We’ve all been there, right?
That part of the project when all of the content is done. Everything is edited and you’re just giving it all one final read before sending it to the client.
And despite all of your effort, the content just doesn’t work.
My personal failure, the project that got me, was for a little real estate company.
With a few client interviews and some background research, I had put together a good set of copy. It looked, and sounded, like a real estate website. I’d even managed to tell the client’s story and paint them as the fun alternative to their stodgy competitors.
And yet, that little voice in the back of my head kept telling me the site wasn’t going to work.
So, I showed the copy to a UX pro friend of mine. She flipped through the pages and casually tossed them aside.
“Dude, why should I care?” she snorted.
“Because the site won’t work with the copy as it is,” I started to respond.
“That wasn’t a question. That was my feedback. That’s what’s wrong. Look, nobody cares about this business’ ‘story.’ People only care about what this business can do for them.”
She was right. Sadly, not right enough to save that project – there were problems beyond copy. But her advice put me on a path that changed not only how I write copy, but how I build projects, campaigns, strategies, even tweets.
What I discovered was C.R.E.A.M.
And unlike the often unwieldy strategies you might come across, C.R.E.A.M. fits on an index card.
C.R.E.A.M. – The One Thing That Would Have Saved My Client’s Website
Business books describe this idea using the rather dry sounding “customer-centric philosophy,” but I find that undersells its importance. Instead, I borrowed a phrase from the Wu Tang Clan, C.R.E.A.M. – Customers Rule Everything Around Me.
Returning to the real estate company’s website, they, like so many other businesses out there, suffered from their company-centric mindset. You know the kind. It dictates that step one always involves differentiating the company from the competition, then looking for the right potential customers and educating those people into action.
C.R.E.A.M., on the other hand, puts the customers, and their needs, at the center. Everything else – from the brand to the product to the pricing to the messaging – is built to meet those needs. In short, C.R.E.A.M. reminds us to focus on making the customer successful.
And C.R.E.A.M.’s not just an idea that sounds good on paper, C.R.E.A.M. has the numbers to back it up. Research by Gallup notes that engaged customers, that is those customers that a business has made successful, spend an average of 23% more for the exact same products as those who are not engaged. That increase in average spending pairs with savings in acquisition, as engaged customers buy more frequently and cost much less to retain.
Even businesses like my real estate client, companies that sell durable goods and can’t rely on frequent repeat business, benefit from C.R.E.A.M. With a focus on solving a customer’s actual needs, C.R.E.A.M. creates happy customers. And happy customers are word-of-mouth machines. Successful customers typically tell between 4 and 6 people about their experiences, and in doing so, create marketing that money can’t buy.
Focusing on the end customer benefited my business as well. By making my client’s customers happy, I was also making my client happy. The benefits loop back. Happy clients are more likely to recommend my business. And happy clients buy more frequently, cost less to maintain, and spend more.
So, how do you get started with C.R.E.A.M.? How do you make the radical shift from the traditional business-centric model to putting your customers’ needs at the center of everything you do? First, you’ll need an index card.
1. C.R.E.A.M. Starts With A Business Goal
Yes, I know that sounds completely contrary to the entire C.R.E.A.M. ethos, but bear with me. At its nice, rational, theoretical core, business is about two parties coming to a fair agreement that solves each of their needs.
For your client to begin solving their customers’ needs, you first have to help them identify what your client needs in return. It doesn’t matter if you’re writing a television commercial or building a mobile app or the next Facebook, you need to start with the simple question – what does the business need to be successful?
If your clients are anything like mine, they’ll shrug and answer, “more customers.” C.R.E.A.M. requires that you dig a little deeper than that, down to a singular goal that will make your clients happy.
The good news is that success goal can be anything, from more newsletter subscribers, to increased sales, to the elusive “brand lift.” The exact nature of the goal is less important than there only being one agreed-upon goal. Multiple goals often compete against each other, diminishing focus and making success less likely.
After your clients have stated their business goal, you now have one side of the equation. Everything from that point on should focus on creating balance – that is, providing something of value that makes customers feel like they’re getting their money or time’s worth. You need to determine what you can help your client provide that will make their customers successful.
And speaking of customers…
2. Define “Customers” In The Most Narrow Way Possible
A funny thing happens if you ask your client who they want as a customer. They will regularly reply with “everyone.”
Just as multiple goals compete against each other, the broader the customer base, the less focus you have.
So, your task is to get your client to define their customers to the point where you can create a knowable state.
Achieving a knowable state means narrowing the customer profile down. Most of us are pretty good at generalizing to a group that feels knowable. But, to get the most out of your focus, you need to go further.
If your clients deal primarily with small businesses, ask what kind of small businesses – What do those businesses do? Where do those businesses sell? Do they have a storefront, sell online, both? How old are these small businesses? How many employees do they have? What kind of businesses is not a good fit for your client?
To use C.R.E.A.M., you need to guide the conversation until your clients feel like they’ve reduced their entire potential customer pool down to just one person. And you get bonus points if it actually is one person. Because one person is knowable.
After you’re done narrowing and defining, give that single customer a name.
