Your customer has a problem. He’s tired of dealing with it. It’s annoying. And frustrating. A consistent time-suck. And energy suck. Frankly, as long as he has this problem, it just sucks.

All he needs is your product or service and “Whalla!” Problem solved! No more pain. He’s happy. And so are you.

But how does he find you at the point when he needs he problem solved?

Help Your Customer Find You

Here’s the age-old marketing conundrum: How do you connect your customer and their problem to your solution? How do you close the gap? 

Think like your customer.

Your customer has one thing on his mind: his PROBLEM. So when he sits down with his iPad or iPhone, he wants a solution. He’s not thinking about features and benefits. He’s not thinking about your sexy website or your legendary customer service. He wants a solution.

So he starts with the obvious search. “How do I fix my problem?” 

Find The Keywords

Time to jump on Google’s Keyword Tool. Think like your customer and try different search combinations. Play with different scenarios.  What kinds of complications can happen from his problem? Could his problem come from an unrelated issue? Explore the different keywords and find out. 

For example, look at Orabrush. Their initial video has the keywords ‘orabrush’, ‘cure bad breath’, and ‘bad breath’. Looking on Google’s Keyword Tool, (searched on 1/19/2012) ‘bad breath’ reveals 301,000 global monthly searches.

You see how this helps us identify the kinds of keywords used. It also helps you discover the specific ways your customer searches for a solution. What may seem obvious to you may not be obvious to your customer. And vice versa. 

For example, with Orabrush,  ‘cure bad breath’ shows up under a number of different variations, all with good searches, but, surprisingly, no searches for that specific phrase. Still, the keyword is useful because of the breadth of its reach. Searching keywords can help you take advantage of shorter phrases and still be effective.

Your keyword list is foundational. Your SEO efforts, your social media strategies and your content marketing optimizations ALL rely on keywords. If your customer can’t find you, you can’t solve his problem. So spend some time playing with different searches and variations and build your list.

Present Content To Solve His Specific Problems

With your keyword list, you can now tailor and focus your content to solving your customer’s problem. This is where you can showcase your knowledge and expertise, not for the sake of stroking your ego. Rather, create content - articles, how-to videos, white papers - that specifically deal with your customer’s problem and how to solve his problem.

What’s nice here is that you don’t have to solve the problem with one article. Breaking the specific issues out into a series of articles or videos builds your body of content. AND, because you’re dealing specifically with your customer’s problems, you’re building in keywords into the content. Which is good for your SEO.

This, of course, helps your content move up the results ladder, making it easier for your customer to solve his problem. With your product or service. 

So, do you have your list of keywords?

"You’ve probably heard the admonition: Know what keeps your customers up at night. Translation: Know what keeps your customer awake with worry. Pretty obvious, right? 

Because your customer is thinking about his problems. He’s worrying about how they affect him and his family or his business. She loses sleep, trying to figure out effective ways to deal with the issue, without paying through the nose.

Do YOU Know What The Problems Are?

If you don’t know the problems, then NOW is the time to figure them out. After all, your product or service provides a solution. But how can you know if your product or service provides the solution if you don’t even know the problem?!  C’mon now! 

I know this sounds obvious. But we get so caught up in the features and benefits of what we’re selling, we forget the fundamental issue: What problem do our features and benefit solve? Customers  really don’t care about features and benefits. All they want to know is “Can YOU solve my problem?”

There’s More Than One Problem

Do people only have one problem? Of course not!  So think about all the problems your product or service might solve for your customer. Write them down. Even if it’s an obscure, “no big deal” issue that your product solves. I promise, there’s someone out there for whom that “no big deal” problem is HUGE.

What’s The Point? 

You must -- YOU MUST -- speak from the perspective of your customer. Social media marketing is customer driven. If you can’t engage the conversation from your customer’s perspective, they’ll never hear you. Because they won’t listen to you.

When you know you’re customer’s problems, you communicate:

• You understand what troubles them
• You care about their needs
• You might be able to help them with their problem

What If I’m Just Starting Out?

Are you just starting out? I’ve been there. It paralyzed me for months. Until I finally figured something out. 

I’m a customer! I know the problems I face. So I could understand how to think like a customer. Duh! It only took me four months!

So take a look at your product or service. You know what the features are and what the benefits are. Look at the first feature and it’s benefit and think, “What problem does this benefit solve?”

