If your marketing only talks about the problem you solve, you might be missing the people who need you most. Learn how to speak to the symptoms your clients recognise, so your message resonates before they even know what the real problem is.
You'll need
- •A voice-note app
You have the reference points and terminology to explain the exact problem you can solve for a client - but do they?
When you’ve been immersed in your industry and/or specialism for so long, it’s easy to forget that not everyone has the same vocabulary and insights as you do.
If they can’t articulate the problem themselves, they are not going to be typing in the keywords and phrases to find you if you’re only talking about the problem you solve.
If they aren’t even aware they have the problem, they are not going to resonate with content you’re putting out that only talks about the problem you solve.
Most people are not associating their pain points with keywords or jargon. What people will be doing, though, is associating them with a feeling - i.e. experiencing a symptom.
For example, if you’re an Administrative VA: Speaking to the problem: “I provide scalable back-office support, streamlining your operational workflows and optimising your systems for maximum efficiency.” Speaking to the symptom:
“Your inbox is the first thing you see in the morning and the last thing you see at night. You started this business to do the work you love, but somehow you spend half your week chasing invoices and replying to emails.”
Can you see the difference? The problem is their systems aren’t optimised. The symptom is that they’ve fallen out of love with their business by Wednesday.
Another way to approach this is to imagine you’re at the pub on a Tuesday night (hey, it’s been a tough week already…) and you overhear a conversation between two friends, one of whom is clearly in need of a large merlot and a good rant.
Are they saying to their friend: “My back-office support is totally unscalable, my operational workflows are a mess and I’m so stressed that I’m not optimising my systems for maximum efficiency…”
Or are they saying something like: “I just feel like I’m spending all day doing emails. You know, I want to address things quickly but I feel like I’m being punished for being efficient - I just end up with more things to respond to! I’m so stressed because all my time is being spent just trying to stay on top of everything and I’m barely getting to do my actual work. I’m wondering if it's even worth it?”
And if social protocols didn’t make it seem so weird, this is where you’d pull up a stool and say: “I couldn’t help overhearing, but I think I can really help you here…”
Thankfully, most of us are not marketing ourselves in pubs, so here’s how we can pull up a proverbial stool in our existing marketing channels.
The Exercise: Imagine a conversation where someone’s complaining about the problem you solve. One that if you overheard, you’d be tempted to go over, introduce yourself and let them know how you can help. Open up your voice-note app and indulge in a full-on rant as your client, having that conversation (we’re voice-noting rather than writing here, to capture more natural language and phrasing). Play it back (or transcribe it) and highlight the phrases that jump out. Those are your hooks, headlines and opening lines.
What to expect
A direct insight into the symptoms you can address in your marketing message, that will really hit home with your audience.