People in marketing are always discussing pain points.

However, the pain points marketers usually encounter are more intricate than a sore hip that flares up in certain weather. In this article, we will explore the realm of customer pain points, specifically defining them and outlining how your business can position itself as a solution. Through practical examples, we’ll examine how marketers address prevalent customer pain points and provide general guidance on establishing your company as indispensable to potential customers at the perfect moment. But first, let’s cover the fundamentals.

Also check out our free ad copywriting guide, 10 Tricks to Get the Click!

What Are Customer Pain Points?

A pain point is a particular problem that your potential customers face. Simply put, consider pain points as problems.

Like any problem, customer pain points are diverse and vary as much as the potential customers themselves. It’s important to note that not every potential customer will be aware of the pain point they’re experiencing. This can make marketing tricky, as you essentially need to make them realize they have a problem and convince them your product or service is the answer. Though pain points can be viewed as straightforward problems, they often fall into broader categories. The four primary types are:

• Financial Pain Points: Your potential customers find their current provider/solution/products too expensive and want to cut costs.
• Productivity Pain Points: Your potential customers feel they lose too much time using their existing provider/solution/products or simply want to manage their time more efficiently.
• Process Pain Points: Your potential customers aim to enhance internal procedures, such as streamlining lead assignment to sales representatives or optimizing the nurturing of lower-priority leads.
• Support Pain Points: Your potential customers feel they lack adequate support at crucial stages of their customer journey or the sales process.

Categorizing customer pain points like this allows you to strategically position your company or product as the solution to their problems. For instance, if their pain points are mainly financial, emphasize your product’s features alongside a more affordable monthly subscription or highlight the increased ROI achieved by satisfied customers.

While this categorization is a good start, it’s not as simple as identifying price as a pain point and then stating your product is cheaper. Many potential customers have complex, multifaceted problems that might span multiple categories. Therefore, you must adopt a holistic view of their pain points and present your company not as a solution to just one issue but as a reliable partner capable of tackling various challenges.

Identifying Your Customers’ Pain Points

Now that we understand pain points, how do we pinpoint them?

Though many potential customers likely share similar pain points, the root causes can be as diverse as your clientele. That’s where qualitative research becomes crucial for identifying customer pain points.

You need qualitative research (focusing on detailed, individual responses to open-ended questions) rather than quantitative research (favoring standardized questions and statistically significant sample sizes) because customer pain points are very subjective. Two customers might have the same problem, but the underlying causes could be entirely different.

The key information sources for identifying customer pain points are your customers themselves and your sales and support teams. Let’s start with gathering insights directly from your customers.

Conducting Qualitative Customer Research

One of the best ways to truly grasp your customers’ biggest problems is by truly listening to them.

We recently hosted our first Customer Insight Round Table, inviting 11 nexus-security customers to our Boston office to openly and honestly share their positive and negative experiences.

A nexus-security client assesses problems and proposed solutions during our inaugural Customer Insight Round Table.

We asked attendees to participate in an Ideation & Design workshop – a collaborative, hands-on session where they pinpointed major challenges they faced as online advertisers. This approach kept the focus on shared problems as advertisers rather than individual entrepreneurs or business owners. It also allowed us to concentrate on resolving issues within our control.

We gained insights into our customers’ problems that even the most thorough questionnaire couldn’t uncover. It also provided a platform to discuss these issues within the context of broader challenges they faced, offering a remarkably detailed understanding of their pain points and how the current economic climate and other factors impact real businesses.

Such events are incredibly valuable. They not only facilitate in-depth conversations with actual users of your products but also foster an environment where problem-solving becomes a collaborative endeavor.

Conducting Qualitative Sales Research

Your sales team is another invaluable research resource. Working on the front lines every day, your sales representatives are constantly engaging with potential customers, making them a vital source of feedback regarding pain points.

However, while their feedback is important, it’s crucial to distinguish your sales reps’ pain points from your prospects’ pain points. Your sales team might have genuine problems, but you’re not building a product or service solely to make their lives easier (at least, not within the scope of this article).

