What you can learn from Maslow’s pyramid of needs

When I started to educate myself in the principles of web development and email marketing, I came to a few interesting discoveries.

As a marketing and management university graduate, I know the principles of marketing, but obviously, the world has changed a lot since I graduated.

Marketing has evolved dramatically with the introduction of modern technology, the world wide web, and social media. Things go a lot, a lot quicker right now and the world is in each for everyone.

Email lists, funnel strategies, lead magnets, webinars all didn’t exist back then.

But the good old principles of marketing haven’t changed much. There are a lot of good stories and there’s a lot of different packaging of messages, but some of the basic principles still apply.

One of the first rules of good marketing is knowing who your product or service is for. Clarity of target group is crucial.

Don’t try to be everything for everybody is still a complex concept for most.

Because it’s counterintuitive to think that when you narrow your target group down, you may be more successful.

I know how hard it is because as we speak, I continue to go back and forth sometimes. In my next insight, I’ll address this as a learning from my webinar.

I serve CEOs and their businesses at one moment and write stories about personal development at another moment.

But, and that’s my challenge in marketing my business. In both cases, it starts with being a better self.

Better starts with Who.

It’s crystal clear in my head, but it’s not always easy to explain to someone who primarily sees profit as purpose.

Back to marketing.

Once you have defined your target group, you need to determine their needs.

Or, as almost all email marketing experts are trying to sell, you need to know their pain.

One story I remember from one of the webinars is a fitness instructor that did nothing else than train people to get tighter abs.

The client’s pain was that they felt out of shape.

The desire was that the client wanted to have tighter abs (don’t we all).

The action was to hire a fitness instructor.

The result was that the client felt better about him or herself.

Pain. Desire. Action. Result.

This is where Maslow’s pyramid enters the story.

Maslow’s pyramid is a hierarchy of needs, with the most basic needs (air, water, food, a roof over our head, etc.) at the bottom and the need for self-actualization at the top.

That’s basically what the pain boils down to every single time.

We desire to grow ourselves, do meaningful work, and build a legacy for ourselves.

With legacy, I mean what we would like to leave behind when we’re no longer here.

At your funeral, nobody will care about WHAT, but everybody will care about WHO you were as a person.

Better starts with Who.

Growth is what we’re looking for.

Deep down, we know that we’re satisfying our needs as human beings when we’re growing.

When we grow daily, we might create a state of flow for ourselves that’s incredibly rewarding and fulfilling.

It may be hard to come to that insight when your boss is being a prick and misbehaving, but basically, he’s telling you that he’s afraid of becoming irrelevant.

That’s his pain.

It’s your choice to decide how long you will accept the fact that you’re not growing.

Growth is what you’re looking for.

It just depends on the story and the packaging, which you allow to help you find that growth.

Keep your own intentions at the forefront.

Understand your ‘pain’ first, and then look at the story and packaging. That’s how you find out who will serve you well and who’s selling fried air.

Your turn: What’s your pain?

Do more of what makes you happy!

Erikjan