Make your customer the hero

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It’s not you it’s me.

Let me talk to you about breaking up.

A common line people give their partner, something like this, “Darling, it’s not you it’s me.”

The problem is that’s how most people do their marketing.

When people do their marketing they talk about their benefits, why people should use them, what they can offer. It’s all about ‘me, me, me’. That’s not how good marketing works. You need to focus on your customer, their challenges, their problems, what they’re trying to achieve, their stories. In other words it should be about you at all, it should be about them. The golden rule is this, make your customer the hero.

When Coca Cola took the 150 most popular names in the country and put them on a Coke bottle they made it all about ‘us’. People were going to the shops to find their names, to find names of their friends, people were posting up pictures on Facebook of their roommates or their families in Coke bottles. Coca Cola took a brown sticky liquid in a plastic bottle and made it all about ‘you’.

When Ford wanted to sell their 2014 Fiesta they took 100 of the most popular bloggers and vloggers and gave them a car. The object of the exercise was for these bloggers and vloggers to go and run missions and get up to all sorts of antics and challenges using the car. Prospects weren’t following the car, they’re interested in people. However Ford’s market share went up because when people were looking for a car, Ford were in their buying set.

This approach isn’t just for big business. I work with a small travel agent who encouraged their holiday makers to take pictures of the famous sites and sounds that they were seeing on their trip abroad and did a photo of the summer. People shared it and it grew the awareness of the agency locally.

I had an accountancy firm that interviewed local business leaders that were successful with their tips to success. In this way the accountancy grew its presence in the area.

The point is at no point did either of these firms talk about their own benefits but they highlighted people. If you want your marketing to work in a digital environment the rule is simple, make your customer the hero.

There may be small changes to the spoken word in this transcript in order to facilitate the readability of the written English

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Comments

      1. Reply

        You’re still one the very few I follow weekly
        …and benefit from doing so

  3. Reply

    Grant – we can’t really talk about our key customers successes due to client confidentiality, so even publishing a testimonial is tricky for us – how could we overcome this?

    1. Author
      Reply

      Hi Adam, that is a great question. Of course, it is always useful if you can mention customers and publish testimonials. However, making ‘Your customer the hero’ does not require you mentioning them by name or specifically. It requires your communication to be about their hopes, dreams, aims, objectives, challenges and frustrations rather than being about ‘you’.

      For example, if I were selling ‘Grant’s coffee’, I could talk about how we source the best coffee beans in the most ethical way, the amazing flavours we produce, or how our customer service is outstanding. That is all about us. How great we are. These should be mentioned but only by ‘making the customer the hero’. So, the headline could read, ‘Banish Those Depressing Mondays’ – the copy could then be. Is it a shock when you alarm goes off on a Monday morning? Do you dread facing another working week, with another five days in front of you?’ ‘Do you wish there was something that you could look forward to?’ With twenty delicious flavours to choose from, we can help you banish those depressing Mondays once and for all. Find the flavour that will pick you up on that dreary Monday and WhatsApp us ahead with a time; and we can make sure your coffee is ready and waiting with a smile. Not only that, but with all of our coffee ethically produced, you can banish those dreary Mondays with a clear conscience’. You get the idea. I hope that helps.

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