#186: 5 Minute Marketing Challenge—Solve Your Customer’s Problems

Summary

Marketing Made Simple: Episode #186 – 5 Minute Marketing Challenge—Solve Your Customer’s Problems

Release Date: December 11, 2024

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Introduction: A New Chapter Begins

In a heartfelt and bittersweet announcement, Dr. J.J. Peterson [00:01] shares significant news with listeners:

"At the end of 2024, the Marketing Made Simple podcast will be coming to a close. This is a bittersweet announcement because this has been such a rewarding journey for myself and April."

Dr. Peterson expresses gratitude for the incredible conversations, actionable insights, and the strong community built over the years. However, he also introduces an exciting transition:

"Starting January 6th of 2025, a brand new podcast called Why That Worked, presented by StoryBrand AI, will be launching."

Hosted by Donna Miller, this new podcast aims to delve into the reasons behind the success of brands, trends, and cultural phenomena, providing clear and actionable strategies for listeners.

Launching the Five Minute Marketing Challenge Series

April Sunshine Hawkins [02:53] introduces the episode's primary focus:

"We've put together this five-minute marketing challenge, which is a series that will challenge you to create one piece of marketing using the StoryBrand framework so you can keep your business moving forward even in the midst of this crazy season."

The series is designed to help entrepreneurs and marketers maintain momentum in their marketing efforts, especially during hectic times. Each episode presents a concise challenge aimed at producing effective marketing collateral swiftly and efficiently.

Understanding Customer Problems in Marketing

Dr. J.J. Peterson [03:40] emphasizes the importance of clarity in marketing:

"We know that getting back to clarity is always going to win. Clarity is going to win no matter what."

The discussion centers on the pivotal role that clearly addressing customer problems plays in crafting compelling marketing messages. Peterson outlines the StoryBrand framework's core principle:

"By inviting your customer into a compelling story where you talk about what they want, the problem they're experiencing, and how you solve that problem by positioning yourself as a guide."

April Sunshine Hawkins [07:38] elaborates on the types of problems marketers should focus on:

"There are three different types of problems that you can focus on: the external problem, the internal problem, and the philosophical problem."

1. External Problem: The tangible issues customers face in their daily lives.
2. Internal Problem: The emotional or psychological impact of the external problem.
3. Philosophical Problem: The underlying injustice or broader reason why the problem matters.

April stresses that addressing these problems not only showcases understanding but also positions the brand as a empathetic guide ready to help.

Real-World Examples from StoryBrand Certified Guides

To illustrate effective problem-centric marketing, the hosts present examples from StoryBrand certified guides.

Example 1: DF Labs by Ryan Toth

Ryan Toth crafted compelling copy for DF Labs, a cybersecurity firm:

"Overwhelmed by the number of cyber attacks hitting your network?" [11:14]

This statement effectively addresses both an internal problem ("Overwhelmed") and an external problem ("cyber attacks"). By posing a question, Ryan invites customers to recognize and relate to their challenges, subtly encouraging them to seek DF Labs' solutions.

Underneath the question, a bulleted list enumerates specific issues, deepening the connection:

• "Can you keep up with the never-ending alerts?"
• "Are you getting too many false positives?"
• "Maybe your technologies aren't working well together..."

This approach not only highlights understanding but also paves the way for presenting DF Labs as the answer.

Example 2: Lead Generator by Debbie Girardi

Debbie Girardi offers another stellar example through her lead generator copy:

"Life is too short to feel burned out, disengaged, overlooked, or anxious. Everyone deserves a life that they love and a career that matters." [12:47]

Here, Debbie taps into the philosophical problem by asserting that everyone "deserves" a better life and career, addressing the deeper sense of injustice customers might feel. Additionally, she touches on internal emotions like feeling "burned out" or "anxious," making the message both emotionally resonant and philosophically compelling.

Dr. Peterson highlights the versatility of such copy:

"This type of language can be used in so many different spaces. It could be used on Instagram posts, in lead generator copy, or even as an opener in a keynote speech."

