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The 8 Primary Customer Needs

Lesson 7 from: Copywriting for Crafters

Lisa Jacobs

The 8 Primary Customer Needs

Lesson 7 from: Copywriting for Crafters

Lisa Jacobs

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Lesson Info

7. The 8 Primary Customer Needs

Lesson Info

The 8 Primary Customer Needs

Have you thought about and researched each one of these things? The most important question is in regard to your product what is my ideal customers biggest challenge when she's shopping with me what is she looking for specifically and what does she hope to achieve when you identify that you will write in a way that makes her feel heard and understood because you do hear her and you do understand her when a customer feels heard and understood it says it's as if it comes through as if you're speaking directly to them and their needs that allows them to let their guard down and trust the transaction and make a buying decision more more quickly so let's look at our examples so daisy because I wasn't going to tell you I wasn't going to tell you all to look for the challenge and then leave your leave you hanging because like what challenge? I don't know so daisy cells are prints and we wanted we want to look at what challenge does your customer face and I love the examples that we have here ...

today because our prince jewellery decorative pillows things we make and sell online are not necessarily a necessity in life we can all agree like this not a big like life threatening challenge nothing is wrong however and I know that all makers can relate however I want to look at the eight primary needs anyway as human beings this is a list of our universal needs I'm gonna cover them briefly but number one is survival and that is the will to live to be healthy and strong number two is nutrition we all need to eat and drink and sustain our bodies number three is to be free of fear and pain and that means not to worry and you know how hard it is to go when you have worries in your life to get up every day and go through your day we all need to be free of fear and pain and not worry number four is partnerships we all need in our life friendships and romances number five is comfort in quality of life when we each have a strong desire to represent ourselves and express our own personal style and beauty number six is prestige and that means the desire to be the best or to improve or get better and it's um the motivation to self improved to one tio lose weight or sleep that are are eat well number seven is a cared for and protected family we need that in our lives the people we love we need to know that they're safe cared for and protected and number eight is social except social acceptance we have a need to feel a part of something bigger, a sense of community and a sense of belonging ah familiarity so daisy looking at this list of eight primary needs where was your product? Where do you think your product falls? I think it would be a comfort or maybe acceptance I know that uh like burlesque community pinup community really respond well to my artwork so kind of feeling like you you know where the tiki community but comfort also thank goes into making your space your own and something beautiful and very comfortable to live in you know, I hadn't thought about that with the acceptance and they're being a group of people who really like that style that's a very good point but I agree with you I'm going to put comfort still is your primary because somebody could like you are not necessarily be part of that group so your current listing speaks to the details the print quality on the policies but it is a comfort item so it adds colors like colors, vibrancy, a richness and it represents somebody's personal style and aesthetic your ideal customers personal style and aesthetic I have a quick question because some of my customers are people looking for gifts for a significant other so I'll have a lot of men buy my stuff for their girlfriends so when you're thinking about making it comfortable and your ideal customer how to differentiate someone looking for it for themselves versus for someone else I don't know what I don't if it's too much of a of a tangent but no but you just you asked me a question that I said comes up whenever I do the ideal customer well you just said it you said what it will exclude no, nothing in your writing will ever exclude somebody will come in there and you will convince them that there that the person they're gift recipient is going to love it even more because you're talking to their gift recipient and that's who they're they're thinking off you see so it's ok doesn't exclude anybody so in your copyrighting we will need to remember that your prince add color, vibrancy and richness and we want to remember that throughout the product listing we're going to see speak that language to your customer when you write in a way that tells your customer that you get their personal style and and aesthetic that makes your ideal customer feel heard and understood and that's ultimately the goal so polly we're goingto we're going to pull your product up and again love this jewelry so many people can relate online people selling a special accessory there's not exactly a dire need for that not a life and death situation situation what your customer is still facing a challenge so I'm pulling me a primary needs backup what where do you think your product falls here? Um well it enhances maybe you're quality of life people can afford it it's makes them feel good about themselves so very true it too is a comfort it to falls in the comfort pattern and it's good because a lot of as makers a lot of us are going to fall in the comfort so it's nice that we have so many examples your your product represents comfort that quality of life as you said it's representative of somebody style and this answer is just going to keep coming up a lot of makers will find it over and over again so your current listing speaks to the making of the product we talk about how it was handcrafted and the features of the peace but it is a comfort item and what it doesn't add style in detail a unique finishing touch and so when we use that language in your copyrighting it makes your ideal customer feel heard and understood and that's where we're going to go with that