With millions of products available online, many sellers are missing a vital step to ensure their products stand out from the rest.
Well beyond the importance of an easy to recognise brand name, great packaging and photography, if your marketing and product listing doesn’t clearly solve a problem, life is going to be very difficult for you online.
Knowing the problem your product solves is a vital element if you want to captivate and engage your buyer, let alone have them choose your product over someone else's.
When it comes to paid advertising, specially on Amazon, Graeme Clemett, Amazon FBA Coach says that in his opinion, “knowing the problem your product solves is the only thing you need to understand.” He explains “If you don’t know the problem your product solves, then you don’t know who you are selling to, and that makes it very difficult to position your marketing and advertising to the right audience.”
“If you don’t know the problem your product solves, then you don’t know who you are selling to, and that makes it very difficult to position your marketing and advertising to the right audience.”
Highlighting the problem your product solves definitely helps peak buyers interests and helps you target your marketing to the right audience, but be careful not to go creating problems to solve that don’t actually exist, because that will just blow up in your face and make your marketing incredibly complicated and potentially disengage buyers who consider your marketing to be hype and promises.
Humans are pretty simple and our brains don’t like to be confused, so making sure you are clear about the problem so you can explain it or communicate it in easy to understand ways, using plain language and even better, including the emotional pain behind the problem or painting a picture of what life will be like once your product has removed the problem, will definitely help your product stand out and be selected.
graeme clemett
-amazon coach-
And it’s more than just standing out from the crowd. "Without a pain point or problem to be solved you will end up mass marketing to anybody and as most online sellers do not have the big brand advertising budget, getting clear on the problem your product solves, could save you huge marketing costs."
Keith O'Brien, CEO of Page.One, has this to share on the topic. "Your job as a brand owner is to understand two things about your product...Who buys this and why?” Keith suggests that ”Getting into buyer psychology, which is mostly about pain and pleasure points, helps you hone in on your core niche. The more relevant you are to your core niche, the better performance your listing will have."
keith o'brien
-Page.one ceo-
Knowing your buyer and their pain points is certainly vital when it comes to deciding where to invest your advertising spend, as Keith reiterates.
“There is no place this is more true than when you are driving paid traffic to the product via PPC.”
identifying the problem-solving aspect
There are some things to take into consideration when identifying the problem-solving aspect of your brand or product. Let’s take a look at some things so you can begin with to identify the problem and communicate it better:
Identify the physical problem that your brand or product solves. Identify the emotional problem, how your ideal customer feels about what the product will do for them. Consider customer “pain points”.
Once you know the problem your product solves, you can ensure your marketing, advertising, images, social media and online and physical collateral all communicate this well, so your potential customers can see themselves using the product.
Brian Johnson, Owner and director of Canopy Management, Sponsored Products Academy and PPC Scope suggests that “knowing the problem the product solves lets you successfully answer the consumer's question of "What's In It For Me?”.
brian johnson
-canopy management-
Understanding your products WIIFM (What’s In it For Me?) factor will help you target your marketing message even further.
Brian offers the following tips to leverage the problem your product solves:
- 1SCROLL STOP: The first challenge is to grab a shoppers attention after they’ve searched for your product niche. The means catching the eye of the shopper that is scrolling through dozens of similar images and titles. Tactics such as coupon code badges, higher contrast images, main image unlike all competitors main image - will help to create a “scroll stop” moment where the shopper gives the ad or listing a second glance.
- 2ENGAGEMENT: The second challenge is compelling the shopper to engage — clicking on the ad or listing to reach the product detail page. This often involves including a couple of unique words near the front of the title that POP out to the shopper. We note a special manufacturing process or ingredient that differentiates our product from the mob of competitors. It creates curiosity that leads to a visit to the product detail page.
- 3DIFFERENTIATION: The third challenge is proving to the shopper why this product is special - EVEN IF the seller knows it’s the same product as competitive substitutes. In the remainder of the title, additional photos, short video, or first bullet point — expanding on what special manufacturing process or ingredient differentiates our product from the competitors. Hint: simply naming the most expensive step in the manufacturing process creates uniques to the consumer that gives them permission to spend more on your product because it has something no other products have.
- 4GLANCE OPINION: Finally, have someone else who is not intimately familiar with the product already view the top 1/4 of the listing for ONLY 5 SECONDS then tell you what they remember is insightful for the product owner. I’ve even used micro worker services to get dozens of “glance opinions” for feedback of what instantly catches the eye of a potential buyer.
When creating a brand and designing products, you must make sure that you are solving a problem that your potential customers have. Your brand must add value to their lives and that will be a major selling point.
At BrandCrafting, we specialize in crafting brands, working with you to ensure that your brand is unique, helping you identify and solve a problem and communicating that properly.
Contact Us today to find out how.
