You just did a big promotion. A bunch of people bought. But there’s still a ton of people who passed on it.
You know the thingy you were selling could help them. So you send them an email asking why they didn’t buy. And they give you a bunch of reasons: It’s too expensive, they’re busy, etc.
Then you use that information next time around in your marketing, You address those issues and a flood of sales and customers come bursting through the doors, right?
Well, hold on, there’s one more step. If you miss it, you’re leaving money on the table and not impacting nearly as many lives as you could be.
Here’s the deal: Finding out why people didn’t buy and tweaking your marketing to address their concerns is very important. I do it all the time with my clients.
But there’s another step people overlook here. They don’t ask their paying customers what made them decide to buy?
This is equally important. Because their answers show you what actually resonates with your audience.
You can use that information to sharpen your positioning. And to double down on parts of your marketing that are working (Maybe you find out the FB Live you did is what won them over. Or that story you shared in an email weeks before the promotion is what did it for them. Or it was the relentless barrage of case studies you sent them over the weeks.)
Asking this lets you see the things you are already doing well that you can expand on.
More importantly, you are getting feedback from real buyers. So you’d be tailoring your message to the kind of people you know are willing to pull out their wallets. If you only look at people who didn’t buy, you dilute your message for the sake of people who, for all you know, are terrible prospects and would never buy no matter what you said.
For example, a lot of people will say they didn’t pay because “it’s too expensive.” For some people that’s true. For others, it’s just a convenient excuse. The real reason is they just aren’t that interested. Your offer doesn’t solve a burning pain for them. To jump through hoops to try and get people to buy when they aren’t a good fit in the first place would be a mistake. You’re better off going after the type of people who have a proven track record of paying for the kinds of things you offer. And an easy way to find those people is to look into your current customer base.
So if you want to bring in more customers, don’t just look at why people didn’t buy. Talk to your customers and find out what made them buy. Why did they trust you? What was the moment they realized “Okay, I need this…”? That will help you see where you can double down on your marketing. It will help you get more focused and clear and that will attract more customers than watering down your message to try and reach more non-buyers.
When I do case study interviews, I always gather that info. It helps me know how to position the product and talk about it. And we get a badass case study to prove everything we’re saying is legit.
Was this helpful? If so, let me know your biggest takeaway in the comments.