More often than not, a small group of people, or even one person, develops the messages for a company. Sometimes an agency of some sort is involved. Let's assume that whoever developed your message has done their home work and made sure it is simple, consistent and differentiated. Once it has been reviewed several times by multiple people in the organization then it is likely published across various marketing efforts including web sites, collateral and even public relations efforts.
Sound good? It probably does to many and I'll admit that this is a process I have used too. But, the big mistake here is that the new message was never tested with the right audience. It's very unlikely that people within your company are the audience for your product. Now there are exceptions to this and one or two people (like your IT department if you're selling networking gear) may be representative but even in this case they are clearly too close and won't give you the objective feedback you need.
There are a couple of options for testing your message that will get you objective and constructive feedback from your actual audience. One is to conduct focus groups and the other is to conduct online surveys. Ideally, these options are combined so that you get some qualitative feedback from the focus groups, make refinements to the message and then ensure the changes work with a wider population by getting quantitative feedback from the survey. This approach not only works for the message but can be used to test new products ideas or marketing campaigns.
Now I know many of my fellow marketers will say they don't have the time or money to do focus groups and surveys and I do understand as it's a lengthy and potentially costly process. I'll get to some options for potentially minimizing these. But before we decide to skip this step in your message development think of the time and money as an investment in your brand and across several marketing campaigns.
Now, I don't know if they tested the message initially but BMW has used the same tagline "The Ultimate Driving Machine" for 35+ years. This is a classic example of a simple and consistent message that I think everyone will agree, especially BMW drivers, captures the brand and has endured which needs to be your goal. In that light, even months and thousands of dollars is money and time well spent.
I realize that trying to convince the "powers that be" that running focus groups or conducting surveys is an investment in your brand over the long term is easier said than done. But if you're successful then the insights you gain from this process will undoubtedly lead to stronger messaging that better resonates with your target audience.
If you're not successful in getting the budget for this initiative, then I would urge you to look into conducting more informal focus groups by getting together a group friends or members of your colleagues' families and use them instead as you can may be able to convince them to help you as a favor. You do want to still be sure that they represent your target audience and make sure they will give you constructive feedback. While this may not be ideal, it is better than relying solely on internal feedback.
Better yet, there are more and more online survey tools that are either free or low cost that would allow you to get some feedback especially if you have an email list that you can leverage or use your friends and family as suggested above. This feedback will be more quantitative in nature but still give you ideas on how to improve your message before launching it more publicly.
I'm not saying that these later two suggestions are as valuable as making the investment in formal focus groups and surveys but it can give you feedback from your target audience and help you construct a message that means something to them not your internal audience.
Developing a simple, consistent and differentiated message is not easy. But without objective, unbiased feedback from outside focus groups and surveys, you won't know if it resonates with your target audience until it's too late. Testing your message is crucial to your success and an investment that's worth the time and money. Have you tested your message?
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