations that are already happening people will tune out no matter how pretty your visuals are
You’re not saying something that speaks directly to your audience or your top dream clients then you’re not gonna be able to scale your business. You’re not gonna become successful. You’re not gonna attract anyone and there’s really just no point in having a business.
So in this practical guide as a messaging strategy, I’m gonna break down what messaging and everything you need to know about brand messaging including what brand messaging is what it looks like in practice and how you can start putting together your own brand messaging
Hi, I’m Elle…
Website Copywriter, Unapologetic Girls’ Girl, And (According To Clients) An “Absolute Dream.”
What Is Brand Messaging?
Brand messaging is essentially the words, the language, the tone and the core ideas that you communicate as a brand
This covers everything from what you say, what topics you talk about, what ideas your brand explores, your mission statement, what you stand for and even your brand voice
It’s different to branding, which is visual identity, because it focuses on the core of who our brand is so imagine if a brand was a person brand messaging is who that person is
And then copy is different because copy is what you’re saying
But copy is also heavily influenced by brand messaging because what you say and the copy that you write is always influenced and built around your messaging and your brand messaging
Simply put brand messaging is the strategy behind everything that you say or create as a brand
If you create a blog post you should use brand messaging to help you decide what blog posts you write what social media content you say what you say on each page of your website what you talk about in podcasts it is the essence of your brand and the strategy behind everything that you do in terms of marketing
I’m also an ambassador for romanticizing business and making it fun, an expert in non-toxic conversion copy, a Miranda Priestley apologist, and my actual job description should really be ‘matchmaker for you and your dream clients“
If you liked reading this blog post – I would love to hang out more with you 🙂
And these, IMO, are the best ways for us to that:
Why Brand Messaging Matters
In case it wasn’t already obvious based on everything I said, why brand messaging matters here are a few reasons that you 100% need brand messaging
One, it keeps you consistent across channels so it makes sure that everything that you’re saying is consistent across your website, your social, your marketing, your content. This is important because it helps your audience trust you, like get to know you, it helps you stand out from your competitors and it builds trust and consistency and it makes tons of into a recognisable brand that’s gonna stand out
It gives you stronger positioning in different situations like I just said it helps you stand out from other brands and it helps you explain to your audience or to potential customers why you are different to other businesses and why they should
Brand messaging leads to higher conversions and trust because when you have strong messaging especially when that messaging hint hint comes from in depth market research you will speak to the exact correct people that you’re trying to speak to and say the right things that will lead to conversion
It helps you attract the right people so by having strong brand messaging you will attract the people that you specifically want to work with and you’re gonna repel the people that you don’t want to work with. That is exactly what you wanna do as a business you don’t want to be for everybody you want to speak to a very specific customer and prove to them that you speak their language and that they can trust you or that you share their values around messaging is how you do
It’s also important for strategy because it makes it easy for you to plan your content to have a direction for all of your marketing and it gives you a strategy to understand why you are saying everything that you’re saying in content it makes copy and content feel intentional
The Core Components of Brand Messaging
OK so now let me know what brand messaging is and why it’s important.
Let me break down what actually makes up brand messaging because there’s a lot that goes into it and all of it is important so let’s go into it.
Your Audience (Or - Who you’re speaking to, and who you’re not)
The first thing that makes up brand messaging is understanding your audience so this includes figuring out who you’re speaking to and who you’re not
So if you’ve ever heard of like an audience persona or a target audience development anything where you are creating an ideal client persona or ideal client avatar that is brand messaging you are figuring out who you are talking to when you’re saying things you’re figuring out what do they care about?
What kind of problems do they have? What do they want?
What are they struggling with? What anxieties do they have?
What obstacles stop them buying from you?
Everything to do with your audience.
Understanding your audience and figuring those things out is essential to brand messaging.
Your Value Proposition (Or - What you do, and why it matters)
The next thing that comes into brand messaging is your value proposition or to an extent your USP so what you do, why it matters and what you care about
So this includes things like your brand story, your vision statement, your mission statement, your taglines, your elevator pitch, your value proposition
It’s everything that you tell people about your business if they asked about it that isn’t just what you do but who your business is
So almost like a persona or a personality for your business
Your Positioning (Or - how you’re different from everyone else)
Positioning is so so so important.
This is how you show your audience and the rest of the world that you are different from other competitors in your brand it’s how you explain why somebody should choose you instead of choosing somebody else what makes you better what makes you different?
What you are doing differently and why they should choose you?
