A Sneak Peek Into the Brand Messaging Kit I Create for My Clients

A brand messaging kit isn't just another business document that takes up space and collects dust in your office—or at least it shouldn't be. Think of brand messaging as your business's North Star. It ensures consistent, powerful communication across every platform or marketing action you take. 

Today, I'm pulling back the curtain to show you exactly what goes into the brand messaging guides I create for my clients, and why they're absolute game-changers for businesses of any size.

Want to know the difference between a corporate-level brand messaging kit and what works for small businesses? In this episode, I break down the six essential sections of a professional brand messaging guide, showing you how each piece builds on the next to create a rock-solid foundation for your brand's communication strategy. Plus, I'll share real examples of how different businesses put these guides to work.


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EPISODE 138.

Read the show notes and view the full transcript here: https://erinollila.com/a-sneak-peek-into-the-brand-messaging-kit-i-create-for-my-clients/

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Here's info on your host, Erin Ollila
Erin Ollila believes in the power of words and how a message can inform – and even transform – its intended audience. She graduated from Fairfield University with an M.F.A. in Creative Writing, and went on to co-found Spry, an award-winning online literary journal.

When Erin’s not helping her clients understand their website data or improve their website copy, you can catch her hosting the Talk Copy to Me podcast and guesting on shows such as Profit is a Choice, The Driven Woman Entrepreneur, Go Pitch Yourself, and Counsel Cast.

Stay in touch with Erin Ollila, SEO website copywriter:
• Learn more about Erin’s VIP intensive options if you’d like to learn more about how you can hire her to create your own brand messaging guide
• Reach out her on Instagram, Threads, and YouTube

