If you’ve answered the earlier questions you know who your customer is, and what your customer wants from your website. Now we need to define what you provide.
photo credit: rachaelvoorhees
If you’ve spent more than 2.7 seconds near a marketer, you’ve probably heard the phrase, “Sell benefits not products”. This is a truism in marketing, and it’s a truism because it’s bloody true. It’s especially triply damnably true on the internet. (I’ll tell you why that is another time.)
Problem solving = cash
We ignore the vast majority of the thousand thousand products and services. They’re invisible until we care. Then we think:
- I have to buy some decent shoes before the wedding
- I’m sick of doing the accounts myself
- I’m hungry!
- Gotta replace the microwave
- Jessica needs a soccer ball
- Booooooooooooored now
- My ankle still hurts, dammit
Those are all problems. We want them solved, and generally want the solution to be one or more of the following:
- Cheap (saves money)
- Simple (saves time)
- Nearby (saves inconvenience)
- Safe (saves risk)
As soon as we find someone to solve our no-shoes problem (or our boredom problem, or our sore ankle problem) that is cheap/simple/nearby/safe enough, we hand over our money.
Problems in disguise
People are complicated. Joanne buying a frame isn’t necessarily solving the “I have no frame” problem. She might be really thinking:
- My house looks horrible
- I’m starting to forget Dad’s face
- I’m so proud of Ben!
She doesn’t care about the frame. She cares about displaying art/her father’s picture/her son’s award. She cares about that a LOT. If you can make it clear to her that your frames will meet her real desires, she will buy. She might not even realise what her deep desires are, but she knows that your frame makes her feel good.
You’re not creating a desire, because that’s skeevy. (Example: marketers who prey on the bereaved. Boo.) You’re just identifying the reasons people buy your product/service and making it clear to your potential customers that you can meet that need. It’s time to list the benefits.
How to turn products and services into benefits
- Write down your product or service.
- In one sentence, describe the problem your customers have.
- In one sentence, describe how you solve that problem.
- Keep asking, “So what?” until you have an answer your three-year-old would understand.
Using our business as an example:
- Service: Coaching for business owners starting a website
- Problem: Lots of business owners want a website but don’t know what to do or how to make it a success.
- Solution: We provide advice on what website would meet their needs.
- So what? They have a tailored web strategy.
- So what? They can start an effective website.
- So what? They make money.
If you’ve got multiple products/services, repeat as needed. In fact, you may have to repeat the process multiple times for the same product/service. Our coaching helps make money, but it also helps save stress. Different benefit of the same solution.
Time to be bleeding obvious
A lot of business go through the benefits exercise then forget about it completely when they come to write their marketing material. They get Creative.
I’m all for creativity, but this is not the place for it. You’ve got about three seconds to convince a visitor they’ve come to the right website. You need to be INCREDIBLY OBVIOUS. Billboard obvious. Skywriting obvious. The two biggest, most readable elements on your website should be your business name and the solution you provide. It should be your tagline. It should be on your business card. Your labels. Your vehicle. Tattoo it on the dog. You will be sick of it, because this is your business. You know why people should buy a walrus polisher. But your customers are browsing six different websites, watching a funny video and telling their boss that they’ll be right on that report. They’re busy and distracted. If you can make it easy for them to understand their problem, feel the benefit of your solution, and be satisfied that it’s cheap/fast/close/safe enough, they’ll buy.
So you’ve convinced your customer that they need to buy your solution. Next time, we’ll discuss how to make sure they buy it from YOU.
What problem do you solve? Tell us in the comments!