The Secret to Convincing Your Audience to Buy From You

“That’s exactly what I was looking for! It’s like you read my mind!”

If a customer has ever said these words to you, you know how satisfying it can be. As a small business owner, it’s always reassuring to know you’re offering the perfect solution to solve your customer’s problems.

I got this response from one of my favorite clients, Laura.

Our team at PDR Web Solutions was already maintaining Laura’s website when she asked what else we could help her with.

She was frustrated with the vendors she had been working with and fearful that miscommunication between the parties could be hurting her business. She was looking to put all her marketing efforts in one place to streamline the process.

She wanted us to help.

We listened to Laura’s challenges, pain points, and fears. Then, we worked with her under our Strategic Partnership Program, allowing us to provide the exact solutions she was looking for to improve her marketing strategy.

Working with Laura was a dream.

But it got me wondering, how could I attract more dream clients like Laura?

We tried increasing our marketing efforts through Search Engine Optimization and online ads, but nothing seemed to work. We were getting more leads, but they weren’t necessarily qualified leads.

They definitely weren’t the next “Laura.”

We were stuck. We weren’t sure what we were doing wrong, why we weren’t attracting the right audience, and why we couldn’t convince any high-quality leads to make a purchase.

Then I remembered a quote from one of my mentors. “Your target audience is willing to pay you if they believe the value you provide is greater than the money in their pocket.”

Finally, it clicked.

We were struggling to connect with our target audience because we weren’t showing them the true value in the services we could provide. We were getting our content in front of the right people, but they weren’t understanding how we could help.

We needed a messaging change.

I thought back to problems Laura had been facing before she hired us. What if all my ideal clients were experiencing similar challenges?

We were able to help Laura because we understood her marketing struggles and used our Strategic Partnership Program to provide solutions. Was this the key to attracting high-quality clients?

I decided to apply this idea to everything I did. From our marketing and website to meetings with clients, I approached each topic with a will to solve the customer’s problem. And that’s when I began to hear it more and more.

“That’s exactly what I’ve been looking for! It’s like you’ve read my mind!”

Why Your Audience Isn’t Buying from You

It can be incredibly frustrating to feel a disconnect between you and your target audience. You’ve marketed your services and put out ad after ad, but you’re still not attracting the right leads. You know you can help them, but they just won’t give you the chance to do so.

If your audience is still choosing a competitor over you, it’s probably because you’re not considering the needs, challenges, or fears of your ideal customer.

Let’s consider what happens when a customer wants to make a purchase.

Your customer recognizes that they have a problem, but they’re not quite sure how to fix it. So, they begin browsing the web to see what solutions are out there.

They run into a few different advertisements from companies offering the products or services that may provide a solution.

One company’s advertisement focuses on themselves. It talks about the business’s accomplishments, brags about who the owner is, and only briefly addresses what kind of benefit they can bring to the customer. It’s clear they’re only looking to make a sale.

But the second company’s advertisement plays off the needs of the customer. It addresses the problem the customer is facing and provides a detailed explanation of why their products or services can solve it. The company’s message is hopeful and inviting — they’re here to help.

Now, which company do you think your client is going to purchase from?

If your marketing messaging is more like the first company than the second company, you may have found your problem. If you’re not convincing your audience that you’re able to solve their problems or eliminate their fears, you’re going to continue to struggle to attract high-quality clients.

Take a moment to consider who your target audience is. What do they do each day? What careers do they have? What personal or professional challenges do they deal with?

How can you help?

Once you better understand who your target audience really is, you can craft a better marketing message. If you haven’t identified who is in your target audience is just yet, this template can help.

How to Prove YOU Are the “Dream Solution”

Just as you’re looking for your company’s “dream clients,” customers are searching for their “dream solution.” When you’re able to provide that solution to a member of your target audience, they’re driven to buy from you.

Easier said than done, right?

Well, it may actually be easier than you think.