bronwyn ok, so we're going to talk about what challenge your your customer is facing and what I like about your two examples between polly and bronwyn is that this this is still jewelry but your buyers coming with a totally different need and desire and so this falls across the board in all categories as makers because when your ideal customer is going to be completely different and you're definitely going to be talking to somebody else so your customer is also facing a challenge what do you think I to be honest I have always struggled with this like trying to figure out who that person is ok because the people that buy are so completely disparate from each other and it's hard to nail down you know these character all these questions I'm like I'll have to go over that later after you know like nothing comes rises up immediately about any of it so this is glad we're going over this because I have no idea good okay that's great because I do have some suggestions for you today that might help you get onto the right track your item is also comfort most hillary would be and it is representative of somebody style but that's its primary that's the primary meet it need it means it also it has a secondary need and that is acceptance so wrong when your current listing speaks to the process and policies of your pendant it is a comfort item but different from polly's it's adding edge and sort of a recycled organic like there's something green an earthy and loving about the piece because you take all these parts and you turn them into something new. So in addition to comfort you can also add social acceptance just like daisy had mentioned she was going after she was going after a group that represents an aesthetic yours your product as well globally and that's something we're all we all want to be part of because you are recycling and reclaiming pieces that would otherwise go into the trash and making beautiful art and jewelry with that product so it makes you feel part of a bigger movement it the wear that pendant and you and you really have saved saved something so it's a nice social acceptance is a nice global aspect to that so we're going to speak to all of that when we write your copy to make your customers feel hard and understood rebecca again pillows are not on our list of dire needs but your customer is still facing some challenges so let's look at the eight primary needs and where do you think your customers your product falls? Well, I mean pillows air comforting so to me that like the number one thing but I always like when I talked to my customers we have this interchange around like the thought of needing a pillow to or a hug. So security yeah, that like resonates with my customers like I always have the flow quote of you need thirteen hugs a day to be mentally healthy yeah, so here's one you know for free um so I don't know where that would fall but I mean obviously comfort is the nature of a pillow yeah that's a really great angle I love that idea I really love that idea the idea of security and it's so true you I I love the hug a pillow if I'm ever you stress give me a pillow like I'm going to hold it so that definitely this I'm going to go with comfort I love that spin though and that's definitely something you play with and play around with in your copyrighting but it is representative of somebody style and while you have stars and owls and whale pillows along your storefront, you haven't really cute storefront I love the building and location pillows because just like you had said about the idea of a security, it also invokes memories, there's all kinds of stuff we can play with their with copyrighting and what you know where we're going with the customer when we write to them so your current listing speaks to policies and options and this is a comfort item it adds a big dose of personal style I wouldn't necessary I don't know, but I don't know your customers as well as you do I don't see like a whole arrangement of these on the bed I see them be like the spotlight people for an arrangement so the front of an arrangement just like that again that little finishing touch on and invoking special memories and like you said the security all great plays were going when you talk to your customer and you say that to them that's really making them feel heard and understood so that's really good ok, so for each example we looked at the challenge your customer was facing and then we looked at we talked about what the ideal customer is looking for and hoping to achieve when they buy your product and when you address all this again you're speaking directly to the customer and you're addressing their needs. Your ideal customer is always asking what's in it for me remember people are selfish as we all are what's in it for me whatever you write needs to address this question in fact, as you write, keep turn your spin the tables, be your ideal customer and ask yourself as you're writing well what's in it for me what's in it for me what's in it for me when you write copy, imagine that your ideal customer has a buying thermometer remember that you're either driving the sale or crashing it so everything you write is either warming them up to the sale or making them cold, turning them off the sale and each sentence will drive it or crash it or contribute to that. I'm hoping that what I've told you so far helps you to understand how important copy reading is this is vital stuff this is if you don't have this, you can't have a working this is the oil to the machine of your business it's absolutely vital and necessary if your listing leaves the customers feeling unsure or gives them more questions, makes them ask more questions or it bombard them with the process or the policies of what you d'oh it's not speaking to the challenges she's facing and it's not answering what's in it. For me, the customer wants to know things when you're writing to them. The customer wants to know things like what will this add to my life? What is it going to look like in my life when I bring it home? What will look like where I want to put it? What will look like on me? What will feel like when I wear it? Um where? What will feel like when the package is delivered to me and I opened it up there imagining all that. How will I benefit from this purchase? And they want to know details of the exchange things