Consistency is one of the most important aspects of any marketing campaign. When you send inconsistent marketing messages, you run the risk of confusing people and making it harder for them to understand the value you provide with your products or services. Consistent marketing messages make it easier for people to understand what you are offering and determine the value of the offer. This makes it easier to sell more products and services, making it a critical part of your sales strategy. If you plan to use corporate blogging or social media tactics to promote your business, use these tips to ensure your messages are consistent.
Planning Marketing Messages
Before you publish anything, you should have a plan for how your blog posts and social media messages will help define your brand. You must know what your values are, what personality you want to portray to potential customers, and what promises you want to make the people who will be buying your products and services. The answers will depend on your personality and the types of products and services you sell. Map out your entire strategy so that you know how many messages you need and have an idea of what type of content you will be publishing.
Targeting Your Messages
If your messages are going to be effective, then they must be targeted to a specific audience. Defining a target audience will make it easier to develop messages that will attract people in a certain demographic. Marketing professionals often market to people in certain age groups, but there are other ways to define your target audience. If you sell products to homeowners, then you will want to target your messages to people who own their homes rather than rent properties from other people. If you sell car accessories, you don’t want to target your messages to people who use public transportation or walk to work. You can also target your messages to specific people based on their family status or purchasing power.
Creating Positioning Statements
A positioning statement is a statement that communicates the benefits of using your product and services or explains what you do that is different from what your competitors do. When writing a positioning statement, you must identify the key benefits of using your product or service, your competitive strengths, and the positions of your major competitors. Your statement should include the name of the product or service, the product category, a description of the target customer, and a key benefit of using your product or service. One of the most common mistakes in writing a position statement is listing multiple benefits of using the product or service. Every position statement should focus on one benefit. Another common mistake is focusing on benefits that are not unique to a particular product or service. Once you get the hang of writing positioning statements, you must write several of them to use for different audiences and in different publications.
Develop Short Pitches
Social media and corporate blogging are not the only tools you should be using to market your products and services. If you decide to market your business by attending networking events, you should have an elevator pitch prepared ahead of time. An elevator pitch is a short statement that describes your products and services in a way that appeals to a specific target market. “I’m a business coach” doesn’t generate much interest, but “I help nutritionists increase their profits by as much as 75 percent within six months” is sure to grab the attention of the listener. Develop the statement at least a few days before the event so you have time to practice delivering it smoothly.
Corporate blogging and social media are two of the most powerful tools available, but you must understand how to keep your messages consistent. If you need help setting up a corporate blog or developing a content strategy, a corporate blogging consultant can help you determine the best way to get your message to the people who need your products and services.
