These stats tell us a couple of things. First, there are now more internet users than ever before. Second, people go online to find solutions to their issues \u2013 and if you learn how to solve customer problems within a few clicks of their Google searches, you could see a massive increase in your conversion rates.<\/p>\n
And this doesn\u2019t just apply to how-to searches, either. Even if someone is perusing Pinterest for recipes or Facebook for the latest gossip on their new neighbor, they have an itch to scratch. A want that they are looking to satisfy.<\/p>\n
In marketing, we call these \u201cpain points.\u201d We also know that if we offer an effective solution to a person\u2019s pain point, they are far more likely to become a paying customer.<\/p>\n
Quick Takeaways<\/h3>\n\n- Identifying your customers\u2019 pain points and providing them with targeted solutions is the secret to building a highly successful marketing strategy and boosting your conversion rates.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\n- Some ways you could provide solutions to your customers include helping them save money, answering their burning questions, and providing them with step-by-step guides on tasks they are looking to do.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\n- By giving your audience the information they need when they need it, you can transform your brand into an \u201cinfluencer\u201d or a trustworthy authority figure in your field.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\n- Once your potential customers start trusting you, getting them to buy your products or services is the next logical \u2013 and easy \u2013 step.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
How to Solve Customer Problems 101: Find and Quench a Craving<\/h2>\n
To show you how to solve your customers\u2019 problems, let\u2019s consider a practical example:<\/p>\n
1. Identify the Pain Point<\/h3>\n
![\"Apples](\"https:\/\/marketinginsidergroup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/apples-2886718_1280-300x200.jpeg\")
It\u2019s a crisp fall weekend. Our potential customer \u2013 let\u2019s call her Olivia \u2013 has just bought a basket of fresh apples at her local farmers market. She is enjoying the hustle and bustle of the shoppers and the warm October sun, but the apple scent also makes her feels nostalgic for her late mom\u2019s signature apple crisp.<\/p>\n
That nostalgia is Olivia\u2019s pain point. It causes her to get on Google and search for \u201capple crisp recipes.\u201d<\/p>\n
The first thing she sees is a recipe someone posted on Pinterest. She clicks on the link and looks over the ingredients: one of the items on the list is cinnamon.<\/p>\n
Olivia rushes to her pantry. No cinnamon! Her craving, however, doesn\u2019t let up.<\/p>\n
To solve her problem, she heads out to her usual grocer to get some cinnamon. Despite the high price, she picks up a container. While she\u2019s there, she also buys a couple of other things. End of story.<\/p>\n
2. Build a Targeted Marketing Strategy<\/h3>\n
Now, suppose you\u2019re that grocer\u2019s competition. You may be smaller than the other guy, but you\u2019re way savvier.<\/p>\n
You know that in October, a lot of women go to farmers markets on the weekend and buy apples because they\u2019re in season in your area.<\/p>\n
You also know that the three indispensable ingredients in almost any apple dessert are cinnamon, sugar, and flour.<\/p>\n
So, the first thing you do is put those items on sale.<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s not all. You also create two ads, one on Google Ads and the other on Pinterest \u2013 because you know that compared to social media, Pinterest can be 2.3 times more cost efficient<\/a> per conversion and generate twice as high a return on retail ad spend. You do not buy banner ads because you know they have 99 problems<\/a> and a click ain’t one!<\/p>\nBut you do you put another ad on Facebook just in case. After all, people love to spend time on social media on the weekends. Surely, the conversation will turn to Mom\u2019s apple pie at one point. It\u2019s fall, after all.<\/p>\n
So, you\u2019ve now bought some Google Search ads, promoted a few Pinterest pins, and run a couple of Facebook ads.<\/p>\n
You didn\u2019t just throw them to the wind, though. You used those sites\u2019\u00a0powerful analytics programs and optimized your content for SEO<\/a> to target\u00a0just the kind of people you knew would be on those sites looking for apple dessert recipes:<\/p>\n\n- Middle-aged women<\/li>\n
- Women whose kids are old enough to be off doing something other than hanging around the house on the weekends<\/li>\n
- Women who\u2019ve frequented recipe sites before<\/li>\n
- Women who buy at sales<\/li>\n
- Women who live five miles or fewer from your grocery store<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
