What The Heck Is "Brand Messaging"? with guest Brittany Hanson

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

These are like sound effects and things like that.

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Okay, yeah. So you got the radio DJ farting sound, toilet flushing. Yep. Well classics.

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Uh maybe. I haven't checked in a while. We haven't checked them looking at them.

SPEAKER_01 0:11

I know we have applause.

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Yeah, we have a applause. We have like a magic wand where it kind of makes some little like you know noises. Yeah, so there are there are effects that uh I think are great. Um, but there's two banks on this, so it's like I can you can do this many and then you do uh eight more um for whatever I can't math today for some reason. Sixteen. Sixteen, thank you. So yeah, so that's how we start podcasts here. We start it with a math quiz. Well, that depends.

SPEAKER_01 1:04

Uh are you talking about eight inches or eight feet?

SPEAKER_00 1:07

Yeah, eight inches, eight feet, eight metric.

SPEAKER_01 1:10

Yeah, so there you go. Imperial armetric system.

SPEAKER_00 1:13

Yeah. So on this episode of the Nerd Brand Podcast, we have a guest. We haven't had a guest in a while.

SPEAKER_01 1:20

I know it's been a hot minute. So everybody, welcome, Brittany. I'm excited to be here. We're excited to have you here. Yeah. And I'm just like, yay, another girl! Women! Women taking over the nerds.

SPEAKER_00 1:34

Uh yeah. Eventually we'll have uh we'll have a uh Leah join us, and uh Leah's agreed to be our Jamie. She's our marketing director here, and so she is which shout out to her for graduating college. Yeah, she's out and she was gonna go back for uh MBA, but then she decided to wait, and I was like, Yeah, because you can pretty much throw a rock into a crowd and hit somebody with an MBA.

SPEAKER_01 1:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:58

Um, so I'm not sure that would be we'll see what she wants to do. She's kind of sitting back and waiting. So I think she she's very smart for her age.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

Oh, she's hella smart.

SPEAKER_00 2:06

Yeah. So uh her job is like I have to explain this, I guess put this into the episode. But so Daniel goes out and gets the things, which kind of alleviates Danielle from having to edit together for posts. Like she can edit like this video for the show and all that. That's not something that Leah will do.

SPEAKER_01 2:24

But um, you know, she kind of takes what I shoot and will create certain reels with it. And if it's something more complex video-wise, I'll take it on. Okay. Um, but I'm kind of the main point and shoot, and then she'll go in and kind of manipulate it a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 2:36

Yeah, yeah. And then for like really, really big projects, we bring in the the boys at at Mammoth.

SPEAKER_01 2:42

Right.

SPEAKER_00 2:42

Uh they come in. The Dixon and Chad are are really great. So we're doing uh we got a client that's uh doing the Beer Fest at J Town coming up.

SPEAKER_01 2:50

Cool. It's gonna be so awesome.

SPEAKER_00 2:52

Yeah, so he has the back deck of um the they call it the VIP area. I haven't been to third turn brewing in years in J Town, so I'm kind of curious because I think when I was last there was like over a decade ago, and they didn't have their um back deck built out, so this would be really interesting.

SPEAKER_01 3:10

So they've developed it developed it out. It's really nice. And they had like ever been to the one in J Town. It's really cute. Um, it's kind of near like what an old an old church. Yeah, yeah. So it's it's really cool. There was like a small little like local business, not expo, but like we were a bunch of local businesses set up some booths and stuff. And uh one of my freelance clients a few years back had a booth there, so I went there and supported them and checked it out. It's it's a really nice spot.

SPEAKER_00 3:35

Yeah, yeah. So a lot of people like to it's in like right on Waterson Trail. So if you go to the middle of downtown J Town, you turn right and it's like the threat next door to the common well, I guess that's the government building.

SPEAKER_01 3:48

Well, yeah, you're like going into the heart of J Town. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:51

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:51

So just check it out.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

Yeah, so they recommend. But the Beer Fest kind of takes over the whole thing.

