Customers have feelings too

Depending on the day, you feel worried, relieved, embarrassed, frustrated—do I need to keep going?

Guess what? Your customers have all those feelings too.

And that's important to remember in your marketing.

Here's the truth:

As business owners, we SELL things to help customers solve an EXTERNAL problem (e.g., pool cleaning, tax preparation, computers, etc.).

But typically...consumers BUY things to overcome an INTERNAL problem.

In fact, if we could see inside other people's hearts, we'd discover Bob is MORTIFIED at how nasty his pool looks. And, Annie? She's WORRIED. She tossed and turned till 3 a.m. last night, wondering, Am I going to get audited?

Then there's Stephen. He's FRUSTRATED at how his old, glitchy laptop keeps freezing and shutting down..

This is why, in our marketing, we want to call out the negative emotions customers have around the problem we help them solve.

We DO NOT do that to be manipulative! Or to make people feel even worse than they already do. That's sleazy!

In truth, we're not trying to MAKE anyone feel anything. We're simply acknowledging the unpleasant emotions people are already battling.

Mostly, though, we're trying to show them how our products/services can help them get to a better place.

A marketing trick? Nope. It's actually a way to show empathy. It's like saying, "Hey, I feel you."

It's also a way to give hope. You're saying, "You know that problem you're facing—and all the unpleasant feelings it's stirring up? You shouldn't have to live like that. And the good news? I've got a solution!"

Here's a quick example of gently acknowledging unpleasant customer feelings. It's a one-liner a pest control service might use:

Are roaches and rodents squatting in your home and giving you nightmares? Evict them today with Smitty's Pest Control and start sleeping peacefully again.

Do you see? The external problem is nasty pests. But the internal problem is that awful, creepy, panicky feeling of "Eek! Yuck! Gross!"

Just remember: In the end, it's almost always emotion that drives people to take action.