Photo: Nick Fewings
Today, I’d like to share a very powerful marketing strategy with you, which few, if any, of your competitors are aware of.
Every business provides a product or a service, which solves a problem for the customer. In order to solve their problem, it needs to create a change. To move the customer from something to something.
For example.
- From worried to confident.
- From vulnerable to safe.
- From broke to wealthy.
- From discomfort to comfort.
- From bored to entertained.
- From struggling to succeeding.
- From confused to clear.
- From sad to joyful.
- From scruffy to glam.
- From lonely to connected.
- From loss to gain.
- From ignorant to informed.
- From stressed to relaxed.
- From pessimistic to hopeful.
- From lost to guided.
Now, here’s the part very few business owners get right.
You need to figure out the change your prospective customers are looking for. Their ‘from what’ and their ‘to what’.
Warning
The biggest danger here is believing the answer is obvious. It almost never is.
Seriously.
For instance, no successful coffee shop focuses on changing you from thirsty to quenched. None of them.
They change you by creating an attractive atmosphere. An atmosphere, where you can go from stressed to relaxed, or from tired to restored, or from lonely to connected, from stuck to creative or from bored to entertained.
The world’s top coffee shops know this. It’s what their marketing focuses on. It’s why we see very little emphasis placed on the coffee beans used, yet huge emphasis placed on the welcoming, positive atmosphere.
Here’s another example.
The world’s most expensive restaurants don’t focus on taking you from feeling hungry to feeling full. You can go down the street and get the same number of calories from a burger joint for pennies. Instead, these restaurants focus on their exclusivity. They take you from feeling normal to feeling like a star.
You get the idea.
Your product or service
Determine what change or changes your prospect is truly looking for.
Focus on the ‘from what’ part. Your marketing message needs to meet them right there. It needs to talk to their current situation. It needs to address the discomfort they’re feeling. This means your message will be on the very same wavelength that they’re on. This dramatically and profoundly increases the sales impact of your marketing
Then focus on the ‘to what’ part. Your marketing needs to illustrate how your product or service transitions them to their end point. To the very thing they desire.
This marketing strategy is designed to directly address the wants or needs of your prospects and position you as the answer. Almost no small business marketing does this and amazingly few medium-sized businesses.