What message does your marketing convey to your target audience?
Your marketing message is vital because it helps to set you apart from other businesses. In addition, it creates an emotional connection with your potential buyers that builds a relationship, increases engagement, and leads to conversions.
What if your marketing message isn’t working?
Here are 8 reasons your marketing message could be failing and what you can do to fix it.
1. Your Message Isn't Clear
Sometimes it’s hard to craft a compelling marketing message because you’re too close to it to see it as your audience does. If you can’t see your business and products from their point of view, you might create an unclear or confusing message.
This may be because your marketing message uses industry jargon and phrases the customer doesn’t know. Or it could be too general, not telling the customer anything about what your business specifically does.
Your marketing message needs to tell your target audience what you’re selling and how it solves their problems. Furthermore, it must be said in a language they understand, so it resonates with them when they see it.
The Fix: Make sure you’re communicating what you offer clearly. Simplify your message so it’s streamlined and concise. Test your message with a group of potential customers before you go live to make sure they understand it.
2. You're Not Targeting The Right Audience
There’s a well-known saying in marketing that if you’re trying to appeal to everyone, you end up appealing to no one. This is because you’re not creating a message targeted to your audience.
When you create a message to appeal to everyone, it gets diluted and you will fail to speak to them. When a member of your target audience encounters this generic message, they won’t feel it’s for them.
You need your message to resonate, which means the potential customer feels you’re talking directly to their needs.
The Fix: Create an ideal customer profile. This helps you understand your potential buyer’s demographics, psychographics, and buying behavior. Pay close attention to their problems and issues, and connect your offering’s benefits to solving them.
3. You're Highlighting Features, Not Benefits
One simple issue you could have with your messaging is that you’re emphasizing features rather than benefits.
When you have an excellent product with robust features, you want to tell your potential buyer what your product does. But a good marketing message emphasizes the benefits, not features.
Benefits are the positive outcomes or results that a product gives the customer. So, while features are about the product itself and what it does, benefits are about how it helps the user and what they can do with them.
The Fix: Take your product and list the most important features you want your customers to know about. Reframe these features so they’re not about the product but about how the customers’ lives will improve.
4. You Don't Have A Call To Action
The potential buyer doesn’t know what to do without a clear call to action. First, you’ve gotten their attention and drawn them in with a message that resonates with their needs. Now, they’re trying to determine what they must do to receive the promised benefits.
If not explicitly told to buy now, most will give up at this stage. You’re making the potential customers do too much work.
Providing a call to action gives them the first step they need to get the benefits they want.
The Fix: Always include a clear call to action that tells the person exactly what to do. Use an action word like “buy,” “download,” or “sign up” so it’s clear. You might also include a reminder of the benefits and a sense of urgency. Keep it simple, so there’s no room for a misunderstanding.
5. You're Simply Not Getting Through
Your target audience members are bombarded by marketing messages all day. Even if you have the perfect offer that will solve their problems and a statement that explains it well, you’ll need to shout the loudest and get their attention.
You must choose the proper marketing channels and fashion your message to cut through the noise.
The Fix: Research your audience to discover which marketing channels they use. Follow members of your target audience on social media, study the competition, and analyze web traffic. You can also reach out personally to members of your market and ask them.
Once you have the right channels, you can personalize your communications with them. Get to know your customers and understand their needs so you can speak directly to them.
6. It Doesn't Deliver On The Promise
A good marketing message makes a promise and needs to deliver. If you make bold claims and your offering doesn’t live up to them, you’ll lose people quickly.
To ensure that you exceed your audiences’ expectations and don’t over-promise, you need to understand your product’s unique value.
The Fix: Create a Unique Value Proposition (UVP) that explains what value your product offers and how it’s different from others in the marketplace. Base your marketing message on this UVP.
7. Your Branding Is Off
If you’re not communicating well with your target market, the problem could be branding. Without proper branding, you could be conveying an inconsistent message on your different channels, and this causes a sense of disconnect with your audience.
Good branding will make sure when people see your content somewhere, they immediately know it’s you. This sense of familiarity makes you more credible. In addition, it shows that you always offer consistent quality in everything you do.
The Fix: Conduct a brand audit to help you create a consistent experience and identify any gaps.
Another simple way to improve branding is to ask yourself: How do I want people to see me? Then, ensure every piece of content or offering you make reflects that.
8. You're Giving Up Too Quickly
Remember that most marketing campaigns fail. You learn what works and what doesn’t through trial and error. So, when your target audience doesn’t bite, that gives you valuable feedback you can use to improve.
The Fix: Take your time. Gradually, you’ll learn what works and what doesn’t to build the right relationships and reach your marketing goals.
5 Things To Keep In Mind
As you create, test, and refine your marketing messages and build your targeted audience, try to keep these five best practices in mind:
Use of video marketing: According to Wyzowl, 86% of businesses use video marketing as a tool, and 93% of marketers who use video say it has brought them a new customer.
Importance of social media: The number of social media users worldwide is expected to reach 4.41 billion by 2025. Therefore, social media platforms can be a valuable tool for businesses to connect with their target audience.
Benefits of personalized marketing: According to Epsilon, 80% of consumers are more likely to do business with a company if it offers personalized experiences. Personalized marketing can be achieved through data analysis and can help businesses tailor their message to the specific needs and preferences of their target audience.
The impact of mobile optimization: According to Statista, the number of smartphone users worldwide is expected to reach 7.4 billion by 2024. Therefore, it is essential that businesses optimize their marketing message for mobile devices to reach their target audience effectively.
The power of customer reviews: According to BrightLocal, 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. Therefore, incorporating customer reviews and testimonials into a business’s marketing message can help establish trust and credibility with potential customers.
