Stop Guessing What to Say. Start Using Their Words.

“Make your customer the hero of your story.” - Ann Handley

Forget focus groups. 

Your best marketing research is already sitting in your reviews.  And with a little help from AI, you can turn those insights into messaging that actually lands.

This week we’re dipping into something practical: marketing that actually connects.

How do you genuinely connect with your customers?

It starts with solving real problems—their problems—and making sure they feel good about choosing your brand as part of the solution.

Sounds simple, right?

But here’s the catch:

You can’t solve their problems until you know who they are and what those problems actually look like.

If you work for a large company, you’ve got plenty of options: focus groups, research studies, customer observation in the field.

But most of us don’t have the luxury of big budgets and research teams.

So what can you do instead?

Start by mining the gold you already have:

• Collect all your customer reviews. Put them in one document.

• Read through them. Highlight trends, pain points, and how customers actually describe your product or experience.

• Now, do the same with your competitors’ reviews. Look for gaps they aren’t addressing, those gaps are your opportunities.

This is where AI becomes your best sidekick.

Feed it the reviews and ask for:

• A summary of recurring themes

• Key pain points customers are trying to solve

• Emotional tone, how do people feel?

• Standout phrases or messages in their own words

Now pull it all together:

• What are the functional problems your product solves? (Think: convenience, speed, performance, durability.)

• When you solve those, how do customers feel? (Confident? Relieved? Proud? Empowered?) Those are the emotional triggers to speak to in your messaging.

• And finally, what’s the highest value you deliver? In this context, think big-picture benefits: Do you help them feel like a better parent? A more capable professional? Someone who takes care of themselves? These are the values that drive loyalty.

Once you have that, you’ve got the foundation for your messaging corridors, the lanes your marketing should travel in.

And here’s the magic:

Go back to your customer reviews and steal their words.

Speak the way they speak. Reflect their reality. When your customers can see and hear themselves in your message, it’s no longer a sales pitch, it’s a mirror.

At that point, you’re not convincing.

You’re just echoing what they already believe.

Not exactly simple.

But definitely doable.

“Get closer than ever to your customers. So close that you tell them what they need well before they realize it themselves.” - Steve Jobs

Still overwhelmed?

If this still sounds overwhelming, Leadership In Focus can help.  We can help you through this process and have your brand singing from your customer’s songbook. 

Reach out to the team: contact@leadershipinfocus.ca