You even targeted the time: Saturday mornings and afternoons in late September and October. Just when your ideal customers are likely to be getting back from the market.<\/p>\n
3. Offer a No-Brainer Solution to Your Customer\u2019s Problem<\/h3>\n
In this alternate scenario, before Olivia heads out to your competitor\u2019s store, she comes across one of your ads.<\/p>\n
She sees your promoted Pinterest pin as she searches for recipes online. But to her, it looks just like any other pin \u2013 with a lip-smacking photo of a piece of apple crisp, which links to an apple crisp recipe on your blog. Just what she is looking for!<\/p>\n
Once Olivia opens the link and reads the recipe, she sees a call-to-action that said, \u201cBuy all these ingredients at your hometown store.\u201d When she clicks on that button, it leads to an online version of your mailer. Topmost among the weekly specials are \u2013 you guessed it \u2013 cinnamon, flour, and sugar. Bingo.<\/p>\n
Better still, Olivia had not one but two chances to see that particular ad: via your promoted pin as well as another ad that pops up above the regular search results.<\/p>\n
A second woman, Charlotte, found your ad while scrolling through her Facebook news feed. She, too, followed the link, as she\u2019d been wondering what to do with that bunch of apples in her kitchen for some time. After reading your apple pie recipe, she got inspired to try it out and eventually ended up at your store.<\/p>\n
4. Reap the Benefits<\/h3>\n
Both Olivia and Charlotte, like most impulse shoppers, bought way more than they needed. Not just your sale items, but also your other stuff.<\/p>\n
Keurig coffee pods \u2013 because what good is a hot apple crisp or a piece of homemade apple pie without a cup of steaming coffee to go with it? Whipped cream. Ice cream. Half-and-half for the coffee. And so on.<\/p>\n
They bought all of that because you scratched their emotional itch. You provided content that solved your customers\u2019 problems \u2013 and you reaped the benefits.<\/p>\n
Solving Customer Problems Using Online Content: Practical Examples<\/h2>\n
It\u2019s not just apple pie recipes that solve problems.<\/p>\n
Every product or service a business offers for sale can do that.<\/p>\n
So does the business owner\u2019s expertise. When you share your insider\u2019s knowledge, customers will see you as an expert in your field. They\u2019ll believe in your products and services because you\u2019re good \u2013 maybe even the best \u2013 at what you do.<\/p>\n
Our hypothetical grocer, obviously, is a connoisseur of good foods. Her innate sense of seasonal produce and the right ingredients to turn that produce into delicious desserts led her to create and publish two fine, highly converting recipes.<\/p>\n
Here are some more examples of how business owners can attract more customers simply by publishing free, high-quality content that solves people\u2019s problems<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n- Soothing customer worries.\u00a0Imagine you\u2019re a pediatrician. Why not publish content to help parents of young children know when an illness is serious enough to call a doctor? What about an article about the symptoms of a cold versus those of the flu? By solving some of your\u00a0patients\u2019 biggest worries, you can expand your patient base.<\/li>\n
- Making people\u2019s lives easier.\u00a0Did you know that fashion stores rake in sales with Instagram photos featuring one of their items paired with shoes and other accessories to accent the garment? By providing complete outfit ideas, they make their customers\u2019 lives easier and solve the perennial problem of \u201cWhat in the world should I wear with this dress?\u201d<\/li>\n
- Helping your audience save money.\u00a0Smart automobile dealers post articles and videos that help owners take better care of their cars, giving readers free advice that can save them money. You can bet that those dealers will be the first ones their readers will contact.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
How to Solve Customer Problems: A Real-Life Case Study<\/h2>\n
Influencers<\/a> are not social media personalities. A business can become an\u00a0influencer, too \u2013 or rather an authority in their field that others look up to \u2013 as they solve problems for their target customers.<\/p>\nHere\u2019s an example of a music school that did just that:<\/p>\n
A Music Success Story<\/h3>\n
Back in 2009, this Los Angeles guitar academy<\/a> started posting videos of its director\u2019s guitar renditions of popular classical pieces on its YouTube channel.<\/p>\nThose posts attracted a huge number of fans among guitarists and other music lovers \u2013 and have helped guitarists hone their technique simply by observing that of the director. Not only did the school solve the problem guitarists face of finding something to play, but it also\u00a0showed them how to play it\u00a0with their demonstration videos.<\/p>\n