Engaging Customers Through Questions

A notable strategy discussed is the use of questions in marketing copy. By framing problem statements as questions, marketers allow customers to opt into the narrative voluntarily:

"Having a question mark allows your customer to opt into that story versus saying you deal with this and giving them the answer of the ability to say yes or no right off the bat." — Dr. J.J. Peterson [12:05]

This technique fosters engagement and personal connection, making customers more receptive to the solutions offered.

Upcoming Support and Resources

For listeners feeling uncertain about identifying their customers' problems or overwhelmed by options, April provides reassurance and resources:

"You can get some instant feedback and coaching from a StoryBrand certified guide like Ryan or Debbie that we mentioned today. And you can get it at our upcoming StoryBrand Marketing Live Stream happening on December 5th and 6th." [14:58]

Listeners are encouraged to participate in the live stream for personalized guidance, enhancing their ability to tackle the marketing challenges effectively.

This Week’s Five Minute Marketing Challenge

As the episode progresses, the hosts unveil the weekly challenge designed to bolster listeners' marketing efforts.

Dr. J.J. Peterson [15:36] outlines the challenge:

"This week's five-minute marketing challenge is to start by identifying the problems your customers are experiencing in this season that your product or service can solve. Write down what are the problems your customers are experiencing? Do external problems and some internal problems. What are they feeling right now? Then create language around how you solve that problem."

Steps to Complete the Challenge:

1. Identify Customer Problems:

   • External Problems: Tangible issues customers face.
   • Internal Problems: Emotional responses to external challenges.

2. Create Solution-Oriented Language:

   • Position your product or service as the remedy to these problems.
   • Develop messaging that can be utilized across various platforms—website, social media, emails.

3. Develop a Marketing Piece:

   • Craft a specific asset (e.g., a social media post, email campaign) that communicates your understanding of the customer's problems and presents your solution.

Peterson emphasizes the ultimate goal:

"When you talk about your customer's problem, they begin to listen to you in a whole new way and you ultimately then can come alongside and solve their problem. They can use your product or service to solve their own problem. What that does is ultimately make them the hero of their own story." [15:36]

By making the customer the hero and positioning the brand as the guide, marketers can create more engaging and effective campaigns.

Conclusion: Empowering Marketers to Make Their Customers Heroes

The episode wraps up with a motivational note from Dr. Peterson:

"Cheers to you and all your success. May you always find the words to invite customers into a beautiful story. May you always have the courage to call people to action because you know there's a better life for them on the other side." [02:53]

Listeners are encouraged to embrace the challenge, apply the StoryBrand framework, and continue crafting clear, problem-focused marketing messages that resonate deeply with their audience.

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Key Takeaways:

• Clarity in Messaging: Essential for effective marketing; clarity wins over complexity.
• Three Types of Problems: External, internal, and philosophical problems should be addressed to connect with customers on multiple levels.
• Engaging Copy: Using questions can draw customers into the narrative, making them more receptive to solutions.
• Customer-Centric Approach: Positioning customers as the heroes and the brand as the guide fosters trust and engagement.
• Practical Challenge: Applying these principles in a focused, time-bound exercise can solidify understanding and enhance marketing effectiveness.

By following the structured approach outlined in this episode, marketers can create impactful, customer-focused marketing pieces that not only address immediate challenges but also build lasting relationships.

Transcript

[Dr. J.J. Peterson]

