Regardless of what industry you’re in, what matters most when you are crafting your messages is the intent of the consumer receiving the message.

Too many people focus on the superficial message and don’t dig deep enough to really connect with their ideal clients.

The best and only way to do this is to understand their intent when they are making the purchase and even before then, when they are deciding to shop for the service or product.

How does this work? Think about it like this, if we use a real estate example for a person that is looking to upsize their home. Now, most people would run with that aspect and start marketing to people talking about how it's the perfect time to take advantage of the equity you’ve built and finally get the home of your dreams. The reality is; there are all kinds of reasons why someone would want to upsize their property.

Let's take the situation of the growing family. I would focus on their pain first. What is that pain? Maybe sharing bathrooms, overstuffed closets and feeling like there is no room for real privacy. These are some of the pain points that someone needing more room would be feeling.

Now let's talk intent. They may want to give privacy to growing children. They may want to have a guest room for visiting family. They may want to have more room to entertain. So these are points that lead to their intention.

Say "Let's talk about a room to entertain. Do you feel like you’ve been working so hard for so long and have no place to share your hard work and success with those you love?" Or "Maybe you're tired of family get-togethers at everyone else's homes because you just don’t have the room?"

Those are two general examples of headlines that could be used for someone with the intent of becoming the entertainer of their social circle.

Let's talk about the parents who have children that are growing older. "Tired of hearing the fighting and complaints of no privacy?" "Looking for peace and quiet instead of constantly fighting?" Again, two general headlines that speak to the intent of the consumer. The intent, in this case, would be to have peace and quiet and stop the fighting.

We can pick all kinds of different headlines based on the pain points but speak to the intent of the consumer. That’s how you connect to cause action. Everyone has access to the internet and everyone can see the same thing regardless of whether it's a product or service.

What sets products and services apart? What makes one more successful than the other is how well they speak to the intent of their ideal consumer.

We also know that in today's information overload world, we as businesses need to start reaching our consumers higher upstream. What do we mean by this?

Let's say you’re targeting people who need more room. Start targeting those who are looking to purchase closet organizers, shelves, and storage containers they can build themselves. That would be reaching them upstream before they even decide they are going to upsize because at that point they are just trying to make what they already have work. You start marketing to them at that point and you would be one of the first to trigger what they are already thinking which is "we need more room, we need a bigger house, we should consider moving."

This is how deep and intentional you must get with your marketing in 2019 in order to make a difference in your marketing efforts and to stand out from all the competition.

How do you do this? You have to go back to what we always talk about, that is defining your avatar. What is your avatar? For a refresher, your avatar is a profile of your ideal client. How do you define them to know you are doing it right?

You do it through research, surveys, and experience. It is the most important step in creating a marketing campaign that most people don’t do.

Most people go with their assumptions of what the ideal client wants and doesn't have or do the research to back up their assumptions.

Remember, you need to craft a message that resonates with them, not with what you think and assume about them.

The first and best way to do research and get feedback is through using something called the ask method. What this is is a strategy where you ask an open-ended question and a couple of other questions crafted in a certain order and presented in a certain format to get information that will give you not only insight to what your ideal client may want, it will also give you copy meaning words for you to use in your marketing.

If done correctly, this process will tell you if you are creating the right products or positioning them in the right way to your ideal customer. It isn’t just for products though, it is also for services.

Doing this will tell you how someone would want to receive a service, what they would and wouldn’t find of value and what they would and wouldn’t pay for.

Marketing is more of a science than anything else. The problem is that most business owners think of it and act like it is a guessing game that you sometimes win at if you’re lucky and sometimes lose.

Creating predictable results is not hard, but it does take work and intentional steps to generate predictable results.

If you need help reviewing your marketing efforts we are always here to help.

Remember, it’s not about what you are saying to your ideal client but how you are saying it that matters.