Need-Meeting Through Blogs

Advertising maven Donny Deutsch looks for the human, emotional connection between a product and its audience. "The market is not an abstract entity," says Deutsch, but "real people with real desires and needs". Pointing to the "great fiasco" of the New Coke, Deutsch says the product failed because it was attempting to solve a problem that didn’t exist.

On the other hand, he points out, "every revolutionary idea predates the public awareness of a need… Every visionary’s dilemma is convincing people that they needed something they didn’t know they needed."

As a professional ghost blogger for business, I realize blog marketing doesn’t attempt to create a new market where one doesn’t now exist at all.  On the contrary, blogging is "pull marketing", designed to attract searchers who have already identified their own need for a particular product or service. 

That is not to say that, through your blog posts, you can’t introduce readers to a solution they hadn’t known was an option for them. In fact, because an effective blog is part of an ongoing conversation (as compared with the more static content on traditional websites), there is the chance to introduce your unique approach to satisfying customers’ needs.

No matter whether you’re using traditional push marketing (mailers, ads, commercials, etc.) or blogging, at the end of the day, as Donny Deutsch emphasizes, "if a product doesn’t meet a need, all the marketing in the world can’t sell it." On the other hand, he points out, "some of the most successful businesses are new twists on old ideas".

Blog posts, I’ve found, need to be written for the customers of the right kind, the ones who need what you’ve got to offer. Your unique combination of

• Art (engaging content about your special approach to your field)
• Science (winning search through frequent posting of relevant content with strategic use of keyword phrases),

has gotten you "found" by your target audience. Now is when that human, emotional connection between the product or service and the audience Deutsch was talking about can begin!