The Most Magical Place on Earth.
Does that slogan ring any bells or shake any pixie dust loose? This small yet mighty phrase has been the official slogan for Walt Disney World for some time. And for millions, it’s a tagline that instantly brings up memories of walking down Main Street, U.S.A. for the first time.
The Most Magical Place on Earth is part of a larger strategy that continues to help Disney remain an iconic brand. Indeed, everything Disney creates, including this slogan, comes back to its mission:
“Disney Parks, Experiences and Products brings the magic of The Walt Disney Company’s powerful brands and franchises into the daily lives of families and fans around the world to create magical memories that last a lifetime.”
Disney’s mission of magic is clear across all their marketing channels, from their websites to the welcome sign you see when arriving at Walt Disney World. And what drives this experience is far more than a tagline—it’s a brand message.
Your Brand Message: The Story Behind the Who, What, Why & How of Your Business
Your brand message goes beyond your visual brand elements such as your logo. It’s the story behind your business, who you serve, why you do what you do and how you do it. It’s the message you share across all of your content marketing efforts to connect with and inspire your audience.
Brand message: The story behind your business, who you serve, why you do what you do and how you do it.
Why Does Brand Messaging Matter?
As a business owner, it’s easy to see the benefits of creating content and want to jump right in. Doing so without understanding your brand message first, however, means your content will likely fail to resonate with your audience. All this does is lead to content-for-the-sake-of-content situations and burnout.
When you understand who you want to serve and why, you’ll start to see how each blog post, website page and social media post helps support you in those goals. Plus, you’ll be able to deliver a consistent message across all content types, creating a magical experience for your audience no matter where they find you.
How to Craft an Inspiring Brand Message
The good news is you probably already have an idea of who you serve and what you do. This is a great stepping-off point for creating your overarching message. But don’t stop there! Many elements make up your full brand messaging:
- Brand story (who you are and how you got here)
- Mission, vision and values (the direction of and objectives for your business)
- Brand purpose (why your business exists)
- Unique selling proposition (USP – what makes your business different)
- Brand promise (the experience your customers can expect to receive)
- Voice, tone and point of view (how you want to convey your message)
- …and more!
This might look overwhelming at first, but, trust us when we say that you already know all of this. You just need to take some time to solidify it.
1. Create an Ideal Customer Avatar
You can’t create a brand message without understanding who you’re speaking to first. Your ideal customer is unique and requires a message tailored to fit their needs, fears and desires. The first step in crafting your message is to create an ideal customer avatar.
Avatar: Also known as a buyer persona, an ideal customer avatar (ICA) is a detailed description of your target customer.
This description should outline your customer’s demographics, including age, gender, location and job title. Then, it should go deeper by defining your customer’s psychographics such as their goals, challenges, values and fears.
Make sure to add in how your business delivers or supports and don’t forget to give your avatar a name to make it more personal.
2. Dig Deep Into Your Business
Next, you’ll want to spend some dedicated time getting to know your business. Schedule time to simply sit and think about what you do, why you do it and how you do it.
Avoid getting bogged down in the daily tasks and details. This is your opportunity to do the thought work. Here are some questions to get the ball rolling (and the element of your messaging they’ll help you define):
- How did your business come to be? (Brand Story)
- What individual services do you provide and why? (Mission)
- How do you want your business to impact your industry and the world? (Vision)
- What values do you find to be most important to your business? (Values)
- What separates you from your competition? (Unique Selling Proposition)
- How do you transform the lives of your customers? (Ideal Audience)
- How do you want your audience to feel when they read your content? (Voice, Tone & Point of View)
3. Put It All Together Into a Brand Style Guide
One of the benefits of doing this work is creating a brand style guide that can help you and the members of your team create content that shares a consistent message.
Brand style guide: A living, breathing document that guides your content marketing efforts.
Be sure your guide includes your brand messaging information as well as your defined ideal audience (ICAs). Top it all off with your visual identity such as your logo and brand colors. With all this in one place, you’ll have a document ready to share with your team to improve content creation.
Want some support as you go through this process? Take our free 21-Day Build Your Own Brand Style Guide email challenge! When complete, you’ll have everything you need to build your brand guide from scratch.
Struggling With Your Brand Message? We Can Help.
Walt Disney didn’t conjure up the most magical place on earth overnight. Plus, he had plenty of support. If you’re struggling with developing your brand message, we can help! Send the Word (and brand) Nerds a message.
