"What's in it for me?" This fundamental question drives decisions in every aspect of our lives.
What's in it for me if I help fund my friend's startup?
What's in it for me if I accept that promotion in another city?
What's in it for me if I let my sibling stay at my place without charging rent?
In B2B marketing, understanding and leveraging the "What's in it for me?" principle is crucial. This concept is essential for "developing campaigns that connect with target audiences by showcasing specific value propositions and benefits they'll receive from products or services.
Your marketing message strategy must effectively answer the "What's in it for me?" question. Without this clear value proposition, potential customers may not see compelling reasons to choose your offering. Beyond just converting prospects, addressing this question strengthens relationships with existing customers.
Naturally, crafting impactful marketing messages requires a deep understanding of your audience's needs, challenges, and motivations.
Before we explore how to develop your startup's message strategy for marketing initiatives, let's examine HubSpot's definition of what constitutes a marketing message:
A marketing message encompasses the specific language and communication approach you use to engage your audience and persuade them to do business with you. Your message plays a critical role in achieving business objectives, as it can determine whether you gain a new customer or lose them to a competitor.
Key Takeaways
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Develop comprehensive marketing personas (also called customer or buyer personas) to gain deep audience understanding and create more effective messaging
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Connect your messaging goals to specific KPIs to measure and track the impact of your marketing communications
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Establish appropriate messaging tone based on your target audience, chosen media channels, campaign objectives, and desired emotional responses
How to Construct Your Startup’s Strategy for Marketing Messages
Every startup needs a well-defined message strategy before investing in marketing campaigns. This strategy forms the foundation for all your marketing content creation. Start by establishing core strategic elements, then refine based on:
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Input from sales and marketing teams gathered through target audience interactions
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Data and analytics measuring marketing performance
Follow these three essential steps when developing or updating your message strategy, and apply them to each individual marketing message you create.
1. Understand Your Marketing Personas
Before launching any marketing messages, clearly define your intended audience.
Your ideal customer profile should inform both the content and tone of your communication. Develop detailed marketing personas, fictional characters representing your target customers' key demographic and behavioral traits.
Creating these marketing personas helps maintain consistent messaging across your organization, not just in marketing. This process provides crucial insights into your ideal customers' needs, emotions, and interests, enabling more resonant communication.
2. Attach KPIs to Your Marketing Message Strategy
For effective b2b marketing, measuring message performance is crucial. This requires establishing clear KPIs to track the results of your marketing campaign.
Remember that KPIs differ from goals. While goals define your desired marketing outcomes, KPIs are the specific metrics that indicate progress toward those objectives.
Here are five examples demonstrating how to match KPIs with marketing goals:
Goal: Drive website traffic
KPIs: Site visits, bounce rates, CTR metrics
Goal: Enhance brand recognition
KPIs: Social engagement metrics, backlink quantity
Goal: Generate qualified leads
KPIs: Landing page conversions, newsletter signups
Goal: Transform leads into customers
KPIs: Online purchase activity, success page conversions
Goal: Boost customer loyalty
KPIs: Customer lifetime value, churn statistics
Set the Right Tone
Develop a distinctive brand voice encompassing your word choice, core characteristics, and personality. This voice should resonate with your audience while differentiating your offerings from those of your competitors.
While maintaining a consistent voice across your message strategy, adjust the tone to suit the context. For instance, promotional emails require a different tone than communications about sensitive issues, such as security breaches.
Although individual campaigns should maintain tonal consistency, they should also remain flexible to adjust when audience feedback indicates issues, such as negative responses to email messaging.
Key considerations for message tone include:
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Target demographic (e.g., C-suite, millennials, tech professionals)
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Communication channels (e.g., social platforms, company blog, email)
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Marketing objectives (e.g., education, lead generation, sales)
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Desired emotional response (e.g., enthusiasm, intrigue, satisfaction)
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Intended tone qualities (e.g., supportive, professional, educational)
Creating the Right Marketing Messages for Your Startup
Your message strategy forms the bedrock of all marketing initiatives. Begin by understanding your audience, as it guides messaging decisions. With deep audience insights, you can craft tone-appropriate messages, select the optimal distribution channels, and achieve marketing goals while maintaining brand voice consistency.
Remember to align your b2b marketing KPIs with your message strategy goals. Without monitoring and analyzing key metrics, you can't determine which marketing messages are resonating and which need refinement.
Clarify Your Message – Schedule a Branding & Messaging Consultation.
