Creating exceptional products your ideal customers are excited to buy is not always easy. Entrepreneurs, in general, are not short of ideas. But a quote attributed to Mark Twain is worthy of note.
“A person with a new idea is a crank until the idea succeeds.”
I’m not sure what Mr. Twain meant by someone being a ‘crank’, but in today’s language, an idea is just that—an idea—until it succeeds. Entrepreneurs and business owners often get excited about an idea and feel certain that this is just what their clients need or what will take them to another level. Thus, they’re mystified and disappointed when a course they spent a lot of time creating did not sell.
How can you avoid that dilemma? How can you create exceptional products your ideal customers are excited to buy?
- Your Product Must Solve a Problem
Customers tend to buy for emotional reasons. At the root of those emotions is a desire to have a problem they’re experiencing solved or an emotion they want to experience. Emotions such as control, fear, or pride.
For your product to be exceptional, it does not have to solve multiple problems. You’ll find that your product is much more appealing when it solves just ONE problem and clearly articulate, in your marketing, what that problem is and the solutions to the problem. In this way, you keep your information focused and are able to go deep and narrow rather than shallow and wide.
You took the time to identify your ideal clients. You may have even gone a step further and created a buyer’s persona, also known as a customer persona for your business, so you feel you know just what they need. Instead of making that unilateral decision it’s much more effective to ASK!
- How to Discover Your Audience’s Pains and Problems
You can combine a couple of methods to create a complete picture. The first is to look at the marketing pieces that convert. What call to action, headline, or subject matter has the most conversions? If you notice that more than 50% of your conversion comes from marketing content that focuses on saving money then you know that you’re tapping into a pain your audience is experiencing.
You can also look at their buying cycle. What steps do they take before they make a decision to buy? Do they download your free eBook first and then click on a link in the book to purchase? Do they enter mid-funnel and skip the initial freebies and products?
Also, remember that you can, and should, ask your customers why they buy from you and the problem that your product solves. Remember that different people may buy your products for different reasons. You don’t want to know why anyone buys; you want to know why your ideal customer buys. And your ideal customer is someone who is ready, willing, and able to buy your products today and in the future. They make repeat purchases and require minimal support from you.
Remember that you have analytics to review as well. They hold a wealth of information about what brings your customer to your website, what they click on when they’re there and the links, headlines, and calls to action that drive conversions. These provide solid clues about what pains your prospect is feeling and how your current copy is tapping into that.
So what do you do once you understand the pains and problems your ideal audience is feeling? What do you do with that information? You use it to create an offer that your ideal audience can’t resist and is excited to buy.
Look at your ideal audience and ask yourself what’s causing them pain? What problems are they dealing with and why do they, or would they, turn to your product as a solution?
You probably already have a good idea about the problems that your product solves. The goal here is to identify the pain that your ideal customers are experiencing and to tap directly into that. Brainstorm the possibilities. Look at your persona and strive to answer the following questions:
- What matters most in their life?
- What are their values and goals?
- Where are they in life right now?
- What are their concerns?
- What do they want to overcome and achieve today and in the future?
Once you’ve jotted down some ideas, it’s time to move into the data-gathering stage to solidify your information.
- Ask Your Customers
Remember that all the answers do not have to come from existing customers. You may also reach out to customers you had in the past, as well as people who serve the same niche and may not be your direct competitors.
Keep in mind that you’re asking these questions before you create the product and the intention or goal of the surveys is to find out what problems your ideal clients have and for you to determine if you’re able to solve that problem. Many times the problem your clients are having is not new, and they’ve tried to solve it before by purchasing other products or offers. Therefore, you’re very interested in what they liked or did not like about their experience. This is gold for you as it provides you with insight into what was missing and how you can make sure to close the gaps and make your product different.
Following are some questions you could ask:
- Have you ever used or purchased this type of product in the past?
- What was the best part of the experience
- What was the worse part?
- Was there anything you liked about the experience?
- Is there anything you definitely would not want to repeat?
- What made you decide to purchase from that vendor?
- What was the tipping point for your decision?
Here are three specific questions that can make a huge difference to your business when you receive honest answers and feedback:
- Why did you originally buy from our company?
- Why do you continue to buy from our company?
- What do we do that others don’t?
While written surveys are great and you can reach more people in a shorter time, it’s also more challenging to get people to respond to your surveys you send via email. If your customers are on social media, why not reach out to them and speak with them directly? If they’re in your local market offline, you can do the same.
Conclusion
In this article, we’ve covered three essential points to creating exceptional products your customers are excited to buy. In my next article, we’ll look at other components to making your products stand out above the many products and offers that abound online, thus ensuring that your ideal clients hear your message and take action.
