Social Media Inspiration - Selling the Problem, Not the Product

Through the new social media inspiration portion of our Blog, we focus on motivating marketers. This post proves especially vital, because it covers a potentially fatal mistake made often by marketers.

The post discusses the practice of focusing on the problem, not the product. You'll amount to greater success if you pinpoint to potential customers the problem you can solve, rather than lead with product promotion. A buyer's journey begins with a quest for answers. It can potentially result in a new customer, but their endeavor never starts there. 

At the beginning, there's no intention to buy anything. Remember, most likely your prospect has no idea they even began becoming your new customer. Their end-goal is about discovering that fix to whatever they currently face. Your job is guiding their decision to a place where that fix must includes you. However to make that happen, you'll first need to build trust. And what is the best way to do that? By relating to your ideal customer, of course.

Start considering your own search history. Now think of products you ended up buying. Perhaps you even became a proud advocate for them because they served you so well. But when you began searching, were you actually looking to buy something? Probably not as often as much as you wanted to fix your current plight. So why would prospective buyers behave differently? 

Nobody initiates a search fully ready to make a purchase. Hence the reason you must engage your prospects. Primarily, you need to understand their problem before you convince them you are the best way to solve it. This is where research comes into play for this Social Media Inspiration. Note: it tends finds a way into every aspect of Social Media Marketing, so get comfortable with research.

 Getting into mindset of your ideal customer makes it easy for you to understand their plight. As a result, you will better understand why you are the best way to help them.

As this article from Entrepreneur points out: your focus should be on educating your potential customer, not promoting your product. The more you know about your ideal buyer, the more you speak their language. When you focus on them and their problem, you set yourself up for greatness when you provide the solution.

Likely you aren't the only option the buyer has to solve their problem. This is why it remains crucial that you identify and engage the customer. You build their trust that you know their exact problem. Thus you provide faith that you are the one to fix it for them. 

So, as you post this week, keep our Social Media inspiration in mind: "Sell the problem you solve, not the product you sell."