Gathering Information From Your Client For Their Marketing

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To write or not to write their marketing content? That is the question.

Ideally your client's marketing should be in their "voice" or writing style to be unique. Then you go through it and make sure it has the key points to be effective. In either case, you need to have an understanding of your clients business in order to write or guide them through writing content for their marketing. This will help you extract the right information.

To start

You want to have this conversation in a way that it can be recorded (with their permission of course). That could be over Skype with a screen recorder like camtasia. Zoom has a built-in recorder you can use by just clicking a button. With some editing, this could also become an "interview" video (re-purposing) for their marketing. It's best to schedule the interview off business hours so if you go long, it's not a problem. Plus you don't want them distracted by the need to get back to work.

You can also use a simple digital recorder. Don't let the technology be a barrier. While the audio quality might not be good enough to use for production, that's not the point. The point of recording the interview is to get their exact words so you can craft more effective marketing messages. In fact, that is exactly what you tell them when you ask for their permission to record, "So I can get the exact words to use for more effective marketing messages."

Start with softball questions. You don't want them to feel like it's an inquisition. Here's two:

What do your clients LOVE about your business/practice?

What do your clients/customers/patients LOVE about your service?

Those questions Are great starters because they will get your client talking about their favorite subject, their business, and in positive terms. Getting them feeling good will help for what comes next, some deeper probing questions.

Who are your typical clients/customers?

You want them to be as descriptive, highly detailed and tightly focused as possible. If they serve more than one type of customer segment (example - real estate: commercial, industrial, residential, acreage, FSBOs, investment, vacation, then buyers and sellers for all of them), you need to know that. How many segments do they serve? They all will need unique messaging. You're not going to talk to a seller the same as a buyer. Their priorities are entirely different. Commercial vs residential vs investment is the same. They have unique interests, terms, and even regulations.

What are the differences between the segments?

You will have some similarities in messaging for buyers of both commercial and residential. But there will be fine point details because they are not exactly the same.

What pain do you solve for your clients/customers?

Dig deep on this. Don't accept surface answers. Get them to flesh it out. "Why?" is going to be something you will ask often. But unlike the annoying child, you need to qualify why you're asking why. Think in terms of "What happens because..." when you're asking why because you need to get to the root of the issue.

Keep in mind, that can be a positive or negative result. What happens if they do X? What happens if they don't do X? Ask them What are all of the possible outcomes?

Getting to the root

When you can articulate how customers feel but may not even themselves be able to express, you have a powerful marketing message. They feel as if you know them personally and you're talking to them directly when you describe their pain. You understand them. And it's natural that if you understand them and their pain, you're experienced enough where they can trust you with the solution.

Be specific. Think of individual customers and what their exact responses were. Stories are great. Remember, you're not limited to a 30 second commercial. You can take time to lay out a situation, even over multiple messages with email.

What are some of the symptoms they see leading up to the problem?

This is important because you want the prospect to be able to see their own experience lining up with what you're saying. The more you can get them thinking "That's what I'm seeing/going through," the higher your conversions will be. Of course that's one of your goals, to increase your client's conversion rates.

What happens if they don't take action?

Keep it in the real world. We want to shake them up but not have them thinking "Oh, that will never happen to me." You can use case studies and pictures of customers' jobs to make it real for them, particularly if it is a worst case scenario. Make sure the pictures are yours or you have written permission to use them. Copyright suits are nasty and expensive!

What if I use Joe Schmo the low price guy?

There's a definite cost to using the lowest bidder, up to and including having to get the job done over again by a professional. You need to make it clear in their mind they need to work with you and you only.

What benefits does your service give your clients/customers?

Although we want to start with pain instead of benefits, that doesn't mean we're going to ignore them. Be mindful that you're not getting features. And if they give you features, you need to convert them to benefits. To get from features to benefits, think in terms of "So that..." Here's an example: "A sewer cam inspection shows you exactly what is happening below ground (feature) so that you can make an informed decision before you spend a lot of time and money digging. (benefit)"

Close with good feelings

Now you're going to get back in the positive field. That way you'll end with them feeling good about you and your process. These questions will be positioning them as the expert where they can freely share their knowledge and experiences with customers. You can remind them that this recording is for internal purposes if it comes up, but it rarely does.

What objections do their clients/customers have?

If they have trouble thinking of them, the universal objections are

NO:

Money, Time, Need, Urgency, Trust

How do they overcome those objections?

With both the customers' objections and how they're handling those objections, you want exact words and phrasing for maximum effect. You want to get as many examples as they are willing to share and that time permits.

How does a typical sales call play out?

If you have time, ask them to take you through a typical sales call where you role play with you as the customer. This is where you'll get a more natural flow. Be sure to introduce an objection or two to hear the way they handle them. The written word should be the same as the spoken word for truly effective copy.

You now have the raw information you need to make a report as a lead magnet as well as an ignition funnel. The next step is arranging it in a way that makes sense and gets results.

Want to set up an Ignition Funnel for yourself or your client? I did a Boot Camp  Implementation Training for Steve Rosenbaum's Inner Circle members and you can get the recordings from that course here.