How would you feel if your favorite pod disappeared?

If you’re a product marketer, you might know the Mom Test. A user interview strategy meant to get authentic feeling about a product.

Meaning that raw emotion and behaviors don’t lie.

Why care about your product?

What if your favorite reality tv show got cancelled?

That’s why we killed the pod last month — a real-life Mom Test. Absence sees if your heart is in awe and wonder.

It’s about your core audience, the one you want to reach and hold.

Build something worth giving a damn about. Feelings compel us to act, sometimes in ways that defy logic. 

How does feeling show up in your product marketing work?

Specifically, what feeling do you wish to inspire with customers?

A sense of belonging — you and I both want that.

Here’s how we sought to spark that connection and grow our pod to 27 5-star ratings and 1500 downloads in four months.

An audio testament to feeling heard.

Three “plays” that might inspire you to do something better.

Focus on one person

Startup CEOs want to reach six different industries, at the same time. Meaning you’ve got 12 different personas to reach in your product messaging.

Startups want to grow, you and I get that.

But don’t boil the ocean trying to reach everyone. 🌊 Reach one person instead.

What’s their job? Industry? Don’t stop at job titles, keep going. What makes them tick? Get inside their head. Feel what they feel.

Anthony Pierri called this tactic the beachhead approach. Meaning to focus on one person within an industry, nail your message, before focusing on the next person(a).

Next time your CEO wants five industry personas. Accept her ask, because she’s the boss!

But, don’t try to reach everyone — reach one building a beachhead.

See comment threads on LinkedIn

Product marketers are problem-solvers. But, not all of our problems, for instance, can be fixed with a simple framework.

Follow LinkedIn creators within your audience niche. Comments you see might show what your audience is (or isn’t) using to fix a problem.

• What makes them jump for joy?

• What irks them more than “LA traffic”?

• What industry events are they paying to attend?

Reading comments on LinkedIn was an avenue we used to know our audience and get to this last step.

Find your audience’s “finish line” 🏁

Famous Nike ad says: “There’s no finish line.”

But, there’s one always in your mind for problems you gotta solve. Like that euphoric high you first felt when you rode your bike without training wheels.

Figure out what that problem is and find out what your audience wants to *feel* when they run across that break tape. 🏁

You can’t do that and the two prior tips mentioned without knowing your audience.

Know what that one person cares about.