Identifying Challenges Faced by Your Target Audience

"We tried Cold Email, but didn't see results." Has to be one of the most common challenges I hear. Let me explain. Over the course of 2024, I’ve spoken with many B2B SaaS Founders, Marketing Directors, Sales Directors, and GTM Leaders. They all share one problem in common: They’ve tried Cold Outreach, but they don’t get any results. So naturally, I start asking questions and offer to have a look at what they’re doing. When I review their campaigns, one thing becomes crystal clear: They understand how to build prospect lists, but there's little to no split testing happening. Here’s the reality: If you’re only sending 100-200 emails without testing different angles, you’re gambling on the success of your campaign, and in most cases, that gamble doesn’t pay off. Let’s break this down. There are two types of companies: 1️⃣ The 1% that doesn’t need to split test (they already know their ICP and what works for them). 2️⃣ The 99% that absolutely MUST split test to find what works best. If you’re part of the 99% (and most of us are), here’s how to do it effectively: Step 1: Test Pain Points Start by identifying the key problems your target audience is facing. Let’s say you’re an agency targeting e-commerce brands. You could test angles like: → High customer acquisition costs → Low lifetime value → Low return on ad spend Each email script stays consistent, only the pain point changes. 💡 Example: If you’re targeting a Sales Director, one angle might focus on the challenge of getting unqualified leads filling up their pipeline, while another might highlight how their team spends too much time on lead nurturing rather than closing. Allocate a set number of leads to each angle (e.g., 1,000 leads per angle) and track results. Step 2: Analyze & Scale Winners Once you’ve sent out the emails, review your data. Ask yourself: → Which angle is getting the most positive replies? → Are certain pain points resonating more than others? If one angle shows promise, double down. If another flops, drop it. Step 3: Test Offers After narrowing down the best angles, shift your focus to your offer. Split test variations of your offer to see which drives the most engagement and demo bookings. Forget vanity metrics like open rates (for now). Instead, track the ratio of PRRs. Many B2B companies: ❌ Send a small volume of Cold Emails (100-200) and expect big results. ❌ Focus too much on minor variables like subject lines before testing major factors like pain points or offers. ❌ Don’t analyze campaign performance enough to refine their approach. 💡 Pro tip in the PDF below👇 💬 Drop a comment below, or DM me for a free campaign audit.

It's important that you understand that your target audience will be facing 3 categories of problems. These are the struggles you're going to help them solve. However, the problem can be a bit harder to nail down because there are actually 3 different types of problems the main character is facing. Ø External Ø Internal Ø Philosophical I got these categories of problems from the great Don Miller who is a master at using story to build your brand. Before I came across his work I always thought that there was just the external problem that needed to be solved. But the problems your audience experiences usually run deeper than just the obvious. This person wants to get out of debt. Great!! That's the external problem. Is that all we need to address? No, because there is an internal problem as well. Maybe the person doesn't feel confident in their ability to get out of debt. They think it's impossible even though every day they feel an overwhelming burden from the debt they've created. There can also be a philosophical problem. Are the only people that get out debt those that have high-paying jobs? If you can understand the problems that the Hero faces then everything completely changes down from your messaging to your content to the products and services that you offer. Let me give you an example. The Hero is a Mom with 2 kids that works a 9-5 job. She has started a blog on her website to hopefully surpass her salary so she can stay at home and spend more time with her family and not have to worry about bills. The External Problem: There are a number of external problems that she faces but let's just focus on one: Time. Time is an external force that is working against her. She never seems to have enough time to get things done with her blog like she wants. If only she had more time then she could quit her job sooner. The Internal Problem: She's constantly worried about not doing the right things or if she's even good enough to write about the topic she wants to write about. She never knows what to work on next which means she wastes the limited time that she does have doing absolutely nothing. The Philosophical Problem: She sees a lot of other bloggers write cheap content for pageviews and she wonders if that's the only way to get traffic. Can you make money writing in a way that provides you with satisfaction? She also wonders if the only way to make money is by talking about how to make money. Clarity: Hopefully, you can see that by just understanding the problems of the main character you gain a better understanding of the things your brand should focus on. If someone tells you their exact problems... then you know what things you shouldn't waste your time talking about and instead will focus all of your energy on the things that will help solve the problem. The more clear you get on this the more simple it becomes to speak directly to the person you want to reach.