For example, you’re a plumber that fixes pipes in place, using a pipe lining technology. One benefit is that you can do this without digging up the pipes. You save your customer the hassle of digging up their yard, the time to do the work, and the cost of repairing the landscaping. 

So what are your customer’s problems?

-- My leaky pipes are a MAJOR hassle!

-- I can’t afford to fix my leaky pipe.

-- What about my roses?

These are reasonable problems your customer faces. And your pipe lining technology solves ALL of their problems!

Now You Can Communicate Effectively

Now you know the problems your customers face. And now, you can provide them a solution. Which means, when you start thinking about how to use video marketing, you know exactly what you want your customer to know. This, in turn, will help make sure your message is clear and focused on your customer.

You will also streamline your entire production process. You won’t get stuck wondering if your script is OK. Of if you should include a beauty shot of your product. Why? Because you can always ask yourself, “Does this show the customer how to solve their problem?” You’ll save time and money, because you’ll stay “on message”.

So, before you jump into making videos, know what worries your customer and robs them of their sleep. Get into bed with them. Embrace their worries. Because their worries just became your business’s best friends.

When it comes to online marketing, there’s lots of buzzwords and concepts. One concept that you should grab hold of is Concept Marketing.

How Many People Can You Help?

Content marketing is based on a simple premise: Help people first. Focus on providing people with relevant, engaging and helpful content and information. It’s best when you provide information out of your field of expertise. For example, if you’re a photographer, you could provide tips on how to shoot better pictures or where to get great prices on photo book printing. Or you might do tutorials on camera basics, like aperture and shutter speed.

While it may seem like you’re “giving away the store”, think about what is happening here.

First of all, you’re providing content that helps people. You enrich people’s lives and make it easier for them to accomplish what they want, like taking a decent picture. That makes you a nice guy.

Secondly, you give people a reason to come back. Each time they come back and learn something new, you build a relationship based on respect. People see you as a real person willing to help and not someone who wants their money.

Lastly, you build and solidify your role as a “Trusted Resource”. People will begin to see you as their personal expert.

For many, this will be the extent of your relationship. You help and people like you for it. But what happens when they need an expert? For example, if you’re a photographer, they know they can trust for their daughter’s wedding. You see, content marketing isn’t about how you get your marketing message in front of people. Content marketing focuses on people’s needs and wants in order to build a longterm, beneficial relationship.

What Kind Of Content Should I Provide?

In content marketing, think of yourself as a teacher. You’re the expert. You know how to make things work. So share it.

Obviously, your business determines the kind of content to provide. If you’re a bakery, share some recipes. Teach people how to make a specialty item. Show them the kinds of tools they can use. Got a secret for a butter cream frosting? Share it. Explain the difference between a ganache and a fondant. Show them how to make one of those damn flowers without it looking like a blobby pile of goo.

Even if your business depends on your “trade secrets”, you can still help people. Keep your trade secret secret. Instead, focus on providing additional or alternative resources for people.

When using a content marketing strategy, here’s some important things to remember:

1. Be Consistent - you’re building a relationship. Being predictable is important in your effort. Set a day or days that you’ll post information. If it’s just once a week, then deliver. EVERY week. Pick your schedule and stick with it. 
2. Plan Ahead - knowing your schedule makes this easy. Write out ideas of topics you want to cover and plan them forward, according to your post schedule. This will allow you to research and prepare each topic.
3. Focus, Focus, Focus! - As an expert, it’s easy to cover too much. The best way to avoid this is focus on the details. If you’re teaching how to set up lighting for an interview, then break things down. Be specific. You might even break things out into multiple parts. This is a great strategy because people will return for the big picture.
4. Be Yourself - How you deliver your content is just as important as the content itself. Don’t be afraid to let your personality show through your content. Write conversationally. Use everyday language. Use humor. You should sound like yourself, over a cup of coffee and a muffin.

Content Marketing is not for the lazy or the selfish. It will take time to build relationships and share what you know. But slow and steady is how your work with content marketing. Be willing to consistently invest in finding ways to help people in your area of expertise. That’s how you can make content marketing work for you.

Video is rapidly becoming part of the internet’s language. Production costs are becoming very affordable for video produced specifically for the web. Additionally, video is a powerful way to connect with the 90% of home buyers that turn to the internet when buying or selling a home. So it makes sense to use video to grow your business.

