The following is a shortened adaptation from a guest blog post I wrote last month:
Many organizations spend lots of resources creating a beautiful visual brand identity, sometimes at the expense of their messaging. After all, people process visual information faster than written information, and respond emotionally to images and graphics. But, if you are only paying attention to your visual brand identity, and not to your messaging, you might as well have a pristine-looking house that’s hiding lots of junk in messy, overstuffed closets and drawers. In other words, it’s not enough to look good on the outside, you have to look good on the inside too.
In order to boost the messaging element of your brand (and clear out the messy closets in your house), here are three tips:
1. Look inside
Before you can tackle an organizing project, you have to assess what you have. Similarly, before you work on your brand messaging, you have to know what you do, what your strengths are, and what you stand for (your values).
2. Simplify and streamline
If you want to clean out a cluttered house, you’d start by getting rid of all the junk. Perhaps you’d donate some clothes that no longer fit or take a torn suitcase to the garbage dump. You have to do the same with your messaging. Perhaps you have too many messages. Or perhaps your messages no longer fit you today. All that’s messaging clutter you have to get rid of.
3. Be consistent
To create a strong brand, you have to be consistent. You have to use the same logo and colors on all your marketing materials. You should also be consistent in how you describe yourself, the tagline you use, and the value proposition you embrace.