like, how big is it when I have it? How big is it going to be? Can I get a sense of scale from the listing? What is it made off and is a quality and long lasting. And when it gets here, am I really going to be, like, proud to own? This is really gonna be quality and good material. How long does it take to arrive? They might be wondering that, and they imagine receiving it and putting it to use you can think about that whenever you shop online, you think when you do think ahead of what it'll be like when that package comes and I opened that package and I get told, wear it or I get tow have it or whatever it is, they're thinking all that as they're in the listing, but most importantly, the thing that they're they're worrying about the most is, will this purchase will this product deliver the results I'm looking for, or will I still be stuck with the same challenge? So everybody knows that whenever you're buying something or you really are faced with the challenge or obstacle, you're trying to finish something that it's a big concern that I'm going to make this purchase and then still be in the same boat won't have my problem solved. So an example is when I moved into my new home, I needed wall art for my walls. I had a lot of empty walls and I need to fill them, but I bought online before and I know from experience that it can buy a small print and it comes home and it's floating somewhere, so now I know from experience that doesn't solve my challenge, I want to look for big poster size art, and I wanted to compliment itself, and I want to fill the whole wall. Well, while art so when I imagine that I'm shopping I'm thinking that when I'm shopping that's going through my head now if I get this poster home if I get this poster size at home it's going philip space, I'm not going to find things to match, I'm thinking, am I done it solve my problem? Or am I still going to be faced with the challenges I have? The customer always wants their results. So do we have any questions? Yeah, absolutely as always, and raise your hand if you have any in here, I just want to give a shout out. Somebody has just said this is the best description of ideal customer that I have ever heard. Whoa, so way were asking people to also to share some of their like, who is there a deal customer? Which of their primary needs our felt and sandra glover clark who's a regular here, she makes hats, and she feels that those air comfort fall into that primary need. And so she was excited because her website tagline is comfort and style for uniquely expressive people. Perfect, right, good job. So that's awesome. Yeah. So a lot of people were still struggling over this, speaking to just one ideal customer, and I'm sure that is one of the number one things that questions that you get so maybe we could talk for a couple of them sure first my shop has different customers depending on the item itself so my party supplies air both for moms and for brides to be so two different mindsets how do I handle that? Different shops different shops separate those things especially if she's selling on etsy now listen at sea is a limited storefront it's not like old navy which old navy has eight thousand items and they know how to categorize of them and separate them at sea is a limited storefront if she's selling on us those products need their own home because the ideal customer needs to come to your store front we're talking about product listening that's a close zoomed in thing but when she comes to the storefront she really needs to know that this is where I belong so you can't sell to those two people simultaneously so they need their own home awesome ideal wherever your whatever your ideal customer of looking for needs to be just for that ideal customer that makes sense it totally makes sense okay like visually see yeah they would need to be different yes so another example of this is from and not sure the name but I feel like my customer but my customer could be a lot of different personalities because I have so many different styles and my products also dio so do I need to pinpoint a certain style and stick with that instead of being all over the place, for example, I have a farm theme, a coastal and nautical theme and industrial theme should I just pick one of those styles? And I'm not exactly sure what her product is. Yeah, and, you know, I'm in this case I usually I prefer to see the storefront because just like I said on instagram, people sort of get a they get a color theme and there's a a theme to the way that things look, so art is tricky like that because it can be those different styles but haven't overall theme where you can see it all connect and if it doesn't all connect separate them, they each are going to have a coastal customer and always give me another farm. Yeah, yes, but right there ah, coastal and a rural, those air to different people and so they are. Look, they come looking for other things it's almost like it creates that analysis paralysis, it's like I came here for a coastal art, if they if they really have a different aesthetic and her and you can't see her like signature brush in every across the store front but it's, it creates a sense of analysis paralysis like I came here for coastal art, but you're selling rural and it almost makes them feel like did I show up in the wrong place because I was really looking for coastal that's my style and so it's very easy to confuse a customer like that and send them away and turn them off in that it's dangerous ask you absolutely so that makes sense especially in the context of store friends. What about creative name asked what if you sell on your own website? Do these same principles apply? It doesn't have to because a lot of websites so in that case what would happen is the artist comes to the forefront and then as long as your website can do a really good job of categorizing everything and making it simple always just remember that two second first impression that you have when somebody gets there and they configure out all these different boxes that you put your product in, make sure that it makes sense and people can navigate or have like your elderly and come in and try to figure it out and find products, do something do a test like a a b tests with people in your life on and see if they know how to navigate things and how to get around and you