This is episode #37 of The Goodness Squad podcast. This is an episode that I know quite a few of you have been waiting for. Since I’ve started season 2 of The Goodness Squad podcast, I have gotten this question multiple times:
“Misty, I already have a product. How do I sell more of it?”
In today’s podcast episode, I’m going to give you one simple tip that will answer this question for you.
When I was seven years old, we moved to Utah. Then when I was 14 years old, we moved to California. At that point, I had spent pretty much the entire life I could remember in Utah. I had very little experience of what it meant or looked like to live outside of Utah.
I was incredibly naive and I remember (after moving to California) a neighbor was coming up to introduce themselves and I asked them if they were in our ward. Looking back now, I’m sure that they thought I was asking about a hospital or a prison ward or something along those lines because they were not members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They didn’t know what a ward was.
Sometimes this happens in our business. We become so accustomed to the language that we use. We’re actually more experienced than we think we are. The language that seems very simple and basic to us is difficult for our audience, especially our target market, to understand. It confuses them and it makes them feel different from, and misunderstood by, us.
This is something you absolutely want to avoid at all costs, especially when you are asking someone to trade money for a product or a service. So what’s the solution to this then? How do you stop using, and what do you use instead of, the lingo that is particular to your own industry? Instead of saying aperture if you’re a photographer, what else do you say? How do you communicate to your audience?
Sell more of your product by paying attention to this one thing
The solution is to use the words your audience uses to describe their problems and the solution that they are looking for. Let me say that again. You need to use the words your audience uses to describe the problems that they have and the solutions that they are looking for.
You need to use their own words on Instagram, in your Facebook lives, in email, on the homepage of your website, in an IG Story or Reel, on your sales page. You need to be using your customer’s, your potential customer’s, words.
Where do you find your customer’s words?
That’s a great question and that is my tip for you today. I am going to tell you where to find those words. This took me years as a content marketer. I understood the concept that I shouldn’t use the fancy-schmancy lingo, but I really struggled to figure out what to use instead because I wasn’t inside my audience’s head.
And to be honest, I am more experienced than my audience. And you are more experienced than your audience and there’s a good reason for that. That’s what gives you the authority to be able to teach them, but that also makes it really difficult for you to get outside of your head and figure out what words to use instead of the lingo that you are so familiar with.
So here’s the answer – Facebook groups. I do not ever want you to join a Facebook group just to spam. I don’t want you to go into a Facebook group and type, “Hey, I have this new product. Anybody want to check it out?” Unless that’s what the Facebook group is specifically for, but I don’t want you in there trying to promote your products.
Facebook groups that you do not own have two purposes.
- It is networking and getting to know people and supporting and helping people for free, which builds your reputation.
- It is to find your target market’s language, your audience’s language. How do they describe their problems and the solutions that they are looking for?
Here’s what you do. You go to Facebook and you search for either your overall topic, like mine would be content marketing or maybe blogging or podcasting, or you go to a specific problem that your product solves.
For example, the templates that I recently released as a new product, I may go in there and search for Canva or Elementor and I will find groups that focus on the products I just created templates for.
Once you have joined these groups, I want you to find the search function. In the old version of Facebook it’s over on the left and in the newer version of Facebook it’s up at the top right. I want you to search for phrases like – please help, how can I, does anyone know. You will find people describing problems that they have in their own words.
They will describe solutions they are looking for. Search things like – I wish I could, does anyone know how. This is the solution that they are looking for.
I want you to take those phrases and I want you to use them in your marketing. Use them on Instagram, use them on Facebook Live, use them in your emails, on your homepage, on your sales page, and your Instagram stories or Instagram reels. This is how you are going to connect with your audience.
3 examples of how I use my potential customer’s words
Example #1
So let me give you a few examples of how I have done this recently, when I released templates. On the sales page for the Product Template Vault, which is only available if you’re on my email list, you will find a phrase that says ‘kids interrupting every 7.65 minutes.’ Somebody said that in a Facebook group, that they were frustrated they couldn’t get anything done because their kids were interrupting every 7.65 minutes. So I took that exact phrase and I put it on my sales page.
Example #2
Another one was the phrase ‘standing still for years.’ This is a phrase somebody used in a completely different Facebook group where they talked about how their business had been standing still for years. So I use that on my sales page. In this sentence, I said, ‘you own a blog or podcast that’s been standing still for years.
Example #3
Somebody else was talking about how she needed to get her website up and going, but she said ‘it would realistically take me a year or more.’ So here’s how I use that on my sales page. I said, ‘Getting a product you’d be proud to share would realistically take you a year or more.’
Do you see how I’m taking these phrases out of this Facebook group and adding them into sentences that I’ve created on my sales page that will now help people understand that I get it? I get their problems. I understand the solution they want, and I have the solution.
3 steps to take to sell more of your product
So, this is my tip for you. Let me summarize it. Stop using lingo that is specific to those who are more advanced in your industry. You’re doing it, even if you don’t realize you’re doing it, simply because you know more than you think you do.
Instead, I want you to use the language that your audience uses to describe their problems and the solutions they want. In order to find that language, I want you to join Facebook groups where they already are and search for what they need.
Then I want you to take the phrases they use and use that in your marketing, especially on the sales page for your product. If you do this, you will start selling more of a product that you already have a sales page for. Simply go change some of the language on that sales page to the exact phrases your audience is using to describe their problems and the solutions they are looking for.
As a bonus, if you do this, one other thing you’re going to do is find ideas for content and products. As you go into these Facebook groups and you search for the personal problems people are having, you’re going to think ‘I have a solution to that problem,’ and you’ll write a blog post about it. Or ‘I have a solution to that problem and you’ll create a product around it.’
This is such a fantastic way to create your content and your products or to decide what your content and products are going to be because you are then creating solutions for problems that you know exist.
If you would like more help coming up with product ideas, visit TheGoodnessSquad.com/productideagenerator. Once you have access to that, you will also get access to my entire vault of resources for content marketers. This includes help defining your superpower. It includes help choosing what you are going to sell on your website. Is it going to be ads or affiliate marketing or digital products or physical products? It includes helps for how to title your blog posts and how to title your emails so that they get opened and read more often.
All of these things are going to help you to sell more and earn more money as a content marketer. So don’t miss out.
Coming Up
If you struggle to feel confident when you’re selling, if you feel like you just don’t know enough to actually ask for money, or you’re just not experienced enough, or you don’t have a formal degree, how can you possibly ask for money then the next podcast episode is for you. Make sure you don’t miss it. I can’t wait to see you there.