Thanks to these posts, the school has now expanded its business beyond music lessons to also include selling sheet music for the pieces from the videos \u2013 a much more scalable product.<\/p>\n
But the benefits don\u2019t end here. When a sheet music purchaser finds that they cannot play the piece with the same finesse as the director, they sign up for lessons at his school. This is how by solving people\u2019s problems, the school also managed to expand its customer base.<\/p>\n
If you, too, would like to draw customers to your business by providing solutions to their challenges, find out what keeps them up at night. What are their pain points? Once you know that, you can create and post the kind of content that will scratch their emotional itch.<\/p>\n
A Quick Note on Video Marketing<\/h3>\n
The music school case study is demonstrative of one of the biggest trends in content marketing right now.<\/p>\n
Because it\u2019s so effective at increasing brand awareness and new lead acquisition, video is currently the number one media type used in content marketing. Just consider these stats<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n- 66% of consumers say they\u2019d rather watch a video than read about a product<\/li>\n
- 68% of viewers will watch a business video in its entirety if it\u2019s less than a minute<\/li>\n
- YouTube watch time on TV screens only is 250 million hours per day<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
These numbers mean one thing: in addition to blog posts and online articles \u2013 which can be incredibly effective in their own right \u2013 you may also want to explore video marketing as a way to advertise your business. Trust me, the results (and your bottom line) will not disappoint you.<\/p>\n
![\"Video](\"https:\/\/marketinginsidergroup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Picture1-How-to-Solve-Your-Customers-Problems.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Source: Social Media Today<\/a><\/p>\nThe Power of Content Marketing: The Numbers Speak for Themselves<\/h2>\n
The results are in, and they are unequivocal: content marketing is one of the most effective strategies to promote your business and boost your conversion rate.<\/p>\n
I already touched upon video marketing in the previous section, so let\u2019s take a look at the stats for good old blogging here. We now know that businesses with high-quality blogs report:<\/p>\n
\n- 55% more site visitors<\/li>\n
- 67% more leads per month<\/li>\n
- 97% more inbound leads<\/li>\n
- A staggering 434% more indexed pages<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
![\"If](\"https:\/\/marketinginsidergroup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Picture2-How-to-Solve-Your-Customers-Problems.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
- \n
- Some ways you could provide solutions to your customers include helping them save money, answering their burning questions, and providing them with step-by-step guides on tasks they are looking to do.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- \n
- By giving your audience the information they need when they need it, you can transform your brand into an \u201cinfluencer\u201d or a trustworthy authority figure in your field.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- \n
- Once your potential customers start trusting you, getting them to buy your products or services is the next logical \u2013 and easy \u2013 step.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
How to Solve Customer Problems 101: Find and Quench a Craving<\/h2>\n
To show you how to solve your customers\u2019 problems, let\u2019s consider a practical example:<\/p>\n
1. Identify the Pain Point<\/h3>\n
It\u2019s a crisp fall weekend. Our potential customer \u2013 let\u2019s call her Olivia \u2013 has just bought a basket of fresh apples at her local farmers market. She is enjoying the hustle and bustle of the shoppers and the warm October sun, but the apple scent also makes her feels nostalgic for her late mom\u2019s signature apple crisp.<\/p>\nThat nostalgia is Olivia\u2019s pain point. It causes her to get on Google and search for \u201capple crisp recipes.\u201d<\/p>\n
The first thing she sees is a recipe someone posted on Pinterest. She clicks on the link and looks over the ingredients: one of the items on the list is cinnamon.<\/p>\n
Olivia rushes to her pantry. No cinnamon! Her craving, however, doesn\u2019t let up.<\/p>\n
To solve her problem, she heads out to her usual grocer to get some cinnamon. Despite the high price, she picks up a container. While she\u2019s there, she also buys a couple of other things. End of story.<\/p>\n
2. Build a Targeted Marketing Strategy<\/h3>\n
