The other week, we discussed the way to write effective marketing copy: by using psychological rewards. We showed how all businesses, no matter what service or product they provide, give their customers something they want at a deep, psychological level.
If your eyes are rolling in your head, that means you didn’t see our examples of how a tire store, a gym, and a gift shop can tap into the deep, primal desires of their customers.
Really! If you didn’t see the last post, check it out HERE!
Now, I’d like to share THE SECRET SAUCE that will help you create marketing messages that will capture your customer’s attention because they tap into basic needs we all have.
If you master this part, you’ll be able to write AMAZING copy for years to come.
This will make your business so SUCCESSFUL!
(I’m hearing a drum roll in my head, and I hope you are, too.)
You, as a business owner CANNOT guess at the deep psychological motivations of your customers - you have to actually ask them.
I know what you’re thinking. You know your customers! You’ve been in this business for a long time! You know why people buy!
The thing is, research tells us that the reasons YOU think people buy and the ACTUAL reasons they buy are often two very. Different. Things.
That’s why it’s critical to ask your customers a few specific questions to uncover their authentic buying motivations. Then, when you know what they are, you can market your business as a way to solve that pain, provide that solution, and offer the psychological reward they’ve been looking for.
The questions are simple:
What prompted you to reach out to us?
With this question, you’re determining the motivations for contacting your business. What was going on at the time they reached out to you? What was their motivation for reaching out to you instead of one of your competitors?
What struggles and concerns are you currently facing?
This provides direct insight into how you can help.
The answers to these two questions provide valuable information about the motivations for people to buy and the struggles they’re currently facing. The motivators and struggles create priceless messaging because they tell you which solutions are most relevant to them.
As you know, effective marketing must contain psychological rewards. And,
with the information you’ve gleaned from these questions, you’ll be able to create messaging that includes the most relevant solutions that solve your ideal client's needs.
Here's a real life example.
I recently interviewed customers for my client’s children’s basketball program. I interviewed parents to see why they enrolled. A couple of the women said, “I’m a single mom, my son wanted to play basketball and I knew it would be good for him to have a male role model. I see the importance of having a male role model in my child’s life.
That’s a market in itself and gives a guideline on what to write and how to strategically position one of the messages. We’re writing to single moms who see the value of both basketball and having a positive male role model in their son’s life.
Another said, “My son loves basketball, and I was looking for a program to teach him core values such as integrity, strong work ethic, and respect for others.”
There’s another market. Parents who consciously care about respectful behavior and want to teach their son high core values.
You’ll see multiple messages in each of the motivators, and these can form your messaging. It’s okay to have a few of these core messages in your branding to attract the different psychologies.
Before, the client figured the best way to market was to show his coaching expertise. He thought that’s what parents wanted.
But, by asking the parents these questions, we discovered that writing “coach lingo” to these parents would not be effective. We needed to address the psychological motivations of these parents, the desire for a positive place where their child could be exposed to a positive role model and learn core values. If the research had shown an intense interest in focusing only on basketball fundamentals, then heck yeah, we’d have written tons of coach lingo for their messaging. But that was not the case. At all.
For your market research, ask the questions. It’s crucial to find out your customers’ true motivations, so you can write messaging that addresses them and attracts more people like them.
Often, brilliant messaging comes from the words of your clients. It's authentic, sincere, and people love that. The words of others can sell you much better than you can sell yourself.
Doing this will cause your ideal client to read your copy and say, “That’s me! That’s exactly what I’m looking for!”
That’s the SECRET SAUCE to effective marketing.