The Truth About “Pain Points” In Marketing

A few weeks ago on a LaunchFlow Accelerator call, I had this conversation with a student around pain points in their marketing. 

My hope was to change their perspective a bit and then I realized that ANYONE who is marketing a product or service needs to hear this. 

If you’re familiar with copywriting at all, you’ve likely been told to hone in on the pain points of your ideal client so that they feel more inclined to buy from you.

But I don’t love this idea of “pain points”… because it leads us to focus on how much “pain” we can cause our prospects in order to get them to buy…

And that just doesn’t make sense to me!

If you’re a business owner who cares about your clients and wants to help people, it doesn’t feel right or natural to focus on “pain points” or “twist the knife”…

Which is why so much marketing copy is falling flat. 

Here’s a different way to approach this: 

🛑STOP calling them pain points and switch your focus to the actual PROBLEM that your audience is experiencing instead.

When you do this, it’s less about “twisting the knife” so that they feel the pain, but more about making them feel SEEN and HEARD. 

Which happen to be two of the most important things that must happen for someone to really buy from you!

To put this into perspective, I want you to think about it like this ⬇️

If you have kids or you’ve ever interacted with kids in some capacity, you know they sometimes have tantrums.

In those moments when they start screaming at the top of their lungs, what do you do for them?

You acknowledge the emotion and try to get to the root of their PROBLEM!

For example: “Hey Sally, it looks like you’re feeling really angry right now. Is it because your sister got the seat you wanted at the table? I totally understand how that feels.”

You describe their reality so that they feel seen and heard.

Usually when you do this, they are more willing to calm down and listen to what you’re saying.

For this example, notice how you aren’t dwelling on their pain of being angry and upset. Instead, you’re simply addressing their feelings and getting to the root of the PROBLEM.

In marketing, it’s usually taught to keep the pain point front and center, which often causes us to go overboard on describing how awful our audience’s current situation is. 

But when you do that, it really only makes them feel worse about their situation. 

Calling out the pain is fine, but don’t stay there!

Instead, quickly move into the real problem they’re facing and describe it better than they can themselves. When you do this, you:

✔️acknowledge their reality

✔️help them realize that someone else gets them,

✔️give them hope for a solution

✔️ AND ultimately build more trust. 

So, what does this look like in action? HOW can you move from pain points to problems with your messaging?

We cover most of this in LaunchFlow Accelerator, but there’s a few things I can tell you right now. 

4 Ways To Move From Pain Point To Problem In Your Messaging

1. Do your research

The only way to really know what your client is experiencing is by doing the research on your ideal clients to find out. 

In marketing, you can’t get very far when you guess what people want or need.

Instead, you want to know without a doubt that your product or service is the solution to their problem and speak to that very specifically. 

Sometimes when people hear “do your research” they don’t fully understand what that means or how to do it, so here are my tips for you:

• Take it off of social media and conduct a survey via email – your email subscribers are more likely to actually respond 
• Ask fewer questions – too many questions starts to feel overwhelming for people, so limit the number of questions you ask so that they feel like it’s easy to do
• Ask open ended questions – for successful research, you don’t want yes or no responses. Instead you want responses that allow them to describe in detail what they’re struggling with so you can use that exact language in your messaging.

2. Use their language

When you successfully do your research, you can then use the language of your ideal clients in your messaging!

This is a much better method than trying to get cute and creative on your own. 

Since we know that your audience simply wants to be seen and heard, what better way to do that than actually use the words that they tell you?

3. Focus on benefits, not just features

When launching a new product or service, it’s so easy as a business owner to get caught up in the features, such as the number of course modules, a Slack channel, Voxer access, etc.

Those feel like the fun, shiny things that people want! 

But what people really want are the benefits that all of those things will bring to them. 

When describing your product or service features, always follow them with a “so you can” statement so that your audience fully understands how that feature will benefit them.

For example, one feature of LaunchFlow Accelerator is that students receive 7 live calls… so that they not only learn the material, but actually put it into action WITH live support along the way.

4. Ask for feedback

As a business owner, you’re probably familiar with asking for testimonials and feedback from people who buy from you…

But are you doing the same for those who DON’T?

After every single launch, one of the most important things you can do is ask your audience why they DIDN’T buy!

This is another form of research that gives you even more fuel to run with for your next launch. 

And you’ll be surprised at how many people truly respond to this question, especially when you make it feel casual and curious with no hard feelings.

You can do this with a simple email to your list (make sure you exclude your buyers) and ask them to respond to the email directly!

Additional Resources for Your Next Launch

Looking for more guidance on planning your next launch, so that people ACTUALLY buy?!

I have a few things to help you out:

• The LaunchFlow Roadmap – this roadmap was created to help you learn the 5 flows of fun and repeatable big money launches 💸
• 90-minute 1:1 Epiphany Sessions – tune up your copy with a copy expert (it’s me!) in just 90 minutes so you can confidently publish and send
• 4 Keys to Successful, Repeatable, and Sustainable Launches – this blog post walks you through the 4 things you need to have in place when planning your next launch
• 3 Ways You Can Prepare For the Unknown During Launches – this blog post helps you navigate how to prepare for the many unknowns that can happen during launching

Take what you need and connect here for more launch strategy and copywriting tips!