Show me the money! (Part 4) Effective messaging and communications to attract and engage customers

As any gardener knows, without the proper care, your plants won’t grow and flourish! Well, the same can be said for your business. You must plan, prepare, and implement the proper care for success, such as developing an appropriate brand position, crafting relevant marketing messages, and determining the right media mix to attract, influence, and engage customers. In this part of our GTM strategy, we’ll review the importance of developing a brand position and marketing strategy/messaging campaign, using brand, image and promotion development tactics.

Brand positioning

Brand positioning is the process of positioning your brand in the mind of your customers. When a company uses a smart, forward-thinking approach, it’s more likely to have a positive influence on its position in the eyes of its target customers.

In the effort to position your brand, it’s important to identify and attempt to own a marketing niche for your product or service offering using various strategies including pricing, promotions, distribution, packaging, and competition. The goal is to create a unique impression in the customer’s mind so that the customer associates something specific and desirable with your brand—something distinct from your competition in the market.

Additionally, during the brand positioning process it’s important to remember that a brand positioning strategy and brand positioning statement shouldn’t be confused with a brand tagline or slogan. Brand positioning statements are for internal use and guide your business’s marketing and operating decisions. A brand positioning statement helps to make key decisions that affect the customer’s perception of your brand. A marketing tagline or advertising slogan is an external statement used in your marketing efforts. Even though certain insights arise from your positioning statement development that can be turned into a tagline, it’s important to understand the difference and distinguish between the two.

A clever and well-developed brand positioning statement is a powerful tool that will provide focus and clarity to the company’s marketing strategies, advertising campaigns, and promotional tactics.

Marketing strategy

Marketing strategy is the process of uncovering messages to direct at your target markets and provides the answers to crucial questions your offer must address. Based on your research (discussed in our previous post, The data behind a go-to-market strategy) and your understanding of your target markets, now you must develop the unique marketing strategy with the right message for each target market you’ve identified in order to reach the buyers and influencers.

Included in each target market strategy is the specific media mix that will put your message in front of the right customers and will motivate them to purchase. Keep in mind that marketing strategy and objectives will change over time, and you need to be prepared to adapt. Whether due to technology, innovation, or economic impacts, be sure to track and monitor your key performance indicators so you can make the appropriate adjustments.

Consumers do not buy what you sell. They buy what has value to them. –Peter Drucker

View our previous posts in this GTM series

1. What is Go-to-Market?
2. The data behind a Go-to-Market strategy
3. Building your Go-to-Market strategy

If you’d like to take the next steps, please contact me directly at kgauthier@lohfeldconsulting.com.

Thank you! Look for part 5 of our Go-to-Market strategy series, Pipeline development: identifying relevant opportunities, coming soon.

Karen C. Gauthier—As Lead Consultant for Lohfeld Consulting Group’s Go-to-Market Strategy and Execution Practice, Karen has +20 years’ experience and expertise in marketing and business development strategy and execution directly to U.S. Federal Government (e.g., FEMA, HHS, USPS, VA), directly to prime federal contractors (e.g., BAE Systems, Boeing, CGI, Northrop Grumman, Serco), and via General Services Administration (GSA) Schedules (e.g., PSS, IT 70, 65IIA, 84, etc.) for companies of all sizes. She understands how to break down the details and determine the needs and requirements of organizations for growth. Contact Karen at KGauthier@LohfeldConsulting.com.