Today, everyone wants to drive more qualified leads into the sales funnel, boost sales conversion and retain their best customers forever. The challenge is that competitive pressure, advertising saturation, and shrinking budgets are making it harder for you to do the job.

Part of the problem is reaching customers at the right time. Organic and paid search, contextual advertising, and social marketing provide new ways to efficiently connect with your customers when they are looking for what you sell. That’s the easy part.

The more important part is delivering the right message at the critical moment. So, what’s the answer? Precisely aligning your message, or brand story, to your audience’s expectations and desires.

The concept is simple… but it’s in the execution where most marketers fail. The answer can be found in a simple statement: “Know your customer and know yourself.”

The first step is to gain a multi-dimensional understanding of your customer. What’s their mindset and attitude when they’re reading your ad copy or visiting your site? What are their unspoken fears, desires, hopes, aspirations, and guilty pleasures?  What is the tone and tenor of the conversation they’re having with their colleagues, friends, and family? Here are a couple of ways to gain this insight:

Tip 1: Hang out with your best customers. Build a relationship with your best customers by being with them as often as you can. Routine interaction will reveal important insights you can use to better understand their underlying motivations.

Tip 2: Ask better questions. Start asking your customers, prospects, and yourself the important questions. Why did you buy from us? Why did you choose a competitor? And, does our product or service deliver the results we promise? Or is there some way we could improve to better match our message to our audience?

Next, you must have a clear and accurate understanding of what you sell. Remember, your customer isn’t interested in what you have to say about your product or service. They are only interested in what your product or service will do for them.

Tip 3: Look at your product or service from your customer’s perspective. Be critical, look for the reasons why your product or service might be missing the point on an emotional and intellectual level.  What are the intangible benefits your customers get from your product? How does your story differentiate you from your competition?

To get this perspective you might try calling your operation as a customer. Ask to speak to a salesperson or a customer service agent and see what happens. Buy your own product and see, firsthand, what it’s like to be your customer. Chances are you’ll be surprised to discover the actual customer experience may not match your vision.

So how do you apply this new found insight and awareness? You must explore every way possible to align your selling story to the hopes, fears, and desires of your best customers. Once you have this customer insight… and you’ve properly positioned your product or service, you’re ready to start sharing a brand story that will engage and compel your customers to act.

Apply this simple strategy to your business today and you’ll have the foundation for improving marketing results, deepening your customer retention, and gaining an unassailable competitive advantage.

Collin Dayley is VP Marketing for Worktank, a Seattle-based integrated advertising and communications company. He can be reached at 206-658-2522 or by email at Collin@worktankseattle.com.