Consumers see thousands of advertisements and marketing messages every single day, between social media posts, radio ads, emails, targeted display ads, and even text messages. That’s why it’s so important for businesses to break through the clutter — not just to stand out, but also to be remembered.
Having an overall marketing strategy allows you to make sure that all pieces of your marketing are working well together. It also gives you the opportunity to create a consistent brand message. Every time a consumer experiences one of your ads, it should be instantly recognizable as your brand and should have the same overall message. That should be true whether it’s a radio ad, a social media post, an email, or a targeted display ad.
Here are four reasons why having a consistent marketing message is so powerful.
It Increases Your Brand Awareness
Having a consistent message makes it easier for consumers to recognize your brand when they experience other ads or hear your business’s name come up in conversation.
Keep in mind the marketing rule of seven: On average, consumers need to experience a brand’s message seven times before they take action. That gets harder if you have four different messages being delivered across multiple channels. That’s true even if you are targeting different audiences with different platforms. Everywhere someone sees or hears about your business, including on your own website, your overall brand message should be consistent.
For example, a marketing director of an HVAC company has two main buckets that they are focusing on: new air conditioning installations and maintenance packages. They can run ads for both, but they include consistent messaging about their business’s on-time guarantee and fair prices in all of their ads, including radio, social media ads, and video/OTT ads. This message is repeated over and over again every time a consumer hears or sees an ad, and even when the consumer goes to the business’s website.
It Builds Trust With Your Audience
No one likes mixed signals. When consumers are familiar with your brand and recognize a consistent message, they’re more likely to trust you. Giving your audience a clear understanding of your business, products or services makes it easy for them to connect with your business. Authenticity and consistency shows that your business is trustworthy, and makes it more likely that they’ll become a customer when they’re in need of your product or service.
When they do become a customer, your employees, products, and services should also echo that consistent message to increase trust. If the HVAC company in our previous example consistently markets their on-time guarantee, consumers expect to know approximately when a technician will arrive at their home. If they aren’t given a time or a technician is late without notification, that erodes the trust built by the company’s advertising.
It Allows You to Leverage the Best Parts of Each Marketing Platform/Media You Use
Having a consistent marketing message makes it easy to strategize your marketing across multiple channels. This means more than just adding your logo or the newest sale to your advertisements. You need to make sure your branding includes similar tone, sounds, color scheme, and that your overall message includes your brand's identity and core values.
Having a consistent marketing message dictates your overall message, but you can tailor your ad to best fit each individual marketing platform or media type.
The HVAC company can create a radio ad about their maintenance packages featuring a pair of neighbors, one who has a problem with their air conditioning and the other who has a maintenance package with the HVAC company. The company can create an OTT ad that is the same as the radio, but it has a video of the neighbors talking over their shared fence.
The HVAC company’s targeted online display ad for the maintenance package includes the same 2-3 key points discussed by the neighbors in the radio and OTT ads.
They can post a series of graphics on their Facebook page focusing on maintenance, including comparing the costs of maintenance to the cost of emergency repairs, a list of things that need to be maintained in your HVAC system, and a funny meme about air conditioning systems working hard in the summer.
Every message has a similar helpful yet casual tone, and all of the ads (outside of the social media content) also mentions the company’s on-time guarantee and fair prices.
It Increases Your Sales
Remember the marketing rule of seven that we discussed before. A consumer must receive your marketing message seven times before they’re moved to act. So the more consistent your messaging is, the faster you will connect with consumers who are interested in your products and services.
Consumers are more likely to become paying customers of businesses they are familiar with and that they can trust. Over time, your consistent marketing message will increase sales, improving your business’s bottom line. In fact, having a consistent marketing and brand message can increase your revenue up to 23%.
Having a consistent marketing message isn’t just a good idea for streamlining your marketing — it’s the best way to ensure your advertising is generating a return on investment.
To get started, look at your overall brand. What are your core values? What do you want to be known for? Determine your consistent message to include in all of your marketing. That will help you create an omnichannel marketing strategy that reaches your audience with the same message in a variety of different media.
Want help in creating your overall marketing strategy? Federated Media can help. Contact us today to meet with an integrated marketing specialist who can help your business drive revenue with your advertising.
