Develop marketing messages that resonate

- When it comes to creating messages, you have to keep in mind the thousands of signals your customer receives on a daily basis. Knowing it's a noisy landscape, it's your job to deliver communication that rises above all the clutter and leaves a lasting impression. How do you stand out when there's so much competition? Here are four tips you can apply when you're creating messages for a campaign, a news event, your product launch, or for your overall messaging of your brand. Tip number one, create messages that your consumer understands. Messages shouldn't go above anyone's head or fly too low under the radar. As simple as this sounds, you may have to make sure the construction of your message makes sense immediately to your audience. They shouldn't have to think too long or too hard about your message. Ask yourself, "Will our audience realize the point we're trying to make?" You want to make your messages clear, concise, and crisp. These are three very important Cs of messaging. When it comes to understanding the message, the key is to keep it simple as possible. Tip number two, make sure your messages relate to your audience. When they can relate to what you say, that means the information is meaningful to their lives. The most powerful messages are the ones that immediately trigger some kind of emotional response, whether it's rational or even irrational. They're all different reactions you can stir, from frustration to anger, or perhaps it's your message that creates excitement, happiness, or sparks the underlying passion. However, this emotional connection starts with the relevance and how much a person relates to what you've shared. Tip number three, sharing and trust go hand in hand. When it comes to sharing messages, ask yourself, "How much does our audience trust us?" You may have heard the expression, the communication is only as credible as the source. Well, it's true. If your audience doesn't believe in you, and if you haven't built up your credibility, then any message you share will not be a message that's trusted and supported. This is true for a company, a political candidate, one of your partners, or your own employees. Companies work very hard to build their credibility. Attaining this trust status allows them to speak with a level of confidence. Tip number four, give your messages the wings to fly. Everyone wants a message to spread rapidly, with the exception of negative news. What's the secret to a viral message? Well, I'm not sure there's a magic formula here. However, audiences will see a message, and if they understand it, if they can relate to it, and they trust it, then they will most likely share that message with others. The level of connection or the emotion and the deeper the relevance is directly proportional to a higher level of sharing. When a message goes viral, then it clearly demonstrates there is a rapid appeal, energy and emotion driving your message. Now, think about how you've developed your messages in the past. Have you thought about whether your audiences get them quickly or if they're truly relevant? What was the emotional connection, and did they trust you enough to want to share the message with everyone they know? If you take the time to use the four tips and apply them to all of your messages going forward, then you may find it a lot easier to create messages for your audiences to have them resonate to the point of emotion and action.