What Problems Do You Solve for Your Customers?
Everyone has problems. Everyone has fears and stressors that keep them up at night. Everyone has dreams, hopes, and wishes that will make them happier in life. Some of these fears and wishes are small while others are big. And sometimes these fears and wishes are so far-fetched that people know, for better or worse, that they won’t necessarily come true (at least, when they’re being realistic). But those fears and wishes still exist in the back of their brain.
And you know what people do? They throw money at those fears and wishes. They spend money with the hopes that the products or services they are buying will make the fears go away or the wishes come true.
What Problem Do You Solve?
That’s where your marketing campaign comes in. You want to show people that your product or service will solve their problems. Not necessarily in a scammy way — you’re not trying to dupe them into patronizing your business because they have some unrealistic fear they think you can solve for them. Not at all!
But you, as a business owner, believe in your product or service. You know it’s great, and that people are going to enjoy a higher quality of life because of it. And in these situations, you know that your business has the power to put those unrealistic fears at rest or to fill the hole where those unrealistic wishes reside.
It’s just a matter of communicating that power of your business to your potential customers!
How do you start doing that?
Good question — it starts with understanding your customer’s problems. In the marketing world, these are often called “pain points.” These are the reasons your customers aren’t enjoying a 100% blissful, stress-free life. And remember — even if your product or service isn’t something that makes a long-term, all-encompassing difference in a customer’s life (which it doesn’t have to do to still have value) you can still improve their day, and that’s what makes all the difference for them in that moment.
Here are some steps to consider when you’re trying to figure out your customer’s pain points:
First, focus on a single person. Don’t think of your customers as one collective group. Remember that when people are making purchase decisions, they’re usually shopping by themselves. Sure, they might consult their spouse or have a friend offer advice, but remember that the decision ultimately comes down to them.
Don’t stress out if your customer pool is diverse. You might have potential customers who are of many different ages and have many different interests. For a successful marketing campaign, however, you need to narrow your focus. You can focus on other demographics within your customer base with another campaign. If you’re talking to everyone, then (as the saying goes) you’re talking to no one. Think about which you’d respond better to: If somebody made a general announcement that said, “Hey, everyone!” or if they simply said, “Hey, [your name]” directly to you?
Spend some time thinking about what your target audience does for fun. What are their priorities and values? These will help you figure out what fears are keeping them up at night or wants they keep lingering on throughout the day. Most people (on the surface level) want money, time, and comfort — and many of their emotion-based spending decisions come from one of those three wants.
Now is your chance to figure out how your product or service addresses those problems at some level. Let’s say you’re a real estate agent, and your target audience is a young millennial who thinks life is passing by too quickly and they’ll never achieve what older generations did. Your message to them becomes about how your service makes the home-hunting process less daunting and overwhelming, ultimately empowering them to achieve their dreams of homeownership. They now have a long-term place of belonging, not to mention an investment that will increase in worth and help them later in life.
On the other hand, maybe you’re a catering company and you know your audience is middle-aged social butterflies who want nothing more than to be perceived as the ones among their circle of friends who has the most and does the most. Your message then becomes about how they will feel elite and posh when your food is served at their event.Think outside the box and remember that the relationship between your product or service and your customer’s pain point might not be obvious right away. Instead, keep asking yourself what’s so great about what you do and how it will help your customer in the grand scheme of things.