Ignite Demand: Sell Solutions to Unseen Problems
▼ Summary
– Traditional marketing fails for unrecognized problems because it relies on existing customer search behavior for known solutions.
– The core challenge is creating demand by first making invisible inefficiencies and their costs visible to a satisfied audience.
– A successful strategy involves three stages: making the problem visible, building authority around it, and creating a new category through education.
– The case study of Dwolla shows a shift from product marketing to problem education, using media and thought leadership to reframe how businesses view payments.
– This framework applies when audiences are content with the status quo and no search demand exists, requiring education before any product promotion.
Marketing often focuses on capturing existing demand, but the real challenge, and opportunity, lies in creating demand for solutions to problems customers don’t even know they have. When an innovation addresses an unseen inefficiency, traditional tactics like search ads or comparison content fall short because no one is searching. The most complex marketing challenge is generating demand where none currently exists, requiring a fundamental shift from selling a product to educating a market.
Conventional marketing strategies rely on people recognizing their own pain points. Tactics such as search engine optimization and paid acquisition are built on the premise that potential buyers are already looking for answers. This approach breaks down completely when the target audience is content with the status quo. For instance, a business might accept manual data entry or outdated software as simply “the way things work,” never considering the hidden costs of time, money, and lost opportunity. You cannot intercept search intent when that intent has not yet been formed.
This gap is a primary hurdle. If audiences do not perceive a problem, they will not seek a solution, making competitive comparisons or feature lists irrelevant. The first task is not to explain why your product is better, but to reveal why the current situation is worse than people think.
A practical example comes from the fintech sector. Dwolla, a platform for account-to-account payments, faced this exact scenario. Their technology offered clear efficiency gains, but their core marketing obstacle was convincing businesses that their existing payment systems, like paper checks or legacy ACH files, were fundamentally problematic. Since companies were not searching for “payment alternatives,” traditional demand-capture methods were ineffective.
Their successful strategy involved a deliberate pivot over 90 days from product promotion to problem education. Instead of leading with platform features, they focused on securing media coverage and developing executive thought leadership that articulated the hidden inefficiencies in business payment infrastructure. By targeting over 100 media outlets, they generated hundreds of pieces of coverage that reframed how companies think about moving money. This established Dwolla’s credibility in defining the problem space long before presenting their solution.
Marketing an invisible problem requires a structured framework built on three strategic stages.
The initial stage involves making the invisible visible. Audiences must recognize an inefficiency before they can consider alternatives. Content should diagnose the problem, using data and comparisons to quantify the real costs, in time, revenue, or risk, of sticking with familiar processes. Podcast placements are exceptionally effective here, as long-form conversations allow for a deep exploration of complexities that shorter content cannot address. Key insights from these discussions can then be amplified across social channels.
Next, you must build authority within this newly defined problem space. When people are unaware of their issues, promoting a product is premature. First, establish your company as the expert who understands the pain. This is achieved through executive thought leadership, a strong media presence, and speaking engagements. Trust in your diagnosis of the problem naturally transfers to credibility when you later present your solution.
The final stage is about creating the category through sustained education. You are not just marketing a product; you are teaching the market a new framework and vocabulary for understanding old challenges. Media strategy here should focus on securing coverage that introduces these new concepts, not the product itself. Success metrics shift at this phase. Rather than tracking immediate conversions, monitor share of voice in problem-focused discussions and the quality of media placements. Measure whether your target audience is starting to talk about the issue, as this shift in conversation is a powerful predictor of future demand.
This framework is specifically for situations where the audience is satisfied, no search behavior for your category exists, and you are essentially creating a new market. In contrast, traditional marketing excels when pain points are recognized and buyers are actively comparing solutions. Understanding which scenario you face dictates your entire strategy.
Bridging the gap between a transformative innovation and market recognition is what separates category creators from forgotten technologies. It demands patience and a commitment to educating the market before selling to it. The marketing message transforms from “here’s why we’re better” to “here’s why what you’re doing costs more than you realize.” Problem recognition must always precede solution evaluation. When your product solves an unacknowledged issue, your marketing must first create the very language customers will eventually use to find you.
(Source: MarTech)
