One of the reasons why determining your core foundational brand messages is so important is because it clears away the chaos. It does this by creating a hierarchy.

We Have So Much to Say … Too Much

For all of us business owners, there’s just so much to say about why we’re awesome. We have so many reasons someone will want to engage with us. Right? I mean seriously. There are many problems we solve for various people, other businesses and organizations. The challenge is when we write or speak about all these wonderful reasons, it comes out as walls of copy on a web page. We know this isn’t a best practice (because we took the DIY course that told us people scan more than read)

We try to edit, removing what we don’t need and letting the important content stand out. This is where the problem starts to really show itself. What do we delete? What do we keep? But what about that? And they need to know this!

How Do We Know What to Cut?

The answer lies in your brand message hierarchy.

This inverted triangle gives you a roadmap of your core foundational messages. Every message written on behalf of your company needs to align with this hierarchy. Not every message in public facing (looking at you brand positioning statement) and not every message is an actual message (hello, brand voice). Everything within this triangle helps break through the chaos to produce clarity.

It’s about memorable, differentiating and authentic messaging that consistently connects with your ideal audience.

The Messages in Your Hierarchy

Guiding Force

At the very top, we our Guiding Force. This is the broadest of all your messages because it encompasses every message that follows.

Brand Promise

What can clients expect to get from your brand?

Value Proposition

When consumers compare your brand to others, the unique proposition describes the functional + emotional benefit of your brand.

Brand Positioning

Places you within the marketplace. Grounds who you are, what you do and who needs you. This is internal.

Brand Voice

Part of your brand’s personality, it’s your narrator, tone and mood.

One Key Message

This is the message that reminds clients of you, as it quickly positions you in the marketplace. This is external and should go everywhere. It may be your slogan.

How to Write Your Messages

You don’t. It’s too hard to do for yourself because you’re too close. Trust me, I tried to write my own and failed. In order to do them correctly, there research and analysis we do before we even start writing.

There are a lot of things we ambitious business owners can do for ourselves, and there are some that are best left to the experts. This is one of them.