The MacKellar Memo | March 2022
Method Marketing
We all know the old saying “before you judge a man, walk a mile in his shoes.”
We often hear that when it relates to practicing empathy in our personal and professional lives with it frequently being tied to the idea of not casting judgment without trying to understand the unique situation for a given individual. It could range from why a particular friend of yours votes for one party over the other, how a family chooses to spend its money, or even the type of music or television that currently holds the top spot on the charts.
But for us as marketers, the idea brings us to the all-to-practical yet often overlooked “method marketing” approach in which we, as the marketers, assume the role of the prospect and live the entire sales cycle in their shoes.
“I have 10 years of experience—I already know how to market this product” is what your initial response might sound like if I remove all of the curse words you’d throw my way. And while you might be right, you have zero experience marketing this product. You might have marketed competitor products, products in the same vertical, etc., but you’ve never marketed this specific product (and if by some chance you have, we have larger problems because the client hired us to improve their existing performance…).
Why does this matter? Because no two products are alike, and no two buyer journeys and conversion paths are alike. Marketing a similar product is great, but that may have come with a completely different conversion path or a slightly different buyer motivation that would create a significant change in how we would strategically approach our recommendations.
As an example, pretend we have two real estate agents—an agent who sells a multi-million dollar home in Wash Park and an agent who sells 600 sq ft condos in Cap Hill. Both of these agents sell a roughly similar product (real estate) and in the same general geographic area (Metro Denver) and have the same credentials (brokers license). What these two agents have, though, are different buyer personas (no child vs. child) taking different desired behaviors based on different motivation (close to entertainment and work vs. space for child to play), different ability (first real estate purchase vs. graduating from starter home) and different prompts (promotion vs. growing child).
So what does this all mean for us as marketers? It means we need to go live a day (or a conversion path) in the shoes of our buyer personas to truly understand what type of marketing will move the needle. Why does this matter?
Uncover Hidden Conversion Barriers: There may be small, yet meaningful items, that we would never have encountered without attempting to complete the sale. A real world example from just last week—I tried to buy a book on a particular niche website and was informed that the seller’s store only worked on Firefox. Well, I promptly abandoned my purchase and bought the book through Amazon since the ability to act was easier for me.
Identify Information Gaps: If you follow the conversion path from start to finish, you’ll potentially find gaps in the information provided to the prospect that could make the difference in a purchase. For example, if we’re marketing a SaaS product, prospects will expect to see pricing and integrations. Not seeing those clearly available may be an immediate disqualifer for a prospect no matter how compelling their motivation to act is in a given moment.
Personally Feel the Pain: No matter the level of our professional expertise, we may not have the “light blub” moment until we’re in the moment itself. Feeling the frustration of an added step or an extra, but ultimately necessary, ask of the prospect can help shape how we frame the messaging around each stage of the process. No amount of professional training and execution can recreate that frustration, but experiencing that frustration then allows us to better understand what the prospects are feeling in a given moment.
These are just a few examples of why we should rethinking the term “going through the motions” when creating and optimizing a strategy for our clients. Embrace this part of our jobs and use it to really deliver value to our clients (and always spring for the expedited shipping—just tell RJ it’s important to really experience the product).
Looking for more tips and tricks from the team? Head over to The Inventing Room for more.