Most organizations never succeed at creating a message that resonates with their audience.
That’s a pretty bold statement but it’s true. And there’s a single reason for it:
They don’t think deeply enough about their audience’s pain points (also known as felt needs) and address how they solve those pain points in their marketing messaging.
Let me give you an example…
An average mattress company will talk about the features of their mattresses. We offer a variety of sizes. Our mattresses are filled with air. Or, our mattresses are made out of certain types of foam.
A slightly better mattress company will talk about the benefits of the features. We offer a variety of sizes in stock so you don’t have to drive all over town to get the size you need. Or, our memory foam mattresses help you stay cool at night so you don’t wake up in a sweat.
Slightly better than that would be, our mattresses help you get a good night’s sleep.
But, I’d even ask the question, “What’s the end goal of a good night’s sleep?” When you answer that question — “Our mattresses help you get a good night’s sleep so you feel fresh and alert for that important business meeting the next day!” — you can sell to people’s real emotions.
Too often, we sell features. Most often, people buy based on removing emotional pain points (or, the inverse, creating an emotional joy point).
We need to think more deeply about the felt needs of our audience and our solution to that felt need.
Nobody’s buying a mattress because they want a cool piece of foam on their bed pedestal. They’re buying a good night’s sleep. No, they’re buying feeling good the next day.
If you sell a service to church leaders, you’re not selling them on the main feature of your service. You’re selling them on the benefit that feature provides. But if you really want your message to resonate with them, don’t only sell the primary benefit. Sell the deep, secondary and third-level benefits you solve.
Think about what church leaders struggle with:
- They’re too busy.
- They have too many demands on their time.
- They’re on call 24-7.
- They ride an emotional rollercoaster — preaching a wedding one day and preaching a funeral the next day.
- They’re constantly listening to people’s problems.
- They have a relentless production schedule…that Sunday sermon comes around very often. They have big dreams with too few staff.
- Their staff is going a thousand different directions from the direction the leader wants them to go.
- The senior leader has to constantly be vision casting.
- And at the same time he has to be running the HR compliance for the church.
Now, reposition your service, course, product, etc. to solve one of those problems and you’ve got a winning message.
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If you are an organization or individual that serves church and you’d like a FREE audit/analysis of your marketing messaging, we really enjoy helping organizations and individuals work through it. Contact us and we’ll book a time to chat. No pressure or obligation…just a chat…we’re here to help.