One of the things you want to do is personify the problems of your customers.

Why? Because it helps you tell better stories about how you fix those problems.

I’ve done this for my own business, and was able to identify almost a dozen evil characters that stop my clients — and sometimes me! — from getting our marketing done. I wrote about one of those villains a few months ago (remember the evil robots?) and the post got a great reception because I was able to show (not tell) my audience how something as innocent as automating your marketing can “kill” your efforts.

Recently, my survey helped identify the top nemesis for most of you: The Time Thief. She apparently keeps at least 40% of you from getting your work done. (And is most likely to blame for your connections to those evil robots, too.)

Others are using personification (or, in one case, animalification) of problems really well in their marketing campaigns. Here are just three examples you might enjoy:

One thing you probably noticed is that these examples also help us laugh at our problems. And humor goes a long way toward making a story (or a marketing message) stand out in your prospect’s mind.

What about you and your clients? Who’s the big nemesis you help them conquer? Share a description or two in a link below. And if you’ve got an image of that creep, share that, too.