A brand message is the message that your business wants to communicate to your tribe. It’s a statement of purpose that ties your marketing, adverts, graphic design, website … everything, together.
A clear brand message that is consistently used to guide all the ways you communicate with your tribe has a massively positive impact.
- They can quickly and easily understand what you do and how they can benefit
- They know how your business can transform their lives
- They’re not confused by tone, colour psychology or graphics being inconsistent with the message you’re spreading
It helps you stand out in the crowd.
On the other hand, not having a brand message, or having one that’s not crystal clear can really harm your ability to attract clients.
- It takes too long to work out how you can help your tribe
- They’re lost in the maelstrom of information and contradictory messages you’re sending out
- They can’t see the plan of what they need to do
How a brand message differs from a ‘mission statement’ or ‘vision statement’
The different is that your business brand message is focused on your tribe, but a mission or vision statement focuses on your business.
You might have a mission or vision statement for your business that’s made into a poster and hung on the wall. The aim is to focus your team on what they should be doing to help your tribe have the best experience with your business.
But your brand message comes first. Once you’ve made your tribe front and centre of your business and products or services you provide then you can reverse-engineer this experience and create your mission or vision statements for your team.
Doing it the other way around runs the risk of putting your business first and having a product or services-focused business, rather than a tribe-focused business.
Why create your brand message before you do anything else
Colours, fonts and logos all have a psychology behind them. Colours mean different things, as do fonts and images.
Imagine having a very corporate-style, red logo but your business is all about nurturing and helping? The discrepancy between these two messages unconsciously influence your tribe. Getting the message straight between all aspects of your graphic design and your business personality takes away this unconscious path away from your business.
Your brand message also gives you plenty of subject matter for your website, blogs and social media posts. Information you miss out on if you don’t have your brand message.
Five key features of a successful brand message
- It’s focused on your tribe not your business
- It states who your tribe is
- It explains the transformation your tribe experience when they engage with your business
- It highlights how you help them achieve this transformation
- It touches on what they miss out on if they don’t engage with you
The StoryBrand framework helps you cut through the noise and create a crystal clear brand message. Using this on your website, emails, lead magnets and sales funnels creates a consistent message that means more people engage with your business.