Your marketing message is often the very first communication between
you and a potential customer, which is why it’s so important to nail
your first impression. It only takes 50 milliseconds for users to make a judgment about you and your product.
It’s your chance to define who you are and what you do. For the sake
of this post, I’m mainly talking about the primary marketing message.
This could be any marketing assets ranging from the headline and images
on your website to advertising.
The Two Big Mistakes that Startups Make with Messaging
Countless companies miss the mark with their primary marketing
message. There are two big pitfalls that these companies fall into.
Mistake 1: The “Brand” Message
You may want to be like Apple with “Think Different” or like Nike
with “Just Do It”. That works for big brands with huge market
penetration and mindshare, but it can be damaging to a startup trying to
make it onto the map (and I’ll explain why later).
Mistake 2: The Explanatory Message
Explanations are important; technology can be complicated. However,
completely explanatory messages are uninspired. They certainly CAN drive
brand awareness and if you’ve invented something completely new like
cloud storage, just announce it and people will show up…until there’s
another player in the game. People buy because of emotion and justify
that emotion with rationalizations.
The 4 E’s Messaging Framework
First off, let me say that I think acronyms are hokey but they
actually do help people remember each step. I want to begin by providing
a useful framework for building your primary messaging for your
startup.
This is the framework that is taught in the Growth Track at Tradecraft, by the Head of Growth Marketing, Graham Hunter. It consists of four parts, easily remembered as the four E’s.
- Explain
- Emotion
- Evoke Questions
- Exclude/Include
Not every message will have all of these elements. In fact, it can be
extremely difficult to get all of them into one message. I like to
think of it as an RPG game. You are allocated a certain number of points
and can distribute them across these 4 elements depending on your
situation.
So, which elements should I focus on? It depends on the stage of your company.
Graham generally lays out 3 stages that companies go through when they grow.
Awareness Messaging
The first stage is for early stage companies trying to drive
awareness and establish their place in the market. An example of a
company in this stage is FlightCar.
Brand Marketing Messaging
Mature companies with existing brand awareness reside in stage two, which could be called Brand Marketing and are constantly reiterating their message to drive affinity and stay top of mind.Take for example Airbnb.
Most people know about this company and what it does, and there’s a
good chance they’re an Airbnb user. There’s little need for an
explanation at this point in the message.
Campaign Based Messaging
The third stage is campaign based messaging for companies who have successfully earned a place in the consumer’s mind.
How many times can Nike say “Just Do It” before you say OK, OK, I get
it? Eventually they turn to campaign based messaging to communicate
some of these similar ideas in new ways. For example, you might see a
shirt that says “RUN LIKE HELL” followed by the swoosh. People get it;
Nike is all about determination and this demonstrates that.
So, which stage does your company fall into? Keep this in mind when looking at each part of the 4E’s framework.
1. Explain: What is it?
The first element – tell the customer who you are and what you do. It’s pretty self-explanatory, and many companies focus here.
But should they?
Based on the messaging stages, companies in the awareness stage are
the best candidates for potentially needing more explanatory messaging.
Another aspect that will help you determine how much explanation is
required in your primary marketing message is what I’d call
accessibility. Essentially, how easy is it for someone to understand
what it is and become a user?
Take the app Super, for example. Go to the app store
right now and take a look. Accessibility is high because the mobile
messaging apps are already being used by the masses. Billions of
potential users can understand what Super is in 30 seconds or less. And
it’s free! You can’t get more accessible than that.
Is your product category already widely adopted? What stage is your company in? How accessible is your product?
2. Emotion: Can You Feel it?
People make buying decisions with emotion and justify with logic.
This is a concept that most marketers understand, but few execute well.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand this concept, but it’s
application can set the good marketers apart from the great.
For example, compare these marketing messages:
- “A platform that combines task management and email management for better productivity”
- “A place for people to GET SH*T DONE at work.”
They both get at the same point – productivity – but which elicits more emotion?
The first message points to the emotion where message b) really
elicits it. If you are a Type-A, high-achiever who is always looking to
squeeze out every last drop of your time and energy, then the latter may
strike a cord with you. One just explains what you do, while the other
uses psychological triggers to elicit a feeling in the reader’s mind.
Enter… your product. It directly leverages this feeling by
alleviating the negative emotion elicited by the feeling evoked in the
message or by creating the positive emotion itself.
Graham says, “Common adjectives are for mediocre marketers”. Don’t
just say, “It’s easy, fun, and moms love it too!” Easy doesn’t mean
anything to anyone anymore because plenty of marketers have come before
you saying that when it wasn’t true. The same goes for the “I hope so”
test. “We are dedicated to making our customers happy.” I hope so!
Copywriting legend, John Carlton, talks extensively
about this idea, identifying “power words.” He even has done the
legwork and compiled a list of what he calls “emotional hot button words
and phrases” in his eBook called Power Words.
By learning to differentiate the emotional motivational value of
words, you can dramatically increase your response and conversion,
improving your bottom line.
Does your message create emotion? Are you using high-emotion words? Common adjectives?
3. Evoke Questions: What’s Next?
This element is a little more difficult to understand and explain, so
stay with me here. Remember the last time you were at a networking
event and introduced yourself? Most likely, one of you asked the
question, “What do you do?” The most common answer is “I’m a [fill in
profession].” Then there was probably an awkward silence, followed by “…
and what do you do?” The conversation quickly went nowhere, and you
began to remember why you hate networking events.
