We all have someone in our lives who talks a lot without
really saying anything. It may be your poodle-obsessed mother-in-law, the neighbor
who loves to yap endlessly about fertilizer, or the co-worker who drops by your
desk several times a day just to say “hi.”
An attack by one of these Chatty Cathys can leave you
distracted, exhausted, and annoyed.
Unfortunately, customers can view companies in exactly the
same light. Many businesses have a lot to say to their customers, but they
don’t take the time to consider whether the message they’re relaying is one
their clients need to hear. In a world of nonstop marketing ploys, what your
customers really want is some insight.
Making Assumptions
There’s a big difference between marketing to your customers
and educating them. A lot of companies believe they’re educating their
consumers because they’re elaborating upon the features, advantages, and
benefits of their products. What’s relevant to consumers, however, isn’t what
the company values about its own product, but what the product can do to solve
a problem for them. By using its marketing to do a lot of self-analysis, a
business shortchanges its customers by only providing them with the information
it deems important.
Customers, of course, see through this. When businesses
blindly assume that their prospects already have the information they need and
are simply making a choice between brands, they shift from a learning-focused
mindset to a competitive one. Smart consumers opt to buy from the company
that’s educated them on the issue and presented them with multiple solutions.
That company’s selflessness has built trust — and its ability to teach the
consumer has bought their loyalty in the future.
The Silent Giant Killer
What a brand doesn’t say is just as important as what it
does say. The business graveyard is littered with companies that failed because
they forgot that their prospects had to believe they needed the product before
they’d ever buy it. They simply forgot to educate their customers.
Even big business has hurt itself with its silence. Take
Google Plus. It was launched as part of
Google’s effort to enter the social realm. The behemoth search engine hoped to
loosen Facebook’s vice grip on social media, but it went about it the wrong
way. Their announcement of Google Plus implied that Google was inventing the
concept of social sharing, as if Facebook didn’t already exist. This was
confusing to consumers — did Google think they hadn’t heard of Facebook? Worse,
it failed to address the real selling point: A company can’t demonstrate how
its product will solve customers’ problems more easily if it’s implying that an
already-established solution doesn’t exist.
TiVo, another technological juggernaut, failed to reach its
full sales potential by forgetting to teach its own industry customers. TiVo
was a godsend to TV viewers who wanted to skip ahead and avoid watching
commercials. That same functionality, however, scared TV executives into
thinking the TV commercial was an endangered species. The company was left to
fight a court battle against providers whose technology did not allow viewers
to fast-forward.
Leading by Teaching
Other companies have made their mark by teaching their
target audience what it needed to know. Apple’s iPad, for example, was
immediately successful upon its release. It wasn’t because the market had been
clamoring for tablet technology — instead, Apple triumphed because it had
invested a decade into educating its customer base. By introducing its
features and ideas one by one, the company enabled its customers to not only
understand the iPad, but to see a need for it.
When you’re marketing to people, you’re trying to sell them
on your products. When you’re educating people, you’re helping them understand
the benefit of your solution. Consumers can find information anywhere these
days, but when it comes from you, the benefit is twofold: you establish a more
knowledgeable customer base while you develop loyalty.
Take the time to consider whether the message you’re
communicating is one your customers want to hear. Don’t just talk to talk. Talk to teach. Your customers will walk away
with knowledge and, most important, your product or service.
For more information on how your messaging impacts your bottom line, contact us today!
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