By the end of this article, you will learn how to ask a single question that will transform the way you think about, write for and market to your audience. And it works.
If you’ve read, watched or listened to anything related to marketing in the past ten years, you’ve been exposed to Seth Godin, whether you know it or not.
Seth has long encouraged marketing-minded folks to re-orient. Here is what he’s said over the years:
Don’t find customers for your product or service, find products and services for your customers.
Even though I wish you were, you’re probably not reading this article for that advice.
You’re trying to find customers:
- You already have a product (you) and you need to sell it (find a job).
- Or you already have a product (a book or blog or app or training program or software solution or widget) and you want to sell more of it.
- Or you already offer a service (consulting or graphic design or copywriting or hair care) and you want more clients.
- Or you already have a cause (feeding the hungry or fighting illiteracy or saving souls) and you want to do more of it.
Unfortunately, most of our marketing problems stem from this reality — a person, product, service, cause or company already exists and it requires more people to want it. Now!
Whether I’m speaking with a physician, CEO or small business owner, one of the most common phrases I’ve heard over the years is this: “We need to do more marketing.”
When I audit and analyze their business narratives and content, I typically to discover that they are making common, avoidable mistakes.
Let’s walk through the way we’ve been taught to think about and “do” marketing. Then let’s learn about a question that forces you and me to think, write and market in a much more effective (and human) way.
Mistake #1 = Selling Features
Product and service features are important. They’re the bells and whistles we use to differentiate our thing from all the other things out there like ours.
Features often sound like this:
- Dual-core enterprise class performance (Intel)
- Flex grooves in the outsole promote a natural stride (Nike)
- Individual, hand-stitched work of soft sculpture art (Cabbage Patch Kids)
Features also include location, convenience, endorsements and guarantees:
- Absolutely, positively there overnight (FedEx)
- Never loses suction (Dyson)
A worst-case (but popular) feature is price. Sale! Half price! Clearance!
Features only matter when they matter. And, often, they don’t.
Don’t believe me? Think of one of your favorite books. Now which version of that book would you buy:
- One that is hand-crafted with a Gothic blind-stamped leather cover for $150?
- Or a standard, mass-printed hard-cover for $20?
You don’t buy a book because of the packaging features. You buy it because of what the content offers you — which, on the surface, feels like a feature. But it’s not.
Mistake #2 = Selling to People Groups
Any time you start talking about soccer moms or stay-at-home dads or commuter couples, you’re talking about people groups.
People groups typically encompass demographics, psychographics and buyer personas.
Something about the idea of targeting specific people groups feels right. You offer a product or service that can help moms who run multiple kids to after-school activities. It seems natural you would target “soccer moms” with your marketing messages.
The problem is no one is one type of person. So a message “targeting” one type of person will often not connect with most in that imaginary group.
Could you imagine what this article might read like if I wrote this for the “marketing blog reader psychographic” or the “stuck entrepreneur” buyer persona?
The Most Common Mistake We Make = Selling Features to People Groups
This is the mother of all marketing mistakes. And it’s what most of us do.
Overly optimistic professionals “target” imaginary people groups with marketing messages that vomit the features and benefits their company, cause, product or service offer.
And then, as they face the reality that no one seems to care or even know they exist, they want to double-up on the features and frequency of their marketing.
How to Avoid These Mistakes By Asking One Question
I’ve spent many — okay most — of my 20 years as a marketing professional selling features to people groups. I admit it.
Have I had some successes? Sure. But I’ve consistently been haunted by the knowledge that the majority of my work could and should have performed better than it did.
It’s kind of like a musician whose ear develops faster than his playing. As he’s performing, he hears all the mistakes and opportunities, but he’s not yet able to execute. That’s what I’m talking about.
In 2005, I read an article by Clayton Christensen in Harvard Business Review that completely upended everything I thought I knew about marketing to and writing for people.
