The Most Important Marketing Question Ever
Marketing tips and tricks abound on the internet. We could talk to you about logo design strategy and website goals and objectives and the value of using persuasive colours in your marketing, all of which are valuable tools for getting the most out of your promotional activities. However, when clients come to talk to us about website design at our Williamstown office, or any of our other services, we don’t focus on telling them how wonderful we are (although we hope they’ll notice!) we ask the single most important question…
What does the customer want?
It’s not about your business; it’s about the customer. A great many businesses focus on what’s great about the company, product or service, and end up littering marketing collateral with the word “we”. But, your customer only wants to know about “we” to the extent that they can confirm you’re reputable and reliable.
What they really want to know is whether you can help them sort out their problem. The best marketing highlights how your product or service can help the customer, rather than simply how great it is. This isn’t a new insight; it’s probably up there in lights at the beginning of every basic marketing course, yet it still gets forgotten.
Understanding your customers
You might have a good ‘feel’ for the demographics of your target market, and that’s a great start, but it’s not a substitute for detailed customer research. ‘Feel’ might tell you where to focus your research, but it won’t tell you precisely what makes your customers excited to buy.
Dale Carnegie observed some time ago that: “The only way on earth to influence other people is to talk about what they want, and show them how to get it.”
So make sure your website talks more directly to the customer, and says less about you.
