Have you tried to find yourself lately?
Now, that’s not meant to be soul-searching philosophical question. What I mean by the question is, have you considered what your customers are really looking for recently? How would they describe what they are looking for? Does it match with your description of yourself, your business and the products or services that you provide?
Think of it this way. Many people buy things to help them achieve other things. For example, say you have bought some shelves from Ikea and needed a drill to help you put them up. Then, you might search for ‘drill for putting up shelves’ in Google. That’s a pretty normal thing to do these days. Right?
However, if you did go to Google and searched that phrase you’d get a series of results (see them here) that are all to do with DIY instructions about how to put up shelves. However, none of them on the first couple of pages (how many of us go beyond the first couple of pages when looking for something anyway?) provide suggestions as to what type of drill would be the best choice for such a job. So, if I were someone who might be looking for a ‘drill for putting up shelves’ how would I know what drill to buy and where to buy it from?
This might be an extreme example but do you see my point?
Often there is a difference between how we view ourselves, how we describe ourselves, the things we sell and how others (our customers) describe what they buy from us.
It’s all about language and how we use. Too often do I come across businesses that get lost in the technical day to day language of what they do that they forget that the way that they talk about what they sell may be very different to the language used by customers that buy their product.
I know these differences exist from personal experience when a couple of months ago I asked my newsletter subscribers about why they bought from me or what they thought was my Unique Selling Proposition (USP). I wrote about the results in Find out if your marketing and your business are saying the same thing to your customers and those around you.
The results were fascinating and illuminating and have helped me better understand how to reach my customers in ways that fit with what they are looking for.
So, how do your customers find you? What’s their journey to your shop or front door or website or meeting place? And, are you using their language to help them find you?