3. Discover Your Customer’s Actual Needs
There’s a great quote attributed to Henry Ford, “If I had asked what people wanted, they would have said faster horses.”
And while some use that quote to prove that the customer isn’t always right, I think it cuts the other way as well. See, Mr. Ford knew he wasn’t in the automobile business, he was in the business of helping people get from point A to point B. The need he identified was speed and affordability. And Mr. Ford’s solution is with us still.
Ford understood the difference between a Want and a Need. And he was successful because he built his business on satisfying the need.
The next step for C.R.E.A.M. is taking that single customer and honing in on what needs she has.
Find and talk to that single customer – the customer who represents your client’s best customer. Don’t mention the business. Don’t mention the product. Instead, dig into the problems that the customer has and his or her means to overcome them. Dig for interests, find out what makes the customer proud. Ask about motivation and frustration.
Teasing out the customer’s specific need takes some practice; it’s a skill that requires you to understand the difference between what the customer says and what they mean. They may say they want a faster horse, but what they really mean is they need a faster way to get from A to B. A faster horse is but one way to satisfy that need.
Next, talk to the customer-facing people at your client’s organization. No one has better insight on customer needs than the sales folks and support personnel. Fish for anecdotes, funny stories about relieved customers and the sad stories about lost sales. Learn why people say they buy, and the rationale they give for leaving or sticking around.
Combine everything you’ve learned into a single statement of what your client’s customer actually needs, whether it’s to get where they’re going, to have more time at home with their family, to get back to the old fishing hole, or to be a champion by running faster and jumping higher.
Every customer has a need. If you’re willing to put in the effort, you can find it. And you’d be surprised at the doors that insight can open.
4. Take A Journey To Answer That Need
Understanding the customer’s needs is a good start. But embracing C.R.E.A.M. means moving beyond mere empathy and reaching out to the customer and engaging on her terms.
The typical tool employed here is the Customer Journey Map, a visualization of the customer’s journey from first being introduced to a brand all the way to achieving a loyal state. The map typically groups the stages into Awareness, Research, Choice, and Purchase, with each stage focusing on the tasks both the customer and the brand must do in order to get the customer to the move to the next stage.
The C.R.E.A.M. Journey Map typically uses stages like: Awareness of Need, Search for Solution, Combats Need, Achieves Success. The journey shifts wholly onto the customer, starting with the her need and ending with her success. Your client becomes a fellow traveller on that journey, someone who aides the customer, but there customer is the sole hero.
The role of your client is to facilitate that success. To be more Obi Wan Kenobi and less Luke Skywalker. And that’s not an easy role for many clients to slip into.
To help understand that relationship, start with a worst-case customer, burdened by their need and suspicious of your client’s offer for help. Write down all the questions that customer might ask and voice all of her objections. Be blunt.
Your list might look something like this:
Who are you and why should I care?
How do I know you really understand me?
Are my friends using your solution?
Are my competitors using you?
How do I know you’re any good?
By the time you’re done, you should have a fair understanding of what the customer is facing, the role your client is to play in that story, and most importantly, a list of questions that your customers must have answers to before they can use your client’s solution to become successful.
5. Turn the Customer Journey Map Into Content
Now all you have to do is answer those questions.
Sure, that makes it sound easy. We all know that creating compelling content is no easy task. But between the Customer Journey Map and the questions the customer needs answered, you’re pointing your content in the right direction before you craft word one.
Turn those questions into a Content Map, and use that map to guide the content you’re creating. I even went as far as filling the Description blocks here on Gather Content with those questions. This means my pages were filled with things like, “Section must answer the following question: Who are you and why should I care?”
Remember, C.R.E.A.M. content is less about how awesome the client is, and more about how brilliant the customer’s life is going to be after a little boost from the client.
Putting It On an Index Card
Strategy can get bulky in a hurry, making it difficult to manage, adapt, and implement. At Recurve, we have a saying – if your strategy doesn’t fit on an index card, it’s too complicated.
Despite all the tactics delved into above, C.R.E.A.M. can be put onto an index card. Just fill in the blanks.
The C.R.E.A.M. Strategy
Because [Client] needs [Client Need], we will help [Customer] overcome [Customer Need] with our [Solution].
For my real estate client, that strategy would look something like this:
Because Southern Homes* needs a steady stream of new customers, will will help First Time Homeowners overcome their transition into adulthood by focusing on becoming their home shopping partner and first-time-buyer specialists.
Getting Started With C.R.E.A.M.
Most clients don’t realize that they slipped from a customer into a business-owner, and this puts them in a precarious position, treating their brand as the exception (people want to hear from us) rather than the rule (people are looking to tune out brands).
C.R.E.A.M.’s a means to correct that mindset, but it’s also an end-state. You can use bits and pieces of C.R.E.A.M. to start your clients on the path towards a customer-centric mentality.
The next time you client asks for some content, ask these three questions:
Who is the audience?
What will they get out of this content?
Why should they care?
The post Want to go Content First? You need to start with C.R.E.A.M. appeared first on GatherContent: A blog about content strategy and development.