Using a Messaging Matrix to Prioritize Your Audience’s Preferences
Not every ideal advocate has the same concerns, challenges, and cares. In order for your brand to appeal to and invite action from any given advocate, you’ll need to address their specific needs at any given point along their journey. Understanding what’s most important to your ideal advocates is critical to catch their attention, gain their focus, earn their trust, and encourage meaningful action. At Fervor, we use an internal tool called a Messaging Matrix, to do just that.
What is a Messaging Matrix?
A Messaging Matrix helps us find and narrow in on a primary messaging strategy for each ideal advocate. Every advocate’s journey starts at a particular place. In its simplest form, our matrix helps us start a conversation, serving as a jumping off platform from which to craft messages that resonate. This simple tool aligns team efforts across administrative staff, development (or sales), marketing, and cross functional teams, providing a reference as they craft emails, print pieces, or even place phone calls to speak with specific advocates.
Why does your brand messaging need a matrix?
A complete brand message has a lot in it! How do you begin to implement it? Which pieces make the most sense where and for who? The messaging matrix not only makes your overall messaging more useful, but benefits your brand in a few ways:
- It pares down your full brand message to specific components that will speak directly to your audience and prospects in ways that matter to them.
- It can boost your audience’s experience, delivering messages in context to what’s relevant to them at any given time, increasing response, engagement and overall conversions.
- It can help you identify overlooked audiences or nuances regarding specific advocates that really need addressed in order to nurture them.
- It helps you stop, take note, and prioritize your audience’s preferences.
4 Elements to Prioritize Your Ideal Advocate’s Preferences
At the heart of crafting great messaging that works is what your audience cares about. Here are four questions we ask to identify messages that will resonate. Clarified and compiled together, they make up a messaging matrix:
1. Focus
Find ways your brand message intersects with this audience’s biggest needs and talk about that. Ask yourself:
- What does this particular group care about most?
- What has captured their attention at this stage in their lives or journey with our brand?
- How does our brand’s message speak to their cares, concerns and needs?
2. Key Theme
Next, identify the content themes that speak to them most. Ask yourself:
- Which pillars will this audience lean into more than others?
- Which content themes offer solutions they really need at this stage?
- Are there multiple content themes that could resonate with them?
3. Proof Point
Your brand must develop trust at every stage of an ideal advocate’s journey. Speaking to their head and to their heart is essential to regenerating connection along the way. Ask yourself:
- What evidence can we present to show we are who we say we are?
- Do we have stories or case studies that can show them what we do really works?
- Who do they need to hear from to feel more confident in moving forward with us?
- What do we have that genuinely aligns with what they need or want?
4. Challenge
With every audience, there is some objection your brand will need to overcome in order to reach them. Ask yourself:
- What is the challenge in reaching these ideal advocates? How can we solve (or resolve) this problem for them? (Keep in mind it could be one of their needs, or it might be a challenge that arises due to the stage of their journey with you.)
- What are their objections to what we have that can really help them?
- What barriers hinder or what fears make them apprehensive about engaging with our brand?
- What are lingering concerns at this stage in their journey with us?
Let us help you refine your messaging for greater brand impact.
Thoughtfully considering each of the four elements above — to understand how they work together and support each other within your messaging matrix — takes time. When you’re focused on the day-to-day forward movement of your organization, it’s helpful to have a trusted guide at your side. Reach out to us. We can be that extra set of eyes and intuitive ears to help you formulate a messaging matrix that guides your website copy, landing pages, paid ads, emails and more, so they resonate in the right way with all of your ideal advocates.
Want to learn more about our flagship offering? Check out our strategy services and Brand Impact Assessment.