Module 1: Establish Authority
Start Your Perspective Map
By now, you should have finished doing at least your first batch of target market research. If you haven’t done that yet, go back to the last lesson, download those worksheets, and do at least 30 to 45 minutes of research. If you haven’t done the research yet, it will be impossible for you to go through today’s lesson.
The Perspective Map is a crucial piece of a strong brand strategy – a quick visual tool that will help you keep your target market top of mind as you move forward. It will immediately put you inside your reader’s head so you can take her perspective.
In this lesson, we’ll fill out the Perspective Map for your target market, and I’ll walk you through it, section by section.
Start Your Perspective Map (12:26)
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Resources
Checklist: Your Problem Statement
- Does your Problem Statement use the formula on the Perspective Map?
(person) + needs a better way to + (their need) + because/so that + (their why) - Does it use everyday language, like what you would say to a friend over coffee?
- Do you use your readers’ actual words where possible, pulled directly from your Treasure Trove?
- Is the “need” written as an action verb, ideally an action you could see play out on a movie screen?
- The “need” must be something you can actually deliver—for example, “to get promoted in her job” isn’t something you personally can deliver to your reader
- If you’re struggling with the deliverability aspect, ask yourself: What are your target market’s primary obstacles that are preventing them from that ultimate need? Or those primary obstacles, for which one(s) could you potentially deliver tangible solutions? In the previous example, you can’t deliver “to get promoted in her job”, but if her primary obstacle to getting promoted is a lack of negotiation skills, you can deliver tangible solutions for that
- Is the “why” worded in a positive way?
- Does the “why” tap into your reader’s deeper emotional needs?
- Ask yourself: In the “why”, is your reader doing or feeling? If they’re doing, rewrite so that they’re feeling
- Is the “why” something that will benefit your reader in some way? Does it focus on an emotional benefit delivered to the reader?
- Ask yourself: Does the “why” zero in on what your reader is going to get out of this? What’s in it for them?
- If your “why” depends on other people or is completely outside your reader’s control, keep tweaking until you zero in on what the reader will get out of this
- The best “why” will paint a mental picture of the transformation your reader desires
Bonus: Sample Problem Statement
Just for fun, see if you can guess who this mystery target market reader is, based only on the Problem Statement. (Thank you to Blog Smarter grad Nicole Haschke for sharing this!)
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Billionaire with a troubled past needs a better way to fight crime so that he can finally free himself from the crushing guilt of his parents’ murders