The Strategy Behind the Magic Message

A major part of strategic communication is crafting the most effective message for the target audience using the most effective communication outlet. Research becomes a major part of the planning process when choosing a target audience and determining how to reach that target audience, but how exactly does one craft that “magic message” to get target audience members to achieve a certain goal set by the organization?

The strategy to crafting the most effective message is knowing what the target audience wants or needs, and knowing how to reach them with a message that correlates to their desires. The tricky part is, however, that most people do not know exactly what they want or need when it comes to a product or service. A quote by Henry Ford explains this notion by saying, “If we asked the public what they wanted, they would have said ‘faster horses’.”

Instead of directly asking the public what they want, organizations have two more effective options for pleasing their target audiences: 1) catering to the morals, values, and loyalty of target audience members and 2) placing their product/service directly in front of audience members who have expressed any kind of interest in their product/service or a similar product/service.

Catering to the morals, values, and loyalty of target audience members exemplifies the notion that people buy into companies who display values and beliefs similar to their own, and they continue to buy into a brand that they know and trust, regardless of the product/service being sold (Simon Sinek: Ted Talk). Often times, people may not know exactly what they need or are looking for, but they are willing to support an organization who has expressed certain beliefs and viewpoints that correlate with the target audience members’ personal beliefs and viewpoints. That is why it is of the utmost importance for all organizations to have a vision and mission to know WHY they do what they do. If people agree with the “why”, they are much more likely to invest in what the organization is offering.

The next option organizations have for crafting the magic message is placing their product/service directly in front of consumers who have expressed interest in their product/service, their organization in general, or a similar product/service or organization. This is where digital advertising through location-targeted messages and search engine optimization (SEO) comes into play.

In simplest terms, location-targeted digital advertising messages are the advertisements that pop up on our social media feeds based on the location services that are present and sharing data on our mobile devices and the cookies collected from mobile sites. These sponsored ads pop up when we enter a certain store or have recently searched or bought a certain thing. For example, a coupon for cereal may pop up while you are shopping at a grocery store, or advertisements for jewelry may begin showing frequently on your social media feeds after you have googled jewelry, visited a jewelry website, or recently bought jewelry from a store. This type of artificial intelligence helps organizations place targeted messages directly in front of potential consumers who are in the market for the product/service. Even if a consumer does not click on these ads, they subconsciously view them on their feed and are more inclined to remember them after seeing them at least three times. According to Econsultancy (2016), location-based advertising is effective because the advertisements are personalized, timely, and targeted to the consumer.

Another way to place a targeted message directly in front of potential consumers who have expressed interest in a organization or product/service is through search engine optimization (SEO). SEO is the process of maximizing the number of visitors to a site by ensuring that the site ranks high on the results when certain key terms are searched in a search engine site, such as Google, Bing, or Yahoo. This allows organizations to get information quickly and easily to the consumers who are actively searching for it. For example, if a university is aiming to recruit students or provide information to consumers who are actively searching for information about that university, the university would want to use SEO to ensure that they are high on the search results list to reach those prospective inquirers. Likewise, an organization can ensure that they are reaching quality consumers who are actively searching for their product by participating in SEO with keywords and phrases directly related to their organization and product/service.

Ranking high on a search engine list is crucial for reaching target audience members. According to Leverage Marketing, 95% of web traffic on search engines goes to the first search result listed, and 67% of consumers do not go past the first five search results.  More and more businesses are beginning to take advantage of SEO through Google, and as of 2012, advertising revenue for digital advertising on Google has surpassed advertising revenue for the entire print media industry (CNET, 2012).

The strategy behind the magic message goes far beyond message creation and dissemination. Knowing what an audience wants and how to directly give them a message that satisfies those desires requires knowing how the target audience thinks, where they are located, and what they are looking for. Strategically communicating the “why” of a product/service more than the product/service itself and using location-based advertising and SEO can boost awareness about an organization as well as prompt consumers to buy into what the business has to offer. A consumer may not always necessarily know exactly what they want or what they are searching for, so it is the duty of the strategic communications professional to provide clarity through easily accessible, timely, and personalized informational messages.