The biggest hurdle advertisers face (that means you, the business owner) is that there are so many tire kickers as prospects and not enough qualified buyers in their market. It seems that their competitors are always much lower in price than their quote was, and they can never get out of that vicious cycle of price shoppers and low margins. Consumers use price as the objection because they don’t know enough about the product or service. They haven’t felt enough trust in the company to want to part with their hard-earned dollars.

I can’t say that I blame them either. But, again, it goes back to what I said before about being ‘order takers’. How can they expect a consumer to fork over thousands of dollars to a business they don’t know anything about or trust. It’s up to the company to ensure that consumers are well informed and educated about their product and service to the point that they are more than willing to part ways with their paychecks. But how do you do that?

This chapter will go over the three main fundamentals of Internet Marketing. Who is your customer (Market), What is your message, and how will you deliver it
(Media)?

Question: How to Market My Concrete coating business:

Who Is Your Customer? (Market)

First, you need to know your consumer. You need to know who your customers are to talk to them at their level. If your average consumer-owned a Chevy Corvette 2019, for example, and golfed three times a week. They owned their own business and had 2 to 3 children. They lived in an upper-class neighborhood, went to church on Sundays, and donated to charity. Maybe, just maybe, there might be some clues there as to how to speak to them at their level. Especially when it comes down to making sure their Vet looks damn good in their three-car garage seven days a week.

If you know your target customer, you can create a message they will relate to. However, if you try to captivate your entire service area, you will again throw crap at the wall. Yes, you will get leads, but they will be slow to buy. They are tire kickers and challenging to convince you that you’re the company they can trust.

People will only buy from you for three reasons: 

1. They know you/your company. 
2. They like you/your company. 
3. They trust you/your company.

If you know your target customer avatar, you can create a solid plan to build ad campaigns that will help them gain that trust and get to your company as though they’ve known you their entire life.

So, to help you get started, I have an avatar sheet that you can use to help you decipher who your target customers are. A good starting point would be to look at every customer that bought from you over the past year. Start by writing down some commonalities. 

For example, are they in proximity to each other in the same neighborhoods? Are they of a specific age range? Are they married with children? Do they appear to have a high average household income? What types of houses or vehicles do they own? 

There are only four things that you want to focus on when coming up with your customer avatar:

1. Demographics
2. Pains & Frustrations
3. Fears, Implications
4. Goals & Desires

Here’s an example of an avatar that might work for you. My recommendation is to put some serious thought into your avatar. Don’t just directly copy everything I mention here, as you might get it completely wrong for your market.

Example Of an Avatar

DEMOGRAPHICS

• Homeowner.
• 35+ years old.
• Typically female or male.
• Married with 2-3 kids.
• Head of the household.
• $65K+ Annual Household Income.
• Family-oriented.
• Reliable.
• Easily frustrated.
• He likes to please people & expects the same in return.
• Not handy.
• Likes man caves or tinkering in the garage.
• Lives in the suburbs – an upper-middle-class neighborhood.
• She takes an interest in the community.

PAINS & FRUSTRATIONS

• He doesn’t have construction knowledge.
• She can’t get a concrete coating company on the phone or return their call.
• Need their issue resolved.
• Too busy to deal with it.
• Worried that the project won’t turn out well.
• They can’t rely on their partner to help do the job.

FEARS & IMPLICATIONS

• Being ripped off or overcharged.
• Paying too much for something they could have gotten cheaper elsewhere.
• Having home or property damaged by faulty work.
• Having to wait around for the workers to arrive.
• Being inconvenienced trying to coordinate with the office.
• May cause a disaster on the property.
• The bill will be more than they can afford or initially agreed upon paying.

GOALS & DESIRES

• Get the garage floor done for summer.
• Having the issue behind them.
• Having a well-kept home.
• Taking care of their family.
• More income, money, wealth.
• Live in a more luxurious home.
• Drive a nice car.
• Kids are healthy, happy & prosperous.
• Spend more time with family.
• Travel & have fun with the family.
• Respect and approval of friends, family, and relatives.
• Peace of mind.

In the link below is an avatar worksheet (compliments of Digital Marketer) that you can use to help figure this out. Don’t skip out on this! Skipping out on this is like skipping out on dinner every day!

Click here to get the sample avatar worksheet.

I would also like to take this opportunity and mention Donald Miller, author of the book Story Brand. This book is one of the must-haves for every entrepreneur in existence. It will help you reframe your mind to understand how to take the customer on the correct journey throughout the buying process. It’s a magnificent book, and I highly recommend adding it to your library of business books. 

The other reason is that you can create a very similar avatar using their Brand Script to help you clarify your message on the Story Brand website, which is what we will be discussing next.

What Is Your Message?

