What is Strategic Messaging?

Strategic Messaging is the art and science of speaking with your consumer so they feel you're writing just for them. It's more than clever copy -- it's Strategic Messaging. 

Strategic Messaging can only happen if you truly understand the wants and needs of your target audience. Even (and here’s the important part) … even if they can’t articulate them themselves.

How is that possible? Does it involve some sort of mystical mind-reading session? 

Yes, it does involve reading your audience’s mind. But there’s no mysticism involved. 

People tell you who they are and what they want every moment of the day, in so many different ways. It’s through the classic indicators, such as: The products they buy; the type of dwelling they live in; and the media they choose to consume.  

But it’s also in what brings them joy. What causes them to worry. And, how they make decisions. How they avoid decisions. The biases they probably don’t even know they have. Things like risk aversion. Confirmation bias. Anchoring bias. Framing effects. 

Understanding all that about your consumer (or in the case of B2B, your target) is the key to communicating strategically. But you also have to do the work to understand it about yourself. What makes your brand tick? Why is it special/different/beneficial? Why should people care about you? Why should they TRUST you? 

Done right, strategic messaging will help you in all aspects of your business – from RFPs and pitches to client presentations, to creating sharable social content and building customer experiences that make a difference … To create the marketing and advertising content that opens the door so people can experience all the great work you’ve done to position yourself to be interesting, engaging and relevant. 

It’s all about precision. What to include and what to leave out.

In a world where people consume information in bite sizes, every word needs to be as tasty as possible. 

I could write a treatise about what Strategic Messaging is, and is not, but best perhaps to show it in action. 

by John Taylor, Principal, The Strategic Messaging Group