How to find the messages that let you stand out, grow your community, and win more clients…

Kirsten Back Author

The "Zeitgeist" has shifted today's messaging. Read on to find out how to align with the current messaging shift...

The Germans have the very descriptive term “Zeitgeist” – which translates to “spirit of the time”. The Oxford dictionary explains the term as “the defining spirit or mood of a particular period of history as shown by the ideas and beliefs of the time”.

That implies that people are perceptive to or concerned with certain topics that are relevant to them at any given time in history.

And that couldn’t be more true for the period we are living in right now.

2022 falls into the period of a global pandemic, rapid economic change, and disruptive lifestyle changes.

Most of us have been directly affected by the pandemic and any resulting changes - and we are feeling the impact.

The percentage of people in a poor emotional state has increased hugely. (As an example: In New Zealand between 2020 and 2022 poor emotional health rose from 25% to 36% across the population with 42% of women showing poor emotional wellbeing.)

Those numbers are alarming and they explain a trend or “Zeitgeist” where mental health and personal development take a front seat.

People have the desire to feel better, live better, grow, and thrive. People crave positivity and want to stop worrying.

Businesses and services that help people feel better are aligned with the “Zeitgeist”- and they are needed more than ever

The “big resignation” is hitting businesses hard. Professionals have lived with feeling doubtful and powerless about their corporate futures for the last couple of years and many feel the need to take charge of their future by starting their own businesses.

Established service providers are looking at a changing market and different customer needs.

And that has an effect on the market’s messaging. The messaging has shifted towards topics that address current pain points and desires.

Topics like mindset, personal development, a balanced lifestyle, mental and physical well-being are hitting a nerve.

Now, if you take a good look at your business and your messaging – have you aligned with the “Zeitgeist”?

And if everybody else is doing it – how can you be visible, valued, and trusted?

A good starting point is to ask yourself…

What makes you different?

The answer to that question can be found when you take a good look at yourself …

• who you are as a person, your talents, strengths, and personality
• your experience, expertise, knowledge, qualifications, and skills
• your values, beliefs, and purpose

And then ask yourself how can you – with all that you are and that you have going for you – serve your ideal clients better than anybody else?

What is it that makes you and your services different?

What can you offer that the majority of your competition is not offering?

It is not easy to answer these questions, but it is necessary.

When you take the time and make the effort to answer these questions, you will gain insights that allow you to reposition yourself in alignment with the changed customer needs and desires.

It is time to redefine your uniqueness, adapt your offer, articulate your point of difference, and articulate your competitive edge!

My advice on how to do that would be to take a look at your brand messages…

What are the messages that you need to revisit and align?

The most prominent messages that your audience sees are your:

• USP
• Value Proposition
• Purpose, Mission, Vision & Value statements

These statements tell your audience who you are, what you care about, and what you can do for them.

It also means listening into yourself and defining how you, your priorities, and your views have changed.

And as a result of that – has your ideal customer avatar changed? Have you shifted towards a different kind of client that is better aligned with your new priorities?

If you feel that there has been a shift but you can’t quite pin it down, then the following questions can help you to get more clarity:

• Has your point of difference changed? Have you developed new skills or insights that let you stand out in a different way? Has your focus changed?
• Has what you do changed? Have there been changes to your services? Do you have new or changed offers with different benefits?
• How has your ideal client changed with the recent developments? Are there new pain points or aspirations? How do your clients feel and how do they want to feel?

It is worth answering these questions because these changes need to be reflected in your messaging. Answering these questions gives you the clarity to communicate and connect with your audience on a level that is aligned with the changing “Zeitgeist”.

They prevent you and your ideal client from ideologically drifting apart. And they help you to get aligned if your audience has changed and you have grown to serve a different kind of audience with different priorities.

This shift can feel uncomfortable at first but as soon as you have clarity about the exact shifts that you and your audience have made, you will feel a new sense of purpose and motivation – those of your audience who have made similar shifts will happily follow and you will be attracting new people into your community.

Don’t fear the change – embrace it!

Change can feel scary and you might feel overwhelmed with the prospect of changing your messaging, revisiting your content pillars, updating your content calendar, and testing your new messages…

But change is inevitable and it can inject a new spirit of growth and progress into your communication.

If you feel that you need support with aligning your messages with the “Zeitgeist”, then contact me and we can talk about how I can help you to work through this messaging shift.

Categories: Brand Messaging, Brand Promise, Clarity, Client avatar, Content Creation, Content Creation tips, Content tips, Ideal client, Messaging