Speak Clearly And Confidently With A Strategic Messaging Framework
In our last marketing blog, we walked through how to put together an effective strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis for your agency. SWOTs are a valuable tool for building greater visibility into your agency, but that’s not all. They can also inform other initiatives beneficial to your short- and long-term business goals. Take a strategic messaging framework as just one example. They channel your SWOT’s insights and help you speak with a unified voice that forms deeper connections with customers. Here’s how to put together your own framework.
How to think about a strategic marketing framework
Before you begin, it’s important to note what a strategic marketing framework is and what it is not. First, this framework should be:
- Mission-driven: It should include the core tenets of your brand promise and identity.
- Targeted and relevant: The framework needs to resonate with your target audience by offering clear value.
- Strategic and succinct: Your framework must align with your agency’s needs and be short enough to fit various communication channels.
- Emotional and actionable: Remember, people respond powerfully to emotional appeals and clear next steps.
- Cohesive and comprehensive: Your framework must tie together seamlessly and speak to the entirety of your organization’s high-level priorities.
On the other hand, it should not be:
- Disjointed or random: Each element of your framework must feel intentional and complementary.
- Granular and tactical: Avoid discussing specific marketing campaigns or granular organizational details.
- Exclusively sales-focused: Don’t make your framework solely about getting customers to buy from you. Instead, make it squarely about how you can solve their problems.
- Vague and unfocused: Just because a strategic messaging framework is intended to capture high-level aspects of your agency does not mean it should be vague.
Start building based off your SWOT
Now let’s explore how to build a messaging framework based on your SWOT. First, create language that emphasizes your agency’s strengths. An example might be a message about how you “bring decades of collective experience to each closing.”
Then, build a message that reframes SWOT weaknesses as areas primed for growth or future advantage. For instance, if your tech stack is aging but you plan to update it, talk about how you are “quickly implementing more innovative solutions to better address stakeholder needs.”
Next, address your SWOT’s opportunities. The messages should align and build off your identified strengths. They should also convey how your company is positioned for long-term success. Be as specific as you can, include data if possible and always indicate why customers should care. As an example, if you have expansion plans on the horizon, you could explain how this “reflects the depth of your resources and the unparalleled competency of your team.”
Lastly, message your SWOT’s threats. These must also be reframed by putting the focus on how you will address them. The ebb and flow of the real estate market offers a good example of how to do this. For instance, you could articulate how “your financial strength and operational efficiency enable you to ride out periodic downturns and continue delivering for clients.”
Implement your framework
Once you have fleshed out messaging, it is time to integrate your framework into your agency’s communications. Let’s look at a few ways for doing this:
- Incorporate your framework into your marketing materials, including your website, social media and press releases.
- Create simple talking points so your team can easily memorize key messages and amplify your agency’s efforts where appropriate.
- Incorporate your messages into your brand guidelines to ensure consistency across all materials, including those created by third parties.
- Leverage your framework for thought leadership by using them as a springboard to talk about your values and long-term vision.
Measure, refine, rinse and repeat
After you have your key messaging framework based around your SWOT, it can be tempting to sit back and put your feet up. Don’t! The whole point of this exercise is to build greater connections with your customers. To know if you’ve achieved this, you must measure whether people are responding to your messages and connecting with your brand.
Track meaningful changes in core metrics once you begin using your messages in communications, and consider surveying your customer base to understand how they perceive you. If you don’t get the answers you want, revisit your strategic messaging framework and refine. And if you still don’t get the responses you desire, refine again.
Tell a story that connects and converts
In a competitive field like title insurance, it’s important to differentiate yourself. Building a strategic messaging framework based on your SWOT analysis is one way to do this. By thinking about your strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats, you can create a compelling story that will make your customers take note and engage more fully with your brand. That’s because they will have come to better understand who you and how you can help them achieve their goals.
Tags: marketing strategy, sales, strategy, SWOT