Pains and gains built modern commerce. People have needs and entrepreneurs naturally find a way to commodify the answer to those problems by offering helpful products and services!
What Are Pain Points?
When considering your hypothetical customers, using the term “pain points” helps define and distill the myriad of needs, wants, and pressures your target demo experiences into one simple classification. Your product, service, or another offering should be positioned as a relief to those problems to maximize your relevance to those audiences and give you an edge over the competition.
How to Find Customer Pain Points
Often, customers frequently give you the data you need to figure out their problems. The inspiration behind your product, service, or brand all likely stems either from a problem you experienced personally or from seeing a problem you felt you could solve. Build on that impulse and idea to study what sort of people would have a similar problem. Continue considering and imagining as many possible uses and benefits of your product or service as you can to define your target audience as clearly as possible. Even if your product has a “universal appeal,” your marketing won’t be effective unless you show customers its purpose for their lives.
Even “luxury” items can solve problems. Why do customers buy luxury goods? Some might treat themselves or celebrate an accomplishment. Others might like the image of status certain logos carry. Still, others may find luxuries to be necessities for what the item can do that other similar product simply can’t match.
No matter what your niche or industry is, this step is crucial to building your audience.
How to Appeal to Both Growth and Fixed Mindsets
Your product marketing doesn’t have to solely hinge on alleviating pain, though this should be a major component of your pitch. Pains and gains go together because, for every pain angle you can pitch, there’s also a way to focus on gains! Balancing both of these elements is critical to making your marketing more effective, as it gives audiences a well-rounded understanding of your brand.
Scientist Dr. Carol Dweck conducted research and developed the concept of a “growth mindset” and a “fixed mindset” (though now a “mixed” mindset is also a newly developed part of the spectrum) to describe the attitudes of people in any given situation. Think of the pains as a fixed mindset approach and the gains as a growth mindset. Test each of these tactics at various points within your customer purchase journey and sales funnel to hone in even more clearly on what methods work best for your target audience.
What Is the Opposite of Pain Points?
Hopefully, your product or service encapsulates the opposite of pain points, but another word to sum up that result would be opportunities!
Framing pain points as opportunities gives you the other half of the marketing equation. Many TV watchers would be familiar with the standard infomercial setup that begins with “Do you ever…” and the announcer starts detailing aspects of a common problem that the product being advertised can fix or improve, usually instantly. There are a few reasons this marketing method worked and additional reasons it has evolved to influence modern digital marketing. Acknowledging that a customer has a problem shows them you’re aware of their needs and makes your brand potentially relevant to them; how you outline the opportunity for them to make a purchase from your brand specifically is what seals the deal.
How to Analyze a Pain Point
Any given pain point can spring up from a wide array of sources. Audience segmentation can give you some clues to audience context for any given demographic you’re hoping to serve. Check out just a few quick examples of factors to consider.
Age is Just a Number…But It Matters
The exact number of years a person has won’t change your marketing strategy, but certain trends tend to sustain the same popularity and hold over generational groups. Baby Boomers and some Gen Xers, for example, will still pick up the phone and call companies to get more information with confidence while most Millennials and Gen Zers legitimately fear making phone calls. These nuances will impact audience perception of the opportunity your product or service offers each group differently.
Location, Location, Location!
Trying to sell snowshoes in July in the northern hemisphere would be quite the uphill battle, just like selling sandals would be tricky in July in the southern hemisphere! Seasons may not directly impact your specific item or offering, but studying when and where your ad campaigns would carry the most positive impact is an important element to consider!
How to Turn a Pain Point Into an Opportunity
Pains and gains go hand in hand and are the lifeblood of your business. There are so many unique ways to market any item, so the most important thing small businesses can do is figure out their specific niche audience and tailor all marketing efforts, branding, and advertising to become relatable to them. Trying to solve every problem with one item is a fool’s errand, as that already isn’t possible, prompting audiences to think your offering is too good to be true. Specificity is your friend, especially as you’re growing your clientele.
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USA Link System offers an entire suite of BPO services to make marketing, IT, branding, web development, and more a breeze! Our experts can analyze your brand and find the ultimate strategy to get you the best results fast! Plus, as a small business ourselves, we know every dollar counts. Rest assured our skilled team will craft the ultimate strategy to boost ROI and revenue right away! Contact us for your free consultation!
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