Episode 5 – Key 3: Messaging

 Transcript:

Welcome to The Five Keys: Unlocking The Power Of Your Brand. This podcast is designed to give you the tools that you need to create a successful and dynamic brand. I’m Elizabeth King and I’m going to be your guide on this journey.

Hey, welcome back to The Five Keys. I’m Elizabeth King and today I really want to talk to you about key messaging. So key messages is key three in The Five Key process. Now, earlier in our podcast in Key 1 we talked about assessment and so we talked about your why, why do you do what you do. We talked about your core values, we established your unique selling points. We talked about what goes into your company’s identity and your brand and who you are. Key 3 ,with messaging, we’re going into how you pull all that information together. So you’ve got all this information, but how do you really package it in a way that you can use for your brand? So why are the key messages so important? Well, have you ever gone to a company’s website and it says one thing and it looks one way and then you’re on Facebook and you go to their social media stuff and it looks totally different and it sounds different?

And what they’re telling you is different? Or maybe you hear them on the radio and even that sounds different than what you’re seeing. That’s the idea of bad key messaging. That’s when your brand is just a mess. We don’t want your brand to be a mess. So think about some of my favorite brands, especially when it comes to storytelling and how they package it. Like Nike. Nike is probably a master at this. So is Southwest Airlines. Think about it, no matter where you go, from their packaging to their website to their TV ads, it all has the same message. You know, it looks and feels a little different, but you always get the same feeling from their stuff. Just do it. Same thing with Southwest. Southwest takes a really fun approach to life because they’re so much more casual and they do that deliberately.

But their ads, their TV ads just make me laugh because they’re so ridiculous. Because it’s always that want to get away. It’s always that embarrassing situation. But then you go to their website or you go to Facebook and you see their advertising and it still has that very casual feel. It may not be as funny as what you see on TV, but it still has that same brand throughout, the same key messages that they’re trying to get to get across. So when it comes to your brand, I’m really going to recommend that you try to take your company identity and hone it down to one to five key messages. Five messages is a lot. Three to four is kind of your sweet spot. And these are the things that explain who you are as a company and what you believe in.

You know, what values are important to you, what makes you unique, and most importantly, how can you make a difference in your customer’s lives. Those are really the things that need to go into your key message. So whether someone goes to your website or hears you on the radio or goes to your social media, they’re still getting those same messages reinforced over and over again. Your key messages really are the core of your brand and they’re going to appear everywhere. So what are the next steps?

Once you’ve got your key messages established, it makes your marketing so much easier. And that’s when you can really get into the strategic planning. What are the right tactics for your business and how do you take these messages and where do they need to be? So that’s what we’re going to go next with our podcast. In the next episode we’re going to get into Key 4, which is your strategic planning. And we’re going to talk about how all of this comes together and you can really create a communication plan that’s right for your brand. So until then, I hope that you have a great week and I look forward to talking to you soon.

Thank you for listening to The Five Keys: Unlocking The Power Of Your Brand.