Get High at Work!

Nobody cares how much you know

Written by

Kevin Sandlin

in

Two times with two different entrepreneurs today, we had to do a complete 180 as we evaluated their messages to their prospects. In both cases, the main part of the messaging was focused on what the startup does. “We provide this or that to these people for this price, etc.” But in both cases, delivering that message did not have the intended effect.

In reworking the initial message for both of these entrepreneurs, I reminded them that they should start out by making sure their audience understands what’s broken. In other words, what’s the problem, and why should my audience care? How does this problem affect them?

One of the entrepreneurs needed help understanding why you would begin a marketing message with a negative, with a problem. So I posed the following question to him. Which statement gets your attention, and makes you want to know more: a statement about how great your startup is, or a statement or question about a specific pain in your audience’s daily life?

That’s when he got it. It made sense not to talk about “here’s what we do”, but rather about “you know how much of a pain it is for you to do this?!?”

When you know your audience, and you have a deep understanding of the part of their daily life that’s broken, you have the ability to make that problem personal, to bring it home in language they can understand very easily. Then you have their attention to deliver your service message: “We solve that problem by doing this, that, and these so you don’t have to. Sign up to learn more.”

Just like the Teddy Roosevelt quotation above, your audience couldn’t care less what you do until they know that you understand their problem, and can solve it. When creating your marketing message, remember to lead with the problem.

Comments

Leave a comment

More from Kevin

  • Three Digital Bootcamps This Saturday at General Assembly

    I’ll be leading the second coming of the Digital Marketing Bootcamp this Saturday at General Assembly at Ponce City Market, while Vince Baskerville, head of UX at CallRail leads the UX Bootcamp and Chidi Afulezi, Co-Founder at aKoma, leads the Product Management Bootcamp. The Product Management class is 10-12 noon, while the DGM and UX…

  • The first step of social media marketing

    We had a fun class today at General Assembly for “Advanced Social Media Strategies,” and we’ll be holding this class again on Tuesday, June 30, from 1-4PM. One question that came up several times, because several of the attendees were in a similar position, was this: When you’re just getting started with a new business,…

  • Advanced Social Media Strategy @ GA Saturday 1-4PM

    This Saturday, I’ll be teaching a half-day class at General Assembly at Ponce City Market. This class is Advanced Social Media Strategies, which I’ve taught a few times before, and it’s always a fun class to teach. The class will be from 1-4PM, and here’s a high level look at what we’ll be covering. UNDERSTANDING…

  • How to Keep Telling Your Story

    Continuing with yesterday’s post, which gave five more reasons that every startup really needs to tell its story, it’s easy to understand how many startups simply don’t know where to start telling their stories. Many times I speak with entrepreneurs about blogging and they end up at a point at which they can’t see themselves…

  • Tell Your Story

    There are not many days that I don’t have the conversation with an entrepreneur or small business owner about “telling your story”. It’s incredibly important these days to maintain a constant flow of communications out from your HQ to your target audience. Here are 5 reasons that your outflow of story telling must stay constant…

  • Nobody cares how much you know

    Two times with two different entrepreneurs today, we had to do a complete 180 as we evaluated their messages to their prospects. In both cases, the main part of the messaging was focused on what the startup does. “We provide this or that to these people for this price, etc.” But in both cases, delivering…

  • Digital Marketing 101

    A great shout out to the New York headquarters of General Assembly and their content marketing team. They host a great blog with tons of great content and contributors who really know their stuff. As one of the Digital Marketing instructors for GA Atlanta, I was asked to create a series of posts that sum…

  • Teaching Twice at GA {Adult} Summer Camp

    General Assembly Atlanta is kicking off their {Adult} Summer Camp this week, and I’m honored and excited to be leading two classes during this fun week of digital learning. Wednesday evening from 7-9PM, I’ll be leading Pitch Camp. I just recently wrote about what we’ve learned from nearly 2 years and over 500 pitches at…

  • Become a Digital Marketing Warrior Using the OODA Loop

    Cross-posted from the General Assembly blog. The OODA loop was created as part of a military strategy developed by USAF Colonel John Boyd. Col. Boyd proposed that agility in any military situation involving humans would defeat raw power if the fighters continually used the OODA loop. We can do the same in our digital marketing efforts. But first,…