By now, most folks realize that having a content strategy or brand messaging is key to your branding consistency and messaging. Where most people struggle is how to best define their brand messaging. For example, let’s say you are a rental car company attempting to lure customers away from all the other rental car companies out there.
If you’re someone who travels frequently for business and uses rental cars, there may not be very many differences between the many companies out there. Some people want an experience of meeting a friendly face and exchanging small talk; some people want an easy option to upgrade your vehicle; and many people want the car cleaned, ready and waiting precisely when they set foot on solid ground - with no human interaction whatsoever. The company that addresses your specific pain point effectively is the one who gets your business.
If you’re the business owner (car rental company in this case), how do you best identify the pain points your particular target audience is interested in to create an effective content strategy. Using the StoryBrand approach to craft your content strategy breaks it down into a multi-pronged approach which starts with Internal Problems vs. External Problems
What are my Internal Problems/External Problems?
When you use the StoryBrand framework to craft your content strategy, the external problems customers have are the superficial issues. In our example, it’s things like which type of car do I want? What are my price options? The internal problems are the deeper, more personal, fears and frustrations customers experience. If you are the traveler who doesn’t want to make small talk or interact with a human being when you land, your frustration is to get past the human customer service person and straight into your car to head for your accommodation.
We all love the movie ‘Moneyball.’ In this movie, Billy Bean, as played by Brad Pitt is having an existential crisis about his ability to be involved in baseball. He’s a failed player wondering if he has what it takes to be a general manager. This is his INTERNAL struggle. His EXTERNAL struggle in the movie is to win baseball games. Most companies tend to sell solutions for EXTERNAL problems. Human beings want to purchase solutions to INTERNAL problems.
External Problem Question for Customers
What is the physical/tangible thing that is getting in the way of the character/persona achieving what they want?
This is your Customer’s external problem. Ideally, your business removes whatever is causing friction or getting in the way of customers getting to delight themselves with your product, good, or service. Uncovering what the actual external problem is and how to address it is the beginning of crafting your branding and content strategy. Once you know the externals, it’s time to move to the internal problem.
Internal Problem Question for Customers
How does that make the character/persona feel?
This is your Customer’s internal problem. Not only should your business address the physical/tangible things getting in the way of them delighting themselves with your products, goods, and services - it needs to make your Customers feel good about using your business to solve their pain points or problems
Philosophical Question for Customers
Why is whatever is causing friction just plain wrong?
This is where you easily can overcome your Customers objections to using your product, good, or service. Whatever is getting in the way of them using your business to solve their pain point should, ideally, be just plain wrong. Once you’re able to answer these questions for your Customers and remove the friction - you are well on your way in terms of growing your business by clearly communicating with your Customers.
Using these questions to uncover what it is your ideal Customer wants and needs, how they feel about your solution, and how it removes friction from your Customer’s life is an excellent starting point for growing your business. Crafting a branding and content strategy takes time, the questions above are from a technique called StoryBrand. Why not partner with the trained professionals who can not only craft an effective content strategy but will also effectively execute on it?
Using the StoryBrand framework in tandem with your HubSpot Marketing system is a fantastic way to enhance your company’s growth and reach more Customers. At Revenue River, we’re fortunate to have a StoryBrand certified practitioner on staff. The StoryBrand format is an excellent starting point for both defining and implementing your brand’s content strategy. Whether you think you need a content strategy for your business or not, you NEED A CONTENT STRATEGY for your business!
Learn more about how asking the right questions can help you quickly identify your Customer’s pain points and exceed our business goals. Contact us today!