Separating operational hurdles from genuine customer pain points is paramount. For instance, imagine your sales team is having a slow quarter, missing sales goals for two consecutive months. Under pressure to avoid another missed target, they might be tempted to blame a lack of qualified leads or criticize the quality of leads assigned to them. While this might be a legitimate grievance, it doesn’t relate to customer pain. You need to filter out the noise to pinpoint the real problem.

This word cloud, composed of things advertisers would change about their campaigns, provides valuable insight into our customers’ pain points.

Now, suppose your sales team mentions that several potential deals fell through because prospects found PPC “too complicated.” This is a genuine customer pain point. It hints at several potential issues: lack of experience or training, inadequate understanding of PPC best practices, misallocated ad budgets, a fundamental misunderstanding of your product and its purpose, and many more.

Regardless of the cause, you now have a tangible pain point to address in your marketing. Let’s revisit our earlier pain point list and see how we can incorporate them into marketing efforts:

• Financial: Highlight a lower price point (if applicable), showcase the average savings your client base enjoys, and use language that emphasizes better ROI.
• Productivity: Emphasize the reduced wasted time experienced by existing customers and highlight user-friendly features like at-a-glance overviews or a centralized dashboard.
• Processes: Mention current or planned integrations with existing products or services (like Slack’s integration with Dropbox and Salesforce) and emphasize how your product or service can simplify typically challenging or time-consuming tasks.
• Support: Foster a sense of partnership by highlighting your after-sales support and utilize inclusive language (“us,” “we,” etc.) in your copy.

Remember, you can’t “prove” you can alleviate prospects’ pain, and what works for one might not work for another. This is where social validation comes in; word-of-mouth recommendations and user reviews become more persuasive when a prospect already believes your product or service can improve their situation.

That’s why incorporating customer testimonials and other social validation tools in your marketing is crucial. A stellar review or glowing testimonial can sell your product more effectively than the most eloquent salesperson.

RELATED: 10 Ways to Collect Invaluable Customer Insights (and How to Apply Them)

Mini Case Study: nexus-security for Agencies

Agencies face unique challenges when it comes to PPC. From juggling account management and client acquisition to improving performance and demonstrating ROI, agency PPC professionals have a lot on their plates.

Last May, we conducted a survey of over 200 paid search marketing agencies worldwide to understand what makes them tick, particularly the challenges they face.

The results were intriguing, though some were unsurprising. Time management emerged as the single biggest challenge facing agencies today. This wasn’t entirely unexpected – agencies face immense pressure to compete in today’s online advertising landscape. Even the most adept PPC professional still needs to dedicate time to working on client accounts, making time management crucial for agency PPC managers.

We knew time management was a major pain point for agencies even before building nexus-security Advisor for Agencies, but we wanted to address this directly when we launched the tool. Take a look at this page specifically designed for potential agency clients:

While we highlight the range of tools and user-friendliness of nexus-security Advisor for Agencies, time savings are front and center because it’s a top priority for agencies.

Almost all the copy on this page emphasizes how much time agency PPC professionals can save using our software. This benefit-driven approach shapes the page’s style, tone, and language. In fact, we delve even deeper into their pain points as we progress:

We understand time management is the biggest pain point for our agency prospects, but it’s not their only concern. Remember the challenge of balancing time between account management and finding new clients? The screenshot above demonstrates how we’ve addressed this specific pain point within the context of time management and efficiency – both Productivity and Process pain points logically stemming from identifying time management as the primary concern.

Remember, it’s not just about identifying pain points; it’s about emphasizing what solving these pains will enable your prospects to achieve. The clearer this is in your copy and campaigns, the more likely prospects are to respond positively.

Leveraging Customer Pain Points in Online Ads

Let’s examine how to use this understanding of pain points in your online ad campaigns.

Addressing Customer Pain Points in Paid Search Ads

You’ve conducted your qualitative research and identified your prospects’ pain points. Now you’re ready to leverage this knowledge in your search campaigns. What does this look like in practice?

The image above shows an ad served for the search query “payroll services” on Google. Unsurprisingly, the top ad is from ADP, a leading payroll provider in North America. While this ad might not seem particularly enticing to those unfamiliar with payroll services, it can be very appealing to anyone who regularly handles payroll.

