Part 5 of Megan’s Journey of Internet Marketing.
“It’s about time you got here!” snapped Megan, as I arrived, 10 minutes early. “We are stuck here. Now we know who we are talking to, where they are, and what is important to them. What do we say?” “That’s what today is about,” I replied.
When customers shop for a service like Megan’s, they are either trying to solve a problem or looking for improvement. These things are really 2 sides of the same coin. When we talk to customers or write copy for them we need to address these 2 issues. We call them Pain Points and Benefits.
Megan knew that her ideal customers want a beautiful yard, a benefit, and that they are frustrated with “mow, blow, go” guys who do not care about their yards, a pain point. They also don't like people who are not knowledgeable. Each one of these can be represented by a pain point or a benefit. Talking with customers and writing ad copy involves bringing up pain points and presenting solutions.
All of us have seen those ads that ask “Are you tired of having this problem? We can help!” It seems tired and corny, but people use it because it works. I talked with Megan about how she could best pose that question to her ideal customer online. “I was talking with Emily, one of our new customers this morning, said Megan, “She told me how her last guy saw she had a broken sprinkler head and didn’t say anything to her. She found out when her sod was ruined from flooding”.
That is a great description of her pain point. I asked if Emily might be willing to tell her story again to a video camera. Customer testimonials explaining your benefits and how pain points are solved are the best way to tell your story. You only need a few great stories like this to build your ad campaign around. Tell a story that outlines how you resolve pain points for your ideal customer and you can bring the internet to your door.
This is also where we finally get around to SEO. When customers shop for services they typically type their pain points or their benefits into their search engine. Your website, blog posts, and videos better be full of those words. Pain points and benefit words are key to how you use Google Ads as well.
“OK I think I get it” smiled Megan, “It’s a process. Now we can figure out what we need our ads to say” The team started brainstorming tag lines and ad stories. Colton the Marketing Coordinator was scribbling notes.
“Now you have the foundation you need to go market your business,” I said. We can finally get to how to use this on the internet. But that is a blog post for another day.
The 5 steps of marketing any business.
Step 1. What do you sell? Define your product or service.
Step 2. Who do you want to sell it to? Your Ideal Customer
Step 3. Why should anyone buy from you? Your value proposition
Step 4. Where do they hang out? What is the best place to reach them online? Your Online Presence
Step 5. How do you help them? Your Pain Points and Benefits.
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