Now, suppose you\u2019re that grocer\u2019s competition. You may be smaller than the other guy, but you\u2019re way savvier.<\/p>\n
You know that in October, a lot of women go to farmers markets on the weekend and buy apples because they\u2019re in season in your area.<\/p>\n
You also know that the three indispensable ingredients in almost any apple dessert are cinnamon, sugar, and flour.<\/p>\n
So, the first thing you do is put those items on sale.<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s not all. You also create two ads, one on Google Ads and the other on Pinterest \u2013 because you know that compared to social media, Pinterest can be 2.3 times more cost efficient<\/a> per conversion and generate twice as high a return on retail ad spend. You do not buy banner ads because you know they have 99 problems<\/a> and a click ain’t one!<\/p>\n
But you do you put another ad on Facebook just in case. After all, people love to spend time on social media on the weekends. Surely, the conversation will turn to Mom\u2019s apple pie at one point. It\u2019s fall, after all.<\/p>\n
So, you\u2019ve now bought some Google Search ads, promoted a few Pinterest pins, and run a couple of Facebook ads.<\/p>\n
You didn\u2019t just throw them to the wind, though. You used those sites\u2019\u00a0powerful analytics programs and optimized your content for SEO<\/a> to target\u00a0just the kind of people you knew would be on those sites looking for apple dessert recipes:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Middle-aged women<\/li>\n
- Women whose kids are old enough to be off doing something other than hanging around the house on the weekends<\/li>\n
- Women who\u2019ve frequented recipe sites before<\/li>\n
- Women who buy at sales<\/li>\n
- Women who live five miles or fewer from your grocery store<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
You even targeted the time: Saturday mornings and afternoons in late September and October. Just when your ideal customers are likely to be getting back from the market.<\/p>\n
3. Offer a No-Brainer Solution to Your Customer\u2019s Problem<\/h3>\n
In this alternate scenario, before Olivia heads out to your competitor\u2019s store, she comes across one of your ads.<\/p>\n
She sees your promoted Pinterest pin as she searches for recipes online. But to her, it looks just like any other pin \u2013 with a lip-smacking photo of a piece of apple crisp, which links to an apple crisp recipe on your blog. Just what she is looking for!<\/p>\n
Once Olivia opens the link and reads the recipe, she sees a call-to-action that said, \u201cBuy all these ingredients at your hometown store.\u201d When she clicks on that button, it leads to an online version of your mailer. Topmost among the weekly specials are \u2013 you guessed it \u2013 cinnamon, flour, and sugar. Bingo.<\/p>\n
Better still, Olivia had not one but two chances to see that particular ad: via your promoted pin as well as another ad that pops up above the regular search results.<\/p>\n
A second woman, Charlotte, found your ad while scrolling through her Facebook news feed. She, too, followed the link, as she\u2019d been wondering what to do with that bunch of apples in her kitchen for some time. After reading your apple pie recipe, she got inspired to try it out and eventually ended up at your store.<\/p>\n
4. Reap the Benefits<\/h3>\n
Both Olivia and Charlotte, like most impulse shoppers, bought way more than they needed. Not just your sale items, but also your other stuff.<\/p>\n
Keurig coffee pods \u2013 because what good is a hot apple crisp or a piece of homemade apple pie without a cup of steaming coffee to go with it? Whipped cream. Ice cream. Half-and-half for the coffee. And so on.<\/p>\n
They bought all of that because you scratched their emotional itch. You provided content that solved your customers\u2019 problems \u2013 and you reaped the benefits.<\/p>\n
Solving Customer Problems Using Online Content: Practical Examples<\/h2>\n
It\u2019s not just apple pie recipes that solve problems.<\/p>\n
Every product or service a business offers for sale can do that.<\/p>\n
So does the business owner\u2019s expertise. When you share your insider\u2019s knowledge, customers will see you as an expert in your field. They\u2019ll believe in your products and services because you\u2019re good \u2013 maybe even the best \u2013 at what you do.<\/p>\n
Our hypothetical grocer, obviously, is a connoisseur of good foods. Her innate sense of seasonal produce and the right ingredients to turn that produce into delicious desserts led her to create and publish two fine, highly converting recipes.<\/p>\n
Here are some more examples of how business owners can attract more customers simply by publishing free, high-quality content that solves people\u2019s problems<\/a>.<\/p>\n
- \n
