Getting Your Target Audience Engaged
It’s about the audience – it’s not about you, your product or your service.
How to engage your audience in what you’re doing and what you offer. This is straightforward if you focus on the audience. The old WWIFM (what’s in it for me). This is the age-old consumer targeting guiding principle. If the target customer does not get what’s in it for them in an eye blink – you’ve failed to engage them.
Sometimes people have a problem and they are searching for a solution – like when a pipe bursts, as it did recently at our house. I burst into action and a plumber was on the scene within an hour. I had a problem – once I was aware of the problem I sorted out a solution.
However for an hour or so before I realised it was a burst pipe I just thought it was raining really hard [on one side of the house] and I was blissfully ignorant of my problem. Had a plumber called me I would have ignored whatever the offer was. I had no perceived need for such services.
Always translate your product into meaningful benefits to your prospect
This is an acute situation. Translating it into a less obvious circumstance – like the solution you offer your potential customer – if your prospect perceives no need for (and thus no value in) what you offer, there will be zero connection. My plumber’s skill set became a whole lot more interesting once I identified the burst pipe. The same will be true of your prospect once you identify the value that you bring to your target’s situation.
Let’s try this out. Say you are a pet shop. You sell amoung other things – a dog training service. Say I have just bought a puppy. I will completely ignore your pet shop communications until they are relevant to me. Now that I have a puppy, I am open to pet shop communications, but because I don’t have much experience with puppies, I really do not understand the value of your service. I see it as overpriced pet food…
Once you point out to me that your puppy toilet training will have my puppy toileting outside within one week – I am all ears. If you make that free for me – I am in. Once my puppy and I have met you, you may offer me a well-priced puppy basic obedience class – just the basics, so it’s a basic price too. Wow. I like this so I am now paying you for the basics.
Trade the customer progressively up to your core offer.
At the basics class you may upsell me to the advanced obedience class by explaining that I will be able to take my dog to other people’s homes without fear of their furniture being chewed. I trust you by now so I am agreeing that this could be a good idea. From there you can upsell me to dog sitting services, dog clothing (that might be a hard sell), dog food and pet toys.
Do you see how much you got from the free puppy toileting programme?
If you had tried to sell me dog sitting, clothing and toys at the front end of this process before I met you and engaged with you – I would have resisted because I did not see the value to me of what you offer, but by introducing me to your business with a low-priced or free relevant intro service, I place increasing trust and value in your service and I trade up progressively.
Now it’s your turn!
See if you can think of a way to introduce people to your services or products that is relevant and engaging for them. Talk always in the early stages to the solution and the benefit – not to your product. It’s always harder when it’s your own product, so drop me a line if you think you need a hand with this process!
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