Convert Homeowners Into Life-Long Fans
Achieve a greater return on your marketing efforts with this messaging guide.
I recently watched an interview with ex-Google employee and copywriting master Arman Assadi who made it exceptionally clear how vital excellent copy is to the success of your business. You can invest in as many advertisements as you like, but if your messaging is off, if the words you use aren’t powerful enough, your investment will go down the drain. The number of leads you convert will be directly related to the quality of your messaging. This is why, at Vintory, we work carefully with each of our partners to create a messaging guide geared towards converting strangers into life-long fans.
In this blog I will provide a step-by-step breakdown of how we create our messaging guides, write unique selling propositions (USPs) and leverage that messaging to make the most of the marketing tactics our partners invest in.
What is brand messaging?
Brand messaging is the words and phrases used by your brand. Seems simple enough? Most companies don’t have a core messaging strategy or guide. Yet, it’s vital to spend the time to distinguish the language used by your company and ensure that the messaging you put out is consistent and reflects your brand’s values.
Who are you talking to?
Before we determine the key USPs for our partners and begin crafting what they are going to say – we need to understand who they are talking to. Do market research and identify your niche – who are the homeowners that you are speaking to? What do they aspire to do? What are their goals?
Know your target audience
- Who is your key demographic?
- What does your audience care about?
- What kind of language will they respond to?
Spend time getting to understand your audience, what their goals are, what their pain points are and their overall lifestyle. Before we craft any messaging at Vintory, we create a buyer persona of the ideal customer to fully understand the type of person we are targeting and speaking to.
What makes your brand unique?
After you know more about who you are talking to, now it’s time to iron out what exactly makes your company unique. At the heart of any successful messaging guide is a USP.
A USP clearly demonstrates to your potential buyers why they should invest in your services. Carefully crafting the messaging for your USP is precisely how you will create sales letters that win, landing pages that convert and social media advertisements that compel people to click through.
Crafting your USP:
- Think about the problem you solve
- What is your brand promise?
- List the biggest distinctive benefits you offer
- Think about what makes your VRM different or better than the competition
- Combine these ideas and rework
- Cut it down to create 1 key USP
Is your messaging FAB?
Okay, so of course you want your messaging to be fabulous, but that’s not what I’m referring to here. FAB is a messaging model that breaks down how to speak directly to your customer’s needs. Here, FAB stands for Features, Advantages and Benefits. A FAB message will explain to your audience the feature, what it does and how it will benefit them.
Creating your FAB messaging:
- Features (facts about your services): ex. “Expert in house-maintenance team”
- Advantages (what your features do): ex. “Your home is maintained to the highest level standards”
- Benefits (connect the facts to a solution)” ex. “Rest easy while your home is expertly cared for.”
Don’t over do-it!
In the past overly hyped sales messaging was the norm. Today customers value authentic messaging and inauthentic copy will come with a cost. The ultimate goal is to build a genuine relationship with the kinds of homeowners that will build a long-term business with you and aren’t just a “flash in the pan.” If you can’t deliver on the promises your messaging makes you will quickly lose the new homeowners you have attracted. Stay true to what you offer and be genuine with your offering.
Or….just leave it to the experts!
Crafting messaging that converts isn’t easy. There’s a reason why talented copywriters are in demand and high-quality content writing comes with a price. Not to mention, many of us business owners are often too busy or short staffed to invest time in writing copy that will win. This is why on the Vintory team we have skilled copywriters who know the vacation rental audience, are creative wordsmiths, and are gurus at writing copy that will inspire others to take action. Feel free to get in touch with us.
