The one thing your brand’s messaging needs more than anything

Strategic communications
Written By Lorraine Sanders

 Prediction: in our increasingly complicated world, back-to-basics marketing is going to matter more than ever in the second half of this year – and in the years to come. 

With that in mind, here’s a back-to-basics marketing mantra for your Friday. Make your messages:

  • Simple and said often (S.A.S.O.)

Why? Let me backtrack for a sec. Anyone who’s been marketing anything over the last decade has this in common:

We've been inundated by an era of tools and tactics, platforms and strategies, funnels and workflows, gurus and courses, programs and templates and checklists and roadmaps and everything in between – all purporting to help us meet the challenge of getting visible in today's world. 

In my work with more and more Web3 projects through the NEAR Marketing DAO and 1:1 with clients, I’ve seen Web2’s flood of tools and tactics not only continue to push basic marketing wisdom to the side for normie brands, but “more is more” thinking colliding with the complexity and newness of blockchain technology. The results are often not pretty. More often than not (though great marketing in Web3 is possible and does exist) they’re noisy or confusing or insider-y to a fault or full of operational friction or prohibitively fragmented (Discord, Telegram, Twitter, Medium, Substack – as a minimum just to track the basics of one brand? Or is that just me?).

Whether you’re Web2, Web3 or somewhere in between or beyond, that’s really not the point. 

Here’s what is:

In the race to crack the marketing code, create an ever more impactful strategy, level up and increase efficiency – all in the name of wowing people with the amazing newness of what you’re creating – it’s far too easy (and common) to run ripshod over tried-and-true fundamentals like:

  • Tell a story

  • Add value

  • Keep it simple

  • Be easy to find

  • Do those things often both where your people hang out and where you think new people who might like you hang out

Should newness and complexity be discounted? No way. But forget the fundamentals, and you’ll never get a chance to wow people with the newness and complexity of what you’ve created because you’ll never be able to bridge the gap and grab their attention, make them understand and get them so excited about what you’re up to that they’ll keep them coming back for more.

Going back to the top, when you S.A.S.O. your message, all those tools and tactics actually have a chance to work. Really work. So you can create the growth, impact and visibility you’re here for. 

Want to S.A.S.O. your message (or entire marketing program) – no matter the newness or complexity of your backstory? Reach out. 

Lorraine Sanders