How to maintain consistent messaging in your marketing
If you ever feel like your brand has multiple personalities, you've come to the right place, and you are certainly not alone.
Inconsistent messaging is a common issue (/serious annoyance) in marketing, but it's also more damaging that a lot of you realize.
Find out why consistent messaging matters and how to make sure your whole marketing team is *blissfully* singing from the same hymn sheet.
Why is consistent messaging important?
Here's the truth: consistent messaging is not only important, it's crucial to maintain a clear and unified brand voice if you want to be competitive and stand out from the crowd... which you do, right?
Having that consistency in your brand messaging lays out the foundations you need to start building a strong brand identity and customer trust.
Unfortunately, way too many businesses struggle with this, often making critical brand messaging mistakes that undermine all their marketing efforts and hard work.
What does brand consistency look like?
Brand consistency goes way, way, WAY beyond using the same logo across all your materials. It encompasses a bunch of elements that, when used cohesively, create that strong and recognizable brand identity you want.
Let's have a look at these different elements of brand consistency:
- Tone of voice: Your brand's tone of voice needs to match your brand personality, and should be be kinda similar across all communications, whether it's a social media post, press release or customer service interaction.
- Unique selling point (USP): The core benefits that set you apart from competitors should be reinforced in your messaging, wherever your audience may find it - don't change it up per platform or communication.
- Brand values: Everyone loves a good story, including when its about your brand - it helps to build an emotional connection with your audience and reel in the customers who share similar values.
- Visual design elements: Consistency in visual design is so, so important for brand recognition; this includes logo usage and placement, color palettes, typography and imagery style.*
- Key messages and taglines: Another thing you must keep consistent is your core brand messages and taglines, otherwise it weakens your brand identity and value proposition.
In fact, color consistency alone can increase recognition of your brand by up to 80%!
6 tips for consistent messaging
Yes okay, we've said the word "consistent" a lot... but after all, you've got to be consistent to hammer a point home. Here's how to keep things consistent in your brand messaging:
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Stay true to your brand, always
The reason we want to be consistent with our brand messaging, is to create a clear brand identity. To do this, you've got to start at the roots.
Think about your brand's core values, promises, mission, and unique selling points that set you apart from the rest, and really get you noticed by your target audience.
Make sure your whole team is aligned by developing a clear brand identity document that outlines your brand's personality, tone of voice, and key messages. This should act as a filter for all marketing decisions and content creation, too. -
Be (semi) flexible
While consistency is key (have we made that obvious yet?), it is also important to recognize that different channels and audiences might resonate with different delivery.
Maintain your core values and product messaging, but think about your tone of voice and language for different platforms and audience segments. For example, you might choose a more professional approach on LinkedIn, versus a more chill, chatty version of your messaging on Instagram.
Engagement is all about keeping things audience-first, so do your research. -
Align your online and offline efforts
... 🎵 Because we are living in a multi-channel world, and I am a multi-channel...
Alexa, stop. Back to talking more about messaging consistency: you've got to maintain it across all your online and offline marketing effort to create a truly seamless brand experience for your customers.
Ensure your physical marketing materials (you know, brochures, business cards, etc) match your digital branding, and carry that online brand voice into offline interactions too. -
Create a style guide or messaging matrix
A comprehensive style guide or messaging matrix is super invaluable for maintaining the consistency you're after. It's a structured way to organize your key messages and how they should be communicated, and keeps the team and your marketing activities in check.
This guide should cover visual elements (eg. colors, fonts, logo usage) and verba elements (eg. tone of voice, key phrases, taglines).
Given that not everything stays the same - and boy, do we encourage you experimenting with new things to see what hits - you need to make sure this document is regularly updated so it stays relevant and useful. -
Get the right tools and processes in place
You don't have to do it alone (or with the rest of your team), there's almost always a nice new process to introduce, or a tool to add to your martech stack which can help.
We mean it when we say: having the right tools and processes in place is so helpful for streamlining your marketing efforts and brand messaging. Here are just a few examples:- Digital asset management (DAM) system: Store and organize all your brand assets in one place.
- Project management tools: Ensure your team are aligned on messaging for each campaign or project with a tool like Optimizely Content Marketing Platform.
- Approval processes: Implement necessary and not-over-the-top approval processes with the relevant stakeholders to make sure all outgoing comms adhere to your brand guidelines.
- Writing assistance tools: Consider tools like Grammarly or Hemingway Editor to keep writing style and tone consistent.
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Encourage cross-team collaboration
Let's be real: consistent messaging really is a team effort, requiring input and alignment across all the marketing departments (and beyond). That's exactly why cross-team collaboration is important.
To make sure everyone is on the same page about your brand messaging and brand identity, you can:
- Hold regular meetings with representatives from different team within marketing (eg. content, digital, social, email) to discuss messaging and branding
- Form 'tiger teams' or cross-functional groups for specific projects or campaigns to ensure things are consistent across all aspects
- Adopt a "Team of Teams" approach, where different departments regularly share information and align on messaging strategies
- Create a centralized knowledge base where team members can access the latest brand guidelines and messaging strategies in a couple of clicks
A more integrated approach to marketing
You might have heard about integrated marketing communications, and this whole 'brand consistency' thing is exactly what it's all about.
With an integrated marketing strategy and ultimately, a better and more integrated marketing team, you can finetune your brand messaging - heck, ALL your marketing - to make it more powerful than ever.
To find out more about how to make your marketing team more integrated, check out our amazing guide to building a more integrated marketing team. In this guide, we run through the benefits and tactics of integrated marketing, and expand on how our marketing team works at Optimizely.
FAQs
What is consistent messaging in marketing?
Consistent messaging is the practice of maintaining a uniform brand voice, key points, and visual identity across all marketing channels and communications.
Why is consistent messaging important for businesses?
Consistent messaging builds brand recognition, increases customer trust, and improves overall marketing effectiveness by delivering a clear, unified message to your audience.
How can I ensure consistent messaging across different marketing platforms?
Create a comprehensive brand guide, use templates and collaborative tools, regularly train your team, and implement a content approval process to maintain consistency across all platforms.
What are the key elements of consistent messaging?
Key elements include brand voice, core values, visual identity (logos, colors, fonts), key selling points, and target audience focus.
How does consistent messaging impact customer loyalty?
Consistent messaging helps customers form a clear, reliable image of your brand, leading to increased trust, stronger emotional connections, and improved customer loyalty over time.
