Welcome to June
Summer is upon us. If you live in northern climes, that’s a cause for celebration. Around these parts (Houston, Texas) it marks the end of comfortable outdoor pursuits, unless you enjoy them in a sauna. (And if you’re reading this somewhere south of the equator, please enjoy some cool autumnal weather for us!)
We’re also into school holidays, which means less traffic on our roads but more traffic around the house. Congratulations to the graduating classes of 2022. You’re heading to college or joining the workforce at a really intriguing time. Make the most of it.
June promises to be a pivotal month for MessageUp. Our manuscript will undergo a round of professional editing, and the first iteration of our in-person learning experience will be completed. Then the countdown begins to our beta learning events, planned for August in Houston. (If you or someone you know would like to apply for a free spot at one of those full-day events, email us at admin@messageup.com).
This edition of MessageUpdate features an introduction to giving your brand a personality. And below that are links to five articles we found particularly interesting this week.
Thanks for being a part of our journey!
~ Team MessageUp
Humanizing Your Brand
Is your brand a parrot or a goldfish? Maybe a labradoodle or a lion?
Giving your brand a personality made up of emotional traits and behaviors helps to humanize an otherwise characterless entity.
Your brand’s visual identity is something people can see and judge. Your brand’s personality governs the emotions that your audience picks up from the way your brand communicates.
To build brand awareness with your audience, produce content that exhibits a consistent set of traits that your buyer recognizes and appreciates.
Create a memorable character that guides how your audience interacts with your company by focusing on your brand’s behaviors. Think about how your brand acts by giving it a consistent personality.
Three elements make everything your company communicates sound like its coming from the same person: voice, tone, and style.
Voice
Voice is what most clearly defines your brand’s personality. If your brand were a person, the way they speak would tell you a lot about who they are and what they stand for. For example, think about how an academic might speak compared to a comedian or a gameshow host.
What characteristics do you want to enter a customer’s mind when they are asked to describe your company and its products?
It’s important to define both what your brand’s voice is and what it isn’t. For example, you might use an expert voice but never be condescending. Some brands want to be casual and informal but without sounding sloppy.
The voice of your brand will determine the types of words you use and the characteristics of your writing—the sentence length, pace, and rhythm that’s most natural for the voice type you’re using.
Importantly, the voice of your brand should never change, no matter what type of content you’re creating. Audiences are easily put-off by a schizophrenic brand.
Tone
Unlike voice, the tone you use will change depending on the type of content you’re producing and the intended audience.
A more casual brand might adopt a playful tone for an upbeat article about competing products but use a “friendly uncle” tone when sharing advice on how to select the right solution.
Even a formal voice can change tone—for example, serious for an article about something dangerous but straightforward and instructive when presenting the results of a case study.
Adopt a more cautious tone when writing for buyers early in their buyer’s journey, since they don’t know you very well, than for established customers who know you quite well.
Style
Style determines the look and feel of your content. It includes the little things that make your message flow, such as punctuation, grammar, and formatting.
It can be a huge task to get everything right, every time while producing content as diverse as technical papers, blog posts, social media posts, website copy, and videos.
Inconsistency, like having some section titles capitalized while others are written in sentence case or failing to spot basic grammatical errors, can leave readers questioning your professionalism. They might also wonder whether those inconsistencies could be indicative of poor product or service quality.
There are several published guides to help you get things straight, including the Associated Press Stylebook and the Chicago Manual of Style. In addition to correcting your grammar, they cover topics like formatting, capitalization, and when and how it’s appropriate to use industry-specific jargon and acronyms.
What We’re Reading
Here are some articles we’ve been reading this week that you might enjoy and find helpful:
Solving the Conversation Gap: A New Funnel-Building Approach
David Greenberg is the CMO at Conversica where conversational AI is being developed to help companies identify hand raisers (leads who are ready for a sales conversation) and better nuture not-yet-ready leads. This results in a new marketing and sales approach - Conversation Qualified Leads with significant advantages over traditional MQL definitions.
Passing the Vibe Check - Embracing Gen Z's Values
Morning Brew and Edelman combine to bring you the highlights of an in-depth study that sought to understand Gen Z's beliefs and opinions. As they become a growing and important buyer population, forward thinking brands (including B2B) should be building the five points raised in this article into their marketing strategies.
4 Tips for Successful Small Business Content Marketing
MessageUp is all about helping under-resourced teams succeed, so this title naturally grabbed our attention. Elita Torres at Lead Grow Develop hits on four topics that definitely had us nodding - channel selection, delivering value, publishing consistently, and spending enough money.
15 Best Marketing Blogs to Follow
The field of marketing changes quickly. It takes conscious effort to stay current on the latest trends and technology, and how to apply them. This listicle by the folks at Brafton is a solid starting point for marketing blogs worth following - both for the latest news and as great examples of how content marketing works.
Trend Report: Marketing Strategy 2022
There are numerous marketing strategy surveys out there but this report is concise and easily digested. CoSchedule surveyed 515 respondents from 75 countries and compared their results to surveys conducted in 2018 and 2019. In short, more than ever, being organized, documenting your strategy, and using appropriate technology are keys to marketing success.
Until Next Time
Thanks for reading!
Let us know in the comments how we’re doing and be sure to subscribe so that you don’t miss any of our future publications…