This is one of the most important parts of brand messaging because almost every industry is saturated and there’s a lot of noise to cut through online so being able to communicate how you stand out differently from other people and know how to communicate that to audience is essential to success.
Your Brand Voice & Tone (Or - How you sound)
Brand voice, sometimes, can be it’s own separate thing, but technically, it’s part of messaging.
Thing of messaging as what you say, and brand voice as HOW you say it.
Are you conversational? Are you funny?
Do you speak like Gen Z? Do you speak like a millennial? Do you use emojis?
Are you like a friend? Do you write like a teacher?
When you’re planning your messaging, you need to figure out how you want people to remember your brand, and how you want them to feel when they read your content.
Brand voice will massively affect that.
Your Key Messages (Your Main Ideas You Talk About)
And, lastly, but most importantly – your key messages.
These are the main ideas that you want to consistently communicate.
So this looks at the specific solutions that you offer, specific problems that you solve, the specific things that you promise, the specific things that you stand against, the things that you and your audience share or have in common.
And also things like your content pillars which you probably have seen or use all the time in blogs or newsletters.
Think of key messages as just talking points or things that your brand wants to be known for
And so to give you an example of brand messaging for me, one of my key messages is non-toxic copy, which I talk about all the time.
Another one of my key messages would be data-centric copy. Or another talking point might be being a girl’s girl, or being kind to each other in business.
Those are things I want to be known for those are my key ideas or messages and they’re also different to what a lot of other people are speaking about on the market so they also feed into my positioning.
Brand Messaging vs. Copywriting
What is the difference between brand messaging and copywriting?
If it sounds confusing, it’s because most copywriters use messaging to write copy.
So if you’ve ever looked at work copywriters and kind of felt like it’s probably easy actually a huge part of the job is being aware of brand messaging so that you can write good copy
I am actually a messaging strategist and a copywriter so a lot of the time I will do basic messaging work or do a full messaging Bible if clients have paid for it before I even start writing any copy because I need to know all of this stuff to write copy that converts
A really good way to look at it is to think of messaging as the strategy
And then copywriting as implementing that strategy.
Or – you can think of it like a blueprint vs building, so the brand messaging is a blueprint, and then the copy is using that to build something like a website.
However, I do think they go hand-in-hand which is why messaging and brand messaging is such a big part of what I do because I think that without it it is a lot harder to write high converting copy which is why I consider myself a strategic copywriter because I prioritise data and strategy and research over just doing creative writing which a lot of copywriters are just creative and they just come up with fun ideas but they don’t spend time on the brand messaging and that is why a lot of time copy doesn’t come back as well as it could.
How to Define Your Brand Messaging (Step-by-Step)
OK so now that you know what brand messaging is and everything that’s included I’m gonna quickly break down how you can do some of your own brand messaging research step-by-step because I don’t wanna leave you in the dark.
Step 1: Understand Your Audience
Step one is to understand your audience.
This means figuring out what their problems are otherwise known as pain points, figuring out what they want otherwise known as their desires, figuring out their obstacles which is things that might stop them from buying your products or working with you and also figuring out their goals and what they want long term.
It also includes speaking about what kind of language they speak and who your audience is. So what you need to do for the section of putting together brand messaging is to create an audience persona where you basically write out a little avatar for your exact ideal client, who they are, what they do, where they shop, why, what work they do, what they do in their free time, how old they are, how much money they’re making, what social media platforms they’re using, all of that stuff.
And then you are gonna write out what problems they have in relation to your offer, obviously what they want, what would stop them buying from you or what they’re anxious about, what would motivate them to buy from you.
You wanna know everything about them so that you can imagine this very specific person in your head and write to them all the time when you are creating content.
The best possible way to do this is to look at your own audience or think about past customers or past clients but if you can’t do that then research other people’s customers or clients, read reviews from other people, read forums on Reddit, go and do your research and learn as much about the kind of people that you want to work with or sell to and build a really detailed persona.
Step 2: Clarify Your Offer
The next thing you wanna do is get crystal clear on your offer, and figure out who it’s for, and how it benefits them.
Your offer, and how you present your offer is a big part of messaging and that means that you need to understand exactly what transformation you give to people and what outcomes they will get from working with you or from buying your offer
So you wanna ask yourself some questions like: Who is this for? How does it help them? What do they get? What are the benefits of that? How will their lives be better after working with me or buying from me? What is the benefit of my offer? What might stop somebody from buying my offer? How would I counter that argument?
And then build a little offer strategy where you figure that stuff out. Again the best possible way to get this information is research either into your own audience or if you don’t have that into someone else’s audience.
