Vassilena Valchanova's brand messaging framework template

Ramli John [00:00:00]:
Getting your brand message just right can make all the difference with your marketing. But what really goes into crafting a message that sticks with your customers? Today, Vaseline Walsh Nova, a marketing strategist, shares her brand messaging framework. In this episode of Marketing Power Ups, you learn, first of all, why brand messaging is more than a catchy slogan. 2nd, Vaseline's brand messaging framework. 3rd, an example of a brand message that Vaseline really loves. And finally, 4th, a career power up that has helped accelerate Vaseline's career. Are you ready? Let's go.

Vassilena Valchanova [00:00:32]:
Marketing power ups. Ready? Go. Here's your host, Bradley Jones. Thank you so much for coming on the show. We're gonna be talking about your your brand messaging template. And particularly, you know, let's talk about why you think it's, like, important for you for marketers to to start off here. Really, in terms of of brand messaging in itself, why why is this so you have this you have this guide on your site. I'm gonna link it in the show notes.

Vassilena Valchanova [00:01:11]:
But you talk about what is and isn't in brand messaging, which I love because, like, before you dig into something, like, you don't just say what it is, but what isn't it. So let's start off there. What is your response to that? Like, somebody say, Brad, messaging. You know, like, that could mean a lot of things to many different people. But you're, you know, you have you've created this cool template. What is it and what is it for you?

Vassilena Valchanova [00:01:37]:
Yeah. So, the way I think of messaging in general and I've titled the the template and the and the guide, you're linking to as, brand messaging specifically, but it can also work for product messaging. If you're a multiproduct brand, then you want to to create different messaging for different brands. So essentially, the way I think about messaging is that it's sort of this bridge. On the one hand side, you have your positioning, which is more the where are you competing in terms of, like, what market you're competing in? What are your competitors and how are you different compared to them? And, what are you bringing to this very, very specific, very narrow, private customer that you're trying to approach? Positioning is essentially, like, the philosophy behind the the brand or the product. On the other hand side, you have, you know, your typical copywriting, which is the words you have on the page itself or in the sales deck or whatever you're using to approach your customers. So this is already like the very the very narrow and specific wording you're actually using. And messaging sort of falls in between these 2 and bridges them because it gives you it's not so much about how you're seeing things as with copywriting, but it's more about what you want to say.

Vassilena Valchanova [00:03:06]:
So what are these 4 or 5 different key, messages as it were that you want to stay in the mind of your customer once, they've seen your page or they've left the sales demo or whatever it is. So this it's sort of this this bridge between the two, which makes sure that your copywriting is not just gonna be cool and funky and interesting sounding, but it's actually gonna convey these key messages that you have identified already. And it will also keep your copyright aligned so you don't just, you know, go in all sorts of different directions just because, you know, you have this blank space on the page at me, still in.

Vassilena Valchanova [00:03:52]:
That makes sense. It it's almost like what I heard is really it's the message that you wanna like, after the audience or the visitor, your website visitor has come and, like, taking your information, It's what you wanted to take away and, like, recall, is what exactly I heard from you. Like, it's it's exactly would you say that's, that's exactly what that is?

Vassilena Valchanova [00:04:14]:
Yeah. Yeah. Definitely.

Vassilena Valchanova [00:04:15]:
In terms of, like, what isn't it? Like, you know, it can get confusing. What are some stuff that, you know, oh, exactly not that? Maybe one of them is like, oh, it's just the stuff on your copy. But I'm what I'm hearing is that it's it's beyond that. It's actually the thing that ties all your your your whatever's on your site together, even your content, everything else.

Vassilena Valchanova [00:04:37]:
Yeah. Yeah, definitely. So messaging usually gets confused with copywriting and this is one of the main the main, sort of hurdles that we need to surmount with customers I usually work with. Because when we're starting to work on a messaging project and we start building this up, and I give them an example of this, brand messaging. And and they look at it and they immediately jump to, oh, but this word over here, that doesn't necessarily fit with what we're we have in mind, or this phrase here is a bit clunky. I'm like, guys, just forget about it. We first need to focus on whether or not this is what we want to say, And then we can polish the actual way this will be said when we go to actually, you know, implementing that messaging on a landing page itself. So this is where the choice of words will matter.

Vassilena Valchanova [00:05:37]:
And now what we wanna have is even, like, the most basic, phraseology that you can use, like, the simplest terms that you can use for your brand messaging, the better. It almost reminds me of there's I don't know if you follow this guy, of the xkcd comics. Yeah. He's like, a brilliant science nerd, and he has this book called Thing Explainer, which is a brilliant book. It explains complex scientific concepts using just the I think it was 10,000 most commonly used words in the English language. So, when he's talking about, like, the, the top of a rocket, it just like, the the diagram of it just says, this, point this needs to point up.

