The Curse of Knowledge and How It Is Killing Your Marketing

Here’s a secret not too many farmers know about me.

Before I met my farmer husband, Kurt, I knew ZERO about the farming world.

In fact, it’s a common joke that I lived right next to a soybean field, witnessed “dust” on my car every fall, and never once put 2 and 2 together to realize there was a farming operation next door with a combine.

In truth, I never noticed the combine (but don’t tell my husband that).

So when I finally married into the Bench farm legacy, there was a pretty big learning curve for me. Things that were “commonplace” to my farmer husband were brand new discoveries for me, the suburban girl from Chicago.

So I feel like I am uniquely positioned to tell you what the “average person” probably doesn’t know about farming and your job.

Because I resemble many of your customers.

Let me give you just a short list of things your prospective customer probably doesn’t know about your world.

These were all things that I actually didn’t know either until I married a farmer at age 32 (and they blew me away when I found out!)

• They don’t know soil is alive. They think it’s just dirt.
• They don’t know you can’t plant when the ground is wet.
• They don’t know what the hell a cover crop is.
• They think those straw bales are hay. (Actually, all they see are “bales.” They don’t know there’s a difference.)
• They don’t know that you can’t grow lettuce in the hot temps of summer or it gets bitter.
• They don’t know that the seed for a potato is the potato itself.
• And they don’t know that field corn and sweet corn are different plants. Seriously.

Why does this matter?

Because when you are marketing your CSA or farm, you often assume that your customers know more than they actually do.

I hate to tell you this, but the average person doesn’t know the difference between straw and hay bales.

This is something called “the Curse of Knowledge,” and it is not unique to the farming world. Every industry struggles with it.

The Curse of Knowledge is when you know so much about your own products that you project that knowledge onto your prospective customer. You think everyone is like you. You make assumptions about what they know. You use insider language and buzz words, and you ask your customers to make logical leaps that they are not ready to make, because they aren’t starting from your frame of reference.

And your marketing shows it.

Ask a regular Joe to look around your marketing collateral and I’m willing to bet they’ll spot something that doesn’t make sense to them. The best example of the “curse of knowledge” that I found on my own website was the very word “CSA.”

When I shared my website with some colleagues at the Storybrand Workshop in Nashville last week, I got a lot of blank stares. Although they could tell I was a farm from my logo and my website images, they did not understand what I was asking them to sign up for.

“What’s a CSA?” they asked me.

BOOM!

And just like that, I would have lost a prospective client.

The words we use matter. And right now, they are confusing people.

And confusion is the enemy of marketing. Donald Miller from Storybrand talks about how your messaging must be so cave-man simple that a 9 year old boy can understand it.

Is the very NAME of your product confusing?

Words like “CSA” and “share” and “half or full” share — OMG. Think about it. If you’re an outsider to the farm culture, you would have NO idea what I’m talking about.

Here’s the sad truth: People do not often buy the best product. They buy the one that’s the most clear.

This means you must keep the Curse of Knowledge on your radar at all times and make no assumptions about what your prospective buyer knows.

I have decided that I need to wipe the words “CSA” from the home page of my website and all my brochures. Does that mean I remove them from my culture completely?

No.

But the home page — my first contact with a client — is not the place to try and explain that concept to someone. The education happens later once they are indoctrinated into my brand culture.

Here are a few suggestions to help you fight the Curse of Knowledge:

1. Do a full scale marketing audit.

Have a friend outside the industry proofread your website, blogposts, fliers, facebook ads and tell you what parts are confusing. See if the flow of the page makes sense. If they understand what you want them to do, what the offer is, etc. What parts are missing? What questions do they still have?

Robert Eversole of CrookedRowFarm.com suggested that you also get an outsider to walk through the entire “ordering” process, and see if there are any moments of confusion, glitches during sign-up.

2. Figure out a good tagline.

A good tagline will sit right in the center of your website homepage, and the prospect’s eyes will see it as it scans your page from left to right. It must connect with them. Does your tagline explain in cave man terms what you do?

Or is it fluffy like “Growing soil for a better future.”

Vague taglines make customers burn brain cells, and they will LEAVE YOUR SITE if they are confused.

(Besides, they don’t know that soil is alive anyway.)

Great taglines either speak to an aspirational identity, OR they identify the problem you solve for people.

“We fix WooCommerce Sites Fast.”

I saw this tagline in a recent Google search as I was trying to find someone to fix a bug in my online store. Needless to say, I clicked on it. It was clear what they did.

My farm’s tagline used to say: “Bringing the local farmer back to your kitchen table.” Now although that may speak to a customer’s hopes and dreams — it doesn’t exactly spell out how I do that.

Now my website tagline says: “Know your farmer. Know your food” with a sub-title that reads: “Get a weekly box of veggies from your local farmer.”

Notice I removed the word “CSA.”

And although I’m still not completely happy with it, the tagline is a whole lot better than what I had before, which included a sliding banner of images featuring an artsy picture of my husband’s farm boots.

OMG. BOOTS?

3. Identify your customer’s frequently asked questions.

What do you get asked the most? And when do these questions come in the customer journey? Answer these questions on your home page, only if they are immediately important to moving the customer along.

You’ll definitely need to know what questions they have because they won’t buy until they get them answered. But often we overload our prospects with too much information on the front end. And their brain can’t handle it.

Are you overwhelming your customer with information?

The answers should be easy to find, and the WAY they find them should feel natural and intuitive. So pay attention to the flow of your sales process.

This is yet another reason to capture the email address and build an email marketing machine, because it is the email sequence that slowly answers these questions for customers when they’re ready to receive them.

4. Educate after the sale.

Teaching people the lingo and the story of your farm is SO important. And you can do this by using social media, YouTube videos, blogposts or weekly emails. (Another reason you should capture a lead’s email address).

But don’t do it on the home page of your website. Resist the urge to explain absolutely everything about your CSA. Leave the details to your “sales page.” The home page, the brochure, the flier should have just enough clarity to get them to take the action you desire.

I absolutely make a point to explain “CSA” to my members — but I do it after they’re in my tribe. I use my private Facebook group to teach all kinds of things about how we grow the food, how we harvest, and how they can use it.

Don Miller suggested having a video button they can click on your home page that does a short explanation of your farm. This might be a good place to explain CSA, but only if it’s well done.

Where are you guilty of the Curse of Knowledge?

Take this principle seriously. Because the stakes are high. Farms that spend time getting cave-man clear in their basic messaging will absolutely see people choosing their farm over someone else’s.

Is your unclear messaging costing you sales?

Assume nothing. Keep it simple. Beware of the Curse of Knowledge.