Identifying Customer Pain Points

Great marketing looks to create a compelling story for people that are looking for a solution and who really need that product in their lives. Ultimately, they are solving customers' problems with a product.

A quote I read in Seth Godin’s new book “This is Marketing” says this perfectly:

Marketing is the generous act of helping someone solve a problem. Their problem.Seth Godin

A common mistake by online marketers both new and old hands are going straight to a list of features for a particular product or service. Whilst listing out a bunch of features is great and you should do it at some stage you should do this AFTER you address your customer's pain points.

For example, you see an advert: for an imaginary product “Bloat Free” I know not a great name, just imagine it’s a cool name.

Bloat Free treats, bloating, tiredness and anxiety.

Or you see an advert that starts:

Feeling Bloated, Always Tired Suffer from Anxiety? BloatFree can solve your problem.

Straight away in the second advert, anyone that suffers from any of those symptoms will be thinking about the product, but the first advert which isn’t as compelling won’t be speaking to the same people either.

When I first looked at a list my customer pain points, I made this very mistake, I listed the benefits of my supplement instead of focusing on specific pain points.

Discovering Your Customers Pain Points

Of course, in some cases a pain point is obvious but if not one of the easiest ways to discover your customer's pain points is to talk directly to them. I don’t have any customers yet, so what can I do?

There are three techniques I have used to great effect:

1. Amazon reviews

Checking out the comments made by verified reviewers is a real eye-opener and can reveal issues with established products that you might easily solve. One such issue I found was the complaint that sometimes pouches were split when delivered.

2. Answerthepublic.com

A neat little trick to understanding your potential customers pain points is to use a great website called https://answerthepublic.com/.

This site uses data from Googles auto suggest (when you search in Google what starts to appear in the box) and displays a visual representation of what people are searching for. It’s an awesome source of inspiration for content and marketing.

Once the site is up, below the dude with the bald head and beard, enter in a keyword phrase and click “get questions”.

Within a few seconds, you will have a list of questions generated for your keyword.

For instance, a search for Natural Headache Cures will show you this and a ton of more information, you can click the visualizations and this will take you to the google search (see image).

3. Quora and Reddit

These two websites are excellent sources of information and delving into these can uncover some incredibly useful information. Often questions are answered by experts in the field.

My Customer Pain Points

From researching popular Super Greens on the market and looking at the pain points of my customer demographics, I compiled this list of 6 pain points I should look to address:

• HIT AND MISS NUTRITION – Struggling to get your 5-day fruit and veggies a day, combat “hit and miss” nutrition without powerful superfoods in the right amounts, even when traveling
• LACK OF TIME – Have a busy schedule, work and family take up all your time?
  No shopping, No chopping, No juicing No mess No clean-up. Try our Convenient and Easy way of getting your daily greens with NO FUSS
• LACK OF ENERGY – Constantly feel tired and exhausted? Combat daily your fatigue with the best-energizing superfoods to keep you on the go throughout the day
• BRAIN FOG & LACK OF FOCUS – Suffering from a lack of sleep have poor concentration and mental clarity. Our brain-boosting nutrients will help to keep you focused and productive and will give you the energy to get stuff done
• EVERYDAY STRESS – Is work or family life stressing you out?. Our special formula will help reduce stress, calm your mood, and help you focus better.
• COST OF MULTIPLE HEALTH PRODUCTS – Taking multiple supplements, multivitamin, health etc. No need to take multiple supplements, we have you covered. Multivitamins / antioxidants / brain nutrients / immune support / Stress reduction. Take our complete 5 in 1 supplement.

Here are some excellent resources that go into much more depth than my article here, I thoroughly recommend giving them a read.