The Motivating Power of Pain in Digital Marketing

There are only two things that will motivate someone in your marketing audience to take action on your calls to action, pain or pleasure.  Most digital marketers focus on pleasure motivators like features, benefits, or improvements.  However, overlooking the motivational elements of pain can be a costly mistake. 

As Theodore Levitt said, “People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill, they want a quarter-inch hole.”  It’s hard to deny the wisdom in that statement but it’s still focusing on what someone gets from a drill, the feature of a set drill size and the benefit off the specific hole. What happens if they don’t have the drill and struggle to create that quarter-inch hole?  That’s a pain question that often spurs action.

Rather than focusing your marketing content on the benefits of your product or service, try focusing on the problems that the product or service resolves. It’s typically a simple way of re-thinking the message but often creates more substantial impact to your digital marketing communications.