Vassilena Valchanova [00:06:32]:
So so

Vassilena Valchanova [00:06:32]:
it's it's kinda similar to that. Like, we don't want you to have, like, flowery language or this edgy copywriting style that's gonna fit your brand voice. We just want to have the facts straight and understand what are the key things that we want to say. So it's definitely not copywriting. It's not like a short slogan that you're gonna put at the top, of a landing page or at the end of an app. And it's also not, your brand's mission or vision. Messaging needs to be about all the customer is getting from you now rather than what your investors bought in when you presented your general idea of your of your product. You know? Like, it's not about the the 10, 15, 20 year plan.

Vassilena Valchanova [00:07:25]:
It's about what's happening.

Vassilena Valchanova [00:07:26]:
Like that. I think it's really about, you know, the what is the value? What is the benefit that they're getting right now compared to what they were doing previously? I guess at least to your brand messaging framework, you listed out on that page that before you fill out that template, there's, like, some key elements that the marketers need to have the customer's desire and also the competitor's promise. And you're really, like, trying to understand what are what is it they're getting at that moment by those two things, would you say?

Vassilena Valchanova [00:07:57]:
Yeah. So, in order to to create that, that messaging, you really need to understand why customers are interested in your product. And I really love, the way, for example, April Dunford talks about positioning in that same sense. Like, she she says, I wouldn't start, a positioning project with the company until they've had a bunch of successful clients to learn from. And it's sort of the same with messaging. You need to to have these, you you first need to have your, some initial traction at least. You need to have your idea validated, And then you need to to have, customers to learn from. I would generally, and, like, in 90% of the cases where I work with clients, it would, mean that we would either survey or talk to customers directly.

Vassilena Valchanova [00:08:53]:
Or if this is impossible, for example, in some cases where we are, working on complex enterprise solutions, we wouldn't necessarily have the luxury to talk to, like, 15 CTOs of big companies. Right? And in this case, we would talk to the people who actually talk to the target customer. So these would be the salespeople or customer success team. But in the end of the day, you need to be able to boil this down to what real life people are actually getting out of the product, and what do they want to achieve with it, and why do they actually like it or not. And this actually serves two purposes. First off, it it means that you are really basing this off on something that's concrete and objective and not just on, like, assumptions that boiled up from, like, a 2 hour meeting. And then also for me as an external consultant, it also means that when I present the brand messaging to the client, I can also say, this isn't just, you know, my opinion, man. Like, it's something that came out of of real discussions, and it's based on what customers are actually saying or or what they have said to your team.

Vassilena Valchanova [00:10:14]:
So it's it also facilitates that that buying within the company because sometimes the founders would be looking at the long term vision. And when they don't see that reflected in the messaging, they will feel, you know, almost cheated from this project. They'll be like, oh, but you're numbing or you're dumbing down the idea that we have. Like, you're you're making it sound like so much less than what we want it to be in the future. I'm like, no. Like, people want to know what you're giving them now rather than what you plan to give them in the future, you know. And and having that, again, bring this back to your original question, bring, having that that clear understanding why customers are coming to you for a solution means that you can much more easily convince new people to actually try your solution as well.

Vassilena Valchanova [00:11:05]:
Yeah. It's essentially like trying to find out what's working with your best customers so that you can repeat that same ingredient or process or recipe so that you can get more of that same customer over and over again, and really understanding that itself. That's super cool. Thank you for for sharing that. Let's jump into your your template, the brand messaging framework. What are some elements that you need? You you shared a few elements there, as people fill that out. Can you talk to can you talk about some of the elements that's involved in that that framework?

Vassilena Valchanova [00:11:39]:
So what we have in the framework are some parts that are more or less or rather will always be for internal purposes only, and this is where your market category frame of reference comes in. So what's what market are you competing in essentially? And the competitive alternatives that people usually look at and how you can differentiate, from them, when it comes to a specific, you know, potential customer discussion. Or even, like, if you're not, if you don't have a sales team where you talk to a customer directly, you may want to have that reflected in some shape or form on the site. And these 2, sort of, elements, they come, from April Dunford positioning, framework. So it's nothing nothing that I can take credit for. But I really feel that it's helpful to have that concept of what's what's the the market we're competing in. And, sometimes it it feels that this is so basic that we don't want to think about it or even, like, don't feel that it's worth mentioning. But oftentimes, it would require an additional discussion.

