How to Meet Customer Pain Points in Brand Narratives

Do you ever feel like most advertising feels insincere and lacks deeper emotional value?

One crucial way that brands can stand out and forge a connection with their customers is through addressing a customer’s pain points in their advertising, and showing empathy and understanding.

So how do Brands identify customer pain points?

Understanding Customer Pain Points

Pain points are an area in a consumer’s life in which they feel dissatisfied and like their needs aren’t being met. Sometimes, a consumer is not conscious of their pain points until an alternative option is offered to them. This could be, for a business, something like long shipping times, and in a consumer’s life something that causes significant disruption and emotional pain in their day to day life. This could be, for example, that a potential customer lacks comfortable and breathable clothing for the summer, or it could be that a customer disagrees with modern fast fashion due to ethical concerns, and want something guaranteed to be ethical and sustainable.

To understand pain points, think about the choices a consumer makes when interacting with products. Would a customer choose an ethical brand over one they knew exploited their workers? Alternatively, would a customer pick a regular yoghurt or one advertised to supply a multitude of health benefits?

Identifying Customer Pain Points

Identifying customer pain points involves understanding the specific problems and challenges that customers face with a product or service. This can be achieved through taking customer surveys, monitoring social media, customer interviews, and data analysis.

Surveys with open-ended questions can directly reveal customer frustrations, while monitoring social media helps track common complaints. Conducting interviews provides detailed insights, and analysing support and sales data highlights frequent issues.

Empathy mapping, which visually represents customers’ experiences and challenges, helps brands deeply understand and address these pain points effectively. This involves visualizing what the customer says, thinks, does, and feels to represent their experiences and challenges.

Writing Empathetically

To reach through to customers’ hearts and touch on their pain points, it’s important to use an empathetic tone and avoid sounding too technical and robotic. Many customers will also be concerned with the technicalities of what they are buying, but to reach that stage, first a customer must see the value in your product; which must speak directly to pain points in their life.

Using phrases like "We understand how frustrating it can be when..." or "We know you deserve..." can create a connection. Highlight the emotional benefits of your solution, such as relief, peace of mind, or happiness, to make the customer feel valued and reassured. Using these examples with the addition of relatable scenarios will help the customer associate your product as the solution to their personal pain points.

Furthermore, nothing works better as an incentive for a customer to make a change than real, positive customer stories. Seeing this will inspire them to make that positive change in their own lives.

Amazon: A prime example of Pain Point marketing done right

Whilst Amazon faces ethical concerns for the treatment of their employees, most consumers manage to overlook this and rely on Amazon as their go-to for everything from gifts to groceries.

How and why are Amazon such a massive success?

First of all, Amazon addresses customer pain points like nobody else. They take the hassle and time consuming effort of shopping and condense it into a single website that has everything a person could possibly imagine. In less that thirty minutes, a demanding consumer can place orders for their monthly groceries, gifts, clothing, technology, books, and entertainment all from the same website.

Not only this, but Amazon’s next day delivery feature allows customers to receive their orders faster than they would ordering from anywhere else, addressing the pain point of slow shipping. It’s hassle-free returns policy also ensures customers are always satisfied with their order, or else they are refunded.

Tips for writing for pain points:

Active Listening:

Active listening allows brands to accurately understand and reflect customer concerns, ensuring that the messaging directly addresses their specific pain points, which builds trust and demonstrates genuine care for their needs. Respond to customer feedback; whether that be through surveys, interviews, or social media responses.

Personalization:

Personalization makes customers feel valued and understood by tailoring messages to their individual experiences and preferences, thereby enhancing engagement and making the solutions offered feel more relevant and impactful.

Emotional Language:

Using emotional language helps create a strong connection with customers by tapping into their feelings and experiences, making the communication more relatable and compelling, and showing that the brand truly empathizes with their struggles. Avoid using jargon or overly technical language at this stage.

Real life stories:

Sharing real-life stories provides authentic examples of how others have overcome similar challenges with the brand's help, offering proof of effectiveness and fostering a sense of community and shared experience.

Empathy:

Use Empathy mapping to visualize and understand your target market by visualizing what the customer says, thinks, does, and feels to represent challenges in their life. Demonstrating empathy in writing shows customers that the brand genuinely cares about their well-being, helping to build emotional connections and trust, which are crucial for long-term loyalty and satisfaction.

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