Hey everybody, it's Dr. J.J. peterson. And before we get started with this episode, I have a pretty big update to share. At the end of 2024, the marketing made simple podcast will be coming to a close. This is a bittersweet announcement because this has been such a rewarding journey for myself and April. We've had so many incredible conversations with our StoryBrand certified guides with you who are out there in the trenches doing the work. We've had actionable steps, we've been growing together, getting practical insights and helped so many of you just make your marketing easy and make it work. And it's been an absolute honor to connect with each of you every single week on here and many of you even in person. Thank you for coming up and saying hello. However, while this chapter is ending, an exciting new one is about to begin. Starting January 6th of 2025, a brand new PODC called why that worked, presented by StoryBrand AI will be launching. Donna Miller is returning as host and exploring why some brands, trends and cultural phenomenon succeed while others don't. He'll be unpacking the strategies behind those wins, breaking them down into clear, actionable insights that you can use. And the best thing this feed is not going away. You're going to be able to continue to listen to the Marketing Made simple podcast for years to come. Episodes of why that Worked will drop in the current Business Made Simple Podcast feed. So if you're already following the Business Made simple podcast, you don't need to do anything. But if not, go and subscribe so you can hear this great new podcast. Thank you so much for sharing your time with us. Your dedication to growing your business is inspiring and we have done this together. We have built an incredible community of people who not only want to do great marketing, but really care about our customers in a way that positions them as the hero and us as the guide. It truly has been an honor. Continue to press forward in the work. May you always find the words to invite customers into a beautiful story. May you always have the courage to call people to action because you know there's a better life for them on the other side. And may you always play the guide and never the hero. And may you be richly rewarded because of it. Cheers to you and all your success. Tis the season when everything can feel a little out of control. We're all splitting focus between our business and our marketing and our family and our friends, and it can feel like we don't have even an extra second to spare for making sure that we're still on track to finish the year strong and hit our goals.

[April Sunshine Hawkins]

And that's why we've put together this five minute marketing challenge, which is a series that will challenge you to create one piece of marketing using the story brand framework so you can keep your business moving forward even in the midst of this crazy season. And today, we're challenging you to create a piece of marketing marketing centered around your customer's problem.

[Dr. J.J. Peterson]

Hello, hero maker. Welcome to the marketing made simple podcast, powered by story brand and brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, where we believe your marketing should be easy and it should work. I am your host, Dr. J.J. peterson. And I am joined by my co host, April Sunshine Hawkins. Hi, April.

[April Sunshine Hawkins]

Hey, J.J. hello, hero. And hello, hero maker.

[Dr. J.J. Peterson]

April. We are in our series called five minute marketing challenge, where we are giving people a challenge to create a piece of marketing in five minutes to keep their marketing rolling through the end of the year. And first off, I feel like we need a theme song for this since it's a series. So maybe in this moment. Ready? Let's both start and see if our brains like.

[April Sunshine Hawkins]

Oh, mind melt. Okay.

[Dr. J.J. Peterson]

Yeah. Mind melt about this. Ready? Here we go. Ready? And five marketing. Five minute marketing. Five minute marketing.

[April Sunshine Hawkins]

Today.

[Dr. J.J. Peterson]

Today. Perfect. I think we nailed it. So we just have to do that exact same thing every single episode. So that was good. I know.

[April Sunshine Hawkins]

It was almost round robin.

[Dr. J.J. Peterson]

Y.

[April Sunshine Hawkins]

You know, like.

[Dr. J.J. Peterson]

Yeah, it could have been.

[April Sunshine Hawkins]

It was reminiscent.

[Dr. J.J. Peterson]

Yeah. Of. Of like summer camp. Yes. See, that's where our minds melted right there. Summer camp we went back to. Yeah. That's what we used to do. That's why we can do these things. It's. I hope that sticks with everybody because this is. We are in very serious mode where we are giving you a five minute marketing challenge so you can create a piece of collateral that will keep moving your marketing forward even in this crazy season. And we decided to use the story brand framework really as the foundation for this because we know that getting back to clarity is always going to win. Clarity is going to win no matter what. So we are taking the different pieces of the story brand framework and talking about it and then giving you the challenge. And we all know that the story brand framework should be the framework that powers all of your marketing because it forces you to have clarity in your messaging by inviting your customer into a compelling story where you talk about that you know what they want. You talk about the problem that they're experiencing and how you solve that problem by positioning yourself as a guide who gives them a plan that calls them to action, and ultimately results in their success and avoiding failure. That's what a clear story is all about. And last week we talked about using language around the idea of what your customer wants and being really clear about that, because that's really what kicks off the story and lets your customer know this is their story. But today, what we're going to talk about is your customer's problem. And this is really where in any story, a story gets really interesting. If there is no problem in a story, there is no story. It's not a compelling story story. It doesn't hook the audience. Right. We talk about this all the time. That if you're watching a movie and no problem ever comes up in that movie for the hero, it's a very, very boring movie. It's just people walking around the park enjoying sunshine, which is a wonderful way to live. But it's not a good story. That's a very boring story. And it needs to be the same in your marketing if you want to make your story interesting. If you want to hook your customer, hook your audience, you need to talk about their problem. That's what really gets them into the story and makes them interested and listen more to how you can solve their problem by talking about their problem. You say, I understand your problem and I also know how to fix it, which really leads into the guide section. But it really sets up the whole story. So when we're talking about talking about your customer problem, the question you want to answer is, what problem is your customer experiencing that your product or service can solve? That's really the most simple way to approach this. Ask yourself, what problems are they experiencing that our product solves? When you do that and begin to use that language in your marketing, your customers begin to be interested in your product. If you are not talking about your customer problem, your customers are not listening.