Vassilena Valchanova [00:12:56]:
For example, I'm currently working with a client where we have this this discussion on how to how to name the thing that they're selling. And I'm under NDA, so I'll need to keep this very, very high level. But essentially, they have a vision of what they want to bring into the market and how that's different. And at the same time, when we were doing the research, we were hearing different words from their existing customers. So what we ended up doing is in the market category frame of reference in the the format, we typed in the actual phrase that customers are using to for a solution in this moment and by extension coming to them, through this through this same key phrase. And, what came out of it was that, yeah, we want to position this in a bit of a different way, or rather we wanna talk how we build up on top of that existing category. But we need to start with that and we need to acknowledge that this is what people are actually looking for. And you can't just, you know, go about saying what you want to say.

Vassilena Valchanova [00:14:05]:
You need to listen to what people are are looking for and what are the answers they they're looking for. Right?

Vassilena Valchanova [00:14:12]:
I like that. And and that's important because sometimes, maybe it's marketers, maybe it's the founders, they try to make up a new word or a new category so that they're like, oh, we're Yeah. We're the best here. But it just creates confusion in people's mind. I remember, you know, I'm trying to think of a term right now that's made up. It's like, wow. I don't understand what that means. Like, revenue acceleration platform.

Vassilena Valchanova [00:14:36]:
I remember seeing that one time, and I don't wanna call the company out because I don't remember it. But I remember just like, what is that? I understand accelerating revenue, but, like, what the heck?

Vassilena Valchanova [00:14:48]:
Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. And, just don't get me started on category creation. I I think this this trend has, like, subsided a bit now, but after, you know, like, I I feel that no, you know, conference or the webinar or podcast I looked at or listened to in the past bunch of years could go without mentioning drift and the way they did conversational marketing, the end of the day, if you're confusing the customer, then it's it's just, like, not in anyone's, you know, and then and no one is standing to gain from this. And I really love I just recently, read, the original positioning book by, Auri and Jack Trout. And one thing that that struck, sort of a chord with me was the fact that they say, this is all about creating meaning from connections that are already in the mind of your customer. And the biggest issue we usually face is that this is about simplifying things down to what's already in the mind of the customer.

Vassilena Valchanova [00:16:00]:
And as human beings, we feel that something that's simple is too simplistic, and we crave some complexity or we want to add complexity to it. And this is exactly what positioning is not about. And it's in the same vein of law. Messaging is not about, you know, confusing your reader into, like, believing that there's a category. It's about telling them, oh, we're actually in this category you're already looking for, but we're better in this and that way, compared to the alternatives that are out there.

Vassilena Valchanova [00:16:33]:
That that's so such a powerful thing you just said there. I think often, maybe, you know, we think that the way we sell is making it sound like we're smarter. You know, that that is important. But, like, there's a point where you sounding smart becomes confusing. It was like, I have no idea. You have to speak. This is why I love this process that you're talking about. It's like you're using the words of your customer rather than using words that you wish that you use so that you can sound like that, that you're making up something new.

Vassilena Valchanova [00:17:07]:
Like, you're you're cutting edge or something like that, but it's essentially like, hey. What do your customers already use? Like, talk about how do they describe your product, and what is the value that they're talking about there so that it's important for you to say it that way. You shared that example with that particular product. Is there any other examples that you can share, you know, borrowing the obviously, there's DNA NDA, that potentially you might have, but if you, you know, fill this filled out for for a company.

Vassilena Valchanova [00:17:36]:
I think that, the one the one thing that almost always comes up is, when we're looking at the alternatives, which is actually the next the next component of the framework, I feel that when we when we start initially discussing alternatives, first off, there's gonna be 20 different brand names that people just throw at the wall. And then, the other common scenario would be to just focus on direct competitors alone. And, what I usually try to do is sort of expand that understanding of what an alternative actually is because it's not about just another tool or another platform. It can be even just, you know, doing nothing about this problem that we hear a solution is solving. Maybe some customers are fine with, you know, feeling that constant searing pain that in your mind should drive them to to try your problem, but maybe they just don't see it that way. Or the the other case could be, you know, we're just gonna throw warm volleys at the problem, and we're gonna hire more people to actually do this thing the hard way. And this is an alternative to doing it the easy way with your with your solution. And the third one in that category that always comes up is just using something that's already existing and that's already out there.

