What is brand messaging and why do I need it?

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Are you putting off your ideal client?

And is it possible to stop your customers from just being one-time buyers, but transform them into people who keep coming back for more and more?

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Brand messaging is the vision, ethos and values that define a company. A brand’s message goes above and beyond what they do, but covers why they do it, their business practices, how they go about reaching their audience, the characteristics they want to convey through interacting with their market. 

My experiences in the extreme sports industry have given me insight into what it means to explore your brand ethos, how nailing your brand messaging can make more money, boost your Google rankings and engagement on social media.

The importance of brand messaging is often underestimated.

It can transform your company from a low-impact business, with sales coming in dribs and drabs, cold-seasons and sporadic engagement, into a thriving business that’s rakes in the dollars.

There’s no difference whether you’re a start-up or a well established company. Doing your brand messaging properly will ultimately start a community of like-minded people, full of dedicated customers that want to give you money.

Doesn’t that sound pretty dreamy?

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I landed this brand messaging gig from working in the extreme sports service industry. In most cases, I started out doing a bit of basic marketing, general bookings and customer service.

Without meaning to, I started to learn what people responded to and why they picked our surf/backcountry touring/ski school over our competitors.

I found out the things that mattered to people, and why they liked our website/social media/newsletters. 

As I am so passionate about these outdoor activities, I naturally wanted other people to share these epic experiences, whether it was just the focus you feel of being out in the elements, the feeling of dropping into their first green wave, or flying down a mountain. There started to be a pattern in the reasons that our past and existing clients gave for why they chose us over the competition.

I tasked myself with the challenge of exploiting these things on our website and in our marketing, highlighting the things that mattered to the people that wanted to come and learn from us.

Obviously, this varied depending on their background, financial situation, whether they were beginners or at an advanced level, but there were trends that couldn’t be ignored. 

Everything felt more streamlined and intentional. I became way more productive, with that little extra direction. Our blog posts at the surf school started to climb the rankings, bringing significantly more traffic to our website. And our impressions on Instagram at the ski school increased by 20 times!

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So what’s the importance of brand messaging? 

Imagine your brand was a person.

This person has their own hopes and dreams, fears, their own unique personality, mannerisms, values that they have learned to uphold from a young age, hobbies, weaknesses, pet hates, their own belief system in how to go through life.

Now imagine this person was real. Let’s call them Dave. When Dave sees your brand, a lightbulb goes off. Dave’s found a company that he can relate to. There’s a connection: “I can’t believe they totally get me”.

Everything your company stands for resonates with Dave. Dave loves you guys so much he has started to follow you on Instagram because he is interested in all the things you post. He starts to see your company as something/someone he can rely on to uphold what he too believes in, a place he can learn from and be inspired by. 

Your company shares the same motivations as Dave, the same frustrations. Even though you’ve never met Dave, and Dave has never met you, he feels like he knows you. You’re on a level where you’ve shared the same experiences and had the same reactions. 

Dave has invested a lot of trust in your company and because you “totally get him” he is more than happy to buy your product/service, because he knows you’re coming from a good place. 

Dave has this one problem, and he has been in search of a solution for what feels like years. The one thing that your company does different from all the competition, is the thing that Dave has been trying to find to solve his biggest problem. Because you have helped Dave out so much, he feels you’re on the same page as him. 

Dave is now a loyal customer, and will keep coming back to buy from you again and again. He tells his best mate Larry all about you, leaves you fantastic customer reviews, and tags you on social media to brag about how his favourite brand knows him so well.

Isn’t Dave such a great guy?!... 

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...So let’s backtrack a bit. Why does Dave love your company so much?

Because you deliberately designed your brand to attract Dave + other people who behave just like Dave.

Right at the start, you sat down with pen and paper and brainstormed who your ideal client was. You drew a little picture of a man with a well-groomed beard, plaid shirt, extensive record collection, and a pet cat called Miguel. You noted down this little stick man’s hobbies, personal values, beliefs, the language he uses to speak to his friends, where he hangs out on the weekends. And so Dave was born.

When you decide what language to use when writing your web pages and social media captions, your tone of voice, the problems you are going to solve for people when they buy your product/service, your business ethos, colloquialisms, style of images and colour scheme, every tiny little decision was made in order to attract Dave.

Your values are exactly the same as Dave’s values.

By creating a three-dimensional character that you can see purchasing your products, you are going to make a much more substantial impact on your ideal demographic, than just purely selling.

When it comes to starting a business, the aim of the game is not to make money.

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Your ultimate goal should be to gain a following who have learned to trust you + rely on you.

A quick sale might make you money in the short-term. But by focusing on the people, not the profits, you are thinking ahead for the future. Therefore, your business is going to become more sustainable, as you’re prioritising loyalty = longevity.

Now, what will happen if there is no consideration to brand messaging? The person looking at your website or social media account doesn’t have that innate connection with you, you blend into a sea of other companies all offering the same thing.

There is no ‘wow-factor’, nothing special that stands out, the language is too practitioner-y or technical to bother reading any further. 

Their Instagram grid might be a headache-inducing mess, with too many colours and subjects. Half their social media posts are either talking about something completely random, don’t spark a conversation, or there is basically no caption to read at all.

Whatever they’re reading sounds like it could have been written by a robot, with no soul or emotion or urgency or excitement. 

Whoever ends up on a website or social media account that has given no regard to brand messaging will quickly close the tab or click back to their search engine results page (which is also really harmful to your SEO ranking, but that’s another story).

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I’m not an impulse buyer.

If my surfboard was becoming increasingly yellow, on its last legs, or I was looking to book a retreat to reward myself after a busy month at work, or I wanted to get a new pair of trainers that were going to stand the weird weather we get here on the coast, I wouldn’t buy the first thing that I laid my eyes on.

I am going to browse the websites of potential outlets, maybe look them up on Instagram, seek some reviews of other customers who were in the same situation as me, go back to the website a week or so later to reevaluate my options.

Whether you’re selling a luxury service, something that is a necessity, a product that needs to be saved up for, or an everyday item, people don’t part with their hard earned £$€ easily.

They need to be nurtured and made to feel valued as a potential customer or “follower”. 

They need to feel that their decision is worthwhile. So building brand loyalty is paramount. 

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Converting browsers into people who are eager to open their wallets might take some time.

But cultivating your relationships with your perfect customers is going to pay off in the long-run, believe you me. 

So I have developed a system, a couple of little questionnaires, a process that really digs deep into the heart of who you want to attract to your business, why you want to attract them, and explore why they will see value in what you are doing.

Your goal is getting them to invest in you both financially and emotionally.

Wanting a customer to emotionally invest in you might sound a bit airy-fairy, but implementing brand messaging in your business will make more money, get more return customers, crazy nice testimonials and word-of-mouth referrals. 

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