SPEAKER_01 3:57

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 3:58

Uh so parking becomes very challenging around wherever you can find it, I think is the way the thing goes. Uh so I haven't been to that in a while. Um, we went as as a nerd brand, we went five years ago. And uh yeah, I think I nearly passed out from a heat stroke. So don't recommend that. No, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:17

I'm probably gonna park at my friend's house. She lives like five minutes away, so I might just be like, hey, can I park my car? And then you just drop me off. Sounds like a smart move. I'll walk back to your house. I'm fine with that. She gotta get a shuttle service. Basically, yeah. I'll just turn her into a shuttle, or I'll just be like, Hey, can I just use your driveway as a parking lot and then I'll even walk. I don't care. That's planning, that's strategy.

SPEAKER_00 4:39

Yeah, it is. Yeah, I don't know what Chad's gonna do. Chad's gonna be there.

SPEAKER_01 4:43

Bobby's not aware of this yet, but she's listening, and I'll be chatting with you in a couple weeks. That's up.

SPEAKER_00 4:49

Yeah. I don't know what Chad's gonna do. I tell I they they're not too worried about it. They run with like Kentucky Derby Festival before, so it's like, you know, they're like, yeah, fine. So Chad will join us. Um, and then Leah has got it on her calendar, but she's got a brother's got a birthday or something like that, so I don't know if she's gonna be able to make it, but she really wants to be there too.

SPEAKER_01 5:07

So I'll be there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:09

I saw that, thank you. Mike is uh, you know, he he's running a sponsorship for it from Lawn Pro. Cool. And um, yeah, uh, and I know that you're getting ready to work with him.

SPEAKER_01 5:20

I am. We have a workshop tomorrow. That's right. Workshops are my favorite thing. I love it. They're my favorite thing. So provide context to listeners since you're our first guest in a hot minute. So what do you do? Yeah, so I am a storyteller and strategist. So I tell people that's a really fancy title for helping them tell their stories in a way that resonates with their audiences. So I'm more of a human-first storyteller, and I feel like I have to address the elephant in the room like right off the bat instantly, because everyone's like, isn't AI taking your job? And it's like, no. No, but also it is taking aspects of my job. Like I partner with AI. I have now, you know, I'm on the bandwagon of Claude now, RIP, chat GPT. Yeah. Um, and I'll work with AI on content, but 99% of the time AI is not producing good content. It's definitely not producing great content. But I do think that it gives skilled, experienced, and insightful communicators not superpowers, but ways to be more efficient, um, ways to elevate our work, ways to get more done with less, which is great. I feel like it's it's like any other tool in that way. So all of that is to say that I help people tell human stories for other humans, but I use AI tools to help me be more efficient and budget friendly and conscious in telling those stories. So I do external and internal communications. Very nice. Yeah. That's a good little synopsis for all the listeners and potential viewers, because we have our video on.

SPEAKER_00 7:01

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

Hello!

SPEAKER_00 7:02

Yeah, I'm still like, there's a camera pointed at me. And I need a haircut. Anyway, I did shave though this morning.

SPEAKER_01 7:10

Nice.

SPEAKER_00 7:10

I'm sure I did a great job, but you know.

SPEAKER_01 7:13

I mean, it's far enough away that no one's gonna see it. Nobody's a super big close-up.

SPEAKER_00 7:17

Nobody really wants to see this anyway. Uh so, anyways, what the heck is brand messaging though?

SPEAKER_01 7:22

Oh god, what is brand messaging? I feel like one of the things in my realm of work, and I feel like you all probably see it too in uh nerd brand's scope of work, is that every marketer and every comms person has their own definition for like common terms within marketing and communications. So, what brand messaging is to one person is something totally different to another person. The way that I think about it is brand messaging is the totality of the stories and messages that you share across every single channel for every audience that ladders back up to who your brand is and what it stands for. So if you have an employee who is talking to someone at an event, that's brand messaging. They're communicating on behalf of your brand. If you have content on your website, that's brand messaging. If you have content on social media, that's brand messaging. Everything is brand messaging, which makes uh every way that you communicate with folks across any channel important and necessary for you to be extremely intentional about it.

SPEAKER_00 8:35

Yeah, it's hard to explain as you know, I've been at we've we've dealt with this for years of what is it? And it's like any word you read on any kind of ad.

SPEAKER_01 8:45

Right, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 8:46

Yeah, or here on a video or commercial.