Customer discovery isn’t about hearing "yes” 🙉 It’s about uncovering the real problems worth solving. 1.     Start with Questions, Not Assumptions 👉🏽 Frame open-ended questions that encourage your audience to share their experiences and challenges without leading them to your solution.  ↳ Instead of asking, “Would you use a product that does X?” ask, “Can you tell me about a time when you faced challenges with [problem]?” How have you tried to solve that problem in the past? 2.     Listen (Really Listen) 👉🏽 The goal is to understand, not validate. Let your customers do most of the talking and resist the urge to jump in with your ideas. Insights often emerge from what they say...and don’t say. 3.     Diversify Your Audience 👉🏽 Talk to people outside of your initial target demographic. Hearing varied perspectives can expose blind spots and help you test whether your assumptions hold across different customer segments. 4.     Capture Verbatim Feedback 👉🏽 Take detailed notes or record conversations (with permission!) to ensure you're capturing their actual words and not your interpretation of their words. Later, review for patterns rather than cherry-picking responses that confirm your beliefs. 5.     Test Hypotheses with Data 👉🏽 Turn qualitative insights into actionable hypotheses, then test them with experiments —e.g., landing pages, prototypes, surveys. The results will help validate (or invalidate) your assumptions objectively. And yes, customer discovery is encouraged with a professional services business too. My experience with Liles Law: Instead of saying, "Let me know if you or anybody you know needs a business attorney!"... 🎯 I ran a poll to discover the top reasons business owners don't hire an attorney right away. ↳ Turns out it has more to do with unknown cost and not knowing who to go to. So I've been actively working on transparent pricing and making my name known as a business attorney in the startup community. This post is an example of the latter. (So meta 🤯) 🎯 I did another survey to understand the top qualities business owners look for in an attorney: expertise, responsiveness, and clear communication. ↳ Education was much lower on the list. After sobbing over the amount spent on student loans for my prestigious law degree (💰), I've shifted my approach to focusing on my expertise after practicing corporate law for 14 years and focusing specifically on #entrepreneurs with my own practice for the last 8. 🎯 When clients come to me after working with a different business attorney, I ask them about their experience to understand why they decided to make the switch. ↳ That informs not only my future interactions with them (e.g., they like to err on the side of more communication) but it also impacts the copy on my website and LinkedIn posts. I've learned so much from my clients. And you can too. #founders, did I miss any strategies for avoiding bias during customer discovery? 

I've noticed something about how marketers talk about their "target audience." Most of them focus entirely on demographics and job titles. Examples: • "We target CMOs at mid-market SaaS companies" • "We're after operations directors at D2C brands" • "Our ideal customer is a millennial parent who makes $100K+" But the most effective marketers I know focus instead on: • Where their audience already pays attention • Specific problems their audience is actively trying to solve • The language their audience uses to describe their challenges Demographics might tell you who someone is, but they don't tell you what they care about or how to reach them. The next time you're defining your target audience, try starting with "People who are struggling with X."

Content doesn’t have to be complicated. You don’t need a plug-and-play template. You don’t need to block off three hours to “batch.” And you definitely don’t need to burn out trying to post on six platforms. You just need to start with a real problem your audience actually has. Here’s how I keep it simple. Lately, I’ve been hearing the same frustration on repeat: - Content is taking way too long to create. - It feels like a total time suck. - People are frustrated. Burned out. Ready to give up. So I created a poll to dig deeper. Not for fun. But because I’m building something new that solves this exact problem, and I wanted to start with the real struggles my target audience is facing. And the responses were loud and clear. They said (in their words): → “I overthink everything.” → “I overexplain and still don’t feel like I got it right.” → “I have no idea what to say.” → “Getting started… why does a blank page stay blank?” → “I hate this sh*t. It takes me all day.” From there, I wrote this post. It speaks directly to those struggles and offers a small shift that can help. That’s it. That’s the process. Step 1: Identify a real problem your audience has Step 2: Run a poll to learn how it shows up for them Step 3: Write a follow-up post with a helpful solution or insight Two content ideas, based on the real challenges your audience is facing. (No overthinking required.) And this isn’t just for LinkedIn. This works whether you’re creating: – Instagram or Facebook posts – Newsletter content – Blog articles – YouTube scripts – Even webinar intros or email sequences And if you’re launching something soon (like I am), this is gold. If you’re just trying to stay consistent without losing your mind, it works for that too. Drop your audience’s biggest problem into the comments. I’ll help you turn it into a poll. ⬇️

Why most entrepreneurs FAIL in the first 12 months. A lot of people waste time & money on business ideas that nobody WANTS. And it's easy to see why: "You're the next big thing" 🤝 "I'll definitely buy that" => Too many positive affirmations and flattery. But the truth is: You're not the next big thing. Not yet. And nobody will buy that idea until it's in front of them. The solution? → Validate your idea before building it Here's how: 1. Define your audience → avoid targeting "everyone". 2. Ask the right questions → no vague questions allowed. 3. Analyze responses → find the patterns → make data-driven decisions. Here's a sample template: 1. Define your audience: - Who are they? - How old are they? - What's their biggest problem? - Where do they hang out online? 2. Ask the right questions: - What's the biggest question you have about ___? - What's your biggest fear regarding ___? - What have you tried before to solve ___? - What would make a product/service perfect for ___? 3. Analyze responses: - What's the biggest problem they're facing? - What are their biggest complaints about existing solutions? - What would be their dream product/service? - What's the biggest challenge they would face with your solution? Spend time listening to your audience. You'll be surprised by how much you can learn. Good luck!