It’s important in business to understand what your customer wants, but it’s even more important to understand why. What are the underlying needs, issues, concerns or problems that are driving people to seek out a particular product or service? Knowing the answers will help you create better content for your blog and social media. In the marketing world, these are often referred to as “pain points.” The idea is that the customer is seeking a product or service to solve some sort of pain that they may or may not be aware of. I don’t like the negative connotation of pain, so I prefer to refer to them as “deepest desires.” Here’s why they matter to you: As a provider, the more you understand why people need or desire what you offer, the better you can tailor your product or service to meet that need or desire. This applies to developing content as well. Knowing what drives people will help you to find the messages and words that will connect with them. Suppose you clean houses. Why do people hire someone to clean their house? The obvious answer is that they don’t want to do it themselves. But why? Is it because they don’t like to clean? Then you want to talk with them about how you can take that job off their hands. Or, is it because they’re so busy? Then talk about how much time you can save them. But there’s more. Why is having a clean house important to them? Do they a greater sense of peace when their home is clean? Or do they want to avoid being harassed by an in-law? Maybe it’s a little bit of both. Should you be talking about how you can relieve stress or how you can help your customer impress the visitors? Now, dig deeper. What’s important to them about how the product or service is delivered? Scheduling? Cost? Style? When you know the answer, you can talk in terms of how you will address their issues. They will see how you will solve their problem. How to uncover the deepest desires: Put yourself in your customer’s shoes and think through the buying process from their perspective. Ask...
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The sun finally came out on Sunday bringing a welcome warm breeze. I know because I glanced at it longingly from my desk in between furtive bursts of working to catch up on a year’s worth of bookkeeping. I would love to have been outside, but instead, I was at my desk going through my calendar and crunching numbers. At some point in the afternoon, a little piece of advice I was once given floated into my brain: Systems will set you free. This great little phrase needs a qualifier, however. It should be: Good systems will set you free. I have a bookkeeping system, it just happens to need improvement. A good system makes things go more smoothly. It reduces your workload and ensures that things happen as they should when they should. Bad systems can not only leave you at your desk on a sunny spring day but also derail you and hold you back. Some might say it’s about discipline and doing what you know you should. But I think that’s only a small piece of the puzzle. I think the better approach is to design systems that make more sense for you and your life. When it comes to online marketing and social media, you can use systems for generating blogs, sending out emails, posting to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other channels, and more. Yes, it takes some time to set up the systems, but compare that to the time you will save in the long run. As someone who is not a natural system follower, I’ve developed a method to develop systems that I can stick with. I’ve already applied it effectively to several parts of my business, and I’m working on it for others (ie bookkeeping). Here’s my formula: What is it that you want to have a system for? While this seems almost too basic to include, it is an important starting point. It forces you to focus and be clear about what you want to build. Why do you need the system? Perhaps this is obvious, but thinking about it will help you design the system. Keeping this in mind can also help you stick with it. What is your current...
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Would you call you? One of the best bits of wisdom I picked up in the early stages of my business is that people want to do business with people they know, like and trust. I have found this to be true and a little frustrating. Afterall, you can only meet so many people in a day. If you can’t meet them, how are they ever going to like and trust you? Fortunately, there is the internet, which gives us the capacity to meet people from all over the world with whom we could potentially do business. The challenge, of course, is that you still need a way for these people to get get to know you so they can find out how likable you are and determine that they can, indeed, trust you. This is why your content matters so much. You’ve got just a few lines to hook people and make them want more. What does your content say about you? Have you looked at it lately from the view of someone who hasn’t met you and doesn’t yet know how wonderful you are? Now could be a good time to do some Spring Cleaning on your social media profiles. Here is a quick checklist to make it easier: Are your profiles accurate? Are they up to date? Do they reflect what you are doing now and how you want your business to grow? Do they focus on what you offer to clients? Is there a call to action? Do they include contact information? It’s a good idea to review these profiles every few months to make sure they reflect what you are doing now and where your business is headed. If the thought of it is overwhelming, break it down into smaller chunks. Just do one channel at a time. Or, schedule small blocks of time, 15 to 20 minutes. Keep coming back to it until it’s done. As you review your profiles, think of trying to reach just one reader at a time. You are not talking to a big group. You are talking to one person who is making a decision about whether to follow you, look at your website, or maybe even give you...
