Message Strategies in Advertising: Benefits, Tactics, & Tips

To get maximum returns on your advertising campaigns, you can’t keep taking shots in the dark and guessing what will resonate with your audience – that'll confuse them, and you'll fail to make a connection.

For guaranteed success, you need to follow a proper, well-defined plan. Here, we discuss the importance of choosing the right message strategies in advertising according to your business objectives. You'll also find plenty of tips for a good messaging strategy.

What is an advertising message strategy?

An advertising message strategy is about deciding what you want to say to your target audience and outlining how to implement and deliver the communication. Messages should be aligned with your audience's needs and desires and be centred around a specified goal, such as boosting conversions for lead generation, registrations, sales, click-throughs, or webpage visits.

Part of putting together a message strategy involves working out the following:

• Who the strategy is aimed at – creating a persona for your target audience(s).

• How you want your audience to perceive your brand.

• The kind of promotional content you'll be circulating.

• A timeline for the strategy, including how often you'll be communicating with your audience.

• The channels you intend to use to reach people.

Six types of advertising messaging strategies

Before diving into the most common messaging strategies, it’s important to understand how to select the right one for your campaign. Your choice should be based on your business goals, audience preferences, and brand context.

How to choose the right messaging strategy for your campaign

Choosing the right messaging strategy depends on a mix of internal and external factors. Here’s what to consider before selecting your approach:

• Campaign goals – Start by identifying what you want to achieve: raise awareness, drive conversions, build loyalty, or position your brand. The goal will determine whether your message should inform, persuade, inspire, or prompt immediate action.

• Brand maturity and positioning – Is your brand just entering the market or already well-established? Newer brands might focus on clarity and credibility, while established ones can afford to lean into emotional storytelling, bold claims, or value-driven narratives.

• Audience mindset – Understand whether your target audience is more emotionally driven (motivated by connection, status, or fear of missing out) or more rational (focused on features, facts, or ROI). Tailor your tone and message structure accordingly.

• Market saturation and competitor messaging – Scan what others in your space are saying. If most competitors are using similar messaging tactics, consider positioning yourself differently to stand out, whether by tone, format, theme, or some other factor.

• Channel suitability – Match the messaging style with the platform you’re using. Short, punchy copy might work for SMS communications, while richer emotional messaging is better suited to social media, video, or email.

The most common message strategies concentrate on brand awareness and positioning, a unique selling proposition, scarcity campaigns and emotional appeals. Another tactic is to focus on indirectly related topics (a more subtle approach). Let's break these down in detail and go through some messaging strategy examples:

1. Develop and reinforce brand messaging

A brand messaging strategy helps customers understand what your business does and why they should engage with you. First, you must create a brand identity that speaks for itself. This involves carefully choosing the business name, slogan, logo, personality, colour palette, typography, imagery and tone of voice. It's what your brand will be known by for the foreseeable future.

Next, you'll need to define your mission, vision and values to convey everything your brand represents and where you're headed, including any social causes that are important to you. Create your brand story – a narrative structure that brings your brand to life and encompasses the emotions you want your audience to feel when they think of your business. This gives your brand a personal touch and helps your audience connect.

An example of a brand that does this brilliantly is LEGO®. Check out its clear brand framework that includes the company's belief, mission, vision, idea, values, promises, and spirit. One of LEGO's most prominent advertising campaigns is 'Rebuild the World', which celebrates children as the masters of creative problem-solving, tying in consistently with the LEGO brand identity.

Brand messaging ultimately needs to be built into all your advertising campaigns to reinforce what your business is about. So, getting your brand identity and voice right from the start is essential.

2. Sharing your unique selling point (USP)

A USP is something that distinguishes your business from competitors. It sums up what's unique about your brand and why customers should choose you. Your USP could be something about your product or service, or even a small but significant feature you offer that competitors don't. For example, you might offer free delivery within a 20km radius or provide 24/7 live support bots to aid customers night or day.

Whatever your USP, focus hard on it. In your messaging strategy, back your USP up with facts, statistics, expert opinions, or experiment results to prove its legitimacy. Word of warning: don't overpromise. If you fail to deliver on your USP according to customer expectations, it will have a disastrous effect on your brand reputation and destroy any hopes of gaining customers’ trust.

What if you don't offer something particularly unique? In that case, promote what you're good at – before your competitors do to make your audience notice your brand. Let's say you and your competitors are all sellers capable of delivering orders on the same day. If they haven't promoted this fact, grab the opportunity to make this the focus of your next advertising campaign. Even if your competitors jump on the bandwagon, their campaign won't be as impactful as yours, as you will have made that claim first.

3. Pathos, aka emotional messaging

Pathos can be defined as a mode of persuasion that appeals to customers' emotions. Some people aren't convinced by facts and logic and are moved instead by something they strongly believe. Successfully eliciting the right emotional responses can help gain loyal, long-term customers.

Depending on what you're advertising, you might want to evoke a feeling of happiness or empathy, fear, or even humour! Take, for example, Surreal's funny promotional campaigns that increase the visibility of their tasty but healthy cereals (on the most formal of advertising platforms - LinkedIn)! Then there's Coca-Cola, with its focus on a sense of love, community, and belonging.

What topic, service, or product can you bring into play to tug on heartstrings, instil a sense of purpose, or make your audience giggle?

