The Fourth Research Category: The Brand or Expert
If you’ve watched the previous segments, you know that the 4:20+Research Method is made up of the four research categories. The fourth Category is your brand or the expert authority behind the product.
This Brand or Expert document is shorter than the others, but that doesn’t mean you should skimp on the information here. This is where you’ll record all the elements that help customers trust the expert making the offer.
And for personal brands like coaches, course creators, and speakers, the expert or authority is a big part of the product. So asking them these questions will help you get much of the information you need to write for them.
Again, we recommend you either copy the Google doc version to your own google drive, or download and print the PDF version of this doc to take notes as you research. We’ve included a few lines after each question so you can add notes, but you’ll be gathering far more information than you can fit on those lines, so don’t limit yourself to the space on the forms. Pull out a notebook or extra sheet of paper to capture everything you need as you answer these questions.
You may want to edit or change up these questions to reflect your niche, your customer, and the work you do. As with the other research docs we’ve provided, this is just a starting point, but it’s a solid starting point.
The first question on this doc is simply: Who is the expert behind this product? If it’s a person, there’s space to record the name. But it might be a company or brand.
The second question is: Why did they create this product? You’re looking for an origin story here. Was there a specific problem they were trying to solve? Something happening in the market or economy that made it possible or necessary? Record that information here.
The next question is: What experience do they have related to the product? If your client has been making pottery for 10 years and just put together a course teaching others how to do that, well, that’s good stuff to share in your copy. Hopefully your expert has some relevant experience here.
The next question is: What credentials do they have related to the product? This may be education, certifications, degrees, licenses, and results from projects and assignments they’ve worked on.
The final question here is: What specifically do they do to get results? This will be helpful when writing about the solution you sell and may help you identify what makes their solution unique and better than others.
More than on the other three documents, we’re looking for stories here. It will be helpful to book time with your client specifically to ask about these questions and others like them. You should also ask them for any relevant case studies that communicate their expertise and the impact they have.
If you’re working with a larger than life expert, a coach or other online personality, you may want to ask more questions as you dive into their brand voice. As a bonus, we’ve included the question set that Kira Hug uses with many of her clients. These questions are different stylistically and may inspire you as to other questions you could ask you clients. These are especially helpful if one of the deliverables you give clients is a brand voice guide.