As a copywriter, your ultimate goal is to create compelling marketing materials that resonate with your client’s target audience. But how do you achieve this?
The answer lies in unmasking the nemesis — the villain who plagues your client’s audience. By identifying and naming this villain, you can craft powerful copy that speaks directly to the pain points of your client’s potential customers.
We’ll explore why every marketing story needs a villain, provide ideas for locating the villain, and offer examples of how to use the villain in your client’s marketing materials. So buckle up and get ready to discover the key to unlocking the full potential of your copywriting skills.
Why Every Story Needs a Villain
As part of the B2B Writers International Book Club, we recently read StoryBrand by Donald Miller.
StoryBrand is about building a client’s marketing around a story — and every story has a villain.
Identifying the villain in your client’s marketing story is crucial. A villain gives you a point of commonality by bringing people together. An example of this is REI’s #optoutside campaign.
By closing their stores on Black Friday, the busiest — and highest revenue-earning — shopping day of the year, REI made consumerism a villain of the holiday season. REI and its customers, fans, and observers rallied around the idea of spending time outdoors over spending time in a crowded shopping mall.
A villain also helps you build trust with the audience. As you discuss the villain in your marketing materials, you show the audience that you know the pain they are experiencing. And because you understand that pain, you’re the one they should trust with the solution.
Who Is Your Villain?
In StoryBrand, Miller says a villain must have four characteristics.
1. The villain should be a root source.
Say your client is frustrated at missing their child’s soccer game because they had to write a sales page for their new product launch, which took them much longer than expected.
Frustration is not the villain. Frustration is the feeling you get because of the villain.
The villain is your client’s belief that they must do everything within their business instead of outsourcing tasks outside their skill set.
2. The villain should be relatable.
The villain needs to be something the audience will recognize and rally against. High taxes would be a good example of a villain.
3. The villain should be singular.
While your client’s target audience may face many villains, focus on just one. Too many villains will be distracting and confusing.
4. The villain should be real.
There are plenty of real villains in the world. You don’t need to make things up to call the target audience to action.
Other Villain Examples
Here are some examples of villains Miller used in StoryBrand.
Tesla Motor Cars
Villain: Gas-guzzling, inferior technology
Nespresso Home Coffee Machines
Villain: Coffee machines that make bad coffee
Edward Jones Financial Planning
Villain: Financial firms that don’t listen to their customers.
Identifying and understanding the villain is essential for crafting compelling copy that resonates with their target audience.
How Do You Find the Villain?
Now that we understand the importance of having a villain in our marketing story, let’s dive into some ideas for locating this elusive foe.
One way to find the villain is by conducting market research. You have several options here.
Social Listening
Social listening is monitoring social media platforms for conversations about your client’s industry or product. By analyzing these conversations, you can gain insights into potential customers’ pain points and frustrations. Use these insights to identify your villain. This information can create a Unique Value Proposition that positions your client differently from the competitors.
Competitor Research
Competitor research involves analyzing your client’s competitors to learn how (or if) those competitors are addressing the target audience’s villains. This information helps you create a Unique Value Proposition that positions your client differently from the competitors.
Industry Reports
Industry reports provide valuable data on trends within the industry. By analyzing these reports, you can gain insights into industry challenges. Use these to identify and personify a villain. Then create copy that positions your client as the solution.
Focus Groups
Focus groups involve gathering a group of individuals who fit your client’s target audience profile and conducting a discussion or survey to gather feedback on their pain points and challenges. This information can identify a common enemy they all face.
Customer Surveys
Surveys are a great way to gather feedback from a large number of customers. You can learn about their pain points and frustrations by asking targeted questions.
Customer Interviews
Interviews provide an opportunity for more in-depth conversations with individual customers because you can ask open-ended questions about their experiences and challenges.
Customer Emails
Emails and customer service complaints can also provide insights into customer pain points. You’ll find common themes and frustrations by analyzing the language used in these communications.
Testimonials
Testimonials are another powerful source of customer feedback. The words they use and the images they paint give you an idea of how your client’s product or service changed their customer’s life. You can use that language to paint before-and-after pictures — before they faced the villain and after they faced the villain — with your client’s help.
Where Do You Use Your Villain?
Where should you talk about the villain? The short answer is everywhere. Once you’ve identified the villain, it’s time to use it strategically in your client’s marketing materials.
While using the villain in sales pages may seem obvious, there are other places where it can be just as effective.
For example, Corinne Crabtree is a weight loss coach. One of her villains is the diet industry. Corinne frequently creates content discussing the diet industry and its long-term, harmful effects on women. She talks about it in her podcast episodes, social media posts, Facebook Lives, in her emails, and on her sales pages, and her website.
And her target audience loves it. This villain is something they relate to. They identify with the pain, frustration, and shame of trying to lose weight and not being successful, primarily because of a broken diet industry.
And because Corinne talks about this villain everywhere she has a platform, her audience continues to grow.
Final Thoughts
Understanding and using your client’s villain is crucial for crafting effective marketing materials.
A villain gives your client and their audience a source of conflict. And your client has the tools to defeat the villain. By identifying pain points and offering solutions, you can position your client as the guide who can save the day.
