When Growing Your Business, Messaging Matters 

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Successfully marketing yourself and your business is part art and part science. As you break marketing down further, the messaging and content you create definitely shift to the artistic side of the spectrum.

Perhaps that’s why so many agencies struggle to create effective messaging. Creating content is challenging for most of us. However, that doesn’t make creation optional.

It’s a business have-to.

After establishing an ability to deliver value to your clients, clear, compelling messaging may be the most important factor in determining your growth.

Why messaging is important 

Humor me for a moment and play a little game with me. 

Wherever you are sitting and reading this, look around the room/space. I want you to look for everything you see that is blue. 

Okay, just to be sure, look again and make a mental list of everything you see that is blue. 

Now close your eyes and think of everything you saw that was red. 

That was kind of a cruel trick, wasn’t it?

In a way, I misled you. I didn’t prepare you properly for what to look for. In all fairness, the red things were still there. They just didn’t stick in your mind because you weren’t looking for them. 

Messaging works the same way. You must use it to prepare your buyers for what they should be looking for in you and your agency. Because buyers assume “all brokers are alike,” without being aware of it, they will only be looking for the “blue broker features” when they meet you. No matter how different you might be from your competition, that won’t stick with them until you tell them to look for it. 

You must use messaging to separate yourself by planting specific and intentional seeds. When you use your messaging to explain how you work and deliver value differently than other advisors, they will look for that when they meet you.  

Be careful, though. Promoting yourself as a “better” version of your competition isn’t enough. Telling them you’re the largest or have the most years in business means nothing. Your messaging must be about how you solve problems that most others don’t.  

Five outcomes from effective messaging

Effective messaging … 

Earns trust

It is an opportunity to separate yourself from the competition and align yourself with the buyer. Show that you understand them, their needs, and their challenges. Also, show how you can deliver improved results.  

Creates an emotional connection

Use your Why (emotional motivation) to create effective messaging and content that emotionally captures the reader, makes them feel you’re inside their head, and pulls them toward you. 

Delivers value

Your messaging goal is to produce content that is so valuable that it will make a difference for those who consume it, even if they never do business with you. To do so, your messaging and content must be about the reader, not you. Be so specific with your advice and ideas that they make changes as a result. 

Resets expectation

Effective messaging challenges the buyer’s thinking and gives them permission to expect more from an advisor. 

Meets the buyer where they are

Don’t speak over the buyer’s head with your messaging. They are not the technical expert you are. If something you are about to share sounds embarrassingly obvious to you, you’re likely about to share something that will resonate with the buyer in a way they can understand. 

How do you use effective messaging? 

Start with the end in mind.

Define the client experience you are committed to delivering and describe how you will ensure it happens. Develop messaging that communicates the value of the client experience you provide. 

With your value defined and documented, create content for each stage of the buyer’s journey. If you’re unfamiliar with the buyer’s journey, it is the process buyers go through as they make their buying decisions. 

Awareness

In this stage, the buyer becomes aware of a need or opportunity. 

During this stage, use messaging that discusses the common challenges of the reader. Because you are looking to convert the reader to an opportunity, focus on those challenges you can address once they become a client. 

Mediums to consider - Blogs, LinkedIn posts, infographics 

Consideration

The buyer enters this stage once they decide to address the need or pursue the opportunity. They actively research solutions and partners who can help them. 

During this stage, use messaging that describes solutions to the problems discussed in the Awareness stage. What do the solutions look like? How are they used? And what improvement can they deliver? 

Mediums to consider - Checklists, events, ebooks 

Decision

As the name describes, it is at this stage the buyer chooses a partner/solution. 

In the world of employee benefits advising, this is where the sales team comes in (if they didn’t already help during the Consideration phase). In addition to the sales-process handoff, messaging during this phase provides social proof of your ability to address their challenges and encourages them to reach out to you to learn how you might do the same for them or at least accept your invitation when the sales team reaches out to them. 

Mediums to consider - Testimonials, case studies, sales conversation 

A few additional suggestions 

Diversity of formats

Use different messaging formats to give yourself the best chance of appealing to as broad a swath of your target clients as possible. Short-form posts, long-form posts, videos, and speaking are all available formats. 

Repurpose and reuse

It isn’t necessary to create fresh content every time you want to share something. A long-form LinkedIn post can be expanded into a blog, which can be expanded into a presentation. That same LinkedIn post can also be divided up into multiple short-form posts. Also, regardless of the format, using the same messaging over and over creates familiarity. 

Be your natural self

Create content that reflects who you really are, your personality included. When they meet you, they should say, “You’re exactly who I thought you would be.” 

The Black Hole

At times, it will feel as though nobody is consuming your content. Be prepared to push through these times. If you create content with your target client in mind and discuss topics that affect them, your messaging will resonate. It may take a bit for you to receive confirmation, but the impact of your messaging will already be taking place. 

Q4i and Goose can help    

We have built an online platform called "Goose: Your Ultimate Wingman" to help you implement these types of growth ideas. In it, you will find the business tools you need to connect with buyers and grow your business. 

To learn how Goose may help drive your growth in 2025, check out our website at Q4intel.com/goose. Or feel free to connect with or contact me directly on LinkedIn.      

Content originally published by Q4intelligence

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