"But how do you do it?" That was a question I was asked by a prospective client the other day. While he was a good writer, he was frustrated with trying to use the data he'd collected on his customers to make an emotional connection. If you know where to look, you can easily find clues about what people are feeling. Once you discover that, making the connection is simple. Let's use weight loss as an example.

Evaluate Your Customers

While some things about your customers may be obvious, you'll get much better results if you actually evaluate or research your visitors in some way. You can perform exit surveys on your site, send out an email asking customers to participate in a quick study or use other means to collect data.

Always read your customer feedback with care. Never discount information because it might not have been what you were expecting. Honest, constructive criticism can open the door to new ideas, products and/or services. Also, study your testimonials. Is there a trend? Do most people compliment you on the same thing(s)? If so, those elements are evidently very important to them.

Research your customers' lifestyles as well as basic demographics. In other words, knowing that your visitors are primarily women between the ages of 50-60 who make over $60,000 per year is nice. However, it does not reveal that they are approaching retirement and trying to save money wherever they can for fear of not having enough. It also doesn't tell you that their doctors recently told these women their cholesterol and blood pressure were getting too high (probably due to steady weight gain year after year).

Put Yourself in Their Shoes

Once you've collected the data, put yourself in your customers' shoes for a day. Don't just read over the findings in a methodical manner: actually think about what the findings mean. Go back to the paragraph above. Let's dissect those bits of information.

…women between the ages of 50-60 who make over $60,000 per year, approaching retirement and trying to save money wherever they can for fear of not having enough, doctors recently told them their cholesterol and blood pressure were getting too high (probably due to steady weight gain year after year).

What if you were in this situation? What would you be feeling? "Just great! Now all that extra money I've been trying to put toward paying down the mortgage is going to have to go to some expensive weight loss program. Or worse yet… I'll have to go on high-priced medication forever and put up with all those quirky side effects. Most of the time, months later, the news reports always say these pills don't work or can possibly kill you! I don't want that. My only other choice is to try to lose the weight. I don't know how to do it alone, so I'm going to have to join a program. That's just perfect. Approaching retirement and I'm going to be a slave to the calorie counter. Good grief!"

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