Transcript

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Imagine if you had a document that made Every marketing decision easier. Every piece of content that you wrote or filmed or recorded more powerful. Every team member more aligned with your brand's vision. And in addition to making those marketing decisions easier, it also made it easier for you to make business decisions. Well, that's exactly what a brand messaging guide does. And today I'm here to take you behind the scenes to show you exactly what goes into creating one and exactly how my brand messaging guide is set up for my very own clients. Welcome back to Talk Copy to Me. If you caught last week's episode with Zoe Callahan from Lexicon CopyCo, all about the brand messaging pillars and how to really have and develop a solid and strategic brand strategy for your business, you know that we're In the middle of a deep dive into all things brand messaging. Today's episode is going to build on that foundation by showing you the incredible value of a professional brand messaging guide and , walking you through exactly what I include in mine. I'm going to try to keep this episode as quick as I can because we did talk a lot about brand strategy last week. But before we dive into the specific sections that I have in my guide, let's talk about why brand messaging guides are so powerful. A brand messaging guide is more than just a document. It's really, I don't know how to phrase this, it's like, it's like a North Star for your brand. It's like a North Star. What it's doing is it's creating a consistency across all of your marketing efforts. It's saving countless or priceless hours of decision making time. And it's really ensuring that your brain, excuse me, not your brain, your brand, maybe your brain too, I don't know, your brand maintains its identity, even as your team grows, as contractors or subcontractors come in and out of your business, as maybe you take a leave, if you're going on maternity leave, or you're shifting into a new service. you'll still have that identity in place and can make the decision on whether you're going to shift as you grow or continue with the identity you've already created. So, one of the questions actually I got last week in on Instagram about the episode was whether or not, , that individual even needed a brand messaging guide. And honestly, , I don't know. I highly recommend all businesses have brand messaging guides. I'm so used to using them with the large corporations that I write for. So those big brands, they're giving me assets that they have created with a strategy team that says that this is exactly who we are. This is exactly what we stand for. And this is exactly how you must represent us in your writing, because if you don't, we're just going to send it back, back to you for you to update., So I see them a ton in the corporate world, in the big brand world. And I think what happens is those smaller businesses, especially businesses that are solopreneurs, not necessarily a small to medium sized business, they just assume it's just not anything that they need. You know, they have a website, they're present on social media, all of those things. I think you'd be surprised on how beneficial they can be for your business once you have them. So, I don't know, I think, I think everyone needs a brand messaging guide. You know, if you're a small business owner and you want to scale, if you are developing a marketing team, maybe you're going to onboard someone who's going to do some retainer marketing work, like a fractional content marketer, like I would be, coming into someone's business, and I'm not an employee per se, but I am someone that they're going to regularly brainstorm with, ideate with, and actually implement these strategies and assets that we're creating and setting in our meetings that we do together. If you are preparing for growth, it would be a good time to get a brand marketing guide. If you don't have any interest in growing, but you do have an interest in maintaining a more consistent messaging throughout your marketing, because right now it feels pretty disjointed. Or if you are just someone who's Working as a solopreneur or a freelancer or a business, but you feel as if you really need to professionalize your brand because it's kind of just been pieced together. I mean, you know, I just presented a few different options for you. And I think, as I mentioned, they all need brand messaging guides. We're going to shift here because I'm feeling a little lecture-y at this point, and I don't want to lecture you all. And we're going to talk about my brand messaging guide. so let's start with a behind the scenes, Overview of the entire guide. I have broken my brand messaging guide into a part one and a part two. And the reason I do that is very specific. Actually, part one is the brand strategy., And part two is the marketing strategy. You can't have a marketing strategy if you don't have your brand figured out. You really need to develop that overall messaging before you can implement strategic marketing campaigns. But the reason I point out those two parts right now is because I'm only focusing on the first part of my brand messaging guide today. I will have a follow up episode in the future that talks about part two, which is marketing made easier. But today we're going to solely focus on the first part,. So let's talk about how it's structured. There are six key sections in part one, and I have ordered them very specifically to build on each other. What's happening and the reason that I do that is really so that there can be a comprehensive brand foundation. We start broad. We're talking more about the business basics, and then we're narrowing our focus to understand your industry. We take a deep dive into your audience. And finally, we're developing your individual brand elements. Think of it like building a house. You need a solid foundation before you can start decorating the rooms, right? I mean, don't get me wrong. Before I purchased my house or before I moved in, I had a lot of fun buying things like curtains and throw pillows. But I also found that Those pieces could not come together functionally. Like they didn't match or they didn't even make any sense with the room layout or my needs for the home because I wasn't there yet. So again. These things are all foundational for a solid brand messaging guide and they are built to be like built on each other. So let's start with that that basic broad part that I mentioned first and that's the business summary section. We're starting with a business summary because what it's doing is setting the stage for everything else. This section captures who you are right now, your current offerings, your basic target audience, and your core brand values. It might seem like a simple section, but you'd really be amazed at how often businesses struggle to articulate these fundamentals clearly. Once we have that foundation in place, we can look outward to your competitive landscape. And that brings us to the Competitor Analysis section. Think of Competitor Analysis as your marketing positioning GPS. It isn't about copying what other people do. But God knows, I do not want you to do that. In fact, I have an entire episode on making sure that you are doing competitive analysis correctly. I'll link to that in the show notes. But your competitive analysis section for your brand messaging guide is all about understanding where you fit in your industry and identifying the opportunities for your business to stand out. So in this section, we're looking at both direct and indirect competitors. We're analyzing their strengths and weaknesses, and we're identifying your unique market position. And I know that might make you laugh because of the recent episode we did with Belinda on ignoring the USP and just being choosable, but I promise that market position is a little different than the traditional USP. So once we understand in this section like where you stand within the industry, we have the opportunity to focus on the people who matter most. And that, my friend, brings us to the audience profiles section. This is where we really get specific about who you're trying to reach. We go beyond the basic demographics to understand their psychographics,, which would be their fears, their desires, their motivations. You know, like what keeps them up at night? What are their dreams? What are they hoping to accomplish? This deep understanding helps you create messages that truly resonate. And I take this part very seriously. I have mentioned this on guest episodes and I think here on this podcast as well, but prior to coming into the content marketing world. I spent well over a decade in the mental health industry, working both in the administrative areas as human resources, different jobs in HR, as well as being on the front lines and working as a case manager for adults with co occurring disorders. On top of that, I , was raised by a nurse and a psychologist. So, beyond my normal empathy and my caring sense of self, my upbringing, and my, like, work experience, I really, I really care a lot about psychographics because I think