Transform Your Messaging for a Competitive Advantage
Make Customers Happy (and Competitors Jealous)
The right messaging can literally transform your products and services. Without making a single physical modification, messaging alone can create competitive advantage and attract more customers. It’s worth repeating. Messaging alone can attract more customers. How? By artfully revealing the elements that are essential to interested prospects. This is what we call discovering the essential truth. When the essential truth has been identified accurately, all sorts of amazing things begin to happen. The related messaging can explain simply and clearly why prospects should buy your product or use your service. The key here is “simple,” which is easier said than done.
Simplicity is Key
When sales are lackluster, oftentimes business owners and marketing managers do not know what to do next. In our experience the proven way to rev-up revenue always includes a fresh approach to messaging. But this does not mean more messaging. It means better messaging: expressing the core benefit simply and memorably.
A lot has been said about simplicity over the course of human life, and even more has been said about who said what. “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication” has often been attributed to Leonardo da Vinci when American writer/activist Clare Boothe Luce actually deserves credit. But for our purpose it is the concept that is important. Simplicity drives sophisticated (and effective) marketing messaging. Creating simple messaging is personally my favorite assignment at the agency–and something our clients tell us we do exceptionally well. During the past 25 years, we’ve collaborated with hundreds of companies to find the voice that elevates their product and promote sales. A simple, powerful positioning statement can create the foundation for an effective messaging strategy. Here are some samples of our best positioning work. Each one reflects our collaborative approach with clients around a rigorous process.
- Discover Better Candlemaking, American Soy Organics
- Complex parts, streamlined. JR Machine
- Be certain, Veridocs
- Power your MarketingTM, IWCO Direct
- Driven to OutperformTM, Link Manufacturing
No Guessing on What’s Important
Our process draws on art and science. We never guess. Rather, every assignment starts with research of your top competitors. What are they saying? Where are they saying it? This research is the basis for creating our Competitor Messaging Grid. On one sheet we capture the conversation in your market. Message holes are identified to reveal opportunities for your product. Crowded themes become apparent and can then be avoided.
The next step is to find out what your customers think is most important. Honestly, why spend time (and money) talking about something customers don’t care about just because you are good at it? You’d be surprised how frequently this happens. If you have customer research, we will examine it carefully to guide the messaging work. If you do not, we suggest our proprietary IPQSM Importance Performance Query that clearly identifies what customers are looking for and how we can shape your message to resonate with what’s most important.
Spark, Simplify, Soar
The final step is for our team to find the three-way intersection of importance, product performance and what’s being said, or rather, what’s not being said. This is the fun part. It requires us to draw on both knowledge and creativity.
Based on solid research, we identify the essential truth, the spark at the core of your business, product or service. Then we push the creative to simplify. With a solid foundation, we develop a complete messaging strategy. No matter the content–website, case studies, blogging, print advertising, digital advertising, brochures or trade show graphics–you can soar above the competition. In short, we aim to make your competitors jealous and your customers happy.
If transforming your messaging to create a competitive advantage sounds like something you want to learn more about, give me a call 612-288-2403 or send an email. We can talk about how to get started to create competitive advantage by transforming your messaging.