The money is in the list.

How many times have you heard that? And how can you build a list without spending a fortune?

Articles. (more…)

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.

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I spend a lot of time helping my clients look at their products and services through their customer’s eyes. Often, that becomes a discussion about features and benefits. Specifically, that people buy benefits, not features. The problem is that most of us are really good at describing the features of what we sell, but not as good at describing the benefits.

This approach can help.

Ask what job your product or service is doing for the customer.

For example, a car can do any one of several jobs for the person who buys it. It can provide reliable transportation from point A to point b. It can make travelling a comfortable, enjoyable experience. It can let other people know that the owner is rich or important, etc.

By asking what job the product does, you’re really getting at what the benefit is, but in a different way that can avoid the mental hang-up many people have translating features into benefits.

Try to list all the jobs your products do for your customers.

To help you get started, ask yourself these questions:

• Why is the customer using the product?
• What is the product doing for the user?

These are really the same question, asked in two slightly different ways to get you thinking from different perspectives.

Make a list of everything you can think of. Don’t be surprised if you end up with several possible “jobs” for your products. Some ways to make sure you’re hitting all the angles are to consider:

• What is the customer doing when they use your product?
• What is their state of mind when they use your products?
• Who are they with?

Put yourself in the customer’s head and visualize different situations. Are they stressed out and upset? Maybe that beer is meant to help them unwind. Did they just win the softball tournament? The beer is to celebrate with their teammates. See how the same product can do very different jobs depending on the customer’s situation in the moment?

Listing out the possible jobs and the situations where they come up will help you understand where, when, and why people are using your products. Once you know this, you can target your message to those specific groups where and when it will be most effective.

Don’t trust your ability to make this list? You can always have your customers make the list for you. Survey your market and ask them questions like:

• What were you doing the last time you used product x?
• Where were you?
• Who were you with?
• How were you feeling?
• Etc.

Look at how your customers answer the questions, and you’ll be able to create your list of “jobs” pretty easily. If you want to take it to the next level, you’ll need some skill in statistical analysis to get the most from the information you collect. Luckily, this is talent than can be hired from a number of sources for widely varying price points. I’ve repeated the listing of online contract job markets from the August 25th issue. You can use the list as a place to start looking for this type of help.

Next week, I’ll go through a short example to show you how you would use this information in your marketing.

Last week, I talked about connecting your business to holidays and events. Today, I’m going to take a slightly different perspective – creating your own event.

The marketing event is powerful because it creates excitement, both about the product being sold and the experience of being part of an “event.” It is something that, with a little imagination, can be put to work in any business. (more…)

In the United States, today is Labor Day, a holiday to celebrate the contributions of America’s workers. The Labor Day weekend is also the unofficial end of summer. Last, but not least, it’s a great excuse for businesses everywhere to run sales and promotions.

How does that apply to your business? (more…)