Creating Clear Messaging
“Make Your Marketing Message Clear and Irresistible. Be the One in the Cave with the Flashlight.”
— Fabienne Fredrickson
If you want to have authentic messaging that gets visitors into your museum doors you need three things: Clarity, Consistency and Confidence. I believe that these “3 Cs” are the keys you need to unlock authentic messaging that is unique and will set you apart from the rest. As a museum, you are asking for your audience’s most precious commodity, their time. Your authentic messaging will lead them to know, like and trust you and want to plan some time to spend with you. Your authentic messaging is one part of “brand love,” which is the idea that they will not only visit your museum but they will want to visit again and bring a friend. It will also lead them to want to invest in you; whether that is through a museum membership, a donation or in the gift shop.
Today we’re going to talk about Clarity…
Having a clear and concise message creates trust and instant understanding with your audience. If they can’t figure out what your museum does, who it is for, or how they can visit, they will move on. Can you boil that down into a one-liner? It is a noisy world out there so you also need to do this quickly. That one-liner has to make it crystal clear exactly what your museum does for its visitors. There will be time to tell your story and time to teach your visitors all that you want to teach them but that can come later. You just have a few seconds of someone’s time. The visual elements of your brand’s job is to grab their attention but you need to have a clear message once you have their attention if you want them to stick around.
Having a clear message helps in so many ways beyond marketing to your potential visitors.
It also helps with internal communications. Having your staff deliver a clear message about your museum while they are working and when they are sharing news about the museum in their personal lives, is an amazing asset that not only is good for PR but also leads to happy employees.
A clear message also helps with Public Relations. If you have a clear message that is easy to understand, your loyal visitors can learn that message and share it for you when you aren’t even in the room. I call this the PR Gold Mine.
So, how do you create a message that is clear? Below are three questions to work on answering with your team. You might need to work on these for awhile to get them just right.
What are the Mission, Vision and Values of your museum?
Who is your ideal visitor? Where can you find them?
What are the overarching messages or themes that you always want your visitor to take away with them no matter what exhibit is on the walls or what artifact is on display?
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