When creating your marketing messaging, you want to consider what you can do for the client — but you need to go deeper than just what products or services you can provide. If you truly want to convince them to make a purchase, you need to give them a reason.

There are many companies out there that do what you do. While you may provide a unique spin to a certain service or have a different approach to a product, you have competitors going after the same audience members. Flashy advertisements may be enough to catch their attention, but it probably isn’t enough to get a sale.

If you want a customer to purchase from you, you need to establish trust. When your target audience trusts that you can provide the best solution to eliminate their pain, you will get their business.

Let’s look at some of the ways you can use your marketing messaging to improve trust with your target audience.

Put it in Writing

When you’re trying to define what you bring to the table, the best way to do so is to put it in writing. Get as specific as possible in describing who your company helps, what problems they’re facing, and how you solve it.

To get started, fill in the blanks to this sentence:

We help [Target Audience] solve [Pain Point or Problem] by providing [Dream Solution].

Simple, right?

If you’re unable to properly fill in the blanks, your message isn’t targeted enough. Keep revising until it is clear.

Make Sure It’s Clear and Consistent

While you don’t want to repeat the same sentence over and over, make sure all your marketing messaging reflects back to the sentence you’ve created. Each piece of marketing you create — from your website to your print materials — should address the same target audience, pain point, and solution.

Think about what your audience is looking for and use your space to be as efficiently as possible. Don’t waste your time with overextended and unnecessary introductions. Just get straight to the point.

For example, instead of featuring an entire display to only welcome visitors to your site, immediately tell them what you do. Don’t make them browse around your entire page just to figure out how you can help them.

Let’s take a look at the health insurance provider Oscar and how they’ve structured their homepage.

Immediately after getting to the site, they provide you with a straight-to-the point description of what they offer. Their readers immediately understand the company’s goal and can determine whether or not it suits their needs.

Your audience shouldn’t have to question what you do or what you can provide. Make sure your messaging is clear, accurate, and descriptive.

Keep Your Marketing Messaging Simple

You want to be creative with your marketing messaging, but sometimes too much creativity can make you lose your audience. Having some unique approaches or different spins can help attract and keep their attention, but if you get too “cute” with your language, it may seem like you’re not taking the matter serious enough.

While you don’t need to be overly dramatic about the problems your audience is facing, you also don’t want to downplay them. If you seem to make too many jokes about the issue or you don’t fully understand the stress of the matter, you may be pushing your target audience away. Instead, keep it simple — like Mailchimp.

MailChimp appeals to a variety of businesses across different industries, but they all have the same problem — they want to get more sales. MailChimp offers a simple solution to help them achieve that goal. Through sending better emails, they can sell more stuff.

MailChimp doesn’t try to spruce up their language or make jokes about lagging sales. Instead, they make it easy for their audience to connect with, improving trust and increasing their chance of getting a new customer.

Stay Away from Industry Jargon

No matter the industry you serve, you want to avoid industry jargon in your messaging. Your audience may be familiar about the industry you’re in, but using jargon they’re unfamiliar with can make them feel like an outsider. If you put up a wall between you and your customer, it makes it harder and harder for them to trust you.

Instead, talk your audience’s language. Use your target audience’s lingo, terms, sentence structure and more. The more you sound like your audience, the easier it will be for them to trust you can help them.

Hubspot does an awesome job at appealing to their target audience without using a lot of jargon.

While someone unfamiliar with growing a small business may not know what some of the terms mean, the Hubspot target audience surely will. Hubspot appropriately used the language of their target audience to build authority without making the audience feel like they’re out of the loop.

The secret to getting your audience to buy from you isn’t some sales pitch — it’s listening for their pain points, establishing trust, and proving that you have the right solution.

But in order to get there, you need to understand who your target audience really is.

To start attracting more high-quality customers, check out how to identify who it is you’re really trying to reach. Through identifying your target audience, you’ll be able to create the perfect message to secure their business.