Last week, I talked about why you need to understand what job your product does for the customer. Today, let’s continue that conversation with a short example and a blueprint for using the job as the basis for some marketing copy.

Let’s say you are selling bicycles. The list of jobs your bicycles could do might look something like this:

• Provide a cheap means of transportation
• Provide exercise
• Provide a mode of transportation that is easy to park and store in a crowed city
• Provide a way to make money

This is a simplified example. In reality, you would probably come up with a longer list of possible jobs for your product.

After looking at the list, thinking about your current customers, and looking at how your competitors are advertising, you decide to target the “easy to park and store” job in your marketing.

We’re going to follow a pretty simple 3-step formula for creating our marketing copy.

1. Pick the one job from your list that you want to target. I would suggest you base your decision of which job to choose based on a few things:
• how many people in the market need that job done for them
• how well suited your particular product is to do the job
• how well you can use that selected job to differentiate yourself from your competitors
2. Figure out why people want that job done. Ask yourself what pain they would experience if they don’t have anything to do the job. Ask yourself how people would feel if the job were being done.
3. Write your ad using the “problem, agitate, solve” formula. That is, state the problem the prospect is currently facing. Then agitate that problem by talking about how terrible it is and how much inconvenience, pain, and/or wasted money is resulting from the problem. Finally, present your product as the solution to the problem. Explain how it solves the problem, ideally with some vivid illustrations of how much better off they would be if they bought your product.

To illustrate the process, your copy might open with something like “Tired of wasting hours looking for a parking spot?” or “Are you sick of spending a small fortune to park your car?” You are stating the problem. By putting it in the form of a question, you will be better able to engage your prospect – people can’t resist trying to answer a question that is put to them.

You would then go on to agitate a little more. Talk about the hassle of parking 5 blocks away from your apartment and having to carry 10 grocery bags all that way. Talk about the things they could do with all the money they pay for a parking spot. Remind them of how frustrating and embarrassing it is to be late all the time because they had to drive all over looking for a place to park.

Now that you’ve brought up the problem (that the prospect can identify with) and stirred the pot a little, it’s time to put the solution in front of them. Use something like “If you were riding one of our bikes, you could park right in front of anywhere you want to go.” Or maybe, “When you’re on a bike, parking is always free.” Then go on to paint the prospect a picture of how your bikes do the job they want done, while making their life better at the same time.

There you go, that’s how you use the information you discovered about what job your product does to get prospects to buy from you.