This past weekend I got in a little tiff with my girlfriend.
I’m not normally one to broadcast my personal life, but I’ll sacrifice this time for the benefit of all and to illustrate a point. 🙂
When things started to heat up, I got up from the dinner table, took my plate to the sink, went to the bathroom, and then finally sat in my recliner.
Pretty hard to have a conversation with someone like this, I know. (I’m working on it, people – awareness is the first step.)
Have you ever been in a similar situation?
Yes, we resolved it. But if we stop right now and reflect on my behavior… one catches a glimpse of human nature in action.
Two basic elements of human nature are…
1) We move towards pleasure.
2) We move away from pain.
Obviously, in that instance, I was moving away from pain. It’s the fight or flight instinct..
So what does this have to do with marketing and whiteboard videos?
If you understand these two principles, you can create powerful messages that connect with your audience.
Lets take gander at a recent client, Cathy, who runs the business, NoNetz (NoNetz.com). She sells swimsuits for guys are super-comfy and don’t chafe like the regular ones.
Cathy had previously used a fancy video showing overhead shots of guys riding on a winding path… being active. She shared how people just weren’t watching the videos. And if they did, they weren’t sticking around long enough to watch the whole thing.
So, in the AdToons whiteboard video we did for NoNetz our intent was to switch things around and sell using pain.
Our whiteboard video draws out this theme of selling pain very well, if I do say so myself. Everyone who had a part in creating this video nailed it.
Take a few moments to watch it now…
Okay, wasn’t that cool? It was a super fun project to work on.
Now let’s take time to dissect what is going on here.
5 Things to Know About Selling Pain with Whiteboard Videos
1) Who is your target audience?
Our main focus is selling pain and discomfort. That’s obvious. Our challenge wasn’t selling pain to the end customer ,which is men. That would be easy. Our challenge became selling to the target audience… which our client shared is the women in these men’s lives who do the shopping for them.
So we had to use lots of phrases such as, “It’s kinda like this… ”
We used metaphors of animals that waddled around bowlegged and dissolved them into guys on the beach or in a water park. The idea for this and how it came about is hilarious. We were on a Kickoff Copy Call with the client, Cathy. She shared with us that when she launched this project she hit the streets (or beaches in this case). And right away she could spot the guys who were uncomfortable due to scratchy bathing suits.
She simply walked up to the blanket where the wife or girlfriend were and handed them her business card, which said something like “Our suits will help your guy and prevent that waddle that you see.” (I’m paraphrasing.)
If the message was directly targeted to an audience of men, it would be completely different.
2) When you have a pain point nailed, amplify it.
The secondary pain point, which is really the main driver, is pointed directly to woman. This came out of real stories from our client and the feedback she received from her buyers. What is it? A guy not wanting to go on vacation because of an uncomfortable bathing suit. Sounds extreme but it was a true case study that we learned in our Kickoff Copy Call. This is a direct hit to our female buyers. What woman would want her man miserable all vacation? So you will see references in different scenes of the guy complaining about being there.
3) Inject humor in your whiteboard videos.
Not sure who came up with the line “Beach-a–Phobia” for the beginning of this whiteboard video. But this further amplifies the point of guys avoiding the beach in a playful way. Cathy at NoNetz was totally open to a different and humorous approach. Not sure if you caught this but another funny moment was a reference to “the boys.” A video like this has a greater chance of going semi-viral in certain circles.
4) Make it easily relatable.
Everyone knows what sand paper feels like. Some people have even experienced rubbing flesh away with sandpaper. When you combine both of these together you have one powerful reaction to the phrase “Regular suits are kinda like whisking layers of skin away with sandpaper.” The only better descriptor for this would have been “It’s kinda like having shingles. But on your thighs.” I’ll save that for the next one Cathy does. 🙂
5) Provide the solution.
Yes, when you break this down, the majority of this piece focuses on the pain and only a small percentage on the solution. When we do provide the solution, we offer others that just don’t seem to make sense. “Sitting out a day” at the beach. No, thanks. But it does happen. How about some oily lotion or salve? This only makes the guy more uncomfortable.
I’ll give you one more since I like to over deliver.
5.5) Use visuals to take the pain to the next level.
Consider this side-by-side reference above. On one side notice the line work in this whiteboard video. Renee, the artist, used lots of jagged lines and course edges. The “screech of the brakes” adds to it as well. The scene on the right shows billowy clouds and smooth lines. Even notice the two different ways she drew the text out. When you look at the grimaces on peoples faces, that about says it all. You cannot get this same effect with just words on paper. Know what I mean?
So what business are you in?
How can you use pain to sell to your product or service audience?
The first place to look is in your customer feedback. Or interview customers about what life was like before they used your service.
But don’t stop there. Keep digging. Keep the questions coming. Ask…
Why didn’t you use anything like our service up until the moment you moved forward? How much time and pain would you have saved if you did?
This can be a more risky approach, but the rewards are higher. And by viewing this whiteboard animation one can see how much traction you can gain by going down this path of pain.
If you are a car mechanic. It’s pretty easy to sell the pain of having your car break down on the side of the highway out of the blue when en route to a business meeting.
Or let’s say you are a lawyer who helps people get a fair price from their insurance company when they have a claim for damage to their car or home. In your whiteboard videos, you target the pain of being ripped off by a big corporation.
Or if you run a real estate training course, it’s not hard to convince agents tired of chasing small deals and being broke all the time to try your method for landing big spending clients in your whiteboard videos.
If you help doctors or dentists market their services, you can show them the value of being able to focus on treating patients instead of enduring the stress of running a business and figuring out how to advertise effectively.
Can you see how pain will have an immediate and huge impact on an audience who can relate to the scenario you present? Especially with the vivid imagery that you have in AdToons whiteboard videos.
Then, when you offer the solution… you seal the deal. So, I ask you again:
How can you use pain to sell you product or service?
Think on that and then head over here to set up your own Kickoff Copy Call so we can discuss how pain can be used in your AdToons whiteboard video.
Talk soon,
Vince Palko
The Godfather of Whiteboard Videos (And sometimes running from pain!)