To fix this, let’s borrow an idea from Michael Port’s book, Book Yourself Solid. When answering the question, “What do you do,” you need what Port calls your “Who and do what statement” statement.
So, instead of responding with, “I’m a recruiter,” you could say
something like; “I help marketers find better paying jobs that they
love”. The immediate response to that question is, “Whoa! How do you do
that?”
You want to create an implicit question that naturally follows your
statement. The idea is that when you give that answer, the consistent
and reliable response is always, “How?” which advances the conversation.
That’s what you need to do with your message – make sure that every
time someone in your target audience reads or hears your primary
marketing message, it will advance the conversation that you’ve
implicitly led them to because it evoked attention and they’re hooked.
Your website copy can do this very effectively, evoking questions with
the primary message and answering how with the copy.
But here’s the caveat – making too grand of a claim with superlatives
can push the envelope of believability and destroy your message
completely. It has to be just on the cusp of believability because once
you cross that line, the drop-off is instantaneous and merciless.
Does your message evoke questions? Do people ask How?
4. Exclude/Include: Who Are We?
The influence of affinity on a user could be one of the most powerful ways to build trust and liking in marketing.
We want to convey a message that explicitly include or exclude people
from our audience. This lets your audience identify with you and create
affinity. It applies almost without exception to the second and third
messaging stages.
Huckberry is a great example of
this. Its target audience is the urban outdoorsman- someone who lives in
the city but would like to think of themselves as an outdoorsman.
However, the truth is they’re too busy working at Google or Facebook
and haven’t been camping in a while. By buying from Huckberry, they are
communicating, “I’m the type of people who camps.” The implicit and
unspoken message conveyed through wearing their products allows them to
identify with a group, relieving them from cognitive dissonance.
In his groundbreaking book, Influence,
Robert Cialdini reveals that one of the most powerful forces used to
influence choice is similarity. Similarity falls under the social proof
weapon of influence. It’s a cognitive heuristic that we use to shortcut
our thinking and decrease our cognitive load. The heuristic triggers an
automatic response telling our subconscious mind that, it’s okay; you
can trust this person because he/she is like me. When users find your
product, they are reassured to discover that it’s for people “just like
them.”
Affinity works in even deeper, in almost mysterious ways too. In Trust Based Marketing,
Dan Kennedy explains some even crazier studies. When a customer and
telemarketer were matched by affinity and the telemarketer disclosed
his/her affinity to the customer very early in their conversation, sales
improved and no-show rates dropped. Even “overweight”, middle-aged
female telemarketers out-performed younger, thinner women and men at
Weight Watchers, even though the customer could not see the person on
the phone!
Who are you including or excluding in your message? What does your message implicitly say about someone who identifies with it?
Now that we have the framework down, let’s move on. The reason you’re
reading this is because you want to become better at creating
compelling marketing messages. Here are some of my best tips. I
recommend taking that framework and applying it to these four specific
disciplines:
- Studying
- Exposure
- Practice
- Feedback
Study: It’s Your Job
Yes, that’s right, you have to be a student of marketing. Thought you
were done studying after you got your degree? Wrong! The professional
never stops learning. It’s always amazing to me when I talk to other so
called “professional” marketers who haven’t read the latest book, kept
up with the latest marketing tools or know about the current thought
leaders. In a very broad sense, the marketing message to me is
behavioral psychology, so study these books and thought leaders.
Start with Robert Cialdini’s classic book Influence. Also read all books by Chip and Dan Heath, Dan Pink and Dan Ariely.
Exposure: Look Around You
This is an extension of studying, but with a more pragmatic
application by taking it out into the real world. Critique all marketing
messages that you come across in your everyday life. Use Graham’s
framework as a guide. What is good about a message you just read on an
ad you were just served? What makes the message poor? Does it explain
the product, evoke emotions, hook the audience and/or exclude/include?
Take a look at all of your competitor’s marketing messages and
critique them. Take a look at all comparable products serving the same
target audience and critique their messages. Thumb through trade
journals in your industry.
Implementation: Bringing your A Game
It’s not enough to just study. The real evolution of your skill will
come with implementation and practice. When you have to ship something,
that’s when the pressure is on and you know you have to bring you’re A
Game. That’s when you know if your skills have been progressing.
Take a look at your marketing message right now. Come up with 10
different variations using the varying degrees of each of the 4 elements
in the framework above. Chances are, with each iteration, you’ll get better and better.
Feedback: Ask the Right People
I don’t mean go to your grandma and ask her if she likes your primary
marketing message. She will like everything you do, even if it sucks
because she’s your grandma and to her it sucks so much that it’s
adorable. Get feedback from people who are qualified to give you
feedback.
Look for other professionals in your industry. Look for mentor’s who
will always give an honest opinion. But the two most important points
are get immediate feedback and pay special attention to critical
feedback.
Conclusion
Next time you’re creating your marketing message for your company,
you know the 2 biggest mistakes to avoid. Start by assessing which of
the 3 stages your company is at. Then walk through each of the 4
elements in the framework.
I’m important to remember that perfect messaging doesn’t happen over
night. Follow the 4 disciplines I laid out and you’ll be on your way to
becoming a marketing message master.
Source: https://blog.kissmetrics.com/the-right-words/
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