14 Jan Transparency in Messaging
Creating clear, understandable transparency in messaging for your product or service is step one when it comes to marketing communications. If your audience doesn’t understand what you’re selling, you’ve already been overlooked. Potential customers are moving on to the next opportunity.
2020 provided lessons in messaging clarity and transparency like no other. Looking back, it seems there were more examples of opacity and confusion demonstrating what not to do.
A CNN story analyzes the clear comparison of what transparency means using President-elect Joe Biden’s injured foot. We won’t get into the political issue here, but the lesson is this: Transparency is fundamental to a functioning democracy. We believe it’s proven to be fundamental in marketing too.
Transparency is Clarity
Too often, transparency is thought to be airing problems or concerns. Good marketing messages don’t focus on the negative; they highlight benefits and the advantages a product or service offers. When marketing products and services, transparency can mean clarity, and it’s easy to spot.
- It’s based on truth and verifiable facts
- It uses clear, common language
- It’s timely
- It gets to the point
- It leaves little, if anything, unresolved
Messaging Fundamentals
To create a clear and concise message requires knowledge and strategy as well as good wordsmithing. The foundation is knowing your potential customer’s needs, including:
- What they want in a product,
- How they will use your product or service,
- The words they may choose to describe its benefits
Armed with consumer knowledge, you can begin the conversation in a clear and concise way.
Transparency in Messaging Shows Integrity
Transparency can also highlight integrity. Studies show that consumers seek brands they perceive as open and honest. If they connect with the values and culture of your company, they feel empowered to purchase. Studies show, this is becoming increasingly more important across multiple generations of consumers. (source: Forbes)
Transparency is seen as the insight that provides your company with personality. Being open and more personal makes companies and brands more human. Telling the personal stories of executives, product developers and other employees makes a difference to consumers as they compare you to your competitors. It also brings authenticity to your brand, making it more relatable to your target audience.
At Axiom, we excel in finding the consumer connections and crafting key messages that cause your target consumers to engage and act.
For more stories about communications messaging, read our recent post Messaging Holds the Key.
No Comments