3 Steps To Create a Brand Messaging Framework
I am someone who usually prefers committing to a tv series over watching a movie. Partly because these days, series are just better and have budgets often bigger than modern movies.
But the deeper reason I prefer a series over a movie is because of the character development. – The character development of a good series can go deep and really show you the complexity of why they behave the way they behave, why the make the choices they make, who had an impact on their life, and what event was especially transformative. . There’s more backstory and more opportunity to see the character experience and respond to life. And I live for this.
Your brand messaging is very similar to the development of the characters in a series. Let me explain. Your audience is first introduced to your brand — like a casual meet n’ greet — but over time and with more interaction, they start to learn more about what your brand is all about. They’re learning about your brand through the brand messaging.
Brand messaging is the way in which you share the inners of your brand with your audience. It’s your brand’s why, its story, its values, and its purpose.
But how exactly do you share this information with your audience? Are you supposed to write a novel? Share your story in a blog post? Scribe and record a tell-all video?
Not exactly.
When you create content for your business, you are able to weave in your story and values and purpose, and mission into your messaging.
This takes skill and strategy, and in order to get to the place of building the content, you need to first need to be able to guide the messaging.
A Brand Messaging Framework is a great way to organize all of these elements into one place that can then be referred to for strategically creating content.
What is a Brand Messaging Framework?
Basically, a Brand Messaging Framework outlines what your brand is all about and what it stands for. Knowing why your brand exists, what it’s meant to do, and who it's meant to do for will help guide the how.
The framework provides a blueprint of the brand’s character, personality, voice, purpose, and vision. Knowing all of this helps you stand out from the competition and positions your brand to reach and attract your ideal audience.
In order to develop your brand messaging, you will need to unveil who you are as a brand by developing your brand values, purpose, brand mission, & value proposition.
You will also need to know your audience — demographics, background, goals, interests, and fears.
The magic happens when you figure out how these two entities — the inner core of your brand and your ideal audience — align. You can do this by strategizing:
What do you both share?
What do you both value?
What problem does your audience have that you have a solution for?
Why does having a Brand Messaging Framework matter?
Brand messaging creates consistency in your branding at all customer touchpoints– website, social media marketing, product packaging, webinar content, and even PR information. And as we all know, consistency builds authority.
It helps your audience feel they can trust your business when they know what to expect from your brand. This level of trust can turn an audience into a client and a client into a loyal follower, part of your community.
How can you use Brand Messaging Framework in your own business?
Having a Brand Messaging Framework houses the character and personality traits of your brand. Much like the Human Design chart — any other Generators here? — a Brand Messaging Framework is a resource that maps out who your brand is, what it stands for, and what its purpose is.
The framework is like a blueprint that can be referred to again and again, helping to guide marketing strategy, PR strategy, content creation, and even creating new products and services.
Your Brand Messaging Framework also helps keep your team organized, aligned, and connected to your brand vision and purpose. In the event that you hire employees or outsource tasks, you can always use your Brand Messaging Framework in your onboarding process, giving your employee or service provider an inside look at what feeds your business, and how you built and maintain a relationship with your audience.
3 steps to Create Your Brand Messaging Framework
Step 1: Start with the why.
Knowing your why will guide the messaging and help formulate every essential part that will authentically connect to your ideal audience. This takes a lot of brainstorming, and journaling to get all of the thoughts out, and start to piece together the big takeaways.
Think about why you started your business, why you serve the people you do, and why you think it's important. Also, think about the thing your brand exists to debunk, fight against, or protect. Answer the questions: Who are you trying to help? What problem are you aiming to solve? What do you wish more people understood?
Step 2: Create the essential parts of your brand messaging.
The essential pieces that make up the foundation for your brand messaging include
Mission statement
Tagline or slogan
Value proposition
Brand values
Brand pillars
MISSION STATEMENT
Your brand Mission Statement is a reflection of your business’s goals. They’re usually written in very short, to-the-point sentences, explaining what your brand does and why. These are intended to be shared with your team to help motivate everyone to collectively work towards a common goal.
