With inflationary pressures, rising interest rates and the threat of recession, businesses of all sizes face the difficult decision of whether to cut or freeze marketing budgets as a cost-cutting measure, or downsize and grow. marketing costs in this challenging economic environment. . While both approaches have obvious advantages and disadvantages, there should be no debate that marketing is essential to the long-term viability of any business.
Whether you or your business view marketing as a key expense or investment for long-term business success, remember that marketing allows a business to maintain or increase market visibility, improve brand awareness, generate and develop leads, and attract leads. actively looking for your products and services.
Although marketing and sales are interchangeable, each role has a unique and important purpose to help generate revenue for your business. Marketing creates and develops leads for your sales efforts to convert them into qualified customers who are ready to buy. Marketing and sales have different objectives that support complementary communication messages.
It should also be noted that even in an economic recession, growth is quite possible. Consider unique opportunities to gain more visibility for your brand, products and services, expand your audience of potential customers, and strengthen your market position to reduce or eliminate marketing costs from industry peers and competitors.
A smart marketing strategy involves taking a no-holds-barred approach to evaluating your current marketing activities and ROI, modifying current strategies for success and spending, identifying new customer audiences, and creating a game plan that takes advantage of current market conditions.
Regardless of size or economic environment, ensuring your marketing message resonates with your target audience can lead to significant competitive advantages, including increased sales opportunities and ultimately revenue.
It is well known that persuasion is a key element of successful marketing communication. However, the critical persuasive component is often overlooked; Frame messages that increase resonance with your target audience, reduce marketing costs and increase ROI.
What is message reach?
In short, framing a message provides a context or “framework” for the audience and allows them to interpret the message in the marketer's favor. In a sense, message frames create an interface between marketing and audiences that can evoke emotions, change perspectives, and increase resonance.
Message frames are widespread in many fields, including journalism, politics, behavioral economics, negotiation, and business. Entities include brand slogans, symbolism, stories, and similar persuasive methodologies that help audiences create an emotional connection to a brand, product, or service.
The most effective message frames used four components (including value statement, problem, solution and call to action) and conveyed the brand voice and customer journey as follows.
- Value statements build common ground with a target audience by conveying a shared value or worldview to build credibility and attract like-minded people.
- “Issues” provide context, such as pain points or opportunities, to help your audience understand why they should explore your product or service.
- "Resolution" provides future benefits or experiences when you use your product or service.
- A call to action gives tasks that encourage people to visit your site, schedule a survey or demo, or make a purchase.
Creating greater resonance for the message allows the target audience to actively participate in the persuasion process, driven by shared values, worldviews, and the ability to interpret the message in their own words and personal experiences.
Matthew Nisbet, a communications expert and professor at Northeastern University, says, "Frames give people a quick and easy way to process information... It gives a lot of power to the sender and the author of the information." directing attention and influencing how buyers interpret it. message ... Topic and help us organize complex issues into coherent and understandable concepts. This is a way of creating an agenda."
For a target audience that is unfamiliar, disinterested, or demotivated with your brand, products, or services, message credibility, multiple cues or incentives, and a concerted communication effort are needed to reach and take the desired action.
There's no doubt that consistently delivering successful marketing messages can be overwhelming and especially difficult in a tough economic environment. Message framing is a powerful and proven game changer that can cut through thousands of competing messages to resonate with your target audience. It's time to focus on your marketing and growing your business.