Part of building an authentic, sustainable, and joyful author brand requires forming a messaging strategy for how you will communicate with your audience. Why? Because a messaging strategy helps you speak to your audience in a way that is consistently true to you, and this builds trust and connection.
Below I’ll explain how messaging strategy works, and share how you can form yours, so you can speak to the world and your readers in your true, authentic, and unique voice.
What is a Messaging Strategy?
Brand messaging is the way in which you choose to deliver your message to your audience—the words you choose, the tone, the voice, and the feeling. It should represent you authentically, tell your story, and also speak directly to the needs of your audience.
Why is it Important to Your Author Brand?
A messaging strategy goes hand in hand with your core values and mission/vision statement, which I wrote about in my previous two blogs. It creates consistency and reliability in your brand. It is how you choose to communicate with your audience. It’s your voice. It reflects your passion and joy. This is all part of maintaining an authentic and joyful author brand. This is what makes your ongoing efforts sustainable, and allows you to keep doing what you’re doing.
Forming Your Messaging Strategy: Some Things You’ll Need to Consider
If it doesn’t bring you joy, why even bother?
First, you will need to do some digging into what really drives you, uncover your core values, and develop a mission statement that tells the world who you are and why you do what you do.
Once you’ve done all this, you’ll have the foundation for bringing your brand’s voice to life.
Just a note: Hopefully you’re to the point where you’ve already spent some focused time researching your domain and your competition as well. If you haven’t, I’ll be covering those topics here soon. So, subscribe so you don’t miss out!
1-Start With Your Passion
Think back on the choices you’ve made to get here and the experiences you’ve had that have shaped your worldview. I’m asking you to ponder the WHY. Why are you passionate about your topic? What is it that keeps you motivated to keep learning and growing? If you read my posts on uncovering your core values and creating your mission statement, you’ve answered these questions before. But I want you to answer them again. These answers will result in content that speaks directly to your audience. This is your brand story.
ASK YOURSELF (you can write this down):
- What are you passionate about in your work or area of expertise?
- When did you develop this passion? Why?
- What drives you to share your message with the world?
2-What Brings You Joy?
Knowing what brings you joy will also inform your messaging strategy. When are you happiest and when do you find the most joy in your work?
Is it when you get to work one-on-one with clients? Or when you are teaching an engaged audience? Maybe joy happens when something you’ve written gets published? Or your Instagram posts get a ton of likes? When a reader sends you a direct message?
It’s important to remember your joy when you sell yourself and plan your brand journey. A plan that causes you stress or feels chaotic will never be sustainable, and further, what’s the point if you lose your joy along the way? A joyful brand attracts readers because it’s authentic.
3-How Much are You Willing to Give? A Key Factor in Your Messaging Strategy
Part of the tone in which you tell your brand story has to do with how comfortable you are sharing personal information about yourself. This is why knowing how much you’re willing to share and how much you can give is essential to forming your messaging strategy as well.
How much will you give your reader? Set a precedent now and you’ll have a guide for how you tell your story moving forward. For instance, when you meet new people, do you hold back or do you give them your all? Some authors give away everything when they are writing, yet choose to lead very hidden personal lives.
Will you share everything? Are you the author who bears it all on your website and invites people into your world, or do you prefer to remain mysterious? How comfortable are you having open conversations with your readers? It’s important that you determine this now because it will guide your messaging strategy, and how you speak to your readers, and determine what you want to invite into your life.
Putting All of the Above Into Statements
Just as with a mission statement, a brand mantra will be your reminder of what you do and why you do it. It will be your guide as you continue your author branding journey. And of course, this also has the purpose of informing your messaging strategy.
Now, Your Brand Mantra
Think of three to four words that encapsulate what you do and why you do it. This is not a tagline, but the thing that reminds you of your mission.
Examples include Nike: Authentic Athletic Performance; Betty Crocker: Homemade Made Easy; Disney: Fun Family Entertainment.
Although this may never be seen by your audience, it will serve as a quick reminder for you, and unlike a tagline, (Just Do it!) it clearly says what you do and what you hope to offer.
Now that you’ve written your three or four words, what is your brand mantra?
Your Author Brand Has a Tagline Too
A tagline is a strategic tool that helps customers identify a brand and its marketing message. Taglines are more public relations focused and are used to raise awareness about the brand. They are often unique to the brand, memorable, and relevant. These taglines tend to appear alongside a company’s brand name or logo, and do not typically change often over time.
Examples include Nike: Just Do It!; Betty Crocker: All good things start from scratch; Disney has developed several taglines over the years, but the longest landing is Fun Family Entertainment
What would your tagline be?
Your Messaging Strategy Requires Knowing Your Brand Voice
This is the point of all these exercises here! Getting to know your voice requires some digging and thinking. Your messaging strategy is formed through this work. When you know your voice and that voice is authentic to you, and it resonates with your audience, you are building a strong, relatable, and sustainable brand.
So, what is your brand voice? Are you beginning to see a cohesive voice for your messaging and author brand forming?
What is Your Brand Voice and How Will You Use it?
Your voice is the high-level tone for your overall messaging. A well-developed and consistent voice hooks readers and turns them into fans. What about your writing will compel them to read on? If you are not sure what your voice is, or what it sounds like, ask someone you trust to help you find the essence of your voice.
Does your voice offer a sense of immediacy or intimacy? Is your voice lyrical with a sing-song rhythm to it? Maybe your voice is raw and powerful in a guttural way that affects your audience to their core? Is it formal, or casual?
Do you already have an author bio? What tone and style did you use in it? This can be a good indicator of your voice. If you need help with your bio’s tone and style you can read about it in this Monkey C Media post.
As you develop your messaging strategy, you’ll want to remain true to your unique voice—anything less than genuine is not sustainable and will fail to give you the joy that keeps you going and ensures that you stay passionate about your work.
Which Words Describe Your Writing Voice? An Exercise to Make it Come to Life
When forming your messaging strategy, your goal is to remain authentic. You aren’t creating a whole new persona. This is about being the real you and speaking to your target audience.
How would you describe your voice? Is it:
- Authentic? Raw? Honest?
- Humorous? Passionate? Vulnerable?
- Maybe it’s gritty? Or tough?
- Your voice could also be sensual, intellectual, hopeful, sweet, feminine, masculine, cheerful, intense, wild, carefree, generous, sarcastic, and so-on.
First, list all the words that describe your voice. Then pick your top three. These will be the main elements of your voice. This is the voice you will use in your communication with the world and your audience. Finding your voice will inform how you share, and even what you share.
Now you have the foundation for your messaging strategy! Remember, using your true voice will ensure consistency in your messaging, build trust with your audience, and strengthen your author brand. It will send the right message to the world and your readers. Use it proudly and authentically.
Want to know about content strategy for authors, now that you’re forming your messaging strategy? This post covers that. Remember, they will go hand and hand.