Now that you’ve taken the time to successfully write down who your customer avatar is (I will mention here that it’s ok to have more than one avatar, provided the ads you are running will only target one avatar or audience at a time.), it’s time to craft a message that will resonate with them in such a way that filling out a form or finding a way to contact you is the ultimate next step; a no-brainer.

What are some ways you can craft a solid message?

Well, as I mentioned before, it comes down to emotion. Human beings are impulsive. We act on instinct and survival. We will either run away from pain or run towards desire. Either emotion works amazingly well in advertising. However, pain points tend to be a more powerful motivation to make decisions than desire. No one likes to suffer or be in pain, and we will do whatever it takes to remove that from our lives.

So, having a strong message that can focus on those two core emotions for buying behavior will bring you a lot of leads and customers. It is especially true when the message is specific to the avatar you’ve created. 

“If you can see through Joe Jones’ eyes, then you can see what Joe Jones buys.” 

That statement holds true because if you can get into the head of your ideal customer, then it will bear fruit, you’re going to get higher close rates, you’re going to have happier customers, you’re going to have a profitable business because you’re not competing on price. 

At this stage, I cannot write your message for you. You have to figure out what that is for this to work. I will, however, give you some tips on some well-known frameworks that will help you craft messages correctly. There’s the AIDA framework and the PAS framework. Let’s start with the AIDA framework. By the way, both are effective. Decide on which framework you’re most comfortable with implementing.

AIDA stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. Based on the concepts of human behavior, the consumer goes through a hierarchy of stages, like a funnel, where they will relate to an emotion that will lead them to take some action. Here’s an example of an AIDA framework you could use:

ATTENTION: If you’re tired of your garage looking like a mess, then it’s time to make it look great again!

INTEREST: Our Garage Floor Coating service is the best way to cover up that ugly concrete floor. We will turn it into something you can be proud of showing off. We offer a variety of colors, styles, and finishes so you can choose what works for your home or garage floors. Our fantastic coating system will protect your floor from damage caused by water or oil leaks. Your new floor coating system will be in good condition for years to come.

DESIRE: With Garage Floor Coating Company, you don’t have to settle for an ordinary-looking garage anymore! The best part about our product is that it lasts much longer than other options on the market today without fading or chipping away over time as paint does! And if you aren’t satisfied with the results, we will come back out at no additional cost until everything looks like we promised! That way – everyone wins!

ACTION: Click here right now to learn more about how we can help transform your garage into something unique!

Next is the PAS Framework. PAS stands for Problem, Agitate, Solution. Like the AIDA framework, you are simply addressing a common problem or pain point your target avatar might have. Rubbing a little salt in the wound, and then you being the expert, provides a simple solution that will help your customer save the day!

Here’s an example of a PAS framework you could use:

PROBLEM: They have a garage that requires some serious help. Their concrete floor looks horrible and needs protection while covering the floor with something that looks beautiful.

AGITATE: Using plain old paint or paint on epoxy doesn’t work because it chips and stains so easily and doesn’t last. It’s also not very durable when compared to our coating service. 

SOLUTION: Our Polyurea garage floor coating service provides the perfect solution for this problem! We offer a 3-layer protective finish that will look amazing and last for 15 years without chipping or staining, peeling, or fading. You can park your car inside your garage again! No more worrying about getting dirt on your vehicle from the ugly concrete flooring! No more wear and tear on the floor after only one year.

These frameworks are gold! They are very effective when creating content on social media, talking about your services on your website, and advertising. Now that you know the basic framework, you can work them to your advantage. You’ve crafted the perfect message to your target audience that you’ve just now figured out. You are on a roll!

The third main fundamental that we will need to understand is delivery. How are you going to get in front of your target audience so that you can deliver this new, powerful message you just created? Let’s read on to find out how.

How Will You Deliver Your Message? 

As you can see in this subtitle, I’ve added media. That’s because, in case you didn’t know, media is plural for Medium. The actual definition of Medium is “a means by which something is communicated or expressed.” So having multiple forms of mediums (media) is crucial to ensure you are getting your business and messaging to your target audience at just the right place and at the right time.

How this gets done can depend on various factors. There are many options to choose from, and as I mentioned at the beginning of this book in Chapter 1, you need a solid foundation first. Next, you need to have a powerful and meaningful presence and impression online so that your target audience is blown away by what they’ve just discovered. Figuring out your online presence will be discussed in more detail in the next chapter. 

Before we go any further, take a moment and think about what your messaging will be. You’ve now discovered how to correctly identify your target audience, aka your Ideal Customer Avatar. To some degree, you’ve unpacked their demographic, pains & frustrations, fears & implications, and their goals & desires. You now know how to create a solid message using the two frameworks – AIDA and PAS. You’ve been able to create messaging that easily resonates with them. Hopefully, you feel a lot more confident now than before that you can make something that will relate to your audience on their level. 

The delivery may seem easy, but let’s face it, there’s a lot to go over. So, in the following few chapters, I will talk more about using the media the right way.