- Soothing customer worries.\u00a0Imagine you\u2019re a pediatrician. Why not publish content to help parents of young children know when an illness is serious enough to call a doctor? What about an article about the symptoms of a cold versus those of the flu? By solving some of your\u00a0patients\u2019 biggest worries, you can expand your patient base.<\/li>\n
- Making people\u2019s lives easier.\u00a0Did you know that fashion stores rake in sales with Instagram photos featuring one of their items paired with shoes and other accessories to accent the garment? By providing complete outfit ideas, they make their customers\u2019 lives easier and solve the perennial problem of \u201cWhat in the world should I wear with this dress?\u201d<\/li>\n
- Helping your audience save money.\u00a0Smart automobile dealers post articles and videos that help owners take better care of their cars, giving readers free advice that can save them money. You can bet that those dealers will be the first ones their readers will contact.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
How to Solve Customer Problems: A Real-Life Case Study<\/h2>\n
Influencers<\/a> are not social media personalities. A business can become an\u00a0influencer, too \u2013 or rather an authority in their field that others look up to \u2013 as they solve problems for their target customers.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s an example of a music school that did just that:<\/p>\n
A Music Success Story<\/h3>\n
Back in 2009, this Los Angeles guitar academy<\/a> started posting videos of its director\u2019s guitar renditions of popular classical pieces on its YouTube channel.<\/p>\n
Those posts attracted a huge number of fans among guitarists and other music lovers \u2013 and have helped guitarists hone their technique simply by observing that of the director. Not only did the school solve the problem guitarists face of finding something to play, but it also\u00a0showed them how to play it\u00a0with their demonstration videos.<\/p>\n
Thanks to these posts, the school has now expanded its business beyond music lessons to also include selling sheet music for the pieces from the videos \u2013 a much more scalable product.<\/p>\n
But the benefits don\u2019t end here. When a sheet music purchaser finds that they cannot play the piece with the same finesse as the director, they sign up for lessons at his school. This is how by solving people\u2019s problems, the school also managed to expand its customer base.<\/p>\n
If you, too, would like to draw customers to your business by providing solutions to their challenges, find out what keeps them up at night. What are their pain points? Once you know that, you can create and post the kind of content that will scratch their emotional itch.<\/p>\n
A Quick Note on Video Marketing<\/h3>\n
The music school case study is demonstrative of one of the biggest trends in content marketing right now.<\/p>\n
Because it\u2019s so effective at increasing brand awareness and new lead acquisition, video is currently the number one media type used in content marketing. Just consider these stats<\/a>:<\/p>\n
- \n
- 66% of consumers say they\u2019d rather watch a video than read about a product<\/li>\n
- 68% of viewers will watch a business video in its entirety if it\u2019s less than a minute<\/li>\n
- YouTube watch time on TV screens only is 250 million hours per day<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
These numbers mean one thing: in addition to blog posts and online articles \u2013 which can be incredibly effective in their own right \u2013 you may also want to explore video marketing as a way to advertise your business. Trust me, the results (and your bottom line) will not disappoint you.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nSource: Social Media Today<\/a><\/p>\n
The Power of Content Marketing: The Numbers Speak for Themselves<\/h2>\n
The results are in, and they are unequivocal: content marketing is one of the most effective strategies to promote your business and boost your conversion rate.<\/p>\n
I already touched upon video marketing in the previous section, so let\u2019s take a look at the stats for good old blogging here. We now know that businesses with high-quality blogs report:<\/p>\n
- \n
- 55% more site visitors<\/li>\n
- 67% more leads per month<\/li>\n
- 97% more inbound leads<\/li>\n
- A staggering 434% more indexed pages<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/p>\n
- Once your potential customers start trusting you, getting them to buy your products or services is the next logical \u2013 and easy \u2013 step.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- By giving your audience the information they need when they need it, you can transform your brand into an \u201cinfluencer\u201d or a trustworthy authority figure in your field.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n