Open with your prospect's pain

[Vinsomelosesome]

David Ogilvy got it right when he said "When you advertise fire-extinguishers, open with the fire".

Creators of communications (letters/flyers/billboards/press ads) posted here for the purpose of feedback would do well to remember this. Surprisingly, even seasoned marketing pros forget this basic rule. Thus, it may not be an easy tenet to follow despite the rewards in following it.

To hazard repetition: OPEN WITH YOUR PROSPECT”S PAIN

Studies abound on the human trait of escaping or avoiding pain. Matter of fact, we spend more time devising ways of avoiding pain than in the pursuit of gain. What’s more, the resources (finances and efforts) allocated to alleviate a pain is directly proportional to a prospect’s perception of that particular pain.

Unless your prospects have loads of time on their hands paired with oodles of inclination to buy from you, they might not be too keen to know what YOU think is THEIR pain. So do not waste their time (cause pain) in trying to change those perceptions. All you have to do is OPEN WITH YOUR PROSPECT”S PAIN. What your prospects perceive is more important than what you think is real.

Since it’s common sense that we all will spend more resources in finding ways to alleviate our pain, the next step is to segment that pain. “Segment pain?”, do I hear? Segmenting pain is important, of course, if you do not want to end up positioning your product/service as a solution to itches. Gauging, how life threatening a prospect considers the pain (which you will finally provide a solution to), is crucial.

This is where research comes into play. Research the communications your rivals use. Although most important pains will be spoken for by your competitors, you may still find a few openings to squeeze in your product/service. Those openings are all you need unless you want every second earth inhabitant as your customer and you have the wherewithal to service this implied customer base.

Position yourself on a narrow but important pain front and launch your attack. The narrower your aim, the better are your chances to penetrate. Never lose focus on your prospect’s perceived pain and go for the jugular.
What are your products? Are you positioning them as a remedy to an important problem? Do you know what your customers consider their most important pain? Has this pain been addressed by a rival? If yes, what is the penetration of this rival’s communication? Are this rival’s messages working and converting to sales?

How about answering these questions before putting the proverbial pen to paper and starting to create marketing communications? How about posting a creative based on this principle? No body copy. Create a strong and dramatic opening, focusing on your prospect’s pain. Use words but better yet, use visuals too. No doctor can actually FEEL a patient’s pain, but those who give an impression of doing so are more in demand. Your creative has to position you as someone who FEELS your prospect’s pain for you to be in demand.

REMEMBER: Spending money is a pain, so the pain you focus on has to be considered more important than the pain of spending the money you’d demand to alleviate it. Once the grabber is in place, we can start with step 2; that of driving home the gain. Until then, God bless.