The Mission Statement also acts as a guide when creating the brand pillars, values, and audience-facing messaging, but isn’t intended to be shared verbatim with your audience.
A Mission statement should be compiled into two to three sentences and reflect on what your business does, how you do it, who you help, and why you do it. It should be something that your team could read and understand the shared mission or purpose of the business.
TAGLINE OR SLOGAN
A tagline or slogan is a punchy, memorable statement that speaks directly about your brand. Personal brands don’t often have a tagline but should be considered as they are a nice touch to any brand if done well.
When brainstorming taglines or slogans, think about
What do you want people to feel when they read your tagline?
How do you hope your audience would react when they read your tagline?
VALUE PROPOSITION
Your brand’s Value Proposition is the unique core of your business and should include the differentiator you bring to your industry. It’s the statement you make when someone asks “what do you do?” Also known as your “elevator pitch”, your VP needs to state who you help, how you help them, and why you do it.
It's the promise of the value your offer provides your customers.
A Value Proposition is usually
a short statement that tells your audience what sets you apart
used as a headline or sub-headline on a website
It's usually not
a tagline or slogan
a vision statement
clever or cutesy
A strong Value Proposition is a great statement to share on your business website’s home page, front and center so that what you do who you do it for and what problem you solve is front and center for any reader when they check you out.
BRAND VALUES
Also known as Core Values, these are the values that show up throughout your brand and business.
Your personal values & virtues will come through in your business as well, but your core Brand Values will define your client experience & help create the foundation of your brand purpose.
Brand Values are
The heart and soul behind your purpose
Genuine & true to your business
Help you connect with your ideal clients
Set you apart from the competition
The how behind the why of your business
BRAND PILLARS
Brand Pillars, or Content Pillars, are categories that your brand content can be divided into. They’re normally made up of four to six specific topics that you can reference in your brand content.
Your Brand Pillars will focus around:
Your offer(s)
The value you bring to your audience
Challenges your audience is facing
Having Brand Pillars making content creation easier and more streamlined, acting as a guide while giving parameters to creating content that you know your audience is interested in hearing from you, and what you’re interested in sharing with your audience.
When I work with clients, I also create Story Pillars. These are the experiences that are unique to you that you can share with your audience that represent your values and demonstrate your human-ness. They’re the very thing that differentiates you from an AI-generated brand.
Step 3: Use a tool that will help guide you to create your brand messaging framework.
There are a lot of parts to creating your Brand Messaging Framework so why not have a tool that will guide you through each element with prompts and additional information?
DOWNLOAD THE BRAND MESSAGING FRAMEWORK WORKBOOK
Outline what your business is all about and what your brand stands for with this Brand Messaging Framework Workbook.
You’ll get:
➝ A 9-page interactive workbook where you can work out your
Brand mission
Tagline
Value Proposition
Brand values
➝ Prompts, examples, and tips for creating and writing your brand messaging
➝ Plus a bonus Brand Pillars formula so that you can highlight your expertise with your audience
While you’re there, be sure to grab the free Brand Guidelines Canva Template. This gorgeous deck can be customized to house every element of your brand strategy and can be referred to and shared with your team of content creators, marketers, PR reps, and strategists.
THE WRAP-UP
So going back to my first thoughts about preferring series over movies…
think about your favorite series or movie. Then think about the character that you are most attracted to. And ask yourself why? Do you resonate with them because they remind you of yourself? Or maybe they are someone you want to be more like. Or perhaps they just make you laugh hysterically and bring you joy through laughter.
You get to that place of attachment through development, connection, and timing. Your brand is the same living being that’s always growing in some areas, shedding in others, and sometimes even transitioning.
So building your Brand Messaging Framework is not static… it's fluid. You should revisit it again and again and make adjustments as you continue to live life with your audience and they guide the direction of your brand positioning.
Don't be afraid to reframe your story, and share new revelations and epiphanies. Your brand as it is today shouldn’t be the exact same ten years from now.