Step 3: Define Your Unique Value
The next thing you wanna do is figure out your USP (which stands for Unique Selling Proposition) and is essentially what makes you different to your competitors and why somebody should choose you.
What you’re gonna do here is list out your main competitors, look at what they’re doing and then look at what you’re doing and figure out what you do differently.
You’re gonna list all of the reasons why somebody might choose you over somebody else.
And everything that you are bringing to industry or your solution that no one else is.
If you’re stuck on that and you don’t know what to say – think about what is different in your process compared to somebody else’s? What is different about you as a person compared to somebody else?
What do you believe to be different about your industry compared to what everybody else believes about your industry?
Literally anything from you as a personality to the actual results that you get clients – think about what makes you different and how can you communicate that?
Step 4: Craft Your Core Messages
The next thing you’ll want to do is create your core messages, or your core messaging pillars.
This is 3 to 5 key ideas that you want to be known for, and you want to focus your content on.
This is not an easy thing to do so you need to really take your time figuring this out but essentially you want it to meet in the middle ground between what makes you different or what you’re doing differently to other people, what your audience cares about the most and something that you can talk about all the time and that you’re genuinely passionate about.
These key messages need to be things that resonate with your audience which is why it’s so important for you to create that customer avatar and understand exactly who you’re speaking to and what matters to them.
And they also need to be things that no one else is really talking about or things that will stand out from your competitors.
So like I’ve said, my examples for mine are that I talk about being a girl’s girl, or I talk about analyzing data, and how I always do that in my copy. I talk about non-toxic conversion copy I talk about romanticizing business by using copy and messaging to become your dream self.
Obviously aside from that I do talk about like copywriting and things to do with that, but the things I listed above are my messaging pillars.
Those are things that I talk about that no one else is really talking about.
They’re different to my competitors and that’s my thing that my audience knows me for and attracts the right people.
Step 5: Develop Your Voice & Tone
The next thing you wanna do is think about your voice and tone and make sure that it’s consistent across platforms.
You need to figure out what kind of vibe your brand has.
Is it conversational? Is it professional or is it playful?
Is it serious? Is it a teacher?
Is it a friend? Is it a bestie? Is it a boss?
Are you informal? Are you swearing? Or, are you very professional?
Basically, give your brand personality and then figure out how you want to speak and again this needs to be built around how you want people to perceive your brand but also who your audience is
If your audience is Gen Z and you want them to see you as one of them, you might want to use more Gen Z language and slang
If your audience is primarily made up of professional people in their 50’s, and you know that they would not appreciate swearing and they want somebody professional that they can trust then obviously you’re gonna speak very differently
Once you figure out all of that stuff you have the bare bones of your brand messaging, congratulations and you can now use this to inform your content and stay consistent across different platforms and speak to the right people about the right things.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Obviously being too vague or too generic, which unfortunately it happens all the time, especially when people are using ChatGPT to write their brand messaging.
Because as you can see, a big point of brand messaging is figuring out how are you gonna sign out from other people and what makes you difference? So if you’re using something that is very generic or that everybody else is using, there’s no point in you saying something.
The more specific you can be the more you catch attention and the more you’re gonna connect with the audience or even and something like a commission statement or a vision statement being really intentional with what you’re saying and standing out from others and being specific about what do you care about? What matters to you will help you stand out.
Another mistake that people make is trying to stand trying to speak to everyone.
You are not for everyone and you never will be. It is impossible for you to be the right brand for everybody which is why building those customer personas and those advertise is so so important to success.
If you figure out exactly who you’re speaking to and you make sure that all of your messaging speaks directly to that person you will have so much more success than if you try to speak to everyone and get ignored because everyone has found a brand that is speaking more specifically to them.
You also don’t want to work with everybody because you’re not for everybody so don’t be vague. Don’t be scared to get really specific with your language your brand voice and to rock the boat a bit and stand out and push some people away.
Another mistake the people make sometimes with brown messaging is they overcomplicate language especially when they are writing out things like that unique selling proposition what makes them different their mission statement their vision statements their taglines things like that and I think sometimes people write it a little bit like if they were writing a presentation in a corporate world, but realistically you want to try and write anything that client facing or custom facing in a way that is really easy to understand and not make it too complex.
Also want your brown messaging to be something that you can understand so make sure that any ideas that you’re bringing to the drawing board are easy enough for you to understand.
