#familycommitments

Series Blog Post #2 - Target Your Ideal Customer

You probably already have an ideal customer profile that you use for marketing, even if it isn’t explicitly written down and is only in your head. When it comes to sales pages, you need to be absolutely sure you know who you’re targeting. The details you define about your ideal customer are crucial to everything that follows. When you know what this ideal customer wants, you can gear your offering to them. In this module, you’ll learn how to drill down into your prospect’s key challenges and present your offering as the solution they’re seeking. Address Customer Pain Points with Your Offer The problems your ideal customers have are known as ‘pain points’ for the obvious reason that they cause pain. Understanding these pain points will be vital in securing conversions from your sales page. What are the major challenges your ideal customers face? They will probably fall into one of the four main types of pain points:

Financial They want to save money They’re looking for a cheaper alternative to something they already have It’s a first-purchase and they want good value Time/Productivity They want to save time They want to do more in the time available They waste time on non-essentials Process/Systems They want to get organized They want to improve their internal processes They want to use automation somewhere in their lives Support They want help with certain tasks They feel they’re on their own They have a gap in their skills they need to fill Prospective customers’ pain points are often complex and can involve multiple categories. You need to address at least one in your copy. If you can address more that’s even better. It’s a challenge to identify your customer’s predominant pain point, and it’s different for each business. Make the effort to find out what their pain point is, address it in your copy, and you’ll be rewarded with sales. Talk to your target customers and really listen to what they say. If you’re still uncertain or need more information, use social media to find out what your target market is saying about its problems and challenges. A practical way to drill down to the root cause of your customers’ pain is -"The 5 Why's" exercise. It’s simple and very powerful, and it works like this: Take the customer’s problem and ask yourself “Why?” Then take the answer you gave and ask four further “Why?”s in succession. Here’s an example of something a customer might say when asked what their main challenge is: Pain Point - I can’t get my business off the ground

Why #1: Why can’t you get your business off the ground? Because I don’t have the time to take care of all the tasks. Why #2: Why don’t you have the time to take care of all the tasks? Because I have family commitments. Why #3: Why do you have family commitments? Because I’m a mother and I have to look after my daughter after school every day for three hours. Why #4: Why do you have to look after your daughter after school? Because I don’t have anyone to help me. Why #5: Why don’t you have anyone to help you? Because my husband doesn’t give me any help and I could really do with the support just now. There’s a world of difference between the presenting problem, “I can’t get my business off the ground,” and the resulting “My husband doesn’t give me any help and I could really do with the support just now.” Of course, this conversation could have gone in many directions but you get the idea. Try it on a past customer if you have one or run it as a mental exercise in your own head, knowing what your ideal customer is like. Identify Resonant Language to Use in Your Sales Copy People in different target markets speak in different ways. If you use the same type of language as your potential customers, you build rapport and make a connection that will create trust and help sales. It’s important to know the language your customers use when they talk about themselves and their situation so that you can use it directly in your sales copy. When you talk to past and potential customers, note down the words they use to describe their problems. When you’re doing your research into people’s pain points, write down what you hear verbatim. By incorporating these words into your sales copy, visitors to your page will be drawn in to read more. They will see familiar words and phrases and will trust that you fully understand their needs. Key Takeaways: Drill down to discover your prospects’ key pain points. Learn the language your ideal customers use so that your sales copy will immediately resonate with them. Action Steps: Quick Win: Complete the ideal customer checklist in the Action Guide. List what information you have, what more you need and how you’ll get it. Write down examples of the language your ideal customers use to describe their challenge, what they want and their ideal resolution to their current difficulty. "5 Why's" exercise. Follow the steps in the Action Guide which sets out the 5 “Why?”s formula of asking yourself “why?” five times for each pain point a customer has identified to check your understanding of their core challenge. Return to MikeConkey.com for the next blog post in this series for “Create Sales Pages That Convert – Turning Visitors into Customers”