However, with anything new, it is sometimes hard to figure out how to use video to your best advantage. Here’s 8 ways you can use video in the next 30 days:

1. Video Walk Through Tours (3-5 min) If pictures are good, video is a 1000 times better. Short of walking through your client’s home in person, a video walk through tour is the next best alternative. A video tour allows potential buyers to see the flow and layout of the home. Pictures just can’t do that.

2. Video Introduction (:30 to 1 min) Use video to say “Hello” to your clients as they visit your website. Simple format of you speaking directly to the camera. Creates video that is very personal, allowing your clients to start getting to know you.

3. Customer Testimonial (:15-1 min) A simple format used to let your customers extol your excellent service. Can be used as a stand alone, part of general compilation of testimonials or in support of other marketing pieces.

4. Customer Success Story (1-2 min) More in-depth than a customer testimonial. Follows an interview format where the person answers questions posed from off-screen interviewer. Lets you tell the complete story. Useful as stand alone marketing piece.

5. Community Tours (3-5 min) Usually a news magazine format. Used to show off your community. Highlight the shopping, entertainment, parks and schools. Interview business owners and residents. You can even make this available to other businesses in your community, building co-op relationships that build your professional brand.

6. Event Highlights (1-2 min) Did you sponsor a community event? Did you participate in a local charity event or function? You should be capturing your efforts on video. Used to promote the community and community activities.

7. Visual Story (1-2 min) Combines graphics, animations and motion graphics with voice over to explain complex ideas. You can use this to provide an overview of your marketing process for listings for potential listing clients. Not only does this explain how you use media on the internet to market their home, but demonstrates your mastery as well.

8. Commercials (:15-1 min) Commercials aren’t just for broadcast television anymore. Standard commercial formats allow you to market your brand creatively. You can link commercials through online sponsorships, event sponsorships and other links. You can also take advantage of in-theatre advertising in your community. All at little or no cost for the distribution. And if you want, you can even broadcast on local cable.

Did you know in May 2011:

• US internet users EACH viewed an average of 951 minutes of video -- that’s over 15 hours!? ^1.
• Internet video accounts for over 40% of consumer internet traffic and is expected to reach 62% by the end of 2012? ^2.
• 90% of homebuyers used the internet as an information sources, while 70% visited a home they saw on the internet? ^3.

As a real estate professional, what can you take away from this? First, it means public expectations are evolving and evolving briskly. Savvy real estate agents take advantage of online marketing tools to meet this growing expectation.

Secondly, it’s important to adapt new technologies when it adds value to your professional brand. Conversely, if old technologies brand you as old-fashioned or out of date, then it’s important to make changes.

Lastly, video is becoming as ubiquitous on the internet as text. Which means video and multimedia are rapidly becoming part of the everyday language of the internet experience. Pictures aren’t enough anymore. So how can you take advantage of video in your professional branding?

Start by taking a look at how video can ADD value to your professional brand. This doesn’t mean throw out your marketing plan and start over. Instead, ask yourself how video can compliment your marketing efforts as well as fill in existing gaps. 

For example, rather than pictures or virtual tours for your listings, use a video tour. A video tour is as close to a real walkthrough as you can get. You might replace your online biography with a video introduction. And as an alternative to a written narrative describing your community, use video to show it off first hand.

The good news is you don’t need to be Steven Spielberg and you don’t need to spend a fortune. Pronoya Video can help you figure out how to use video to build your professional real estate brand.

Take advantage of video. Use it to build your professional brand and reach your customers in a way they understand. You can be sure of this: Smart real estate professionals are already using video. Are you?

1. Flosi, Stephanie Lyn. "comScore Releases May 2011 U.S. Online Video Rankings - comScore, Inc." comScore, Inc. - Measuring the Digital World. N.p., 17 June 2011. Web. 29 June 2011. <http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2011/6/comScore_Releases_May_2011_U.S._Online_Video_Rankings>.

2. “ Cisco Visual Networking Index: Forecast and Methodology, 2010-2015  [Visual Networking Index] - Cisco Systems ." Cisco Systems, Inc. N.p., 1 June 2011. Web. 29 June 2011. <http://www.cisco.com/en/US/solutions/collateral/ns341/ns525/ns537/ns705/ns827/white_paper_c11-481360_ns827_Networking_Solutions_White_Paper.html>.

3. "Field Guide to Effective Online Marketing." Real Estate Education, Information, Marketing Resources & Much More. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 June 2011. <http://www.realtor.org/library/library/fg203>.