As marketers, we are challenged to develop messages that are interesting and engaging to our consumers but sometimes we miss the mark. We use buzzwords too much, we assume the customer will naturally understand the benefits, or we talk about ourselves too much. I came across an interview with author Jonathan Kranz in which he shared some advice regarding effective communication with customers. Mr. Kranz had some very good ideas on how to avoid these pitfalls. Here are a few of the top points that made an impression on me:
JK: “We think we can distinguish our business from the competition by talking about ourselves: our company, our mission, our philosophy, and our products. Yet the more we talk about ourselves, ironically, the more we sound like everyone else.”
Diagnosis: I think some customers are trained to ask for this information but in reality Jonathan is right, they don’t really care about how big we are or the names for all 30 of our products. They might need to gather that info at some point to fill out a checklist from procurement but really they only want to know about specific products that will help them solve their problems.
JK: “You have to establish trust before you can build a relationship with consumers. You create credibility that leads to trust by doing three things: 1) demonstrating your empathy and understanding of the prospect’s concerns; 2) telling stories that illustrate your value to real people in real situations; and 3) sharing expertise that has immediate, practical value for your prospects. That means directing your collateral efforts away from “about us” brochures and toward “about you” materials prospects want to read and keep.”
Diagnosis: This advice applies to personal relationships as well. As you are managing your personal brand, keep these principles in mind. Understand concerns, share experiences, give practical advice. This is easier said then done but it is very effective. This reminds me of a software vendor that approached me recently out of the blue. They had developed a fantastic application that contained a lot of important data for me to use in generating leads; however, in selling this application, they simply demoed the tool and didn’t explain how it would help me. I thought of many applications for their tool but I wanted to see how informed they were so I tried to push them down that path to give me some actionable use cases. When they couldn’t, my trust was gone and I didn’t buy.
JK: “You can never go wrong thinking from the point of view of your customers. Put yourself in their shoes; anticipate their needs. Write copy from their perspective. Be real. Stay clear of big abstractions like “solutions” and “proactive” and focus on specifics: real things people can touch, see, imagine. Show customers how you solve problems and help them achieve the results they want.”
Diagnosis: Sometimes it is difficult to think from the customers’ point of view if you have not walked in their shoes. That is a big reason why developers should not make decisions in a vacuum. In our company we have made a conscious effort to hire customers. Now we not only have our perspective on the market, we also have brought in experience from our customer base. This has made such a big impact to so many different parts of our business but especially to marketing because our messaging is much more customer focused and relevant to the day to day issues they face.
