Research is distinctly critical for marketing. But it's easy to fall prey to researching like everyone else: find the customer's pain points, then offer a promise/mechanism/fix /solution that answers the pain point.

Only focusing on that overlooks key factors.

Knowing the pain points matters. But a professional goes much deeper. It's vital to know the ins and outs of the product. And if your product is one among many, and is similar, you need to know the industry.

By industry, I mean it's history, how competitors market...

How customers interact with the product, how they are marketed too, and what the buying experience is like.

Not only that, but you need to know how the money trail. If you know how the ad dollars are spent, how various players make money, big or small...

You see the lay of the land.

Also this helps you in industries where mechanism/big promise only goes so far. Think roofing or a barbershop, they can only go so far in the mechanism. Even some info products can only go so far in mechanism.

So when you know how the product, industry, and money works, you see both a meta-level and clear details. This allows for fresh thinking and fresh marketing.

Often just focusing on mechanism, or a bigger promise (hence my issue with Eugene Schwartz) you start copycat marketing.

How so?

It's easy to look at a product and make a bigger promise, a faster solution. But likely, your competitor is doing the same thing. Or you overstudy how competitors market, and while you think your promise is bigger, it's barely any different.

Yet if you own skin in the game, by believing, heck, even better, using the product - you get a better feel for it. Then if you know the lay of the land, the history of the industry, the history of how the marketing worked in that industry, and...

How customers interact on all levels - you put yourself far ahead.

This research isn't easy. It takes time. You won't find it all. The history is challenging. It takes initiative, networking, reading, investigating. Finding money trails, even harder. Not everyone openly...

Reveals how ad spends go, business models, what makes what, Long Term Customer Value, etc. In fact, you'd be amazed at how clueless people are with this.

I'm not saying you need to know all of this before writing an ad, but you should have a good depth of info on it.

Why?

Because when you climb this peak, know the product inside and out, you're at a position to craft a pitch or sales letter that's kinda like Eminem in the last battle scene of 8 Mile.

You go above promise or boasting, you go to expertise.

You can call out exactly what others are going to say, and do so in a way that doesn't trash them, but you can unpack them. You can use rhetorical devices to put questions into using another product. You can demonstrate how your product works better.

You basically know the other guy's playbook but since you know the product best, the industry best - you can come in like an expert, an artisan, or way more relatable; all depending on what you're selling and the positioning.

Again, it takes time. But the more you go to know not just pain points, but the entire playbook the quicker you pick this up. This is how Claude Hopkin's soared Schlitz to the top beer. Everyone did me-too advertising, and he simply described how the beer was made...

It implied a better taste, a better bang for the buck, and a better beer. Tuft & Needle, basically pantsed the mattress industry, they didn't trash it, they just showed why they have a better experience. They knew the customer experience inside and out. They didn't hammer...

AMAZING NIGHT OF SLEEP!!!!! Erase bodyfat and live longer with our mattress!!! Nor did they go with "sleep techs" and sales. Yet they undercut that and offered a simple, easier experience. They informed in an easy manner.

Just looking at pain points puts you in a pissing contest of bigger promise. Just studying what others do, same pissing contest, or your ad looks like a corporate brochure that says nothing other than - we like buzzwords!

Go to know as much as you can, how the product is made. Who is the big player, why so many ad dollars there? What kind of customers? How does the customer experience it?

You'll eventually intuit it all faster, but you'll intuit what will likely be fresh, and more appealing.

Also, since swings and misses are inevitable, the more research, you'll likely have a better idea of why it didn't work. So you can adapt on the fly, versus being sunk on some outrageous promise.

And, if you're freelancing, or selling your agency services: when you know the lay of the land, no one will pitch better than you, you'll be qualifying the people you want.

Also, this skill, is a good generalist skill. You might crush some areas, but you're robust when you can walk into nearly any industry, confident you can figure it out.