"Now that you have your [prospect's] attention you need to gain their interest by spelling out their problem and how it feels to have that problem. The [prospect] should say to himself, "Yeah, that's exactly how I feel" when they read your [website]. In fact, you shouldn't stop there. Pretend that it's an open wound that you're rubbing salt into."
Excerpted from 12-Step Foolproof Sales Letter Template by David Frey
In developing your value proposition, you will need to have a clear understanding of your prospect's problem. You need to find out what it is and the language they use to describe it. Once you know that, build it into your sales message.
Keyword Research
Use keyword research tools to identify the top one, top three to five, and top 20-30 target search terms for your business. The sweet spot you are looking for are terms that have low competition, high use, are in the language of your prospects, and are relevant to your business. You want to identify a potentially profitable niche. The tools below allow you to analyze the search behavior of prospects and the keyword strategies of your competitors.
- Rank Tracker software + SEO In Practice methodology (an excellent pairing for thorough research)
- Google Keyword Planner (part of AdWords)
- Google Analytics + Google Webmaster Tools (to analyze the search behavior of previous visitors)
- Google Trends
- SEO Book Keyword Tool
- SEO Book Webpage Comparison Tool
- QuickSprout
- UberSuggest
- SEMRush
- WordStream Free Keyword Tool
- WordStream Keyword Niche Finder
- WordTracker
- SpyFu
SEO Book has an excellent list of additional competitive research tools.
You will now put your keyword(s) to work in surveys and social media research.
Social Media and Information Filtering
A LOT of people say a LOT of things online. The amount of conversation that is happening through social media is mind-boggling (follow the link to see a "tweets per day" ticker spinning really fast). There is so much going on that is is easy to get overwhelmed. However, most of it is irrelevant to you. You can ignore all the noise and focus only on the conversations that are relevant to you.
"The 'Bulls-Eye' Social Media Technique"
This social media "immersion" technique was also developed by Dr. Livingston.
- Identify the single most important keyword for your business.
- Search on your keyword in Twitter (or by using a Twitter search tool from the list of tools below), browse the conversations, and copy/paste any tweets that signify frustration, benefits, or wishes of a prospect.
- Search on your keyword in high-profile blogs, YouTube, Google Alerts, and other content curation tools. Read relevant articles and note interesting items, particularly comments.
- Gather all relevant language and highlight the top 20% of commentary that is longest, most engaged, and/or most passionate. These are clues as to the wants and needs of your most responsive prospects.
- Look for patterns, market gaps, and potential contrarian positions you can take. Try to identify ONE critical need that would differentiate you from your competition and which people would pay you to solve.
- Capture specific examples of "in their words" language that you can use in your copy.
Twitter Search Tools
Content Search/Curation Tools
Now that you have identified a unique problem (for which you will have a solution) and the customer's language to talk about it with, you are ready to present your solution.
More information on the Livingston methods can be found in Perry Marshall's 80/20 Sales and Marketing book.
Survey Techniques for Actionable Feedback
Here are two beautifully simple surveys that you can use to get specific, actionable feedback from your prospects and customers.
"80/20 Survey Technique for Hyper-Responsive Intelligence" (Market Research)
Use Dr. Glenn Livingston's market research method to get "problem" feedback from prospects -- for example, via e-mail or your opt-in form. Filter on the verbose "very difficult" responses to identify "hyper-responsive" prospects. Look for common problems in their answers.
What's your single most important question about <TOP KEYWORD>?
Why would it make a difference in your life to get a good answer for this problem or find a solution for your need? (Details, please.)
How difficult has it been for you to find a good answer for the above to date?
( ) Not at all difficult
( ) Somewhat difficult
( ) Very difficult
Net Promoter Score (Customer Satisfaction)
Use this survey to gain insightful feedback from different customer satisfaction segments. The Net Promoter Score (NPS) has "established a strong link" between your score and organic company growth and provides "a clear measure of an organization's performance through its customers' eyes." Customers who respond with a 0-6 are detractors, 7-8 are passives, and 9-10 are promoters. Detractors will spread negative word-of-mouth. Promoters will spread positive word-of-mouth. Passives will do neither. You can further extend the analysis by filtering on customers who have been very profitable and picking out what has been valuable for them.
How likely is it that you would recommend <YOUR BUSINESS> to a friend or colleague?
( ) 0 - Not at all likely
( ) 1
( ) 2
( ) 3
( ) 4
( ) 5
( ) 6
( ) 7
( ) 8
( ) 9
( ) 10 - Extremely likely
What is the primary reason for the score you gave?
<Additional Questions>
There you go. You now have strategies for finding the key phrases about your business, finding out what people out in the market are saying about them and what they are really struggling with in particular, and finding out what your prospects and customers are specifically struggling with, why they hired you, and why they keep coming back (or did not). Armed with all this information, you should be able to address the "problem" in your sales message.
Identify the Problem
Step 2
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