By Pam Neely Could 17, 2022
Need to know why folks purchase – or don’t purchase – from you? Understanding buyer ache factors will clarify lots.
Figuring out your clients can have a huge impact in your advertising, and on your enterprise general. Figuring out buyer ache factors is a key a part of this.
Folks don’t purchase a services or products simply because it’s low-cost or has flashy options. Whereas these causes may affect somebody’s buy resolution, they’ll in the end purchase one thing as a result of it solves an issue.
Don’t have time to eat an costly sit-down meal? Seize meals at McDonald’s.
Can’t sleep as a result of your neighborhood is noisy? Get a pair of earplugs or a white noise machine.
Bored with driving to the fitness center day by day? Buy an at-home exercise program on DVD.
When you perceive your clients and their issues, you’ll be able to place your services or products as the answer. And also you’ll promote much more stuff.
What are buyer ache factors?
Buyer ache factors are widespread issues your goal clients have that your services or products solves.
We outlined a number of examples of shoppers’ ache factors above, however what issues is what your clients’ ache factors are. You could be in the identical market with different competing merchandise, but when your product solves your goal audiences’ ache factors differently than your opponents, it’s possible you’ll wish to be focusing on a barely completely different viewers.
For instance:
You promote boots. You promote ultralight mountain climbing boots for long-distance hikers who need nice ankle help with minimal weight, even when meaning they should pay greater than they might on common boots. Their ache level is discovering light-weight, supportive boots.
Your competitor additionally makes boots, however they make duck boots. They promote duck boots to individuals who need a pair of shoes that can final. Their ultimate clients are individuals who worth sturdiness. Their ache level is discovering boots that gained’t disintegrate.
Your different competitor additionally sells boots, however they promote trend boots. Their clients will need to have a boot that appears nice and is according to the present fashion. Their ache level is just not having the ability to discover a handsome boot.
See the place we’re going with this? Totally different ache factors, completely different merchandise.
Paradoxically, one particular person might be the perfect buyer for all these boot sellers, as a result of every one in all us can have a number of ache factors, relying on which conditions we discover ourselves in.
By understanding buyer ache factors, you’ll be able to promote your services or products extra successfully and write convincing advertising copy. Your viewers is more likely to purchase should you can clearly articulate the way you’ll clear up their issues or ache factors.
LL Bean’s product web page about their duck boots is a masterclass in the way to use buyer ache factors to write down higher copy. Right here’s a picture from that web page. For those who have been a buyer who needed boots that final, would this persuade you to purchase these?

5 methods to establish your clients’ ache factors
Now that you just perceive the ability of buyer ache factors, let’s present you the way to discover the ache factors of your viewers – and to have the ability to describe these factors and tackle them in a method that makes your product the no-brainer resolution to these issues.
You don’t should do all these items to search out widespread ache factors, however attempt not less than two or three.
1. Survey your clients
Share a survey in your social channels or inside an e-mail and ask folks to elucidate what they’re at present combating.
Suppose very fastidiously about the way you write your survey, and preserve the variety of questions you ask to a minimal. Surveys with ten questions or fewer are likely to carry out higher.
In our personal surveys, we regularly ask e-mail subscribers to share their largest e-mail advertising problem. We will then create instructional content material to resolve these challenges.
For example, we created our What to Write in Your Emails and Electronic mail Record Progress Blueprint programs after receiving survey suggestions requesting assist with e-mail copywriting and record development.
Right here’s a quite simple pattern survey to get you began:
- What’s the largest downside you’ve with [thing you help people with, like “public speaking,” or “tax preparation”]?
- What have you ever performed to attempt to clear up this downside?
- How properly did that work?
- What would fixing this downside appear to be? How will your life be higher or completely different when you’ve solved this downside?
2. Ask them about ache factors in your welcome emails
Typically when folks first join an e-mail record, they’re at their most motivated to have interaction with you. They might even be actively searching for a approach to clear up their downside and may let you know rather a lot about their ache factors.
Thinkific, an internet course internet hosting platform, asks subscribers to share what’s stopping them from creating an internet course of their automated welcome collection.
Asking a easy query in an automatic e-mail is a straightforward approach to study extra about your clients’ ache factors.

The solutions to this query can present them what instructional content material they need to create to resolve buyer ache factors. Plus, they will write case research that specify how Thinkific helps folks overcome widespread issues with course creation.
3. Discuss to your clients
Digital analysis is nice, however there’s nothing like speaking to an actual buyer in particular person (or not less than through a Zoom name). Conversations permit for extra backwards and forwards. They’re typically one of the best ways to study issues your clients face that you just may not even learn about. For those who can, attempt to begin with a few open-ended questions so the particular person you’re interviewing feels such as you’re having a dialog with them, slightly than simply finishing an in-person survey.
For those who can discuss to your clients in particular person, they’ll let you know all kinds of stuff you didn’t even know to ask about. You’ll additionally get to listen to them describe their ache factors in their very own phrases – phrases that you would be able to rephrase or use verbatim in your advertising messages, your web site copy, and your emails.
