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- messaging <> branding
messaging <> branding
also: villain-driven marketing and $100k redesigns
Pavlo Cherniakov
July 21, 2024
Hey,
You know that copy is important. Replace any hyper-converting page’s copy with lorem ipsum and its conversion will nosedive.
But what about design? Brand colors? Do they matter at all? Well, you tell me.
Take a look at this copy from a B2B SaaS with a very strong brand and tell me if it resonates:
This is, word for word, the copy from a very well-known B2B company.
If you’re a B2B marketing leader, it probably does. I’m fairly certain you even figured out what company this is from. (If not, here’s the answer.)
If you were able to understand what that company does and why you should care, then the copy did its job. Meaning the branding should just be pretty fluff you wrap it in, right?
Wrong. Because reading the copy, then trying to figure out what it does, then connecting the dots to guess what that company is about is work. And no one likes additional work.
Chances are, you didn’t need to see the previous image—or click on the link—to know where this image is from:
You likely know where this is from without needing to see the text.
As someone who writes all the copy for a living and does none of the branding, I can’t deny that branding and messaging are mutually-reinforcing pillars of any B2B company’s GTM motion.
A bare bones, black-and-white page with impeccable messaging is only marginally more effective at getting the conversion than a nonsense page with bells and whistles.
(Yes, I know of craigslist, and their lack of design is branding itself.)
Still, any new CMO eyeing a $100k redesign in their first month should probably allocate a fraction of that for making sure their messaging is on point before trying to dress it into shiny new colors and trendy fonts.
