In this article (and the video above) we’re gonna talk through a customer-driven marketing strategy and how to develop a value-driven marketing plan. At this point if you haven’t read my previous article about KEYWORD PLANNERS I’d strongly recommend checking that out first. What we’re now gonna do is really tie together a lot of the concepts that we talked about in the keyword research process, in defining your ideal customer profile and avatar video, and also in the five stages of customer awareness article as well.
All right, so let’s talk about developing your customer-driven marketing strategy. Now what we’ve essentially covered in the last few articles is how to connect on an emotional level with how your customer is feeling, with the pains, problems and fears that they are experiencing in their life.
And through that connection, we’re able to meet them where they’re at and then bridge and connect them to the potential solution that our product or service provides to their pains and problems. And if we’re gonna motivate and inspire someone to take action, we’ve gotta effectively meet them where they’re at and connect with their world, their reality.
We’ve gotta help them understand, or see that we understand, what they’re going through, what they’re dealing with and how their world looks right now. Because unless somebody feels understood, they’re not gonna trust you and listen to you as a leader, they’ve gotta feel that you understand what they’re going through.
Think of it the other way around. Have you ever had an experience where you feel that someone hasn’t got your best interests at heart, they don’t know the first thing about you and they’re giving you advice. How does that feel? Doesn’t feel cared for, you don’t trust them, you don’t wanna do what they’re advising you to do. We’ve gotta feel that somebody understands us before we’re willing to trust them and take action.
So when we’re building our customer-driven, our value-driven marketing strategy, it’s through that lens of showing the value we can give that we’re building it. So assuming that we’re clear on our customer avatar, assuming that we’ve got a clear message on how we’re connecting with their pains and problems, showing that we understand, transitioning them through to the potential solution that our product or service provides. And as long as we’re connecting with them through the right keywords because we’ve gone through that process as if we were them. So we’re understanding how they’re trying to solve their problems, what then follows is gonna be your strategy to provide value with them at this point.
So first stage is; how are you connecting with them? Is it paid ads? Is it organic? What platform are you using? How are you connecting with them at this point in their research journey? And through that connection, that ad, what’s the call to action in that ad or that content that you’re getting in front of them at this moment?
I’ll give you one bit of advice now, if your call to action is; buy my product because I’ve got the solution! Then you’re probably going in way too hard, way too fast. That’s like going on a first date and asking someone to marry you. Don’t do that, stop asking people to marry you on first dates, that’s bad. What you wanna do is start to nurture and build a relationship. Cause again, human connection, all right? Relationships don’t happen immediately overnight, it takes time to build that trust and build that relationship between two people, business is no different.
It’s a nurturing process. Typically if you’re connecting with someone at a point in their research or buying cycle where they’re trying to solve a pain or problem. They’re looking for solutions and you’re presenting the solution, best course of action is normally not gonna be to ask them to buy your product, it’s gonna give them something for free. So like a value driven video series.
Or an eBook that’s gonna help them shift their perspective or really sell some of these solutions. Or top 10 tips to look into before making a decision in buying X-Y-Z type of products. Think of some way your business can provide free value, connect with and help them really improve their situation immediately without asking for anything in return.
The way that this customer-driven marketing strategy might look is a free opt-in for something of value that’s gonna really help them move forward. And then as they receive that free opt-in or whatever it is through email, then you’re gonna start to nurture and really develop that relationship and help them more around their pains and problems. And then you’re gonna start to transition into what potential solutions you could offer and if they’ve got value from what you’ve given so far, how they might get more value from what you do have to offer as a paid product or service.
It’s basically taking someone through this journey, through entirely through the lens of how can I provide value? How can my business help them solve their pains and problems and help them move forward? And the more that we focus on value and the less that we focus on just take, take, take, take, take and try and get revenue and try and make people buy things. The more it’s about value, the more successful our business will be because we’re actually helping people, we’re actually solving problems. And when you solve someone’s problem, what are they gonna wanna do? They’re gonna wanna tell their friends, their family, other people like them that also have this problem, that they have something that can solve their problem and it’s your product.
Focus on value, it’s so important to get this right. So when we’re building a customer-driven marketing strategy and we’re putting this in place, if we’re focusing on value it’s gonna be pretty obvious what we can do to help someone move forward. How can we help them? How can we genuinely help them?
Focus on value, it’s so important to get this right. So when we’re building a customer-driven marketing strategy and we’re putting this in place, if we’re focusing on value it’s gonna be pretty obvious what we can do to help someone move forward. How can we help them? How can we genuinely help them?
Well, you help them by providing them solutions to their problems, make their life easier, improve their life in some way. If you do that for someone they’re gonna wanna come back to you again and again.
Now, off the back of that, if you are building a value-driven strategy, keep it simple. It’s really easy as a business owner to over-complicate things and try and throw in loads of different ideas and loads of different options and loads of different things and just go over the top.
But, effective, direct, to the point, value-driven strategy is gonna win every single day. We’ve gotta keep it simple, keep it streamlined and keep it direct and to the point. I hope that perspective helps. A lot of this I’ve learnt from experience.
I love to over-complicate things and then it’s only after going through this process of going way over the top and trying to do too much at once that I end up stripping it back to what it should’ve been in the first place anyway. I do this in my businesses, I do this with my team. I’m sure my team are very frustrated with the kind of stuff that I’ll constantly be implementing and then taking out. So if there’s one piece of advice I can give, it is just; keep it simple and keep it focused on just maximum value. Simple, direct value, to the point.