This weekend I noticed the mums in front of my house were looking a bit sad...all droopy and discolored. Apparently, they were in dire need of watering.

[caption id="attachment_3079" align="aligncenter" width="300"]<a href="http://deborahbrody.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/20151026_135130.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-3079" src="http://deborahbrody.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/20151026_135130-300x225.jpg" alt="Sad mums" width="300" height="225" /></a> Sad mums[/caption]

What do dying mums have to do with marketing communications? Let me tell you.

A couple of weeks ago, I bought these mums at my local farmer's market . I asked the farmer/vendor how long they would last. She told me that mums are hardy and should last through Thanksgiving, providing some color as the flowering annuals die.

But at the rate my mums were going, they wouldn't make it to Halloween. So this past Saturday during my weekly visit to the farmer's market I asked the vendor about the mums: Should I water them or would it be OK to wait until it rained on Sunday? She told me that I should most definitely water them as soon as I got home,<em> because mums need a lot of water. </em>

Well, then. I had made the incorrect assumption that because mums are hardy plants, it meant they needed little water. If, when I bought them, she had mentioned that mums should be watered frequently, I would have done so. But she hadn't and this is exactly the type of information I needed to know to help my plants survive.

<strong>Customers don't know what they don't know. Period.
</strong>

It's your job as a marketing/communications person (let's include sales under marketing here) to make sure they have the information they need to use your product or service appropriately and get the most out of it.

<strong>You are the expert...not the customer
</strong>

Customers  don't know your product or service as well as you do. You are the real-life expert on your product or service. You know what it does, how it does it and why.

<strong>So, ask yourself this one simple question:</strong>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>What does the customer/ client have to know about my product or service?</em></p>
Once you have the answer to this question, your content marketing, copywriting, and especially your customer/client interaction, will all be easier.

<span style="color: #ff0000;">If you need help figuring out what your customers should know about your product or service, get in touch! I can help.</span>

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