Why Brand Messaging is the Key to Generating Demand in Your Email Marketing
Marketing and Sales are like a wheel. Sometimes it takes a lot of effort to get it turning, but ideally, it should move along on its own with minimal help once it starts rolling.
There are various parts to our wheel. Branding creates a strong, positive perception of our company, our products, or our services in the minds of our customers. This, hopefully, creates demand in our customers who are willing and able to buy our products. Our messaging is the communication of the promise of our branding, which creates a strong, positive perception – and there it goes! We’re off to the races.
Our job is to keep that wheel going, using as few resources as possible. Think of it as sustainable marketing and sales.
According to demand generation logic, value-added content is particularly good for generating sustainable enthusiasm for a product or service to keep that wheel turning. To do this, our messaging must be relevant and tailored to the needs and interests of customers at different stages of the customer journey. Wouldn’t it be great if that wheel turned without spending further resources? Well, sustainability isn’t just a buzzword; it really does make a difference. We just need the right type of messaging.
“Sustainability doesn’t just mean eco-friendly. It can save everyone time. Our sustainable mindset is almost always thinking in the direction of the environment. It’s not often that we think about sustainable emails, websites, or social media.” AWI
What’s the Difference Between Brand Messaging and Demand Messaging
Brand messaging is the set of practices that define how a company will deliver its value proposition and communicate its business values. Think Nike: “Just do it.” Or, Walmart: “Save money. Live better.” Brand messaging is aimed at the long-term growth of a company.
Demand Messaging or On-Demand Messaging allows you to send messages to your customers over their phones. Demand messaging is the fastest way to reach a majority of your customers. Like the phone suggests, demand messaging addresses an immediate problem and looks to offer short-term solutions\
Brand Messaging and Demand Messaging are two sides of the same wheel. You need to use them together to benefit from the synergy. You don’t need to choose. You can do both.
What’s All the Hype Around Brand and Demand Messaging?
Let’s think Dior, Armani, and Ferrari. What is it about luxury goods? Why are we drawn to hundred-dollar T-shirts and thousand-dollar shoes? How does the tiny logo hidden in our watch face or the stamp underneath the flatware draw out our checkbook with such tenacity?
How do certain companies hit that sweet spot between long-term growth through Brand Messaging while delivering short-term solutions through Demand Messaging?
With luxury goods, it’s simple. Luxury products arouse fascination and desire. Their message is a mixture of mystery, limited accessibility, status, quality, and good taste. Brand and demand.
While many brands generate interest by keeping the door half shut instead of swinging it open for everyone to enter, there is still much to be said to get back to basics. In our digital age, when everyone is looking for the next new, shiny thing, we can still learn a lot not from what is said but how we say it.
“Many businesses assume they know why customers value their products and services. But premium brands invest time and resources to understand what their customers want and expect.” The Golden Vineyard Branding Company
7 Old School Messaging Skills that Still Shine in Today’s Digital Hoopla
Someone once said, “There is nothing wrong with a bologna sandwich.” RIght? Lead generation began as word of mouth, door-to-door salespeople, and posters nailed onto trees before it made the big leagues with radio, television, and finally, the internet. We get that. We’re all about lead generation. It’s what we do.
Successful messaging doesn’t require you to splash out on TikTok holograms or bring out the Armani smoking jacket. Good brand messaging, effective brand messaging, goes back to the Beginners Guide to Lead Generation. Simply put: “Be consistent and keep your promises.”
Assert yourself in your messaging, but assert yourself wisely.
Listening -- to what your customers want.
Timing -- your message to their needs and context.
Fluency -- of words your customers understand.
Tone, Inflection, Volume -- controlling your message is a powerful tool.
Distance -- means meeting at the right point in the buyer's journey but knowing when not to become just another message.
Posture -- when is deference called for, and when do buyers want us to make the first move?
Eye Contact -- look people in the eye when you talk with them.
Facial Expression- - your content should agree with your message.
“A room without books is like a body without a soul, but a business without a brand is dead on arrival. Brand messaging distinguishes your company from the competition, tells your story, focuses your culture, and establishes trust with your audience.” Jacob Tyler
What is the perfect mix of Brand Messaging and Demand Messaging?
The Medium is the Message
While email and text channels may be used simultaneously, the messaging, tone, and information you include will vary, even if the offer is the same. Think about your social media activity – you don’t post the same image or text on every platform. People follow you on different platforms because each is unique. Your content should be as unique as the expectations of your followers.
The same is important when thinking about text messages compared to email. Consider how people interact with each channel. What kind of content can be sent over each? For the content to perform properly, it must be customized for the channel. Your content must be agile.
Develop messaging strategies based on significant milestones in consumers’ lives, including career, marriage, children, retirement, etc. AWI Messaging Clusters are Ideal for increasing the relevance of offers by tailoring the message to the unique profile of the different customer and prospect segments.
Brand and Demand Messaging in Your Email Marketing
Brand Messaging in Your Email Marketing via Storytelling
A story conveys your brand traditions, values, and culture. When is a story good? An appealing story makes the audience curious. It’s an unusual backstory or narrative.
Like any good story, it will take time to craft. Think about who you are and what you stand for. Think about what you do better than anyone else and how what you do makes a tangible difference in your customers' lives. If your customers are Cinderella, you aren’t Prince Charming -- you’re the Fairy Godmother.
Create origin stories as a means of welcoming new subscribers. Origin stories tell your new subscribers the story of how your company came to be and the values your company hold.
Create product launch stories to discuss what inspired you to create the products and services you sell. It’s important to focus on the problems you solve rather than the features of what you are selling.
Create success stories to show the B2B benefits of working with your company. Create a narrative about how your people and your products and services connect to give added value to the community you serve.
Demand Messaging in Your Email Marketing via Story Telling
Why email and not SMS? Email is by far the most widely used channel for demand generation -- nothing else even comes close. It makes sense that email ranks highly because almost everyone uses email. Ironically, it was the creation of email where Attention Marketing on our phones actually began. Email is also an extremely cost-effective sales channel because it doesn't require a large investment of resources to create an email drip campaign.
Email also provides comprehensive, almost instant insights into engagement, including open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates. With demand generation tools like email marketing automation, you can use demographic insights to tailor content for future campaigns and customize engagement actions to determine which messages a prospect should receive.
Email offers should be personalized – but scroll back up to the sensible unshiny truths -- your offers should have the correct posture, tone, context, relevance. Don’t be the salesman who sticks his shoe in your door.
Your message should be short and concise. It should also be consistent with the story you are telling in your brand messaging.
The body of your email is important, but your subject line is even more important!
The difference between demand and demanding is that demand is to request forcefully while demanding requires much endurance, strength, or patience. Make your demand messaging the latter.
“SMS messages simply can’t contend with chatbots. Their high interaction metrics continue to be a red herring that tells nothing of actual engagement.” HubSpot
Get the Most From Your Email Marketing Efforts
Finally, an easy, no headache full-service solution for all of your email campaigns. Instead of continuing to suffer from underwhelming ROIs, let AWI help. Utilize one of the products from our Email Suite and create a profitable database you’ll be able to leverage again and again.
