Ep 28. How to connect your brand and sales message

I wanted to talk to you today about connecting your marketing and sales messages.

There was some interesting research recently from Global PR firm Fleishman Hillard. Their 2021 global report looks at The Authenticity Gap, which measures the gap between consumer expectations and their actual experiences of a company or brand using the Nine Drivers of Authenticity that shape consumer perceptions and beliefs. 

I think there are lots of key points that growing businesses can take from this report in terms of making sure what you say you do, what you actually do and how you operate are all telling the same story.

you will learn;

• Why you need to have your brand messages connected to your sales
• How you might start this process
• A simple method to organise your messages into a document you can refer to

Links I mention in this episode:

Fleishman Hillard Global Authenticity Report

https://fleishmanhillard.com/brand-consumer-expectations/ 

Messagehouse.org and free toolkit

https://messagehouse.org/ 

Full Transcript (unedited as I like to keep it real!)

 

Emma Drake:
Hello, and welcome to this episode of Communication Strategy That Works with me, Emma Drake.
Emma Drake:
Today, I wanted to do a super bite-size episode for you just around some thoughts I’ve been having and around conversations I’ve been having with people that work in construction, property and tech. I think sometimes we find it really difficult to talk about products and services, and also engage with our people in our business that are also very technically minded and like to create content that really explains what something does. So I’ve created this episode today to really tackle that, so I hope you enjoy it.
Emma Drake:
For those of you who have listened to the podcast before will know this, but in case you just tuned in today, I’m an in-house communication strategy expert turned external advisor to businesses in construction, property and tech. I’ve worked with many of these types of businesses and people within them, but I particularly love to work with women in these businesses that have ambitious plans and want to feel empowered to do great things with their [inaudible 00:01:02] marketing.
Emma Drake:
I’m making it my mission to help you break down some of these big topics about communicating your business and how people work out simple methods, how to implement these into your business to create value, to build trust, and save you time, money, and energy. Keeping it simple can help tackle overwhelm, help you achieve your goals and also transform your productivity.
Emma Drake:
I wanted to talk to you today about how to tell your story when you work in a technical industry. It’s so easy to get this role. We’re surrounded by technical people doing the job that we do, and they’re all great at their job, fantastic, but quite a lot of the time, we’re advising them on how to connect with the right audience and help customers to buy. I have some great tips for you today. So let’s dive in.
Emma Drake:
When we start to tell our story, it’s really, really easy to jump into the technical speak. We’ve all done it because in my business, I’m the expert and in your business, you’re the expert, and we want to tell people all the details. So if you work in a very technical area, you might need to explain quite a lot of the technical issues associated with your product or service. However, to the person who’s not really working in your business, including your customers, the technical aspect is not the most compelling part of your story. Being too technical with your content can also mean that there’s no really compelling reason for people to engage with that content or connect with your product, service or business, and more importantly, to take action from reading it or hearing about it.
Emma Drake:
So whether your message is there to encourage them to buy a product or invest in one, or to join your company, if you’re advertising for a job, for example, it doesn’t necessarily compel the person to take action unless they really, really understand and it resonates with them.
Emma Drake:
We need to be telling people the why behind what we do and why does it matter to them. If we talk about the product physically and how it works, and the process people need to go through to get it to work and to use it and so on, what we’re not doing is saying why that person should be buying it. And if they don’t buy it, why they’re going to have a serious issue, or why they’re going to keep having the same problem that they’re having, or maybe what the transformation is that they’re going to go through if they engage with your service or engage with your product or initiative.
Emma Drake:
So we need to dig a little deeper. We need to give them that thing that they really need. Why should they buy from you? Why should they invest in you? Or why should they work with you and not another company?
Emma Drake:
There’s a technique that I use called the five whys, to really get into the motivation behind your customer’s decisions to buy from you. If you start with a statement about what you think you do as a business and why you’re trying to help people and what you’re trying to help them with, then you look at that and you just ask yourself why again. Why does it matter to that person? Why does it matter to them? We keep breaking this down and down and keep thinking about the difference for your product or service and the difference that it makes. I guide you through this process as well in another episode, and I’ll put a link to it in the show notes for you.
Emma Drake:
By just sort of stopping and pausing and reflecting about why we are doing something, why we are launching this campaign, why we are creating this piece of content, what do we do and why are we doing this, we’ll end up with something in our story, which is far less technical and much more human focused, which really gets to the crux of the issue for your customer and your audience and makes you the obvious choice to engage with. So if you’d like more help to feel less overwhelmed, connect better with your audience and help customers buy from you, please get in touch. My details are in the show notes.
Emma Drake:
Finally, thank you for listening to this episode of Communication Strategy That Works. Don’t forget to check my show notes for those links that I mentioned. I’d really love it if you would subscribe to my podcast and leave me a review. Also if you think there’s someone that could benefit from listening to this podcast, please share this within your networks. I’ll just say bye for now and see you next time.