It’s time to embrace pain point marketing
What it is and how you use it to your marketing advantage
In business, as in life, we all have things that we simply don’t want to do, or don’t love doing.
These can be things from answering emails or bookkeeping in business, through to cleaning a shower or doing the grocery shopping in real life. They are the vital things that we must do but see them as a tedious chore we'd prefer to avoid.
These are called our 'pain points'.
And we all have them.
If you take a moment to think about your business and life, I'm sure you can come up with a list of your pain points.
The power of marketing comes into play when you know your audience, identify their pain points, and show them how your product or service can help them alleviate their pain. Let's explore this.
What are customer pain points?
As we are all unique, pain points will be as varied as your customers are. And although some of your customers may have already identified their pain points, others may not have realised there's an issue that you can solve for them.
This is the power of your marketing. You make your customers aware of their pain points, show them how you'll help them, and then convince them why they need your product or service.
To fully understand your customer's pain points, you can start by putting them into the common marketing categories: financial, process, productivity and support.
But once you know these, you need to dig a little deeper. Your customers may fall into more than one category.
For example, your customer is running a business, and they tell you that they're paying too much money for their monthly CRM costs (financial). So yes, you could market that you have a CRM that is cheaper than others on the market and make sales.
Dig a little deeper, and you'll realise that they weren't only worried about the cost. They may have felt that their CRM didn't improve their processes or productivity, and they didn't get the support they needed when they had issues with the software.
So, you hit the market and advertise that you have a CRM that addresses all these pain points and voila, you'll have a winner product.
How you can identify your customer's pain points
There are a few ways you can quickly identify your customer's pain points. Here are my top 3 ideas:
1. Testimonials:
When you finish a job for a client, ask them to give you a testimonial. Take note of what they say as you'll find they will most likely mention how you helped them.
Here's an example:
'If you hadn't popped over for those couple of hours I wouldn't have grasped our new CRM system so quickly (and it's brilliant)! You're a gem. Thanks!'.
The pain points here:
Not understanding a CRM
Not having the time to understand the CRM
2. Reviews:
Like testimonials, reviews can help you identify your customer's pain points through their own words.
Here's an example:
'She has helped me with the juggernaut that is the ever-changing world of Instagram. Sam is someone whom I trusted straight away; her opinions and insights. I highly recommend Sam's Services to get you on track'.
The pain points here:
Social media changing and not keeping it up
Not understanding how to use Instagram
Needing to trust someone to be her voice
3. Interviews:
When you've been working with clients for a while, you could ask to interview them for a case study. You can use these case studies on your website and on your social channels to show potential clients what you do for others. You'll find that within your interview, your client will mention what they had been struggling with and how you helped them out.
Once you've got a general idea about pain points from your clients, you can use these in your marketing efforts, on your social media and throughout all your content pieces. Always dig a little deeper and look at the bigger picture of your client's world.
Start identifying your customer pain points today!
Start now to pick apart your testimonials to see if you can pull out the pain points. Talk to your customers and ask them how you've helped them. Once you start the conversations and start listening to your customers, you'll create some winning marketing material that addresses your customer's pain points.