138: Why your marketing isn’t working - and how to fix it with voice of customer research
Why isn’t your marketing working? You’re putting in the effort, crafting your message, and showing up consistently—but something isn’t clicking. In this episode, I’m sharing the one foundational piece that most small business owners overlook when writing their copy: voice of customer (VOC) research. You’ll learn how to find and use the exact words, emotions, and motivations of your ideal buyer to create messaging that instantly resonates.
I’ll break down how VOC research differs from traditional market research, why it’s critical for writing high-converting sales copy, and where to find customer language—even if you don’t have a big audience yet. Plus, I give you access to my free mini masterclass that walks you through 10 simple strategies to uncover the most powerful words for your business!
Topics We Cover in This Episode:
The reason your marketing messages might be getting ignored
How to tap into the actual words your customers use to describe their problems
The key difference between VOC research and market research (and why you need both)
Where to find high-impact customer language—even if you’re just starting out
The one thing that makes copy feel “magnetic” and impossible to scroll past
How to access a free mini masterclass to level up your messaging instantly
If you’re ready to stop guessing and start using words that actually convert, it all starts with understanding your customer's voice. This episode walked you through how VOC research works and why it’s the missing link in your messaging. Now, take it a step further with my free over-the-shoulder training. You’ll get 10 simple, powerful strategies to uncover the words that attract, nurture, and sell to your ideal buyers—so you can finally craft copy that does the selling for you.
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Welcome to ill communication, copywriting tips and sales strategies for small business. I'm your host, Kim Keel. I'm a copy coach, sales strategist, and direct response copywriter. It's my mission to help women leaders and changemakers amplify their voices through copy. It's why I'm dishing out all the juicy tips, writing prompts, and sales formulas to help you generate more leads, book more calls, and get more high value clients on repeat. Sounds pretty good. It's time to ditch the overwhelm you might be feeling and find confidence in your copywriting so you can get your message out there and attract more soulmate clients. Let's get started. 6000 to 10,000. That is the number of marketing messages and ads we are exposed to every single day. And yet our brains can only process about 100 of them, according to the American Association of Advertisers, which means upwards of 9000 messages are ignored and forgotten every day. And if you're a business owner, how do you get to be one of the lucky 100 to command the attention and hopefully the sale of your ideal buyer? You need dialed in marketing and messaging that speaks directly to your ideal customers on whatever platforms they use. Hey there and welcome to this episode of the Ill Communication podcast. My name is Kim Keel, and I'm here to help you uncover the secret to writing high converting copy that deeply connects and sells to your ideal buyer. If you want to know what this messaging is, you need to go directly to the source, which is your clients or your audience. The foundation for all great copywriting is something called voice of customer research.
[00:02:05]
Voice of customer research or VOC research is laser focused on finding the actual words, emotions, and motivations of your ideal buyer. It uncovers how they describe their pains and problems, dreams and desires and objections and hesitations in their specific language. Where do you find this customer language? You find it in your customer interviews, in surveys, in testimonials and reviews, in social media comments, and on your sales calls or chat transcripts. Voc research is all about extracting and then using those exact words and emotions your customers use, so that your messaging speaks directly to them. When you do this, your customers and buyers will say, oh my gosh, it's like you were reading my mind, and this is the kind of copy that does the selling for you. Now, maybe you're wondering, how does this differ from market research? Market research is much broader. It looks at trends. It looks at your competitors and industry insights. It's more about understanding the market landscape, the demand for your offers and overall consumer behavior, rather than just the customer language. Market research helps shape business strategy offer development by looking at broader trends in demand, while VOC research refines the messaging and positioning based on what your customers actually say. And the truth is, you need both to create marketing and sales strategies for your business. You need both to develop your customer journey and your offer suite. And when clients hire me to write their websites or their sales funnel copy, I perform both voice of customer and market research. But I find that most small business owners really struggle with the voice of customer research, or they don't think it's that important and don't bother with it.
[00:04:03]
However, if you want to know what words to use to call in your ideal buyers and then sell to them, you have to start with this foundational message mining phase. And if you're newer to business and you don't have a lot of clients, or you're launching a new offer to a new audience, then message mining and voice of customer research is critical and it's not hard. I use ten different strategies for performing VOC research, and these strategies will work even if you don't have any customers yet. Now I want to share these strategies with you in an over the shoulder tutorial, so you can see how I use them in a free mini masterclass called ten Hacks to tap into your Customers voice so you can write copy that sells. It's a 20 minute on demand training that will unlock the most powerful copy in messaging for your business. If you've ever wondered what to write or how to talk about your offers in business, this mini masterclass will show you step by step how to do it. To access the free training, head to Kim keil.com/voc hacks. That's v o c h. A c k s If you start using just a couple of these tools and strategies, you'll think you found the easy button to writing effective and authentic sales copy. Once again, grab the free training and uncover the powerful words you must include in your marketing. If you want to attract, nurture, and sell to your ideal buyer. Go to Kim Dotcom slash VOC hacks. Well my friend, that's it for me today.
[00:05:39]
I'll be back again next week. Bye for now. Hey, my sweet friend, I want to thank you for joining me today. I just love creating and sharing content to make your business, and especially writing for your business, a little bit easier. So I'd love to know what your biggest copywriting or marketing questions are. What have you been struggling with? Or do you want to pick my brain about a copywriting strategy or a tactic? I'm starting a new Ask Me Anything segment here on the pod. If you have a burning question about business, copywriting or marketing, or if you want to make an episode suggestion. I'm all ears. You can participate in two ways. Number one, visit speakpipe.com/kim Keel. There you'll be able to record a voice note with your question or suggestion. Make sure you include your name and your email and maybe a little background info or context. Number two, you can send me a text. In the show notes of this episode. You'll see a link to text me a question or comment. When you click that link, it'll open up your text messenger where you can text me your question directly. Make sure you leave all the weird numbers that pop up, and please add your name and email address or mobile number so I can keep in touch. I can't wait to create these. Ask me anything or pick my brain episode so please play along. I can't wait to help you solve whatever's blocking you from getting your message out there. Find the links to ask me your questions in the show notes.
Resources
Uncover the 10 hacks to tap into your customer's voice in this free over-the-shoulder training
Additional Resources
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