And to give an example of this is me saying that like I write about non-toxic copy but basically means copy that is ethical and doesn’t feel sleazy or gross. That is not really a very fancy way of saying that but it’s exactly what I mean and when I explain it to people like that, they always resonate with it because they know exactly what I mean.
And then the other thing you wanna avoid is being inconsistent across channels so like I said you can kind of play with your voice or your messaging a little bit between different channels and social media so maybe you focus more on LinkedIn on being a bit more serious and talking about data, maybe for myself for example I might talk more about being a girls girl on Instagram and threads and then focus more on LinkedIn on talking about like data and conversion copy but you don’t want somebody to follow you on LinkedIn and then follow you on Instagram and be completely shocked and not understand that you’re same person so your brown messaging exists to keep you consistent and make sure people and every single platform because that is your target audience and that’s how you should always be speaking to and to make sure that you become known as a brand and recognisable because you were always talking about the same things and you’re staying consistent
how do you actually use your brand messaging?
The thing about messaging is you will use it everywhere, anywhere that you are going to write anything your brand messaging is going to be so, so valuable for that. And basically, once you’ve got your brand messaging down, you will have a blueprint that will tell you what you should talk about on every single platform, basically forever until you have evolved.
So messaging should inform your website copy and all of it, it should inform sales pages, emails, social media ads, messages that you send to clients, how you even talk to clients on business meetings, what you talk about on podcasts, literally everything that includes words you will be using messaging.
Essentially, brand messaging becomes the foundation of everything else and that’s really, really important for business owners because it can be really overwhelming.
I know it is to write copy, to do anything like that, and once you have brand messaging down, you can just refer to that and let that kind of guide your ideas.
If you need to think of what to talk about on your socials, you can look at your messaging pillars and just pull something from there. It can help you understand what you talk about on each page of the website. It basically will become the foundation for everything that you talk about.
When to Revisit or Update Your Messaging
The last thing you’re gonna need to know about messaging is when you should update it or revisit it.
So most businesses will kind of like update their brand messaging and kind of like go through it, and the question is how do you know when it’s the right time to?
Sometimes honestly that will come naturally in your business will just evolve. I’ve definitely had that come across the five years I’ve been in business where I’ve just decided to do things differently or change what I was doing.
This can also happen when you have a new audience or a new offer so again for example I used to do a lot more blog posts and email marketing and then I decided that I wanted to specialise in being a website copywriter and that kind of changed my messaging and how I was speaking to my audience and what I was talking about.
You can also change your brand messaging if you are not getting any conversions or your brand is performing really badly so if that is the case there is a chance that your messaging is just not connecting with people.
Maybe you’re not saying something that’s different enough to your competitors, maybe you’re not doing it and if that is the case or your business is just not converting you’re not really getting anywhere then you might want to consider changing your messaging or you might want to consider speaking to a brand messaging specialist to see if they can help you.
In Conclusion: Messaging Is Everything
Messaging is the foundation of your business and when you have strong brand messaging it is also the foundation of content or copy that can convert.
It is how you stand out from your competitors. It’s how you connect with your audience and it’s how you stay consistent and build a memorable recognisable brand.
It also just helps you feel more confident about your business about what you’re saying so much easier because instead of constantly trying to figure out what to talk about what to say, once you have a brand messaging Bible you will have a blueprint that you can pull through for all of your content forever or until you decide to evolve.
So I hope that you now feel confident to go off and start locking in your brand messaging if you haven’t already and putting some of that together.
I will let you know that I obviously am a brand messaging strategist and I do brand messaging Bibles where I do all of the market research, all of the competitor analysis and all of the planning to help businesses create their own brand strategies and put together very in-depth Bibles that go through everything that we talked about today in this post and more.
If that’s something you know you’re interested in getting help from an expert with and you want to know more about that, you can find all of the information here.
The Hot Gossip, The 411
More from The Blog
If you loved this post, and you want to get the 411 on more things copy and marketing – here’s your next read, all lined up.
Hi, I’m Elle
Website Copywriter, Unapologetic Girls’ Girl, And (According To Clients) An “Absolute Dream.”
I’m also an ambassador for romanticizing business and making it fun, an expert in non-toxic conversion copy, a Miranda Priestley apologist, and voted most likely to over-deliver and overshare.
But — you know what else I am?
A girl who’s tired of seeing talented, creative women settling for mediocre copy and generic branding because they think they have to do it all themselves, or they’re waiting for permission to step into their It Girl era and become the hot brand they’re supposed to be.
Which is why I’d love for you to finally get copy that reflects your full potential — even if you can’t quite yet put that into words.
