Reframe Your Message
Your messaging is the basis for everything your company communicates.
In marketing, public policy, executive communications -- you want a consistent message that resonates with your audience.
Consistency and resonance are within your reach. When your entire team is, quite literally, on the same page, you'll experience these benefits:
- Time and money savings through efficiency -- employees are not recreating the wheel or making their "best guess" when creating new materials or collateral.
- Confidence that your team has one unified understanding of your message. Leadership becomes easier at the team, department, and line-of-business level.
- Clarity in what your audience hears. Yes, they will "get it," finally. The resources spent on communications will reach their target.
Adults are Different
The adult market is changing as fast as the teen market, but it doesn't get the same amount of press or attention.
Today's 50 year old Gen Xer is different from 2010's 50 year old Baby Boomer. Their experiences are different, their mindset and expectations differ.
Biases and internalized ageism are a factor in the adult market. Surveying the current state of your "swamp" -- the muck that prevents your message from getting through -- reveals where you need to speak differently.
People are dynamic and change constantly. A boomer is not "stuck" in some time warp of consumer preferences. Adults' world view changes quickly.
So, we can't "lock in" a message and expect it to last 3, 5 or 7 years. We need to stay in tune with our customers.
Messaging gets stale as market changes
Even in the past few years, consumer -- and human -- activity has changed. Corporate values are measurably more important to consumers in 2018 than they were in 2015.
Social media has shifted. Facebook is now for mature adults. The kids are on Snapchat and Convoz.
Your competition has changed. As your landscape changes, so does the landscape in customers' minds (and donors, shareholders and legislators).
Reframe your message for today's audience, today's concerns, today's opportunities.
Can one message serve everyone?
Yes and no. Yes, one overarching message -- your brand's stake in the ground -- should be overarching message, like a roof on a house.
The supporting posts need to be strong and consistent too. Your supporting messages should be consistent for customers, investors, donors and employees. Consistent, but not identical. Your supporting messages will emphasize different stories, data and anecdotes for different audiences.
That construction -- overarching message, consistent supporting messages, customized stories & data -- is your messaging framework.