4. Brand positioning campaign

Brand positioning involves differentiating your brand from competitors to help it stand out. The goal is to give your audience a reason why your brand is better than others.

Sensodyne toothpaste markets itself as a dedicated solution for sensitive teeth and gums. From the company website to TV ads to social media, the messaging has always been consistent with its strapline claim being the '#1 dentist recommended brand for sensitive teeth'. Dentists even feature in Sensodyne ads to further establish authority and credibility that Sensodyne is the go-to for all sensitivity-related oral health issues. It's an area no other toothpaste brand hones in on as much as Sensodyne does.

5. Urgency, scarcity, and FOMO

This messaging strategy urges your customers to make a purchase by tapping into their fear of missing out (FOMO). It's a phenomenon, this feeling of missing out on some interesting or exciting experience that others – friends, family, even strangers – are having. One statistic shows that 60% of people buy due to FOMO (and fast, mostly within 24 hours). Hence, FOMO can be a driving force for greater sales.

The scarcity factor comes in when it becomes apparent that the sought-after product, service, or experience won't be around for long.

Messente's Demand Generation Specialist, Katria Komp, explains a common approach to this type of campaign: "A customer adds a product they like to their online shopping cart, but don't complete their purchase right away as they want to think about it. Having noticed this action, the brand could send a personalised abandoned cart message highlighting that stocks are running very low to urge the shopper to revisit their cart and buy before it's too late."

Example abandoned cart SMS:

Hi [NAME], your [PRODUCT] is still in your online basket. Don't wait to buy – only two left in stock! Checkout now to avoid disappointment: [URL]

6. Broader, generic messaging

Instead of directly advertising a specific product or service, this strategy focuses on the broad category that your offering falls into. So, a healthcare provider could launch a campaign that spreads awareness about how many people are affected by breast cancer every year and highlights the importance of getting regular mammograms (one of the services offered). The message is subtle, not pushy, to encourage the audience to respond positively and make a booking.

Alternatively, you can conduct generalised campaigns based on specific themes, feelings, or phenomena. Tesla and IBM advertise themselves as green brands through various campaigns to connect with wider audiences than those particularly interested in electric cars or computer hardware.

What does a good messaging strategy look like?

An effective message strategy should be very specific regarding your target audience, key messages, themes and what you want to say. It should also cover all stages of the customer journey so all employees know what to say depending on whether they're talking to prospects or new, existing or end-stage customers.

Aligning message strategy with brand identity and market positioning

Your messaging strategy should consistently reflect your brand’s visual and verbal identity – tone of voice, mission, values, and emotional signature. Make sure your key messages align with what your brand stands for, and that your tone is consistent across all touchpoints.

It's also important to consider where your brand is positioned in the market. Are you a disruptor, cost-leader, or values-based brand? Your messaging should reinforce this position, helping you carve out a distinct and recognisable space in your audience’s mind.

Personalisation with a multichannel approach

Messaging must feel relevant and tailored to your audience segments. Start by building a clear customer persona – their personality, demographics, preferences, and pain points. Use available data, research, and customer feedback to customise your messages for specific groups or even individuals.

Equally important is choosing the right channels. Select platforms your audience already uses, and make sure the message format fits the medium. Consider mixing formats while maintaining your brand voice across each:

• Text message advertising – ideal for scarcity campaigns, flash sales or discounts.

• Social media promotion – for brand awareness, generic messaging or sharing your USP.

• Emails, print, TV, and radio – for brand awareness, brand positioning or emotional messaging campaigns.

• OTT messaging – apps like WhatsApp are useful for advertising a wide range of special offers and for customer service conversations.

No matter the platform, consistency in voice and tone is essential to reinforce your brand’s identity.

Setting realistic and measurable goals

From the outset, your messaging strategy should include clear, measurable objectives. Decide what success looks like: higher engagement, conversions, click-throughs, or retention.

Set realistic and achievable benchmarks, and determine the right metrics to monitor progress. Whether it's open rates for SMS, CTR on emails, or engagement levels on social media, having the right KPIs in place helps you evaluate performance meaningfully.

Measuring effectiveness through testing and analytics

Messaging strategies should never be static. Build in room for experimentation. Test variations of headlines, tone, format, and delivery timing through A/B testing. This helps identify what resonates most with your audience.

Review performance regularly using analytics dashboards, customer feedback, and internal team input. Optimisation is an ongoing process, and the insights you gather should inform both current and future campaigns.

Also, plan for the long term: revisit your strategy annually to keep up with changing market conditions, shifting audience expectations, or evolving brand goals.

Achieve maximum ROI with marketing messages

An effective messaging strategy determines what you want to say to your target audience and outlines how you'll communicate it so your brand image is perceived in the desired way. Your strategy should be very specific regarding your target audience and the goal you're trying to achieve.

Common messaging strategies centre around brand awareness or positioning, sharing a unique selling proposition, creating an emotional connection and urgency or FOMO promotions. You can also tap into broader topics directly related to your industry for a more subtle approach to advertising (which can also help you reach a wider audience).

Consider multiple channels for marketing messaging – use the ones customers prefer for best results. SMS is a popular channel across various demographics, as it's easy to use and convenient for most people. From a business perspective, text messages are cost-effective and enable a broad reach – SMS is a native app built into every mobile phone. And with open rates as high as 98%, it's unlikely your marketing messaging will get missed.