Often brands fall into a trap of overcomplicating their messaging. In doing so, these businesses create multiple problems for themselves no matter their industry or marketing channel. It’s a fundamental marketing principle, if your message isn’t clear and targeted, you risk poor engagement and poor conversion rates – and even attracting the wrong audience all together. Whether it’s your Google Ads copy or website landing pages, making your messaging more effective ensures that the right people get the right information at the right time and reduces unnecessary friction.
Why do businesses overcomplicate their messaging?
A lot of businesses have a huge amount to say. They’ve built their brand, developed their services, and made countless decisions along the way – all of which feel important to them. The problem is, businesses often try to communicate all of this to customers in one big information dump.
Another common mistake is feeling like you only have one opportunity to get your message across. Whether it’s through Google Ads, social ads, or another channel, trying to say everything at once instead of breaking things down strategically is going to lead to poor performance.
This ties into a bigger issue – many businesses don’t approach messaging with a clear strategy. They might be targeting too broadly, or even if they’ve narrowed down their audience, they’re not considering who they’re speaking to at different stages of the journey. Messaging should be tailored to the right audience, at the right time, through the right medium. Not every message needs to be communicated immediately – and some are better suited to later stages, different channels, or separate audience segments entirely.
What are the signs that messaging is too complicated?
How do you spot the warning signs? This can be a tricky question because it’s not always obvious when your messaging isn’t working. If someone sees your ad or content but chooses not to engage, you have no way of knowing what turned them off. You sometimes don’t even know it’s happened. That’s why A/B and multivariant testing are so important – they help you refine and optimise your messaging based on real, trackable data rather than guesswork.
That said, if messaging is fundamentally too complex, you’ll usually see issues in two key areas. First, low engagement – whether that’s an SEO blog post generating traffic but not desired actions, or an ad that’s being shown but not generating interactions. Second, a poor conversion rate – if people are clicking but not converting, there’s likely a disconnect between what they expected and what they’re actually seeing.
There are also some signs often overlooked. If you’re finding you’re attracting the wrong type of customer, it could mean your messaging isn’t resonating with the audience you actually want. For example, if you’re attracting price-sensitive customers when your service is very premium. Similarly, if you’re receiving unexpected questions or confused interactions during pre-sale or post-sales stages, it might be because your messaging isn’t as clear as you think it is, leading to misunderstandings about your offering.
How does overly complicated messaging affect customer behaviour and conversion rates?
The impact of overly complicated messaging is pretty straightforward – it almost always has a negative effect. If you’re not standing out or not clearly communicating the most important information to the right person at the right time, you’re not going to see the customer behaviours or conversion rates you’re trying to achieve.
That said, it’s not always as black and white as ‘working’ or ‘not working.’ Sometimes, messaging is just not as optimised or effective as it could be, meaning you’re losing impact without even realising it. This goes back to A/B testing – refining your message can be the difference between good performance and great performance.
Ultimately, successful marketing comes down to alignment – your message, audience, product, and marketing mix all need to fit together. If they don’t, conversion rates suffer, engagement drops, and you miss opportunities to connect with the right customers.
How to make messaging more effective?
Businesses and marketing teams need to think strategically about their audience and how they communicate with them. The first step is segmentation. Different people interact with a product or service in different ways, so messaging should be tailored accordingly. This could be based on demographics, geography, or even their level of awareness.
Using an awareness ladder is a great way to refine this. If someone is problem-aware but not yet solution-aware, the messaging should focus on agitating the problem and building curiosity as to a solution. There’s no point in talking about service results or long-term benefits at this stage – they’re just not there yet.
The next step is choosing the right channels. Some messages will be better suited to social ads, while others might work best through SEO or email. The key is making sure each channel is used effectively to get the right message to the right person at the right time.
When we know the audience and the channel, we need to also think about purpose. It’s important to think about how the customer will move through our marketing funnel and the experience built across multiple touchpoints. Each interaction should be tailored and considered, creating a structured and cohesive experience.
The Last Word
Brands and businesses must think strategically about messaging. Try to ensure messaging is clear, relevant and well-timed across all of your campaigns. Segment audiences and tailor what and how you’re communicating particular messages and think about which medium is going to be most effective. Every interaction for a customer, whether through a search ad, landing page or social media, should have a clear, actionable purpose that fits within the wider marketing strategy.
If you have concerns about your marketing fundamentals, your messaging or would like to learn more about our digital marketing services, give us a call.