If you’re already eye-rolling about another so-called thought-leader bloviating about how the world is drastically different now — and woe unto you unless you change — I am sooo with you. I hate that kind of stuff. So I promise not to go all Chicken Little here. But I feel obliged to share some observations worth your consideration. I think they can help your marketing effort be more effective.
This all started with an internal effort to articulate the strategy for my company, Counterpart Communication Design. I used a strategic framework that I developed myself, inspired by our invaluable executive coach Carrie Perry and others.
(If you’re curious, the framework’s called Single Slide Strategy®. And you can use it, too.)
Anyway, the very first step of Single Slide Strategy is to define Context. This means the world around you. What’s your perspective on it? What are the realities of the environment in which you operate? This sets the stage for your Belief (“why”), which flows forth to your Mission and then to your Vision. But, I digress.
At Counterpart, we operate in the world of marketing communications. So what do we see out there? Three things:
How did I arrive at these? Number one, I believe they’re all true. Number two, I bet you believe they’re all true, even before I offer evidence. I mean, you just know. They’re common sense.
Nevertheless, let’s break ‘em down and back ‘em up.
Let’s start from the perspective of marketers — the senders of the message. Nowadays, you have so many things you have to understand and think about:
If you want it in a nutshell, check out the Martech 5000. For years I’ve cited this as a single image that best represents the ever-growing complexity of marketing.
Now I’ll date myself. None of the stuff on that list even existed when I started in 1989. And a lot of it didn’t exist 15 years ago.
As a marketer, you have an intimidating number of things you have to consider. No doubt your conversations and calendars are filled with related discussions and debates.
The 2023 RSW/US New Year Outlook Report asked marketers about the biggest challenges they believe they’ll face in the coming year:
All this is reality. But none of it is about what you say and how you say it.
Now let’s look at the audience side of things — the receivers of the message. Today’s wonderful world offers us an overwhelming number of options for information and entertainment. And it just keeps proliferating:
Put another way, there are umpteen ways your audience can get distracted from the message you want them to see or hear.
Plus, we’re an impatient, instant-gratification society. We scroll, fast-forward, and (for the oldsters) turn pages at high speed. So how are you going to stop people and move people? What are you going to say that people haven’t already heard? And how are you going to say it in a way that gets anybody to notice, much less remember?
Again, from the 2023 RSW/US Report, marketers worry about:
• “Too many channels competing for attention.”
• “Fighting for the attention of the user. We are constantly being bombarded with messaging in all aspects of our life. How do you get your message to stand out in the sea of messaging?”
If nobody sees your message, it doesn’t matter what you say and how you say it.
Now back to the sender’s side.
It used to be that we held advertisers responsible for being honest. Now we point fingers at them when we don’t like what’s going on in our society… or at least when we want better for it. That’s a heavy burden to bear.
• 74% of consumers say a brand’s impact on society is a reason brand trust has become more important.
• A bad response on social increases the chance of consumers boycotting by 43%.
• Only 8% of consumers said they would stay silent if they saw inappropriate behavior from a brand.
• 52% of U.S. consumers factor values into their purchase choices.
These days you’d better be careful about what you say and how you say it.
It seems like everything’s on a dashboard now. Because everything is measurable, right? Which means “they” are going to know whether your efforts work or not.
So you have to worry about not only what the world thinks, but also about what your company thinks. More ways to measure just means more scrutiny and higher expectations. You know how a football coach is held accountable for the results on the field — despite so many other variables such as talent, training, schedule, and injuries? Likewise as a marketing professional, you are held accountable for results out in the field — even though there are so many variables outside your control.
These blog post titles tell the tale about the modern obsession with measuring:
“43+ Digital Marketing Metrics to Measure Marketing Success”
“51 Critical Marketing Metrics (And How To Use Them)”
“65 Metrics for Social Media Success”
43 metrics… 51 metrics… 65 metrics. And you’re supposed to remember all those?
Again, the RSW report5: Marketers say these are among the biggest challenges they believe they’ll face:
• “Pressure to scale growth in the face of inflation and changing in consumer spending.”
• “Driving customer attention and acquisition while proving ROI.”
One thing’s for sure — what you say and how you say it had better team up for positive results.
Okay, given these realities, what impact should they have on your efforts? How should you respond?
Here’s what I believe:
Because marketing is more complex than ever, and
because attentions are more divided than ever, and
because brands are more accountable than ever, then
it’s more important than ever that your message is strategic.
What do I mean by “strategic”? I mean that it’s deliberate and according to a set of principles. It’s serious, you might say. Because with all the above going on, you can’t mess around.
To sum it up: You have to consider near-infinite factors and navigate countless considerations plus you have to continue to keep up and compete for attention with a never-ending surge of media and messages and platforms not to mention you’re up against competition from all over the world and at the same time you’ve got to survive all that performance and societal scrutiny. (Yes, I made that sentence long and convoluted on purpose, because that’s how your world feels.)
Everyone reading this probably has a different answer to this question. And that’s fine. But I have one answer that will accommodate all others:
The way you make your message strategic is to follow the principles of message strategy. Or as I like to call them, The 4 things that make a message work™. Which are as follows: Customer-centric. Clear. Compelling. Controlled.
Apply these criteria to what you say and how you say it. And apply them to everything. As I like to say, everything sends a message, and every message needs a strategy. For example:
The stock photos you choose send a message.
The background music in your video sends a message.
Even the odor of your environment sends a message.
These three assertions, they’re true right now, I contend. But will they always be true? There’s a solid argument in the affirmative.
Next year, marketing will be more complex than it was this year. Won’t it? I mean, maybe it’ll be “easier” — what with AI and all — but it’ll still be more sophisticated. That’s why I chose the word “complex” instead of “complicated.” Intricate is not the same as hard, at least not when you have the machines to assist you.
Next year, even more media and messages and platforms will emerge… which means attentions will be even further divided. Right? Unless there’s some kind of pendulum swing… like, mass platform consolidation… or a new generation that rebels against the screen addiction of their parents… or we learn that blue light causes cancer. I suppose these things are possible.
Next year, will brands be any less accountable? This might be the most likely of the three more-than-evers, if there’s a continuing move away from the cancel-culture stuff. Even so, I’m not sure we’ll give brands much of a pass. Especially not on the expectations of results.
What do you predict? Message me and let me know.
Time will tell about next year. But if you suspect your message isn’t strategic, the time to start fixing it is this year. Otherwise you risk falling further behind.
Do you feel some sense of urgency, but you just don’t have time to deal with it? I suggest enlisting the help of Message Strategy Experts®. You can count on our team to get the ball rolling in the right direction.
More than ever, we’re eager to help.