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My 14-year-old daughter came home appalled the other day because a friend had declared she was not a feminist and not interested in the concept of fighting for women’s rights. My daughter couldn’t understand her friend’s indifference. Her ire wasn’t surprising – like her mother, this one is inclined toward strong opinions and voicing them. This is a teenager who looks forward to voting in the next presidential election, expects to drive in two years, can sign up for any number of sports and is applauded for her accomplishments in math and science. Though these are opportunities she might take for granted, she understands that they were fought for and won by previous generations of women and men who demanded equality. And, she has a sense that there are still inequalities and biases. So, when the world celebrates and calls for attention to women’s rights through International Women’s Day, it seems an obvious opportunity to spread a good message. And yet, I, like many business owners, found myself hesitating. It’s an important topic, but it’s more politically charged this year and came with a call for women to strike, which raised another set of issues. As bloggers and social media community builders, we’re always in need of material, and holidays along with national events can provide that. Some of them are easier like Thanksgiving and Veteran’s Day. Others, like Christmas and International Women’s Day, raise questions such as, “Will you offend clients and customers who don’t celebrate or support the day or cause?” Should that stop you from advancing something you support or believe in? Though I am opinionated and willing to make it known in tight circles, I tend to be more neutral to the broader public. This is due in part to my roots as a journalist charged with presenting the news without bias and in part out of respect for those who hold different views. Therefore, when a business owner hesitates to jump onto to a popular bandwagon, I understand. But there is another side to be considered. Not everyone is your ideal customer. As much as you may turn away some, you may attract others. There will be those who support you because of what you...
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I was under the impression that the drive from Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon was just about 2.5 hours. There were plenty of tour buses that would pick you up early in the morning from your hotel, bring you there and return you just in time for dinner, so a day trip seemed feasible. I was in Vegas to organize a conference. It was three days of intensive activities following several weeks of intensive planning and preparation. Consequently, I had been too busy to adequately plan this feasible day trip, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me. I rented a car and picked up a friend who had also been too busy to plan. We lingered over coffee and then left with a notion of the right direction and a sense of what we were doing. Once on the road, we Googled the day and made plans for a hike on the South Rim. We followed Google Maps and diligently turned off at the big sign that said “Grand Canyon This Way.” So far so good. But somewhere in the midst of the Joshua Trees, we started to realize we weren’t heading where we thought we wanted to go. We were on track to go to an outlook where there was no hiking. At this point, we’d lost access to Google Maps and had to rely on old-fashioned paper maps. None of this would have been a major problem except that I had a plane to catch later that day. As best we could without GPS to give us an exact time, we estimated how long it would take to get to where we wanted to go and then how long to get to the airport. It would be undoubtedly close. We knew it was unlikely that we would get time to hike even if we made it to the South Rim. But what is life if not a daring adventure? Besides, the speed limit out that way happens to be 75 miles per hour. (It’s just 65 around where I live.) And so, off we went in the new right direction. The thing about traveling out west is that you don’t always feel like you are getting...
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It’s generally easy to get kids talking when it’s near Halloween – just ask about their costumes. They’ll go into great detail about their plans, their make-up, the things they need to buy or have bought and the things they’re going to make or have already made. After all, many have spent a long time planning, some have devoted months to it. I tried this recently with my Sunday School class. The class went from frenzied chaos to focused controlled energy when I asked about their Halloween costumes. That question alone got their attention, but the what really got them engaged was when I asked “Why.” One boy is going to be a pillowcase. He was counting on getting lots of candy and wanted to make it easier to carry. He figured that he uses a pillowcase to collect his candy, so why not make it the costume. His mother was going to pin two cases together, one for the front and one for the back, and then put shoulder straps on it. That way, he could fill up the front and then turn it around to fill up the back. One of the girls was going as a superhero. She admired the character’s strength and wanted to be just like her. Another was going as Tweedle Dum because her friend was going as Tweedle Dee. Have you thought lately about the “why” that motivates your customers? It matters because it reveals motivations, perspectives and what is important to people. Some key questions you want to know the answers to include Why does this person need your service? What is most important to them about it? How are they going to make their decision about whether to use you or someone else? This information can help in developing services and products that will interest the people you want to work with. And, it will help you develop marketing plans and create the content that will resonate with them. Getting people to talk about their why is usually about as easy as getting kids to talk about their Halloween costumes. They love their businesses, they’ve spent a lot of time thinking about them, and they want someone to understand them. You can...
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