One of the liveliest conversations this week in the Fizzle forums was about how to successfully market when your business topic is a hobby like knitting, book binding, scrap booking.
Marketers often talk about finding the “pain point,” but this pain language can be misleading when your business addresses desires instead of pain alleviation.
For example, I want to know how to knit. It would give me something to do with my hands, I could make gifts for people, I could make some things to use around the house.
I don’t NEED to knit; my life doesn’t depend on it. But I WANT to. How can you market effectively when your business focuses on a WANT not a NEED?
That’s what we get into today. Enjoy!
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“How can you market effectively when your business focuses on a WANT not a NEED? ”
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Cassel’s Question:
Wherever we turn, we are told to find a pain point and offer a solution to that PAIN. That is great in most niche where people are really missing something, and needing something, however, when someone is in a hobby niche (sewing, knitting, crafts, etc.) it is not as obvious. I have to cater more to a WANT than a NEED, which makes it a little harder to "sell" to.
Do you have a craft/hobby niche that requires a little (or a lot) more creativity to sell?
Show Notes:
20 Examples of Killer Unique Selling Propositions
20 Killer USP Examples displayed in a free PDF guide you can download now. Use these examples to get ideas for your own unique selling proposition.
Candy, Vitamins, or Painkillers for Startups | David Cummings on Startups
The Art of Low Competition Business Ideas (FS129)
Learn how to set goals that actually stick!
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Great episode, guys!
I’ve worked in the crafts industry for over a decade and am happy to share common crafters’ pain points:
* Lack of leisure time. What projects, techniques, tips, or products can you introduce that’ll help them make the most of their limited craft time?
* Inspiration overwhelm. They’ve likely spent countless hours on Pinterest and suffer from inspiration paralysis. How can you help them clear their heads and get them working on a project instead of looking for the next cool thing on the internet?
* Lack of funds. Hobbies can be very expensive. How can you help your readers make the most of their supplies/gear or otherwise save cash?
*Skill set anxiety and/or lack of know-how. Everyone needs a cheerleader, right? How can you help your readers become more proficient with their craft skills? How can you support their efforts, share their successes, and help them learn from mistakes?
Cheers,
Khris
Awesome — thanks Khris.
Great episode, got lots of good value from it. The product I’m developing is currently directed at those in my niche who want to move from hobbyist to professional. I really appreciated the discussion of making sure you don’t have to convince your customer that they need you- aim for those who already KNOW they need you. That’s definitely something I’m going to have to be conscious of!
Keep it rockin, loving all the content!
(Though I do have to slow down my playback speed for you guys – I listen to everybody else on 1.2x, gotta keep Fizzle at normal speed ;) )
Finally! I feel the “want” business doesn’t get discussed enough. I own a magic trick and playing card production company (System 6 Magic) and also am a professional magician.
So this is such an important topic for me. Glad to see it discussed! Hopefully you guys can focus on it more in the future.
The fundamental goal of marketing is to find the pain point in everything right?
This is pretty straight forward for a product explicitly satisfying a low level motivation (e.g. pain killer).
But we need to dig a little deeper to discover the pain point for the vitamin and candy type products.
People take vitamins because they want to satisfy a pain point- get sick less, focus better, be bigger and stronger.
And for each of these reasons there is an associated pain point… focus better, so i can be better at work, so i can earn more money and live a life that is more flexible and in control.
These pain points are hidden among related levels, vary within your market, and are not necessarily consciously driving your customer.
Likewise… with candy… people buy candy because their pain point is the satisfaction of a strong desire….
Anything marketed as a “nice to have” will be hit or miss… If its a hit you have inadvertently marketed to their pain points… or your customers have identified with a pain point you failed to see… or a pain point is created by your product.
in summary, your job is to discover and package the pain point… and communicate that to your audience.
Anything less than this will be hit or miss.
Great work done by you guys. It’s really awesome to know that someone is working on this topic.