HOW TO STAY ON BRAND: BRAND MESSAGE

Words are hard. And for many small business owners, writing is not necessarily your favorite task or skill in your tool box. You are good at your business. You are knowledgeable about your product or service. You are an expert in your industry.

The message, copy, words, story, and marketing phrases are pushed aside and forgotten until an ad needs to be made or a sentence needs to be written on a bio or website. It's usually done quickly without greater thought or strategy. This creates inconsistency and confusion.

BRAND MESSAGE FOUNDATION

When we work with clients on their branding, we not only design their logo and define their color palettes, fonts, and graphics. We also define their brand message based on the answers to the following questions:

1. Who is your target audience?

2. What is the problem/need/want that you can address?

3. How are you the solution?

4. What do they gain when they work with you / buy from you?

5. Who is your direct and indirect competition? What is your differentiator from them?

6. Why do you want to do what you do?

7. What is your tone of voice?

8. What is your personality?

9. How do you want people to feel when they read or hear your words?

10. What is your point of view when writing? (1st, 2nd, 3rd person)

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BRAND MESSAGE ELEMENTS

Once we discuss the questions and answers to the questions above,

we are able to define the following that is included in their brand messaging:

1. Descriptive tagline or marketing slogan (see this blog post to learn more)

2. Descriptive sentence or one-Liner (see example below)

3. About sections or story or history

4. Mission statement

5. Vision statement

6. Words (see examples below)

7. Marketing and communication phrases (see examples below)

8. Call-to-Action phrases

9. SEO (search engine optimization) words and terms for your website

10. Social media bios

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BRAND MESSAGE EXAMPLES

2. Descriptive Sentence or One-liner: We make sure our clients have a one-liner or one sentence that they can say when someone asks the question “What does your company do?”. You can think of this as your business elevator pitch. We try to cover the who, what, how in the sentence.

Eloise Design Co. Example:

We help professionals and small businesses discover and

communicate their brand through voice and visuals.

6. Words: We will also uncover words that our client says frequently with clients or customers. Or words that are industry specific. We will compile these words into a list that will help in writing future descriptions and can be shared with a team to speak consistently.

Eloise Design Co. Examples:

• Branding

• Design

• Creative Strategy

• Communication or Communicate

• Message

• User-experience

• Differentiator

• Consistency

• Consulting

7. Marketing & Communication Phrases: There are other short phrases that come out of our discussion with our clients. They are not necessarily taglines but phrases that can be used throughout the website or on social media or even on an ad. They can even inspire a larger campaign that you carry through print and social media marketing.

Eloise Design Co. Examples:

• Branding and creative strategy for small businesses

• Don’t do your business alone.

• You confuse you lose.

• Staying on brand

• We don’t just create, we teach, mentor, and demonstrate.

• Elevating or establishing brands

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NEED HELP?

If you don’t have a foundation for your brand, you can develop one by taking our new

Brand Message course. After years of developing messaging for clients, I have developed a

course to help you identify and develop your foundation.

This is for the non-writer who decides the tone, voice, personality, and direction of a brand/business.

Once you have completed this course you will have everything you need to share

with a team member, freelancer, contractor, or agency.

LEARN MORE

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