Are you giving your customers a reason to care about you?

Have you ever been frustrated with how potential customers react to your marketing? Maybe they went to your website, stayed for a few seconds, and then clicked away.

You poured all that time and money into creating something you were proud of… and **thud** it falls flat the second you set it out into the world.

Working through the marketing exercise of “Who? Why? What? How? When? & Where?” you may have stumbled with “Why?” – you may not have given your potential customers a reason to care.

Your reasons are not their reasons

When you think about the product or service you’re selling, you might think of it in terms of the features and benefits that are important to you. “My product is awesome because it does this…”

I’m going to be bold here and say that 90% of the time, the things you think are great about what you’re selling are not the things the buyer is looking for.

At a base level they’re probably not even looking for a specific “thing”, even though they might tell you they are if you asked them. Your potential customers are driven by emotion.

Sometimes it’s a want or desire. Sometimes it’s frustration. Their real reason picking up the phone to call you or clicking “Buy Now!” is to fulfill an emotional need.

And chances are, if your marketing is reaching the right audience but it’s still falling flat, it’s because you haven’t tapped into that emotion.

Look to the big brands

Think about the ad campaigns you’ve seen from companies like Apple and Coca-Cola.

Apple’s ads rarely focus on the actual product. Instead, they focus on the experience of owning their products. They show how their products are going to make you feel – the fun you’re going to have, the warm memories you’re going to create.

Coca-Cola does the same thing. When was the last time you heard an ad from Coke say anything about how great it tastes? More often Coca-Cola leverages the emotions surrounding nostalgia and you find yourself suddenly thirsty for a Coke even though you’re holding a drink already.

This applies everywhere

Say you’re in professional services, maybe you’re an insurance agent. Your marketing could focus on price, which might appeal to some people.

But a better option might be to focus on the emotions related to insurance – frustration with previous agents, confusion about policies, and worry (even fear) that they don’t have the right coverage.

Those are all areas that have to do with how buying insurance feels, not the actual insurance.

Pair an emotionally charged message with a highly specific target customer and you’ve got a recipe for making a new customer. By effectively answering “Why should I care about you?” you’re making it much harder for people to ignore your marketing.