Patterns can stand for letters

The pattern 01000001 can stand for the number 65. It does not contain a letter by itself.

Now imagine a shared codebook:

65 means A

66 means B

67 means C

If two computers use the same codebook, one can send 65 and the other can show A.

A shared agreement like this is called a standard. ASCII and Unicode are two standards that connect numbers to written characters.

The meaning comes from the agreement, not from the bits alone.