In that article, Christensen argues that our traditional approach to segmenting markets — by a) features and functions and b) demographics and psychographics — is the root problem driving so many company and product failures.
In other words, our marketing most likely fails because we approach it in a way that misleads us.
He offers a different framework — rather than focus on features and customer segments, focus on the job needing to be done.
And he offers a core question we should always ask:
What job is my customer hiring me, my product or service to do?
A Milkshake Story
In that article, Christensen tells the story of a fast food restaurant to illustrate this new framework.
They wanted to sell more milkshakes.
The traditional approach would be to study the milkshake features people prefer — thicker, more chocolaty, cheaper, etc. And identify the types of people who drink milkshakes (i.e. people groups).
Which is what they did. Then they made changes based upon these findings. But milkshake sales didn’t improve.
Another researcher took Christensen’s approach. They asked, “What jobs are people hiring milkshakes to do?”
What they discovered is that a morning crowd was hiring milkshakes to do these jobs:
- Make their boring commute more fun
- Stave off hunger until lunch
- Consume it with one hand without making a mess
In the afternoons, parents were hiring milkshakes for a different job than the morning group. They hired milkshakes for their kids so they could feel like loving parents.
So you can see how any messages that contradict or ignore these essential jobs would be ignored by these milkshake buyers. They needed specific jobs done and they figured out milkshakes did the job best.
To sell more milkshakes meant creating milkshakes or alternatives that do these jobs better.
What This Means for You
Shift your website content, marketing collateral, writing and presentations from a features-orientation and/or people group-orientation to a job-orientation.
Ask, “What job is my customer hiring products like mine to do?”
Then, instead of talking about how great your product or service is, or why I should hire you or why I should donate to your cause, tell me stories that clearly show me how I can get something I want done done (with what you offer).
What This Looks Like in the Real World
Jeff Goins is a writer with a ton of readers.
Analyzing Jeff through the traditional lens, it appears he is successful because he shares accessible and actionable writing advice (i.e. features) with aspiring writers (i.e. people group).
Many have tried and failed to do what Jeff has done. Was he lucky? Was it timing? Did he discover some underserved group?
Let’s ask this question: “What job or jobs do Jeff’s readers hire his writing to do?”
I believe they hire his writing to help them face the fears and overwhelm hindering them from getting their writing out in the world. No one does that better than Jeff. And he’s a smart, kind human being to boot!
Pigtails & Crewcuts is a hair salon for kids. Friends of mine are franchise owners in Atlanta.
It would be easy to get distracted by their features — kids get their haircuts in fire engines, airplanes and the like while watching movies, which makes them look forward to getting their hair cut. And it’s certainly easy to get distracted by their people group — exhausted moms who dread the next hair cut fit.
But let’s ask this question instead: “What job or jobs do Pigtails’ customers hire their service to do?”
They hire Pigtails (often paying more) to remove the fits and fights from hair cuts.
Final Thoughts
I don’t want you to have to guess who you’re writing for or speaking with. And I don’t want you to feel like you have to “sell” some imaginary audience on how great you are.
My hope is to free you to talk directly with those you want to serve in a human way about exactly what they need done in their lives.
The key is to focus on the jobs they want done. Not you, your company, cause, product or service. Not your features either.
Focus on them. Help them get something in their lives done the way they want it, when they want it.
Actions to Take Now
- Use this article to kick-start discussions within your organization or team. Ask, “What jobs are our clients hiring our products/services to do?” Also ask, “What other products/services are they hiring besides ours to do these jobs?”
- Share this article with anyone you know who is struggling with getting their career, cause or company to catch on and get noticed.
- Leave a comment below with ideas, questions, struggles or successes you’ve had related to this topic. I would love to help you leverage this framework for your own success.
If you’re interested:
- Marketing Malpractice: The Cause and the Cure by Clayton Christensen
- First, Organize 1,000 by Seth Godin
- Goins, Writer by Jeff Goins
- Pigtails & Crewcuts