Put Holes in Your Marketing Plan

Most businesses, including all successful businesses, have a marketing plan, but all too often that plan is missing a key ingredient – the holes.  Marketers get too focused on the product or service they are selling and they forget about their customer, and more importantly, exactly what their customer is looking for.  They forget about the holes!

So what’s a hole?  Remember that nobody buys a drill because they want a drill.  They buy a drill because they want holes.  The “hole” is the solution to your customer’s problem.  The “hole” is what you should be addressing in your marketing, not the drill.  The hole is what your customer is really looking for.

So is your marketing plan focused on the drill, or is it focused on the hole?  While it might be possible to get somebody who doesn’t need holes to buy a drill, your job of selling drills will be a whole lot easier if you first find people that need holes.

Would you like to increase your sales?  Take a step back from your business and figure out what problems your customers are trying to solve when they do business with you.  If there’s more than one problem, which is most important?  Which is most urgent?  How does this problem make them feel?  Which one is causing your customer the most pain?  What kind of pain is this problem causing?  What are your customers willing to do to make that pain go away?  When you understand these things, you’re well on your way to understanding your customer.

Now take a look again at your marketing plan and your advertisements.  How do you capture the attention of people with the same problem?  How well do you address the issues that are most important to them?  What kind of offer do you make to solve their problem?  Forget about trying to sell more drills.  Just find people that need holes, and help them out!