[April Sunshine Hawkins]

And there are really three different types of problems that you can focus on. The external problem that they are facing in their regular life, the internal problem, how that external problem is actually making them feel. So internal problem is the feeling word that's associated with what's going on with them internally because they're experiencing that. And then philosophical, why is that just plain wrong? What's the epic injustice of this issue at hand that they're dealing with? And if you can speak to those three different problems, you're really signaling to them that you know and understand what they're going through. And when you focus on one of these three problems, that's really the only reason a customer is going to buy something from you in the first place.

[Dr. J.J. Peterson]

Yep. The only reason why people are buying your product is to solve a problem. If I don't have a problem, I'm not looking to you to buy anything. Right. Like that's the only reason people are coming to you is to solve a problem. So you need to talk about the problems in your marketing.

[Jordan Gill]

System Saved Me is hosted by Jordan Gill and brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Each week on the System Saved Me podcast, top ranking podcast host and multimillion dollar business mentor Jordan Gill lifts the hood to show you behind the scenes of successful businesses with freedom at its core. Entrepreneurship is meant to give you freedom and flexibility, but how does that actually happen? Systems, of course. And that's what the show's all about. In fact, go check out a recent episode called six Key Signs yous Need a Digital Business Manager with guest Daya Aliaga. Daya is the founder of Digital Business Manager Bootcamp and she talks about how hiring a Digital Business Manager or DBM can be a game changer for your business. She also calls out some key signs you might be seeing when your business is in need of a dbm, like team management, overload, moving forward on ideas with no real plan of action, or constantly being hit with the chaos of scaling. So if you're feeling overwhelmed and you're needing ways to streamline your operations and scale effectively, System Saved Me is for you. Listen to System Saved Me wherever you get your podcasts. How do you begin to describe your job as a marketer? Well, you have to generate leads, create content, gather data. You're spread way too thin. But HubSpot has a better way. With the help of Breeze, HubSpot's collection of AI tools and features like Content Remix, you can turn one piece of content into a suite of assets. Then pinpoint the best prospects and level up your campaign's KPIs with a new analytics suite. And most importantly, you're going to have a way easier time describing your job at parties. Visit HubSpot.com marketers to learn more.

[Dr. J.J. Peterson]

And now back to the show.

[April Sunshine Hawkins]

So real quick, let's get into some examples that our StoryBrand certified guides have created on behalf of their clients where they are pointing to the problems and that way this will help you before you jump into this five minute marketing challenge that we're going to give you and get your ideas going for yourself. This first example is written by StoryBrand certified guide Ryan Toth. So this is for a brand Called DF Labs. And of course, this is not the very, very top. This is not in the header of their website. It's like further down in the problem section of their website. So overwhelmed by the number of cyber attacks hitting your network.

[Dr. J.J. Peterson]

So I love this. It's very clear because in this copy right here, we're addressing two different types of problem. Overwhelmed, which is an internal problem, and cyber attacks, which is the external problem. So what Ryan does here is ask the question. He doesn't just go in and say you are overwhelmed by which you could do. You could turn this copy around and not ask questions. Say, stop being overwhelmed by cyber attacks. Addressing the internal and the external problem. But he does it a little more gently with a question mark. And I love when people talk about customers problems with a question mark because what it does is allows your customer to opt into that story versus saying you deal with this and giving them the answer of the ability to say yes or no right off the bat. Instead you're with a question, you're causing them to think.

