Adapting Your Strategic Messaging Over Time
Your agency won’t always stay the same, and neither should your messaging.
Last month, we talked about how you can use tools like a SWOT analysis to build a strategic messaging framework for your business. Taking this step can be enormously important for your agency, as it allows you to unify your communications and build lasting relationships with your customer base. But what happens to that messaging framework when something about your business changes? After all, the contours of your agency won’t stay exactly the same over time, and neither should how you communicate your business’s value, services and brand. Let’s examine how you can adapt your messaging framework over time so you can ensure that it remains as current and effective as possible.
Why adapt your messaging framework?
There are many reasons why you would want to update your strategic messaging framework. New business goals, adapting to market trends, or aligning with evolving customer needs and preferences are just a few examples.
Essentially, any change in the internal or external circumstances of your organization may merit a reevaluation or full-scale rewrite of the messaging you’ve developed around your company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT).
First thing’s first
Once you recognize a significant change in your business and prospects, start shifting your communications by developing a clear understanding of that change. The specifics of what this entails depend on the unique circumstances you are facing.
For instance, if something has changed with your business’s goals and objectives, you should meet with key stakeholders to understand the potential implications. Documenting these changes can help ensure that everyone is on the same page.
Of course, if the change is broader or more systemic, such as a shift in the market or in consumer behavior, you would obviously need to take a different approach. Conducting market analysis, reviewing industry reports, and assessing competitor messaging are critical to understanding shifts in your industry’s landscape.
Conduct a content audit
After you fully understand the change your business or industry is grappling with, you can begin aligning your messaging with your company’s new reality. The first thing to do here is to conduct a content audit. Review the platforms you use to communicate your products and services. Catalog which messages need updates and determine if new messages should be created.
Refine your value propositions
The next step is to revisit the different messages you created when you were building your initial strategic framework. If you remember from our previous blog on the subject, that means reviewing each of the messages you created from your company’s SWOT analysis. Rewrite anything that no longer fits with your business’s circumstances, while adhering to the same formula. Always emphasize your strengths and reframe your weaknesses. And be sure to show how you are prepared to seize opportunities and overcome threats.
Test and test again
As with your original messaging, don’t simply write out your messaging framework and leave it at that. Instead, test out your messages with stakeholders that you respect and trust. Consider also running A/B testing to determine which messages resonate best. By taking those steps, you will gain valuable insights into whether your new messaging is ready to go and whether it speaks effectively to the changes that have occurred within your business environment.
Finalize and deploy
Armed with your newly vetted messaging, the last step is to deploy it across your various distribution channels. This is where that initial content audit will come in handy, as you will know exactly where you need to upload your new content and where you don’t. While you don’t want to rush this process, remember that time is, to some degree, of the essence. The last thing you want is to have public-facing content that is no longer accurate to your business’s current reality. Taking these steps, though, will help you move through this process with speed and efficiency. This will set you up for success and ensure your messaging remains as powerful and positive as ever.
Tags: digital marketing, marketing strategy, SWOT