Solving customer problems for small business marketing & growing your business
WHAT ARE PAIN POINTS?
A pain point is simply a problem. In business terms, it’s the problem that your customer(s) are having, whether it be a financial problem, system problem, marketing problem, sales problem or employee problem.
Our job as business owners is to figure out who our target market is and then understand what their pain points are, so we as the business owner can make sure our product or service helps them solve those problems. A successful business will be a solution to its customers’ pain points.
IDENTIFYING PAIN POINTS
The biggest mistake that we can make as a business owner is to assume we know what our customers’ pain points are before doing any research. Research is what will identify those pain paints and pivoting our businesses is what will make us successful.
As a small business marketing agency, we spend a lot of time communicating with our customers and through that we’ve been able to identify these specific pain points and solve them for our clients. Here are some of the things that we do to identify them:
LISTENING: I love chatting with our customers and potential clients. We learn a lot about our customers’ pain points in our initial discovery call. Most of the time we hear their marketing frustrations and questions within the first couple minutes. We take the time to truly listen and take notes on the common pain points that we hear.
SURVEYS: Surveys are a great way to get honest feedback! Surveys with strategic product and marketing related questions is a great thing to send out occasionally. Sometimes customers aren’t fully comfortable speaking up one-on-one but can be more honest behind the privacy of an anonymous survey.
CUSTOMER FEEDBACK: After the job is completed ask your customer if you were helpful, if you solved their problem, what you can do better and if there are any other products or services you could offer to further help them. When a customer knows you truly care about their patronage, it builds trust and trust builds long term sales.
EMPLOYEE FEEDBACK: Do you have a team of people working for you? Ask your employees what they hear from the field. However, it’s extremely important to differentiate between your customers’ problems and your employees’ problems.
USING PAIN POINTS TO MARKET YOUR BUSINESS
Now that you’ve figured out what your target customers’ pain points are, how do you communicate that your business can solve those problems? This is when strategic marketing comes into play. And if you need help communicating those you can always reach out to STAK Marketing!
PRODUCTS AND SERVICES: This is the first obvious answer. Do your products and/or services align with your customers’ pain points? If not, how do you pivot your offerings to make sure that they do.
WEBSITE: I always suggest that you should tell your potential customers how you solve their pain points on the homepage of your website. You don’t have to make this obvious, but tell them what services/products you offer, why you’re different and how that’ll make your customers’ lives easier.
SOCIAL MEDIA: Engagement is great for communicating pain points. It’s no secret that people come to social media to vent about their frustrations. Letting people know what problems of theirs that you solve through engagement can make good connections and future sales.
ONE-ON-ONE COMMUNICATION: In my discovery calls with potential clients I let them know how STAK Marketing can solve their pain points through our services as a small business marketing agency.
STAK MARKETING’S CUSTOMER PAIN POINTS
AND HOW WE SOLVE THEM
Through our combined years of working in marketing, a lot of the marketing frustrations are the same within both large and small companies. We have gathered this information through research and communication. Here is what most of our customers have to say in terms of their pain points:
1 – “I’ve been burned by overpriced, unengaged, marketing agencies in the past.”
This is our most common pain point that we hear. There are so many marketing agencies out there that put your requests into a generic template, charge you an arm-and-a-leg and then you rarely hear from them again. Getting you nowhere for a lot of money. STAK Marketing is different, in our small business marketing agency we create personal and meaningful relationships with all our clients. We analyze the best marketing practices for your business, help you implement them and then give you a fair price for our work.
2 – “There’s so many options when it comes to marketing I don’t know where to begin.”
Marketing can be so overwhelming! Between SEO, branding, social media, PR, advertising and more there are so many options you can do that may or may not work. At STAK, we can analyze what best marketing campaigns are right for you and help you roll them out in a strategic way. This allows our clients to not feel so overwhelmed and have a plan of action for their marketing efforts.
3 – “I don’t enjoy the marketing part of owning a business.”
We hear this one A LOT and it’s not something to feel bad at about! The good news is, there’s people like us who enjoy marketing a whole lot and genuinely enjoy doing everything marketing related for our clients. Just like your passion may be fashion, organizing, or whatever else, ours is marketing!
4 – “My business isn’t getting seen” and/or “I’m not making sales.”
This is a tough one but a common one. The trick to a successful business is determining your target audience, figuring out what pain points you solve and then setting up a solid foundation of organic marketing that you can build upon. We can help you discover all three of these things.
5 – “I can’t afford an in-house marketing person.”
This may be our favorite pain point! We love to be an extension of your team without actually being in your office! Think of us as remote marketing directors here for when you need us but not on your payroll.
6 – “I’ve relied on free services from friends/family and am getting nowhere.”
You would be surprised how many times we hear this from new clients! Most people, understandably so, head to the cheapest option when developing marketing for their businesses. But as the old saying goes, you get what you pay for. Most people who don’t charge you won’t actually put time or effort into your business. It’s worth the investment to pay for marketing experts who can implement strong marketing functions in a timely manner to save you the headache of relying on a friend.
HOW ARE YOU SOLVING YOUR CUSTOMERS’ PAIN POINTS?
We’re curious to know what your target customers’ pain points are and how you, as a business, solve those problems. Drop us a comment below and let us now if you’re on track or if you plan to pivot your business model?
Keep STAKing,
Michelle Johnson
Owner & Founder, STAK Marketing
Michelle Johnson is the owner, founder and Chief Marketing Guru at STAK Marketing. Our passion at STAK Marketing is to create beautiful STAKs of marketing strategies that help small and mid-sized businesses grow and reach their goals. STAK Marketing's expertise ranges from SEO to branding, e-mail marketing to website design, PR to advertising and much more - making STAK Marketing a one-stop-shop for all your small business marketing needs .