want really constructive criticism on that because if you're doing anything to confuse the buyer again you only have two seconds they will quickly turn away they will quickly go somewhere that makes better sense to them yeah, I'm just reading these comments thank you that air coming through in the chat room and we have ashley who said she's the one who said that she has already up to prices and seeing the results right away and she was here in our studio audience and would be back tomorrow but actually said I really we really wanted to hear this my etc has been split between my fiber arts stuff and customize shirts and glasses but I have been afraid to open a new shop who went in there so permission to open a different job to separate out those items. Oh, interesting okay and I'm not an expert on etsy. Okay, I am I don't need to be that monix says it would be nice if etc what? Allow people to open multiple shops in the same account. So can you not do that? No, you cannot do that have tio use different e mails and it is a headache to log in and out but, um my use mine as an extreme example, I sell energy bracelets and I also create marking packages and able clips and things like that that can people can buy. I cannot list marketing booklets in my energy it doesn't make any sense and I know that's an extreme example but it it matters it really matters everything needs its own home, okay okay and I also want to say I don't say that I don't give that advice lately I know how much work it takes to create to move everything and recreate everything in a way that matters but that's what that's what you need to get that fire there in making sales gotcha. So it's worth the work it is worth the work. What about sections and etc shops is that yeah you know your face is telling me no, those sections don't come with any visuals so again member were skimmers were scanners we need visuals and they can help you categorized a product they can help you categorize a storefront that is already very branded toe one ideal customer. However, when you shop at sea ask yourself if you go over and use those categories because you never dio we don't well great answers thank you sure let's keep going. Okay, great. So maybe this is looking back to what you're saying about not excluding anybody but I feel like talking about this ideal customer and sort of trying to orient the whole listing towards them. But then in the previous segment you talked about how one size fits all doesn't work either like if you were to try to cold cell you know a stranger that you met at the grocery store and your best friend it will be a different approach so well you got your eye on me days but I have those answers and they're coming up in the neck segment because what we're going to do is talk about how close you are that that your buyer already knows you in the product listening and even if they don't there they must trust you enough to be considering purchasing from you but we're going to use content marketing to have those casual conversations with strangers that invite people that know you much better alike so we are but yeah, you got your eye on me I can tell all right? So it's not only important to learn your customers challenge what they're looking for when they come to you but also what they're hoping to achieve it's equally important to learn the language they're using to face the challenges that they have this is a very important piece of the puzzle for example I sell gemstone jewelry at the energy shop and I worked with the spiritual a trip attributes of the stone so and when I first started out and for years actually I called them spiritual bracelets until I found out I was the on ly person calling them that from from doing research and using the google keyword what used to be the google keyword tool what has become the key word planner I learned that customers are more likely to call them energy bracelets or yoga bracelets and if we're not calling them the product the same thing, I'm the one that suffers. I'm not helping my customers find me that's a subtle shift in language, from spiritual energy to yoga to that all that can easily convince the customer that they're not qualified to buy from you because you're speaking a language that they don't understand. So imagine that I can call my if I can call my bracelets spiritual, or I can call them yoga, or I can call them energy, and somebody comes in for that style bracelet sees it's called spiritual and doesn't really identify with spiritual, and I called it a spiritual than they I just convince them this is for spiritual people. This is not for me. So you see how just a really, really subtle shift in the language you use can really convince somebody that they don't belong with you in order to write copy well, you must know who your ideal customer is. That is priority number one you cannot write good copy without it. Then you need to understand why your ideal customers coming to you. You know what? You're wondering what challenges they face? That's priority number two and then you want to speak to them in their language, that on that not only helps them find you in the first place, but also reassures them that they're in the right place. So if you struggle with that, if I'm saying something and you think, well, how will I know my customers? Language? Um, you can think back to when you are a beginner and before you knew this language as well as you knew and how you started when you learned about that that's a great place to go back to the original language, you can use a keyword tool type in what you call it type in what your competitors call it. You can read your reviews. This is a great way to hear your customers language. In fact, when my customers compliment one of my products, I take their language and then put that directly into the listening because that's, what my ideal customer is saying and how they're describing my product and you can always research the competition. You can look what other people are searching on the storefront, the storefronts that you sell, and you can also look to bigger brands and because bigger brands, we're going to be finding more customers. So those three things know who your customer is know why they need you and then know how to talk to them in the language that they can understand that's what the customer wants from you.