that's the key to all things good marketing. I don't think that they're, I don't think that they're there to be used to manipulate people. I think they're there to identify and understand our audience. So we can really kind of present our businesses the best way possible for what it is that they actually need. I go into that, obviously, a lot more within that section of my Brand Messaging Guide, but we're here today for a quick and dirty overview of what my Brand Messaging Guide looks like, so I won't go too deep into that. So, again, , we talked about people, your audience specifically, but now it's time to talk about a different type of quote unquote people. And that's, that's you. What is your brand story? The next section in this part one of my brand messaging guide is the brand story section. This is what makes you memorable. It's not just a company history, it is the narrative that captures why you do what you do, the transformation you offer, and the value that you're bringing to your client's lives. It's about creating an emotional connection that goes way beyond just average features and benefits. Remember I said that these are Remember, I said that these sections are building on each other. So I just mentioned how important psychographics are. Well, you need to understand that before you can then flip it to look at your own business's narrative and get an idea of, like, what does the story of your business say that actually, like, connects with those psychographics that your audience have? In fact, one way to do that would be to look at your own or your business's psychographics as well. What's motivating you? What elements of your story are really, like, standing out and, um, and influencing the message that you are trying to share with your audience? But after the brand messaging, your story is leading naturally into how you position yourself. Which brings us to the brand positioning section of my guide. I know how creative are these titles. I just wanted to keep this as plain as I could for you. So that way you understood what the differences were between these sections. The brand positioning section is where we define exactly how you want to be perceived in the market. So here is where we're crafting your mission statement. Your Vision Statement and the Detailed Elements of Your Core Values. If you remember, we talked values in that first part. like section of part one, that, that general business area, but we develop them within the brand positioning section. We do this because we want to identify the key differentiators and to also create an elevator pitch that is capturing the essence of your business. This section is giving you the language that allows you to communicate your unique value, um, and to communicate that value consistently. Consistency is one of the key things I talk about over and over throughout the brand guide. And I think it's something that you're going to hear a lot as well in all of these episodes. But, before we talk, we'll kind of wrap it up now and finish talking about this brand, um, the brand guide and what goes into it, there's one more section in my brand messaging guide, and that's the editorial style guide. I thought long and hard and I really wasn't sure what I wanted to do with the editorial style guide. You know, if you're new to me, you might not know that I come from a traditional publishing world before copywriting. I have an MFA in creative writing. I have studied, , fiction, nonfiction, poetry, specifically studied the longest in creative nonfiction and have my own literary journal, which you should all go check out. It's Spry Literary Journal, and I will put the link to that in the comments. But I bring this up because moving from creative writing in into content marketing, I really learned a ton of valuable information about editorial style guides and what they are is, is really basically the communication factor of a business. So I think that this is a little bit different than the traditional brand messaging. It's more about the voice and the tone and the style of your brand. So I thought to myself, does this go in part one where we're doing more of that strategy, the brand pillars, the core values, or do I move this into part two, which is that marketing made easier section that I told you about in the beginning of this episode. I decided to keep it in part one. Because, I think of the Editorial Style Guide as your brand's voice manual. It's defining how you'll sound in all of your communications, from your emails, to your social media posts, your website copy, and your case studies. It's where we establish your brand voice characteristics. So your tone guidelines and the specific writing rules to ensure consistency across all of the channels and marketing efforts and assets that you have. Here's an example of one of the things that go in the editorial style guides. What words you like. And what words you dislike in your business. An easy way to think of this right now is some of those social media posts you'll see where people say like, you can tell it's AI when you see a, an M dash, or you can tell it's AI when you see it says, let's dive deep into or deep dive. Again, friends, that's just grammar and word choice. But word choice is so key when it comes to brands. As an example, you hear me call you friend in this podcast. That's just me. I'm doing that because that's what I would say to my own friend. That's what I would say at a networking event when I'm meeting someone new, if I wasn't sure how to address them. So it has just become an important part of my brand messaging, of my brand voice or my tone, and it is one of those words or phrases that really feel good for my business. So I'm indicating that within my editorial style guide. If you have a virtual assistant or someone on your marketing team or a social media manager who does your content creation, they need to know these things. And in today's digital world, it's not just the words that matter. They're visual elements as well. Are there specific emojis that are relevant to your business?, last week again, we had Zoe on the podcast and when I was creating some promotional assets for the show, I realized that she uses a ton of red apples, which are important to her vibe and brand element. And you'll notice that when you go check out her website or just her social platforms. And I thought to myself, well, that's a perfect example of having icons or having emojis that are part of your editorial style guide, part of your communications, and part of how you show up. So, while the editorial style guide is really concluding part one of the brand messaging guide, it's not the end of the journey. In part two, which again is Marketing Made Easier, we're developing a complete content and marketing strategy based on everything that we've established here within part one of the Brand Messaging Guide. So I will be back in a few weeks within an entire episode dedicated to just that. But before we end, we will, this episode's going to end soon. Let's talk about practical applications and maybe even a couple examples. Okay, let's pretend there's a service based business, that they use the guide to quickly train new team members, which ensures that everyone is communicating correctly with the clients or writing content for their audience in the same voice. A different company, let's say a product based business, may use their guide to unify their messaging across their website, social, and email marketing. And here are some ways that Businesses can put these guides to work. A coaching business can use their audience profiles to create content that speaks directly to their ideal client's pain points. A tech startup leverages their brand story to stand out in a crowded market. A local business with multiple locations can maintain consistent communication across all of their branches using their editorial style, style guide to keep everyone, you know, really being consistent with what it is that they're creating. I hope by sharing some of these examples, you can really kind of see how these things all work together . So I hope that these examples help you really understand the many different ways that different businesses can use a brand messaging guide to be consistent and to have quality messaging and communications. Next week, we're going to be back on the podcast talking with. Ashley Singh, who is a strategist that helps businesses develop their mission, vision, and values. It's such a good episode, so I can't wait for you guys to hear that. And after that episode, we're going to talk about some of the things that I mentioned in today's brand messaging guide, like client personas, elevator pitch, so much. the editorial style guide itself, and how to use that Marketing Made Easier guide that I've been mentioning and teasing at a few times. So, if you're ready to get serious about brand messaging, and you want to explore getting your own guide together, I would love to work with you. Head on over to my website or reach out on social and we'll talk about how we can get one of these projects started for your business. See you next week where we'll keep talking copy.