SPEAKER_01 8:49

Yes. Um what I can share as far as brand messaging is that I have worked for multiple Fortune 500 companies when it comes to communicating on behalf of their brand, right? So internally and externally. And I think what's what's really interesting is kind of the first thing that comes to mind for brand messaging is social media messaging. I've worked on that. I've helped folks plan social media campaigns, whether that is the launch of a new website strategy, or I just worked actually with a local company who did a brand refresh, who is launching a new identity, helping them communicate that through social media. I've helped folks write new website content that helps tell the story of their brand. But I've also helped people and companies communicate internally on behalf of their brand. And I feel like that's something that doesn't get a heck of a lot of love in the communications world.

SPEAKER_00 9:47

No.

SPEAKER_01 9:48

But those best practices for marketing and brand communications, they translate perfectly internally. You're still writing messaging that targets specific audiences. You're still writing with those pain points in mind. So when it comes to those really large clients that I've supported, I helped them translate those external communication strategies and best practices to write some powerful, effective, resonant internal messaging. So that's been really fulfilling as well.

SPEAKER_00 10:20

Yeah, a lot of business, a lot of a couple of business owners I know they're they're they're starting to to think about that. Um, you know, they're I don't know, the era of HR trying to like help owners not say certain things or do certain things. I'm seeing like some of them start to realize that it's not just for them, it's their team as well. So um I a lot of stuff that you've uh brought up actually helps communicate for sales when talking to business owners to be able to get them to fix that. Because internal, if you don't internally talk like you're externally vocalizing, there's a disconnect.

SPEAKER_01 10:56

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 10:56

There's literally a disconnect in your brand. Because then they'll see you an ad, they'll see a thing, and then they go and they talk to you and they're like, I don't understand what's happening.

SPEAKER_01 11:03

Yes, I call it so there's walking to talk, but then when it comes to communications, it's just as important to talk the walk. And I feel like we've seen that with clients that are amazing when you talk to them face to face. And when you talk to their employees, they are so engaged and they can articulate the benefits of their brand so well and in a way that really represents their culture. And then you read their website or you read their materials or you read their social media presence, and you're like, oh no, this isn't you. Like this just isn't you. It's nothing to be embarrassed about because you're so busy running the business and living that culture that you don't have the time or the bandwidth and you didn't train to have the skill set to communicate it.

SPEAKER_00 11:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:48

Right. And that's where we can come in internally and especially for Nerdbrand externally to say, hey, now you are talking the walk that you're walking, and now you have consistent brand messaging internally and externally. Exactly. And you're kind of walking that walk, like even if you use AI or just coming up with something random, at least that gets you the start, the starting point. Absolutely. But then, like you said, now you gotta walk the talk and talk the walk by taking in the more personal aspects and the more human aspects of who you are. Right. You gotta you have to take, you know, what you have from AI. I mean, just you know, being realistic, that's what a lot of people are using, and I'm sure you're aware of that too. Yeah. And and taking it next level and being able to elevate it and make it feel more personal to you. That way it doesn't sound like everybody else 100%.

SPEAKER_00 12:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:35

So what do you think that's what irks me about AI is that everything sounds the same and it drives me nuts.

SPEAKER_00 12:41

Which leads into like talking like your customer thinks. Like, how do you deter can you disclose and how do you determine that? Because I mean, obviously I'm asking because I'll leave it to you to like edit and not give away secret sauce.

SPEAKER_01 12:55

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, I think that starts with gathering insights about your customers. And I think with it depends on the company, right? So if you are a huge company, like a Fortune 500 company, and your customer base is millions of people, you probably have entire databases filled with customer insights. You have customer behavior that we can analyze. We have surveys that you've send out that we can analyze gobs and gobs of data that paint a picture of that customer's potential emotional state, their pain points, what their behavior looks like. And you write with all those things in mind, especially, especially the pain point. So if you can resolve a friction or if you can solve a problem for the customer, that is the number one thing that you need to be highlighting when you're writing communications. It's what's in it for them. It is not necessarily about what you want to tell them, it's what they want to hear. And there is an overlap. Like there's absolutely, if you have a service that you know can help people, you want to tell them about it. That's great. But when it comes to positioning that service, you need to position it in a way that is cognizant of those pain points that that customer is facing. So when they read it, they're like, hey, that's me. Hey, I trust these people because they understand what I'm going through. They don't seem to be just in it for them. And I think establishing that trust is uh paramount to writing like the customer thinks and writing in a way that that resonates with the customer.