Class Materials

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Kickstart Your Profits

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Copywriting for Crafters Workbook
Improve Your Holliday Sales Sketch Note

Ratings and Reviews

Bundle Wade
 

Without being intimidating, Lisa Jacobs is powerful and articulate in her delivery. Her dedication, expertise and warmth are evident in each session. Throughout the course, Lisa reminds us that our customers—both potential and current—are flesh-and-bone people. Therefore, the content and copy writing on our websites must show the same careful attention we would exhibit in face to face interactions. In my opinion, some of the most salient course features are: the explanation of the distinction between content and copy writing, the marketing umbrella and its application, and of course, useful tips and real-life examples on how to write good, attractive content and item descriptions. Overall, this was my favorite class from the "Increase Your Holiday Sales Seminar." I happily recommend it without hesitation to creative business owners offering products or services.

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This course is so helpful and well worth the money. It's broken into sections making it easy to do in parts and so easy to follow Lisa Jacobs. Lisa explains it so effectively making it so easy to learn and a pleasure to listen to. There are great questions from actual Etsy sellers and a complete workbook to fall back on. Great course and highly recommend it. Many thanks Lisa Angela

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I'm already on the next to the last segment. Having just purchased this class last night. Thanks to the referral by Dan Safkow of "Making it on Etsy". As I mentioned to him today- "Lisa's Creative Lab class is GOLD. Best $ I've spent all year- AND last year". ~So, I'm treaking all of my online shop's listings. Yay! I'm also glad to learn about (and take advantage) of the amazing resource for folks like me, and the crowd I run with --> CREATIVElive in general.

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