Make people want to read your stuff

Anytime I see messaging like “We treat our customers like family” or even worse, “We are customer centric” as attempts at customer centric messaging, I cry a little inside, especially when I think about how much some fancy marketing agency probably got paid to write it.  

Creating customer centric messaging is not easy, but it is worth doing because it can help you convey your unique value vs your competition and inspire your audience to see what you offer as more than a commodity.

Here are 3 tips to help you better understand how to create your own customer centric messaging (and make people want to read your stuff).

1. Stop using the word “We”.

Your first clue that you are doing customer centric messaging wrong, is the use of the word “we”. When you say “we”, you are talking about yourself, not the customer, even if you are using “we” to say that you do something amazing for that customer.

It’s not enough to just replace “we” with “you” either. You may have seen attempts at customer centric messaging similar to “You can count on us!” or “Your partner for x”. Companies with “you” messaging may think they are being customer centric, but they can go much further to inspire interest in what they offer and set themselves apart.

Instead of beginning your messaging with the word “we” or even “you” try an action word like “get”, “achieve”, “gain”, “reduce”, or “increase”. Your goal is to get your audience thinking about the effect or positive outcome of using your product or service.

2. Show the Benefits

Instead of bragging about the quality of your product or service, the unique things it accomplishes, or how innovative it is, get your customer excited about what using your product or service could mean for THEM.

Does your product or service reduce stress? Save time? Make the customer look good? Save money? Improve safety?

Create messaging around how the customer feels when they use your product or service.

A good exercise is to list out the features you would normally promote. Next to each feature, write down why that feature matters to the customer. Think about how the result of each feature would make the customer feel. What benefit are you really offering? That’s what you need to sell in your customer centric messaging.

3. Know Who Are You Talking To

Have you thought much about who you are talking to with your messaging? Will one general message accomplish what you are trying to communicate, or are there a variety of audiences throughout your sales process that need to be addressed with specific information that only they care about? Truly customer centric marketing and messaging speaks appropriately to each audience in your sales process and takes into account what stage of the process they are in.

Map out all the people involved in deciding to use your product or service. What do they each care about most? How does what you offer help them? What benefits are most valuable to them?

Develop messaging for every stage of your sales funnel, taking into account who is involved on the customer side, and what they care about the most.

Does it Actually Matter?

Yeah, actually, it does. People make emotional decisions that are then confirmed by logic. You need to hit that emotion early in your selling process to stand out. Then use customer centric messaging to help move your prospects through your funnel towards the sale.

Here’s the great news:

The fact that so many companies are so terrible at doing good customer centric messaging works to your advantage if you can get it right.

It goes way beyond just making people want to read your stuff.

How much more interest could you generate if you could stand out from the sea of competitors saying “we, we, we”?

How much more could you sell if you provided the most relevant message to the right person at the right time in the buying process?