SPEAKER_00 14:34

Yeah, yeah. I mean, it it's it's something to watch as you go through the process and and how folks like they light up.

SPEAKER_01 14:44

Seeing people talk about their passions and what they're into, like it's really interesting seeing their eyes light up, their tone change, their body language just get all the more animated.

SPEAKER_00 14:53

Yeah, they feel like that when working with us and with you on the team, it's like they realize that you know, oh, you're listening. Like we have been. It's just that what you're saying has been confusing the crap out of us.

SPEAKER_01 15:06

Yeah, right. And like that's that's one of the reasons why, you know, when I said earlier that like workshops are my favorite thing, it's because it is such a unique and powerful face-to-face human interaction.

SPEAKER_00 15:19

It's guided.

SPEAKER_01 15:20

Yes. So we just did a workshop with Jessica and something that she shared that I was like, that's to me, I checked the box. It was like this has been successful. And she was like, You all got information out of me that I did not come prepared to share, but that the questions guided her in a way to think about her business in a certain way, and then to articulate what makes uh her approach to healthcare different, what makes her unique. And she knows that instinctively because it's her business, but she might not have articulated it before because no one asked her those types of questions. So when you can ask those deep questions and give these folks who are so informed, so amazing, the opportunity to speak about their business, you can capture that. And then you can write in a way that respects their depth of knowledge and their culture as they approach their customers. And people underestimate how much that actually helps like a creative team as a whole. I mean, that helps uh the designers. So when they're making things, they can kind of do certain color schemes or textures and patterns and things that you know that fit that vibe. It helps people who are shooting the photography or the videography to kind of make sure that there's certain movement and certain things that kind of track with that messaging. Right. Um, it helps with social media posting, it helps with, you know, print materials, it helps so many different aspects. And a lot of people don't realize that, you know, having solid verbal really helps translate into everything else.

SPEAKER_00 16:55

There's nuance that comes out of it.

SPEAKER_01 16:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:57

Like you one of the one of the things that I've seen you pull out is that okay, you're funny, but you're not sarcastic. Because if you're sarcastic, you're sort of demeaning what's the word demeaning, or um, you know, where you're like kind of like talking down to the case.

SPEAKER_01 17:12

Yeah, it could be off-putting. It could translate as disrespectful. I mean, worst case scenario, you know, I've I've written for a lot of global audiences. Sarcasm does not translate, it doesn't be in different cultures. Oh, the number of times I've texted my boyfriend, him and I are both sarcastic as hell. And we both will be like, okay, so like we would we make a point that we know if we're being sarcastic, we put a certain emoji at the end of it. Because when you're reading, you never know. Yeah. Like if I'm stressed, I could read something one way, but then if I just finish cuddling with my dog, I'm gonna read something a different way. A hundred percent. So we got to a point where like, okay, we have to use a certain emoji. We're both sarcastic and we we know each other well enough, we know we're sarcastic. But let's make sure. Yeah. Absolutely. And that's just on a personal level. Like, there's no way in heck that's gonna work on a professional or even semi-business level, right?

SPEAKER_00 17:59

Yeah, I don't recommend emojis when you know talking to clients or no customers in in uh listen, listen, I've been known to put a smiley face in an email.

SPEAKER_01 18:07

I was gonna say, I I've sent an email to Jessica. Oh, I've sent Jessica several emails with a smiley face before, too.

SPEAKER_00 18:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:13

But it's only once I get to know someone then I start doing at least a smiley face or a frown face at the very most.

SPEAKER_00 18:18

Well, I think at this point, I think if I did it, people be like, Are you okay?

SPEAKER_01 18:21

I would think that you were hacked. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:23

I'd be like, Jason's been compromised. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 18:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:26

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 18:26

Imagine you build a business, you use muted colors, and you use dialogue that sounds like the movies that you hate that we've talked about. If that's you right now, please call us. Yes. Because um, yeah, you've got to stand out. There's so much noise. But I want to give it the floor to you. Like, tell people where they can find you, how they can contact you, what they can do. Because obviously they can contact us, but I do want everybody to kind of know, like, you know, who you are. Yeah. And you haven't named, you've given her a nickname already. It's in one of our episodes.

