As marketers we TALK all the time about "putting ourselves in the audience's shoes." It's extremely important to know who we're talking to, of course, but recently I've started to realize how much more important it is to cut through the clutter and just flat out tell the audience the value proposition of the service or product we're trying to sell them.

Why we're better. Why you need us. Punchline. Not because we're trying to be salesy, but because we're being clear. We're being real, and we're being respectful of your time. I think this happens when you take the time to actually spend some real time in your audience's shoes (or have done so in the past).

If our target audience is going to give us any of their valuable attention or time, shouldn't we respect it? Shouldn't we be taking the time to understand their real issues, problems, and clearly communicate how our products and services make their lives easier?

I mean, without all of our jargon or bloated company brand statements.

Recently I literally put myself in the shoes of one of our clients' target audiences. The idea was to get some b-roll of a nurse, but something interesting happened along the way. Actually using the product helped me understand how the solution makes a world of difference in the lives of nurses. Which, in turn, makes a difference in the lives of patients. This special connection, realized through a site visit and several one-on-one interviews with employees, will hopefully put myself and our team in a position to make a true connection, and help our clients' achieve their goals of building strong messaging.

As marketers, we TALK about doing this, but do we ever really do it? There's just something special that happens when you get out from your computer and into the trenches.

Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Paul Hickey has created and grown businesses via digital strategy and internet marketing for more than 10 years. His sweet spot is using analytics to design and build websites and grow the audience and revenue of businesses via SEO/Blogging, Google Adwords, Bing Ads, Facebook and Instagram Ads, Social Media Content Marketing and Email Marketing. The part that he’s most passionate about is quantifying next marketing actions based on real data.