It’s easy to overcomplicate your product concept, marketing and future direction. When you’re super passionate about the problem your product solves, and you’re spending all of your time building your business, you forget about the perspective of the unknowing customer. Here, I’ll take you through how I made that mistake with my own business and what you can do to make sure you don’t fall into the same trap.
Meet your customer at their level
To help you understand this, let’s take an example.
The ability to play safely in cyberspace is something that every parent struggles with; we’re wary about where they are in the physical and digital world, and now that the online space is their new playground, there is growing concern from parents about how to maintain safe spaces for their children.
My team was getting ready to launch an AI product in Australia, on behalf of one of our international clients. The AI product helps parents protect their kids from online predators and cyber-bullying.
Overall, it is a well-designed product: ticking all the boxes when it comes to maintaining kids’ privacy and helping parents have better oversight of their child’s safety.
But the big box left unchecked was that most parents who want to download this app are not digitally minded. When we’re marketing the product, focusing on jargon such as GDPR, NLP Machine learning etc. just weren’t cutting through the noise. These technical terms made sense to our team, who have been working with the product every day for the past 12 months, but they are off-putting and create complications for tech-shy parents.
We had to bring our language to a place that met parents at their knowledge base. This meant speaking to them on a level that helped them understand the concept, gave them confidence that the product would keep their children safe, and that the whole families’ data is protected at the highest level possible.
Would your Grandma understand your product?
When you’re conceptualising your product to pitch or market ask yourself, “would my Grandma understand my product?”. If the answer is no, you’re not alone – this is where so many businesses miss the mark. To help you take it back to a more straightforward, Grandma-friendly proposition follow these steps:
• Know your ideal client and the problem they need to solve.
• Get to know how your ideal client communicates, where they live, and the type of conversations they’re having online.
• Get to know them, then start designing your message.
• Remember that the only passion you and your client are sharing is the problem – not how you got to the solution, no matter how proud you are of it.
• Remember the problem when you’re communicating the solution – engage with both aspects rather than just focusing on your product.
• Make sure your message is clear across all platforms – be consistent and don’t overcomplicate with jargon.
• Follow and tweak based on feedback from your consumers. Data is your best friend to assess a message and its clarity.
Be proud, but don’t let it cloud your judgement.
It’s natural to be proud of your solution or product – especially if it took you years to perfect. But that doesn’t mean you have an excuse to veer off into complicated language or waffle on about why you think it’s so great. Reduce it down to…
one person, one problem, one solution.
Find the language that is powerful enough to get your target customer onboard yet simple enough that your Grandma would get it.
Let me know if this process has worked for you. Or, if you’re looking to develop your knowledge further, book in a FREE 45-minute session with me, where we’ll be able to chat through your blockers.
Photo credit to: Tiago Muraro