Payroll is one of the most significant financial hurdles for growing companies. According to Paychex, it can cost anywhere between $20 and $100 per month plus a fee of up to $5 per employee per payroll run. This can make hiring new employees a considerable expense, especially for newer, smaller businesses (especially considering benefits and other costs). Right off the bat, this ad promises two months of free payroll services, but that’s not our focus. We’re interested in the ad copy itself.

The first line – “Let ADP Take The Weight Off Your Business With Fast, Easy & Reliable Payroll” – hits all the right notes. Using the phrase “Let ADP Take The Weight Off Your Business” subtly addresses the burden of payroll and employs language that suggests relief, implying the feeling prospects will experience when they let ADP manage their payroll.

Including “Fast, Easy & Reliable” is also clever. These adjectives address pain points themselves: payroll being a difficult, time-consuming chore that other companies can’t be trusted with – not bad for three words. Lastly, notice the extensions providing that crucial social validation, along with offers for a free quote, a demo of ADP’s software, and the two-months-free offer highlighted in the headline.

Addressing Customer Pain Points in Social Ads

Social ads can be even more effective than search ads at addressing customer pain points. Why? Because many people use platforms like Twitter and Facebook aspirationally; our updates reflect who we want to be, not necessarily who we are right now.

Therefore, a well-designed social ad directly addressing a prospect’s pain points can be highly persuasive.

This Facebook ad for the technical employment screening service Triplebyte illustrates this principle:

This ad is particularly clever, using an unusual combination of emotional triggers to address a very specific pain point – landing a new tech job.

Anyone familiar with software development or friends with software engineers knows that a developer’s choice of text editor (the software used to write code) is a big deal. This ad leverages that fact to great effect.

First, it makes a bold, potentially controversial claim that developers who use Vim or Emacs (two of the oldest and most popular text editors) are twice as likely to ace a Triplebyte technical interview compared to Eclipse users. While based on actual data, this claim also serves as a clever emotional trigger. Vim or Emacs users might feel a sense of smug satisfaction, while those favoring other editors might feel slightly riled up. This makes the ad very enticing to potential Triplebyte clients, regardless of their preferred text editor.

Image/data via Triplebyte

Second, the ad targets a specific pain point among tech professionals seeking new opportunities: the dreaded technical interview. Companies like Google are known (or notorious) for the deviousness of their technical interviews. Triplebyte’s ad implies that using Vim or Emacs gives candidates an edge in the fierce competition for top tech roles.

This might not be the most conventional way to leverage pain points in a social ad, but it effectively combines emotional triggers and addresses a very specific pain point.

Addressing Customer Pain Points in Landing Pages

Finally, we arrive at one of the most effective (and often leakiest) parts of the conversion funnel: the landing page.

Landing pages are essential for many marketing campaigns, especially PPC. Aligning your landing pages with your ad copy is a well-established best practice. However, your landing pages can also reinforce why your product or service can alleviate your prospects’ pain.

Here’s how it works. Below is a landing page for the social analytics platform SimplyMeasured:

This landing page is an excellent example of addressing customer pain points. The headline (“How to Make Social Marketing Decisions Faster”) is effective, but the strapline below is even better. It’s not only benefit-driven but also addresses two specific pain points in a single line: using time more efficiently (a Productivity or Processes pain point) and establishing oneself as the go-to social analytics expert in the office.

These benefits are reinforced further down the page. The bulleted list of download takeaways includes “Make quick stunning presentations for your stakeholders," reiterating the strapline’s promise, which is as much about perception as it is about productivity.

While this landing page isn’t perfect (it includes more web form fields than shown), it effectively leverages customer pain points in the copy and uses emotional triggers to enhance its appeal.

No Pain, No Gain

You should now have a better understanding of what your customers are looking for when they seek out companies or products like yours. Though many customer pain points are similar, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. Fortunately, nobody understands your customers better than you. Dive into your research and start helping them achieve their goals.

What other tips do you have for helping customers overcome their pain points?