It’s extra work to speak individually with folks, however particularly should you’re beginning a enterprise or should you don’t do loads of direct customer support work together with your clients, these conversations might be value your time. There’s an outdated saying that “you don’t know what you don’t know.” Speaking to your clients can reveal lots that you just don’t know, however ought to.
4. Look by way of product evaluations
Product evaluations are a terrific approach to study potential clients’ ache factors. They’re additionally nice should you’re having hassle discovering folks to speak to, or should you don’t have a big sufficient e-mail record for a survey.
Amazon has the most important assortment of product evaluations, however examine area of interest sellers, too. Pay particular consideration to the evaluations with two or three stars, as these are sometimes individuals who needed to love a product or who actually wanted a product to work, however have been disillusioned with their buy.
Right here’s an instance of a evaluate like this. It’s for a low-priced, moveable Bluetooth speaker. The speaker could be very extremely reviewed (4.5+ stars), however should you look by way of the three-star evaluations, there’s a sample of individuals complaining concerning the Bluetooth preliminary pairing or the system dropping the pairing at random instances.
These folks may not even know that they’ve a “ache level” about Bluetooth pairing points, however it’s clearly an issue for them. They may purchase a speaker just because it had a super-easy setup, “never-drop” Bluetooth connection.
Professional tip: Look by way of your opponents’ product evaluations.
5. Take part in Fb Teams
Social listening is a good way to analysis your viewers’s ache factors. There are many social listening instruments, however a lot of the free instruments concentrate on Twitter. In case your viewers is closely centered on Twitter, nice – attempt TweetDeck or Twitter Superior Search. Google Alerts may also offer you some good data.
However nothing is pretty much as good as discovering an internet tribe of people who find themselves passionate a few subject. And nowhere is that this simpler to do than with Fb Teams.
There are Fb teams about each conceivable subject beneath the solar. You’ll be able to search these teams to search out conversations round particular matters. You’ll be able to even contribute concepts to those teams to see how these concepts are acquired. For those who ask permission from the group’s admin, you may even be capable to publish a brief survey or presumably ship direct messages to group members. Nonetheless, do all of this fastidiously and politely. Don’t be that person who simply crashes into a bunch to do analysis, sends undesirable direct messages, after which leaves. You may get your self banned from the group for conduct like that.
There are, in fact, different teams on-line. LinkedIn nonetheless has some energetic teams, and there are tens of 1000’s of unbiased websites with on-line teams.
Easy methods to use buyer ache factors in copywriting and content material advertising
So let’s say you’ve performed your analysis and you understand about your clients’ ache factors. Now how do you apply all this?
Right here’s an instance of it in motion:
Think about you’re a social media professional who affords hourly consulting providers to assist companies enhance their social media technique. Listed here are a number of ache factors your potential clients may battle with:
- They’re too busy to recurrently publish on social media.
- They don’t know what content material to share on their social platforms.
- They know they need to be utilizing Fb advertisements, however they don’t know the way to set them up or get them to work.
- They’re not sure the way to develop their social following.
- They’ve a big social media viewers, however they don’t know the way to get these followers to purchase.
Utilizing this instance, let’s say you wish to concentrate on buying clients who need assistance with #3: Fb advert technique.
You recognize {that a} widespread buyer ache level is just not understanding the way to arrange a Fb advert. So that you determine to create a digital information known as 5 Easy Steps to Set Up Your First Fb Advert, and you employ it as an incentive (aka a “freebie” or a “lead magnet”) in your join kind.
When folks subscribe to your record, you ship them the next automated e-mail sequence:
Email 1: Right here’s your free information to Fb advertisements!
On this e-mail, you welcome subscribers to your e-mail record and also you give them your free information 5 Easy Steps to Set Up Your First Fb Advert.
Electronic mail 2: Why Fb advertisements are one of the best ways to accumulate leads
This e-mail proves that Fb advertisements are value investing in in comparison with all the opposite methods your reader might be doing lead technology.
Electronic mail 3: Right here’s how I helped one enterprise earn $50,000 with Fb advertisements
To reveal that your professional recommendation helps folks get outcomes, you share a case examine that explains the way you helped one enterprise launch profitable Fb advertisements.
Electronic mail 4: Need assistance launching efficient Fb advertisements?
Within the last e-mail of your collection, you promote your Fb advert providers. You clarify that you would be able to assist the reader launch efficient Fb advertisements and develop their enterprise. Then, you ask them to buy a session session with you.
This complete e-mail collection is predicated on a easy buyer ache level. It’s efficient as a result of it positions the enterprise’ service as an answer to that ache level.
How will you employ what you study buyer ache factors?
Now it’s your flip. How will you discover out your clients’ ache factors? Or, should you already know what these ache factors are, how may you be utilizing that data in your advertising and your emails? Inform us about it within the feedback.