Does anyone care about your marketing? It depends.

Not quite. 

If you actually want someone to pay attention to what you’re selling, you have to pay attention to them. And if you want to drive action with your customers, you have to understand what drives them. 

Understanding these two truths is a good place to start:

1. Your customers don’t want to hear about what you’re selling. (Until they do.)

With very few exceptions, people aren’t waiting around to learn about what you’re selling.

They’re not inherently motivated to read your ad, watch your video, or dig into your web page, just because you have a great product and a clever headline.

What people do care about is finding solutions to their own challenges, desires, and goals. 

In other words, your customers don’t care what you’re selling—unless what you’re selling can solve their problems. Then, bingo.

Knowing this means you know exactly what to talk to them about. Instead of talking about your product, tell them how it meets their needs (or fulfills their desires).

Here’s the second thing to keep in mind.

2. Your target customers don’t trust you. (Yet.)

Even if you have a product that will truly improve the lives of your potential customers, and even if you have the most sincere motives at heart, your potential customers are going to be pretty skeptical of you.

They know you’re trying to sell them something, so they’ll see your marketing through that lens.

This is particularly true when it comes to long-journey purchases that require significant investment and take time to consider. If you’re selling a software solution that costs $20,000 a month, your word doesn’t go very far on its own.

On the other hand, if your potential customer hears someone else talking about how great your product is—especially if it’s someone they respect or relate to—well, that’s a different story.

That’s a story they might actually trust.

So what does this mean for your marketing? 

It means, whatever you’re putting out there, if you want people to respond, it’s going to have to be good.

And here’s what good looks like:

1. Your ads, your content, and your messaging should be speaking to your target customer about the things they actually need, want, and care about.
2. Whenever possible, your content should be speaking through the objective voice of a satisfied customer.

It’s harder than it sounds. 

There’s something particularly challenging about pulling this off for your own brand. It’s so much easier to talk about ourselves. Speaking to prospects about what they need—or asking our customers to tell their stories on our behalf—that’s a lot harder. 

But when you’re doing it right; when you’re consistently creating good, relevant content and putting it directly in front of the right people—again and again, for as long as it takes to move them toward action… That’s when you have the greatest chance for success. Especially with any kind of considered purchase. 

Marketing any other way, honestly, is a gamble.

Fortunately, there are smart, doable ways to create this kind of marketing. If you need help with it, let’s chat.

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