[April Sunshine Hawkins]

And then right underneath this question, he's got a bulleted list of, of things that are probably happening with other softwares that they might be using. And so these are problems. Can you keep up with the never ending alerts? Are you getting too many false positives? Maybe your technologies aren't working well together or you don't really have even enough skilled staff to respond to the alerts. And so that is just like I'm feeling overwhelmed right now just listening to that list. And so whenever you're in your five minute marketing challenge hero maker, we want you to kind of keep this in mind. Like, what's that feeling word and what's the external problem? And can you ask, are you experiencing these things?

[Dr. J.J. Peterson]

I love it.

[April Sunshine Hawkins]

So the next example comes from a lead generator, and it's just one page on Debbie Girardi's lead generator. And the copy says, life is too short to feel burned out, disengaged, overlooked, or anxious. Everyone deserves a life that they love and a career that matters. It's time to amplify your awesome.

[Dr. J.J. Peterson]

Okay, so what this really addresses. The copy here talks about the philosophical problem everybody deserves. That's addressing a philosophical issue, that a customer is experiencing an injustice because they are living a life that is not this way. And you're saying you deserve something or it should be different. That's addressing a philosophical issue. And then she also brings in a lot of internal language. Right. So she's addressing feelings and philosophical. And this is just copy that is used to grab customers attention because if anybody says yes to any of those questions she's asking, they are going to want to download this lead generator. So you can see how when I talked in the beginning about how people start paying attention to a story when you start talking about a problem. If anybody says yes to this, now they're interested, right? Both on the website and in the lead generator copy. That exact same copy could be used on Instagram posts. It could also be used to open up a session where you're giving a keynote in front of an audience. You could do it live if you're even at a party. And you started off by saying you know how a lot of times and just like kind of address the issue by naming a problem. This type of language can be used in so many different spaces. And I love that for both of these companies and these guides who created this language language, they asked questions. Like I said, you don't have to use questions. You can just make statements. Stop feeling this way. Don't worry about this. You know, you can use that kind of language. But using a question often will allow people to opt into the story themselves versus you, telling them they have to opt in or out with a yes or no.

[April Sunshine Hawkins]

And if you're feeling anxious yourself because you know the five minute marketing challenge is about to start and you're like, I don't know exactly what my customer's problem is or what I should be focusing on, or maybe there are so many and you're feeling overwhelmed and. And you're like, which one? Which one? Well, you can get some instant feedback and coaching from a story brand certified guide like Ryan or like Debbie that we mentioned today. And you can get it at our upcoming storybrand marketing live stream that's happening on December 5th and 6th. Just go to storybrand.com live and you can register now.

[Dr. J.J. Peterson]

Okay, so now, without any further ado, it is time for this week's five minute marketing challenge. This week's five minute marketing challenge is to start by identifying the problems your customers are experiencing in this season that your product or service can solve. Right? We can have our overall brand message that works all year long. But in this season, just like you're experiencing kind of some chaos and overwhelmed and all the things that you're having to do before the end of the year, your customers are experiencing that as well. So they are dealing with some very specific problems right now in this season that your product or service can solve. So first write down what are the problems your customers are experiencing? Do external problems and some internal problems. What are they feeling right now? And then I want you to create language around how you solve that problem. So position your product as a solution to your customer problem and then put that language on your website, put it in a social media post, or write an email. Create one piece of marketing that will go out to your customers that will show them that in this season you have a product or service that can solve the problems they're experiencing. When you talk about your customer's problem, they begin to listen to you in a whole new way and you ultimately then can come alongside and solve their problem. They can use your product or service to solve their own problem. What that does is ultimately make them the hero of their own story. And that's what makes you their guide. That's what makes you a hero maker. Well, that's all for this week's episode of Marketing Made Simple. Thanks so much for listening and believing, like us, that your marketing should be easy and it should work. Your 5 minute marketing channel challenge starts now and we'll see you next week.