Why Marketing Isn’t About Being a Superhero

The goal of your website copy is to help your prospects identify themselves in your business. You want to show them clearly that you understand their problems and can provide a unique and workable solution.

One way to do this is through testimonials and case studies. You know, something like this…

When Judy called me, her business was struggling, her website traffic was stalled and her newsletter list was all-but stagnant. I helped her see what she was doing wrong. I corrected those problems for her and now he business is thriving.

Sounds fine, right? My client needs to be rescued and I can save them from their peril.

I thought so too for a while. Yet then I reconsidered a post from Drew McClellan - Are We Playing the Wrong Role in Our Stories. Drew’s post changed my thoughts on how I approach case studies and testimonials. He suggests that when we tell out clients story we have the classic setup…

We have a hero, a problem/villain, a victim and a glorious solution.

Uh oh. If we’re the hero, guess who we’re casting in the role of victim? Yup. Our client.

While the prospect might identify with the challenge and be heartened by the solution, do they really want to see themselves in the victim role?

Of course we don’t, Drew. We just want to tell the stories of how our clients have gotten so much from working with us. But we don’t want to make them into victims. So how else do we tell their stories?

What if we twisted our tale in those case studies or testimonials, so that our clients were the heroes? We shift to being the glorious solution. (Not a bad role to play) But we give the credit, spotlight and heroine’s role to the client. They are smart enough to see the problem and devise a solution. And, in the end, everyone lives happily ever after.

Oh, I get it now. So I could retell Judy’s story like this…

When Judy phoned me she knew her website wasn’t meeting her goals. She knew she needed more traffic but didn’t know how. Together we devised a strategy to incresae her traffic. We also optimized her newsletter list for greater conversion. Judy’s business quickly increased and now her website is not only meeting, but surpassing her goals.

Subtle differences in this case study over the first one. You can see I wrote about Judy as being in control the entire time. And she was part of the solution. Never was she the ‘victim with the problem.’ And I come out as the solution instead of the hero.

How do you write about your clients? Are they victims or heroes?