Vassilena Valchanova [00:19:08]:
And in this case, an example that comes up, before going freelance, I was an in house marketer for a resume building app. And what we were trying to do is, you know, we were keeping a really close eye at the competitors in the market, and this was a category that was booming at the time. And we were like, oh, this competitor added this feature and this competitor added that feature. But at the same time, what came out of customer interviews and of, you know, surveys we were doing during onboarding, it turned out that, like, literally 95% of people were just using Microsoft Word to to do their resumes. So it wasn't about showing people we are better than all the other, you know, specialized resume builders out there. It's about showing people that we are better than Microsoft Word.

Vassilena Valchanova [00:20:01]:
It's so good. You know, I was like, oh, we're better than Microsoft Word. And that's probably an easier comparison because people understand Microsoft Word. They use it for their resume. And it's like now you can tailor a message around that rather than Exactly. Oh, look at x, y, and zed. You might actually pushing them to try those other ones out, or they're already looking at it rather than, you know, making sure that you're communicating how you're better than Microsoft Word itself.

Vassilena Valchanova [00:20:28]:
Yeah. Yeah. Exactly.

Vassilena Valchanova [00:20:30]:
That makes sense. So you got the, the alternatives there. And then in terms of the other elements, what are some of the other elements in that framework?

Vassilena Valchanova [00:20:41]:
Yeah. So there's 2 other components to the framework. One is the overall, brand, messaging or product messaging, but that's actually the result of the final 4th component, which are the key pillars. I'm calling this key pillars, and it's similar to what some people call, benefits or value or, you know, even sometimes it gets a bit complicated with desired outcomes for the customer. So there's a lot of wording out there in the marketing world because, you know, we as marketers love to to complicate our lives, and we don't have, like, standardized language around anything. But, what I mean when I'm talking about key pillars is a combination of different, this can be be features. It can be your business practices, your pricing or business model. It can be a bunch of different elements that come together to provide some type of value for the customer.

Vassilena Valchanova [00:21:43]:
And I know that's that's very high level, so I can give you I can give you an example here. If we're thinking about, about Slack, let's say, their whole, messaging currently is about, increasing speed. And this happens in a bunch of different ways. On the one hand side, it's increasing speed by bringing all the information together. On the other hand side, it's about, building speed, through different automations. So these are, examples of product features. If we are thinking about, something beyond product features, which is what most product marketers would naturally go after. You can think about a pricing model as, as an element that goes into these pillars.

Vassilena Valchanova [00:22:35]:
So for example, I have clients who are competing against alternatives which have, at the start, what looks like very lucrative pricing for their clients. But as the product the company grows, because they're billing based on usage, the solution gets really, really expensive. So what we included in the messaging was more information about the pricing structure. Not so much the actual price itself in terms of, you know, dollars and cents, but how what we are charging you for and how that actually is designed to help growing, companies and bigger companies, which was our key target market rather than smaller players who are maybe just starting out and benefit from a different different pricing model. So this is how this can be this can be part of it. Or if you're thinking about, you know, services businesses, oftentimes what we'd include here would be, the way they are actually doing business. So some proprietary approaches they've used or how many, people are involved in a single account to provide better service, or anything else for that matter that's actually leading to to particular value for the customer. And, the way this is structured is that we start off by asking sort of, like, the simplest questions, which are what do customers value in the product itself? And you'll start hearing different bits and pieces if you're doing customer interviews or if you're conducting, like, some other form of research.

Vassilena Valchanova [00:24:17]:
You would hear, for example, these three features that come up time and time again. And then when you ask the follow-up question, like, what does that enable you to do? Why is that, you know, important to you? You hear what's the actual value that this feature brings. And you listen for these sort of value type phrases and you hear something, let's say, we're often hearing about how this, allows people more freedom to conduct business the way you're they're accustomed to. So that's that's a point where, you know, the flexibility of our product is helping, you know, people implement it in their existing workflow without need of a change. So that may be a big a big value point for a product. And then you sort of reverse engineer it. And when you look at this this category of value that comes up again and again, you're like, okay. So what are the different features, business capabilities, and so on that actually enable customers to receive that value.

Vassilena Valchanova [00:25:19]:
And this is how you sort of you first go broad to hear about the different the different ways the product creates value. And then you you narrow that down and you say, for this specific type of value, what are the features we have that are helping with it?

Vassilena Valchanova [00:25:33]:
I I I love that. You're, like, really mapping out, you know, the capabilities of the product to the desires and the value that the the customers are really looking for with that. Thank you so much for sharing this. I'm gonna link this in the show notes and description once again. I I wanna shift gears and actually talk about career power ups. These are things that's helped you with your particular career. You've been a digital marketing strategist and educator for, more than a decade actually as I if you're, you know, checking out your LinkedIn. But curious what's a career power up that's helped you accelerate your career throughout this this journey that you've had so far.

