Why no one cares how your product or service works

In the thumping reality of information overload, it’s hard to stay relevant to your customers. Our behaviour, habits and interests shift from “pokemon’ing” to being busy about another political scandal in a matter of days.

People you are targeting live in a blended world of physical and virtual. In an age of distraction and overwhelming amount of information that attacks us from all possible sides and channels, people simply won’t care about your offering, because:

• they are constantly busy, they live their lives and it’s a job on its own;
• the problem is already solved;
• or there is no problem to solve;
• your product is not relevant to them in its current form (but you might have got the problem right, so be aware of possible false negative and stop pitching your solution);
• you simply can’t explain why your customers should “hire” your product to do this specific job for them.

The last one has nothing to do with your explanation of how your product works.

People encounter and interact with plenty of brands on a daily basis at almost every moment of their busy lives. If you can’t be relevant or stay relevant to your customers — you’ve lost.

Early stage startups begin with customer interviews (if they follow Lean Startup methodology) and once the problem is validated, entrepreneurs switch to solution thinking. Next step typically includes a prototype or a landing page which is tailored to an ideal solution they have in mind. This is when an unpleasant encounter with reality happens: what originally intended to be a huge success is simply not relevant to people or can’t even catch their attention.

Average human attention span has decreased from 12 seconds in 2000 to 8.25 seconds in 2012 which makes is lower than 9 seconds attention span of the goldfish.

So, do you have a chance with your virtual landing page if you do not test whether people understand your offering and can explain it back after a few seconds of looking at your site?

Because no one cares what does your product do or how does it work. Seriously.

People want to know what could your product do for them and how their life would be easier, simpler, cheaper, more comfortable and better organised with the solution you offer.

So, why should I as a potential Customer “hire” your product to do a specific job that solves a frequent, urgent or costly problem for me?

Here are some more human questions to answer:

1. How simple would it be for me to switch to your product? Read as: is it actually solving my problem and is it easier than what I have experienced so far?
2. Do I need to pay now? How much does it cost? Which methods do you support? Is it free to try? Read as: are they honest with me? Do they show their prices or try to lure me in and push to pay more?
3. What did it do for others (like me) and how did they experience your product? Read as: is there anyone like me who tried this product already?
4. How would I feel after I switch to your service? Read as: is there any chance that I will regret wasted time, money or effort?
5. Will you trick me and add some hidden extra cost? Read as: can I trust this company, do they have a physical location too? Are they hiding something from me?
6. Will it change my life for better, saving me time, effort, money or adding extra convenience or comfort? Read as: is there any way to see how could I use it or try it out first? How can I be sure that I will like it? Could you reassure me?

Typical landing pages talk solutions, not promises.

Typical landing pages fail to relate to customer’s problem, often forgetting to even mention it. They explain how it works and what does it do, but fail to answer a simple question: What does it do for me?

We talk solutions and ideas all the time, but what we forget is to tailor those solutions to real people’s needs and instead of explaining everything, show our customers how would it be if they use our product starting from today.

Tell people what they need and want to hear. No vanity logos unless your customers recognise them; no more outsourced copywriting with little to no customer feedback. It’s a waste of people’s time and your money.

Be human, think people first. What job does your product do for your customers to make their life better?

Can you answer this with a landing page using your customers’ words? Because if you can’t, then you’ve lost my attention already.