The Power of Pivoting Pain Points

Today on the blog, we welcome Rebecca Gunter, Content Marketing Strategist and Branding Expert, to talk about how she uses pain points to create powerful headlines.

Take it away, Rebecca...

“Pain points;” these two words get batted around business circles more than a shuttlecock on the first spring day.

People are always talking about how identifying “the thing” that really hurts your ideal client is “the thing” they’ll throw money at solving.

As a content marketing maven, I help entrepreneurs and enterprise businesses understand their own ideal consumer’s pain points. When we go deep into how “the struggle is real” for the people that we serve, we can meet them where they are with valuable content.

It’s not hard to figure out some of the things that are keeping them up at night. If you’ve been listening, really listening, to the people you seek to serve with your products and services, you know a thing or two about their “pain points,” because inevitably, they will tell you.

“I need YOU to tell ME how to take my business to the next level,” a colleague recently ranted about another consultant. TAKE NOTE! I need to make absolutely sure that I have a methodology in place in my own business to do just that. For her, not knowing the exact steps to advance in her business was a pain point.

Every business meets unique pain points. Here are some of “mine,” the things that hold my own ideal customers back from having a business that they are totally in love with.

SIDEBAR: This is why I absolutely love working with Gill. Even though understanding pain points is baked into the DNA of my brand strategy, she helps me identify blindspots. She should know, she’s spent the last 2+ decades understanding how business plays out in the arena. It’s times like these that I thank my lucky stars that she is in my corner.

When it comes to marketing, be more more Viagra than Vicodin.

When it comes to sales strategy and marketing my freelance business, I prefer to lean into the positive. I turn those pain points right on their head and give my prospects something to believe in, not something to fear.

Tony Robbins-types might think of these as “Transformative Beliefs,” but I think of them as branded breadcrumbs.

Once you identify what your pain points actually are (see Gill immediately if you need support here, she has a gift for uncovering these!) you can use them a multitude of ways.

For my clients and in my own business, I transform pain points into clever headlines.

Here’s how I do it:

PAIN POINT: Already has the budget but may not know best how to spend it, or has a budget for branded stuff, per se, but they do for marketing overall...

🏆 Spark your brand evolution and enchant your leads. Feed your fans a steady diet of quality content and engaging persona.

PAIN POINT: Know their brand is tired, worried that the branding looks weary/out of step...

🏆 You’ve got the look, now get the feel.

PAIN POINT: Have outgrown a previous ‘look and feel’ - need their branding to keep up with their business journey...

🏆Built on pace with your business journey.

PAIN POINT: Are uplevelling their biz and need their brand to attract ‘next level’ clients...

🏆Uplevel your marketing to attract next-level clients.

PAIN POINT: Has fragmented branding across departments and wants consistency across the business...

🏆Unify your business efforts with consistency.

Now, you’ve spun those pains into the positive. People can see the vision, not feel the sting. You’ve given them something to reach for.

If you believe in catching more flies with honey than with vinegar, win more hearts in sales pitches, marketing mixes, and brand development with these “hit-me-where-I-live” headlines based on pain points.


This blog post was written exclusively for Gill Moakes’ audience. Keep following Gill for more teachable moments from someone who knows a thing or three about handling things with precision and perspective; your perfect partner in business development, the voice of your trusted work mum.

Rebecca Gunter is a culture maven, brand developer, marketing consultant, and copywriter living and working in the US. She is a port in the storm for high-achieving professionals leading complicated lives, sharing survival stories and seasoned advice at rebeccagunter.com

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