How to Test if Your eCommerce Website Messaging is Reaching the Right Audience

The way your brand is perceived by your audience can be the result of a variety of different things- customer experience, use, functionality, or even word of mouth recommendation. One thing is for certain however, your brand can only be as successful as the marketing message it delivers. Brand messaging is the language, phrasing, and all other communications in between that are delivered to your audience across all touch points. The difference between a major success and a complete failure when it comes to reaching your target audience can simply be how consistent, concise and empathetic your message may be. To craft a perfect message that suits your brand and your eCommerce website, message testing can come in handy to ensure your message fits the needs of your company, and the current needs of the market.

Why Brand Messaging Matters for Marketing Success:

Brand messaging is vital to marketing success in the way that branding aims to influence the perceptions of a brand in order to entice the audience to choose your brand over its competitors. If your brand message is inconsistent, each message you deliver to your customers is a missed opportunity to shape the impression of your audience. If not strategically designed and developed to capture the whole identity of your brand, there will be no consistency with your message; after all, your brand lives within the mind of your audience. If you need more help developing your branding and visual identity when it comes to website marketing, check out our blog post Ecommerce Websites: What is Visual Identity and Why Does It Matter?

How Can Message Testing Improve the Effectiveness of Your Message:

In order to ensure successful brand messaging, it is important to first test the effectiveness of your message. Message testing can give a little insight into what your customers and potential customers are thinking and can essentially make or break your brand. To create compelling and persuasive messages, information from message testing can be incredibly valuable, such as gathering real customer experiences that others can connect with. Interviews, focus groups, surveys, social media, and even simple tests are all effective ways to reach people depending on how assertive you want to approach the testing. You want people to understand the value of your product or service it brings to the market, and if they don’t, you lose money. That’s why as a marketer, you never want your message to get diluted by thinking too broadly about how people will use your products or services, which is why testing is the way to go.

What Does Successful Testing Look Like?

It is important to recognize that there is no single way to conduct a successful brand message testing. Using a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods, you may be able to capture your product’s value and the aspects of what sets it apart from others. Testing that gathers first hand experiences and gives you a proper insight into what your customers think and feel about your products, eCommerce website, and overall brand, is successful.

5 Basic Questions to Ask Yourself when Testing a Company's Messaging

1. What is the company's goal with this messaging?

Remembering to establish trust in your product or service so they choose you over your competitors and refer others to you, is vital when testing your company’s messaging.

2. How do I know if this message is effective or not?

Being able to assess if your message resonates with your audience and giving them a clear idea about what problems your products or services can give them a solution to, will decipher if your message is effective.

3. What are the words used in this message and how does it impact my audience?

“People buy with their emotions and justify it using logic”

The most efficient way to persuade people to buy something is to appeal to their emotions. Preparing a message that capitalizes on your audience’s emotion can create an ad that makes people develop an emotional connection to your brand.

4. Is there any data that proves or disproves what I am saying in this message?

Message development begins with extensive research about the needs of your audience. Recognizing all the data around the points you are trying to make in your message is important so you don’t lead your consumers astray.

5. Am I communicating clearly enough to my target audience and getting across my point effectively enough?

Communicating from the viewpoint of the seller is never the approach you want to take since business is always about the customer. Getting into the minds of your consumers and constantly revisiting why your brand is better than your competitors will set your message up for success.

Your eCommerce website messaging can make or break your market success. Remembering to thoroughly research and then strategically design your message to encompass the entirety of your brand, will set you apart from your other competitors. It’s important to emphasize the value your business has to your customers, or else they’ll choose your competition over you. If you’re just starting out building out your customer base check out our free eBook 7 Steps to Turning Visitors Into Customers.