A Better Approach to “Marketing”
I believe that business owners need to understand the “motivation” of their ideal customer(s). The motivation is what triggers the “consideration” and eventually, the decision to use or buy a product or service. The motivation usually takes the form of a set of “needs” or “problems” that the buyer is trying to solve. Start by thinking about the those needs FIRST, before walking back towards the solution you are offering.
This article covers a few ways to go about this. Hopefully it is practical enough for you to put to use right away.
1. Know your ideal customer
Who are the different kinds of people that make up your target audience? Conduct research, develop buyer personas and interact with people in your target market to get a sense of what their pain points really are. Putting people’s needs, problems and proclivities first will position you to develop more meaningful solutions for them. Literally sit down and make notes about who your ideal customer is including what their pain points, behaviors or habits are. Never base your final action items completely on assumptions. Always make an effort to test your assumptions by interacting with real people.
2. Understand the “buyer’s context”
People rarely buy products or pay for services out of the blues. Context matters. The buyer’s context is a sum total of their environment, desires, habits, specific needs, purchasing power and many times degree of “enlightenment” or “literacy”. In thinking about scenarios where your product can be used, here are a few things to consider:
I. Motivation
What is the need of the buyer and under what circumstances (i.e when) will they need the solution you are offering? I’ve paraphrased an analogy that’s popular amongst top marketers.
“Your prospective customer does not want beer, he wants to enjoy himself.”
The reality might just be that your prospective customer does not want to enjoy himself. He just needs a way to unwind and forget his troubles.
While working with the team at FishByte (a digital agency in Nigeria), we assumed, based on the quote above, that our ideal customers did not want beautiful logos, fast and mobile friendly websites or digital marketing. They just wanted to reach more people with their products and services.
After even more research we discovered that what a majority of our ideal customers want is not necessarily to just reach more people but, ultimately, to make increased revenue and turn in more of a profit.
It is easy to get carried away with the products and solutions we are offering so much so that we forget WHY we are even offering them in the first place.
Understanding that WHY (the reason for which the solution exists) along with the WHEN (i.e the circumstances that trigger the need for that solution) is crucial to the success of your marketing campaign.
II. Relative usefulness & buying power
The usefulness of your solution is directly proportional to the magnitude of the problem, relative to the buyer. In the same vein, the chances of making a sale are directly proportional to the purchasing power of the person that is being sold to. For people who don’t like Math, what I am trying to say is:
The “bigger” the problem is, relative to the buyer, the more useful a(ny kind of) solution will be. The need for a solution tends to increase along with the magnitude of a problem. The need for a solution however, does not guarantee that your proposed solution will be useful. Furthermore the fact that your solution is useful does not guarantee that it will be adopted. In order to make a sale certain conditions need to be satisfied; the motivation first and then the ability of the buyer to “adopt” or “implement” your solution amidst other things.
III. Expected results
What does your customer really want to achieve? What does the buyer consider to be a solution to the problem in question? When it comes to answering these questions, a lot of business owners rely on assumptions that more often than not fail to align with reality. As a business owner, you’re better off relying on insight gotten from interacting with people in your target market. These types of questions should be present in your conversations with people in your target market and should form the basis of your research. Understanding expected results and building around them brings you a step closer to creating real value. It also saves you the awkwardness of offering people coffee when what they really want is ice-cream.
2. Identify and dissect alternatives to your solution
What solutions already exist or how is the buyer currently solving this problem? Think about those. Also think about distinguishing yours or perhaps addressing aspects of the problem that aren’t adequately being catered for by existing solutions.
3. Communicate the “value”
I think marketing is essentially about communicating effectively. Communicating clearly. Speaking to a particular group of people in an attempt to persuade them to try out something you have created for them to use, something you hope will make their lives better. Once you are done creating a valuable product or solution, the next step is to let people know. Your marketing campaign should effectively communicate the value you’re offering, in relation to the WHY. Let your pitch begin with the reason or the “motivation” of the buyer. Paystack executes this nicely on the homepage of their website.
Upon arriving on the website, you are greeted with a well thought out message, that makes for a good WHY.
“Building a business is hard, getting paid should not be.”
— Paystack
4. Hire an expert
Now, this is not to suggest that I am an expert or that you should hire me. I’m not even really a ‘marketer’. I’m a 22 year User Experience Designer with internet access and plenty of red bull. *wink
Depending on your budget and the amount of time you have on your hands, you might want to consider consulting with or hiring someone or perhaps a group of people who understands marketing in-depth and perhaps have experience developing campaigns for businesses in the same market as yours.
Summary
Critical to the success of any marketing campaign is a solid understanding of the needs, desires, interests, proclivities and expectations of the target customers of said product. It goes without saying that the steps mentioned above also apply when you’re crafting the solution. If you’re still in the process of building your product you can follow the steps to ensure that you’re not creating something that people won’t use.
Finally, before you go, here’s a (far from exhaustive) checklist that you can use to get started.
- Communicate with the people who will use your services. Get into their heads first, not their faces. Learn to think like them, speak their language and appeal to their senses (and in some cases, the lack thereof).
- Think about your solution from the context of their needs, environment, behaviors, buying power, level of enlightenment and any other factors that may directly or indirectly affect their decision to buy your product.
- Understand environments and behaviors. Where are your ideal customers located? How do they behave? What are their habits, interests and inclinations?
- How are they currently solving the problem? Find out (from them, of course).
- How is your solution better? Of all the similar solutions, why should they pick YOURS? Figure it out and be sure to factor it into your marketing campaign.
I sincerely hope you found this article useful or at least interesting to read. Please let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment below. Don’t forget to hit 👏🏽 if you enjoyed reading. Thanks for your time.