Vassilena Valchanova [00:26:12]:
So there are 2 that I wanna talk to. And 1, I fear it's it's gonna be nothing new because as a listener to the podcast, I've heard almost every marketer around there mention it again and again. And it's the network you build and the people you actually connect with. So I actually, came across that power pretty late in my career, just in terms of, like, the the marketing landscape in my home country of Bulgaria isn't that well developed. So as I started growing in my role, I I needed more connections and I needed more people to talk to who were in the same position and who were working on the same problems. And finding online communities out there where marketers gather and where you can talk to people, this is one of the the best hacks for, you know, on the one hand side, building up skills and learning new things. But on the other more human side of it, it's about feeling you're not, you know, alone in the journey and that you're not a complete scrub for not being able to, you know, figure this out. You gradually start seeing that everyone has the same problems and is struggling in much the same ways.

Vassilena Valchanova [00:27:29]:
And having that sense of communities is really key. And the other thing which I think has helped a lot is I have this rule where when I read something that's really interesting and really curious, I try to link it to a specific, action stem that I can put on my to do list. So I read a ton of stuff. I go through a bajillion different courses every year to level up. But just learning without implementing what you learn doesn't really serve any purpose. Anytime I'd read something curious or, find, like, practice that I haven't tested before, I'm gonna figure out a way to actually do it in real life and try to learn by doing rather than just, you know, consuming

Vassilena Valchanova [00:28:18]:
I love that. That's really, you know, the first one in Resideo suite me so much, the the power of community and, like, connecting with folks. This this is why you know, that's the reason why I'm here. There's a lot of people that's helped me, get to where I am today. So I appreciate you sharing that. That's actually how we met. I'm not sure. You know, I actually come across your work previously.

Vassilena Valchanova [00:28:41]:
A lot of my book in product led onboarding, this part there about jobs to be done. I came across your article around this. So, Fazzy, I'm not sure. I think I messaged this to you on LinkedIn once, but, like, that part was inspired by your writing. And we met at Caitlin Burgoyne and Neil O'Grady's course. I think I I saw you. I was like, oh, I know that person's I know that name.

Ramli John [00:29:03]:
I've seen that.

Vassilena Valchanova [00:29:04]:
Actually, I'm not sure if you know, but there's a few links that, in product led onboarding that goes to your to that specific article. I I mentioned that there. Right? So Yeah. I'm gonna I'm gonna look at the show notes, for people who are not familiar with that jobs to be done in an article interview, jobs to be done style interview that that you have yourself.

Vassilena Valchanova [00:29:26]:
That's great. Yeah. I'm 100% in love with jobs to be done as an approach, and it's basically, in some shape or form, present in any any customer research ideas. So, yeah, big thumbs up there. And, again, like, it's it's so great to finally, you know, see each other face to face after, you know, being on the course together and exchanging messages. I'd been following the podcast for a

Vassilena Valchanova [00:29:57]:
brand messaging template and framework. Your link, that brand messaging template and framework, your LinkedIn. I think, that's probably where you want to send them as well. Is there anywhere else you want people to go to to check out your work, online?

Vassilena Valchanova [00:30:09]:
Yeah. LinkedIn is the best place to connect with me. And if you do, just shoot me a message that you listen to this podcast, what you like them, what you didn't like about it. And, yeah, other than than my site and and LinkedIn, I have a newsletter, which, I try to keep up to a regular, you know, schedule. And every week, I send out, 5 resources that I've come across during the week that I think will help marketers and anyone interested in implementing marketing practices in their work. So if you guys are curious, just head to my website and, you'll also see the newsletter section there too.

Ramli John [00:30:49]:
If you enjoyed this episode, you'd love the Marketing Power Ups newsletter. I share the actionable takeaways and break down the frameworks of world class marketers. You can go to marketingpowerups.com to subscribe, and you'll instantly unlock the 3 best frameworks that top marketers use, hit their KPIs consistently, and wow their colleagues. I wanna say thank you to you for listening, and please like and follow Marketing Power Ups on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. If you feel extra generous, kindly leave a review on on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. And leave a comment on YouTube. It goes a long way in others finding out about marketing problems. Thanks to Mary Sullivan for creating the artwork and design, and thank you to Faisal, Heiko, for editing the intro video.

Ramli John [00:31:31]:
And, of course, thank you for listening. That's all for now. Have a powered update.

Vassilena Valchanova [00:31:36]:
Marketing power ups. Until the next episode.