You’re in your leadership meeting discussing lead generation, sales performance, and company growth. Across the board, things could be better.
During the conversation, you check out your homepage. It looks fine, but the copy is fairly generic – we do X, we’ve been doing it for Y years, our service is great, we have the best people.
Curious about what your competitors are saying, you head to their sites. They have eerily similar stories.
Not only is your brand story not worth retelling – it isn’t even yours alone.
But is it an issue worth addressing? Your story (or lack of one) is likely impacting revenue.
Brand Messaging Is Not a B2C Thing
Many believe brand messaging is exclusive to B2C, because that’s where it typically catches on with a large enough audience to become a cultural touchstone (we still see you, Nike, and yes, we’ll Just Do It).
But while it’s called business-to-business, it’s people who make B2B purchase decisions. And more importantly, those people often make emotional purchase decisions that they rationalize later.
Great messaging creates an emotional connection, a feeling buyers associate with your company alone, and helps determine whether they become customers.
But what makes for successful messaging?
1. It Needs To Be Highly Targeted
The old saying goes that when you try to speak to everyone, you reach no one. Broad messages are, by nature, generic and ineffective. Narrowing your audience allows you to personalize your story.
Messaging shouldn’t just attract people; it should attract the right people. It should be purposeful and intentionally designed to appeal to a select group of people: your ideal customers.
To that end, the focus should be on your personas, not you. Make your target persona the hero of your story. Consider these two headlines:
- Our Expert Managed IT Services Deliver 90% Uptime
- Maximize Productivity With Managed IT That Delivers 90% Uptime
The first headline leads with our – us, we. The second is action-oriented, and the subject is you. By virtue of that positioning, it’s inherently more personal. You’re being brought into the message rather than left on the sidelines as a spectator watching us.
Think back to Nike. They didn’t say We Make Sneakers That Let You Do Things. They said, Just Do It. You, not us.
2. It Needs To Be Emotional and Engaging
What exactly is an emotional and engaging message? It’s one that touches on a pain, challenge, aspiration, or dream. It’s one your audience will return to and remember.
In your message, your target audience should see themselves. And through that message, they should see the value you provide. This is what forms the emotional connection. Consider the following messages:
- We Sell Safety Products
- Everyone Goes Home Safe Tonight
One is about what you can buy. The other is about what you get from that purchase. It’s an emotional story about ensuring people see their loved ones every night. You can almost see a parent walking through the door, greeted with hugs from their children.
3. Marketing Needs To Use the Message
Once crafted, the message needs to be used – and not just on your website. It should be the tip of the spear in all your go-to-market efforts. It should be leveraged in everything from content, site pages, and social media to email, event collateral, and paid campaigns.
Pulling this narrative through all your marketing efforts creates a seamless experience for your buyers at every touch point.
4. Sales Must Also Use It
Using the new messaging for marketing is important, but it’s not to be overshadowed by the importance of sales deploying it in day-to-day outreach. It must be part of every sales conversation, communication, and presentation. It has to be woven throughout the entire sales process.
Why? Have you ever made a buying decision based on a gut feeling or because the company offered a great experience? Have you ever paid a little more for a brand you connected with?
When the choice comes down to you and a competitor, your story and the personal experience you provide may ultimately determine who gets the deal.
Your Story Can Be a Business Driver
A compelling, memorable, and differentiated message is a key component of a revenue generation system.
When integrated across marketing, sales, and every facet of the customer experience, your message becomes a business driver. You’ll attract more prospects, more of those prospects will convert into leads, and a higher percentage will be quality sales opportunities that close and close faster.