This is a guest post by Maria Ross, founder and chief strategist of Red Slice and author of Branding Basics for Small Business: How to Create an Irresistible Brand on Any Budget (2010, Norlights Press)
The old adage, “Is it the medium or the message?” has never held more weight than it does in today’s marketing arena. You have a story to tell (your brand message) and you have a dizzying array of mechanisms through which to tell it: Twitter, website, blog, ad, events, signage, Facebook, etc. etc….
So when it comes to evaluating success, you have two factors to consider: the message and the medium itself.
Seth Godin’s blog talks about how organizations use PowerPoint appallingly these days. Never has a tool come along that seemed so easy to use, but people forgot about honing basic presentation skills before cutting loose on this software. It’s just like Twitter, blogs or DIY websites – just because you “can” doesn’t mean you “should” or even that you are doing it “right.” You could be doing more harm than good in communicating your message simply because of using the vehicle incorrectly. You have to adapt your message to the medium you are using so you leverage it effectively.
In addition, a third layer to consider is choosing the right vehicle to reach your target audience in the first place. So let’s say you have a great message AND you are using the medium correctly – you still might be singing beautifully to an empty room, because no one that needs to hear your message is actually present. This is what happens when you get caught up in the next new shiny thing or use social media incorrectly, and forget to evaluate if your target audience responds to it.
Messaging can be complicated. You can’t just assume messages “didn’t work” if they fail, simply because you got no response. Look at how you are using the media first: are you leveraging it fully, do you understand how audiences are properly consuming the information, and did you design the message to fit the specific medium? As an example, people that use Twitter to constantly promote themselves rather than creating useful content or engaging their followers usually get kicked off the island.
Next, look at the medium itself and judge if it’s the right vehicle to reach the people you wanted to reach – meaning the ones who will buy from you or influence those who will buy from you. Hopefully, you put all this thought into it before you embarked on the campaign, but if not, take a step back and look at these factors.
It is way too easy to fall into the trap of doing something “because everyone else is doing it” and writing it off when things don’t go your way. But you have to consider both what you are saying and through which channels you are delivering that message before you can determine what went wrong. Then you can decide if you need to tweak the message – or find a new medium.
Guest post from Maria Ross, founder and chief strategist of Red Slice a branding and marketing consultancy based in Seattle. Red Slice helps businesses large and small tell their brand story so they can engage, inform and delight customers – and keep them coming back for more. She is the author of Branding Basics for Small Business: How to Create an Irresistible Brand on Any Budget (2010, Norlights Press)
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