SPEAKER_01 18:56

Who me?

SPEAKER_00 18:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:58

I'm trying to I'm trying to remember what it was.

SPEAKER_00 19:00

Yeah, it's in one of the recordings.

SPEAKER_01 19:02

Was it made of copywriting or something?

SPEAKER_00 19:03

Something like that.

SPEAKER_01 19:04

Oh man, I'm flattered. Um, you can find me. Well, you can find me from reaching out to the nerd brand team. Love, love, love uh partnering with you all. It's and we love you too. Thanks. What's really nice about working for myself and being my own consultant is that I have the privilege of working with folks who I love working with, which is great. So love working with nerd brands. So contact them. Um, I am their right-hand woman for writing and strategy. Happy to help. Um, and you might as well double down, right? Because it's even if you have excellent copy, if you don't have a strong digital strategy that gets that copy in front of the right people, you might as well write the book and put it in your basement and no one's ever going to see it. So that's that's where Leah and I come in.

SPEAKER_00 19:52

Yeah. Yeah, we have uh we have Danielle, we've got Leah. Um, Danielle is actually her abilities in graphic design and everything. Leah's not trained in that. Leah's more the marketing side. So she would be sandwiched between the two of you.

SPEAKER_01 20:08

You've called me a unicorn before, where it's like I have the ability to do a lot of different things, but it's just kind of a matter of, okay, this is where we need you right now.

SPEAKER_00 20:17

Yeah, yeah. So Which is great. Which mostly I keep her in in photography and social media content, video, things like that. Um, having Leah kind of is a release valve because Leah can actually do a lot more and and alleviate her because people don't realize when you show up, it'd be like saying, Hey, Rennie, do copywriting and by the way, can you design a website?

SPEAKER_01 20:40

Oh, it's happened. I feel like that's it just happens to concept. But you naturally wear a lot of hats because skill sets naturally overlap. You partner with folks, you partner with designers, you partner with UX, you partner with coders. So then naturally, clients that are used to coming to you, I I always see it as kind of a compliment, right? Like that you think that I have expertise in this area where I'm like, I sure don't, but I know people who do.

SPEAKER_00 21:09

Yeah, people think that I do all of that.

SPEAKER_01 21:10

Well, I love it whenever, like, because I've whenever I've built websites for people before, they're like, oh well, you know, since you already built the website, can you go ahead and just do the blog for us? And I'm like, can I? Yes. Do I want to? No. Right.

SPEAKER_00 21:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:23

I I don't want to do that. No.

SPEAKER_00 21:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:25

So you can get in touch with me via Word uh Nerdbrand uh via words. You could use your words to get in touch with me.

SPEAKER_00 21:33

That's okay. Sometimes I've called it Burt Brand, but you know what? That's whatever. It's a bet it's a you know, Friday if it's Friday.

SPEAKER_01 21:41

You can check out my LinkedIn, message me there. Uh, I haven't been as good posting content on LinkedIn lately, but I'm usually pretty active there. Uh you can email me. It's Brittany Hanson, H A N S O N 77 at Outlook.com. It's I know it's an Outlook email. Just bear with me. All right. Um, at least it's not Yahoo! Yeah, at least it's not Yahoo. A-O L. Or AOL Bell South or Bell South or Hotmail. Y'all remember Hotmail?

SPEAKER_00 22:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:10

Maybe I should get an AOL email address. Just throw it back. What's out is in. What's in is out. Vintage is coming back to me. Vintage, absolutely. Um, but those are probably the best ways to get in touch with me.

SPEAKER_00 22:23

All right. And uh so with that, we hope you enjoyed this episode of the Nerdbrand Podcast. You can find us at NerdbrandAgency.com. And if you want to check out the latest episodes of the podcast, go to NerdbrandAgency.com slash podcast.

SPEAKER_01 22:35

Don't forget to check us out on social medias as well: Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok, you name it. And don't forget to check uh out the podcast on your favorite podcast platforms as well.

SPEAKER_00 22:45

All right, with that, everybody, remember, keep your nerd brand strong.