We use a JTBD-based approach to customer, content, & keyword research.

Our goal: Begin with the product & work backwards to identify drivers, pain points, and problems that lead to purchase.

Here's how we use reviews on @g2dotcom, et al, to inform our content strategy

2/ We're always trying to better understand customers, their needs, and how content can help them achieve their goals.

Our job is to connect pain points and problems to specific features, solutions, and products.

The funnel:

Problem⟶Solution⟶Product

So how do we do that?

3/ First of all: We need to understand why and how each buyer persona uses the product.

*What are the jobs they are hiring the product (& its specific features) to do?*

4/ We need to get inside the customer's mind & ask key Q's like:

- Why did you buy this product?
- What pain point did it solve for you?
- What would you be doing without it?
- What specific features are most valuable?

Of course... interviews & surveys are a great source...

5/ But, we can also mine these insights in bulk...

G2, Capterra, etc are a *gold mine* for understanding buyer needs, pain points, and JTBD. This is exactly the information you need to craft smart content that speaks directly to buyers.

So, how do you find the goods?

6/ It's really just a matter of sifting through the reviews and knowing what to look for.

Let's look at an example.

Say we're doing content strategy research for @HubSpot.

If I pop on over to G2 and open up the HubSpot reviews, here's what I see:

7/ Obviously, a very positive review.

The user has a lot to say about the product and how they use it.

But look beyond that.

⟶How do we get some actual insights?

⟶How do we understand pain points or JTBD?

That's where we have to get a little creative.

8/ We have to zoom in on the language that the reviews use and re-interpret them.

Here's an example of something that I'm immediately drawn to.

9/ As you can see, the user is talking about the ability to see (visually) and understand the upcoming schedule of posts.

This is a feature, of course.

But, what pain does it actually solve?

What JTBD is the product fulfilling?

10/ Ask: What would the user be doing without HubSpot?

Presumably, things would be less clear and less visible—there may be confusion or lack of clarity around the marketing calendar.

They'd be using spreadsheets or docs or myriad different tools.

11/ This tells us a lot about how customers receive value from this functionality:

- Improve marketing workflow
- Streamline marketing plans
- Save time and money by aligning your marketing team

12/ It's not just about the feature or the functionality.

It's about the underlying problems that it solves.

*Problem⟶Solution⟶Product*

Problem: Marketing chaos



Solution: Improved workflow



Product: HubSpot

13/ Boom! We just turned a single sentence into several possible insights about how the product is being used by real users.

Here's another one.

This time, I'm looking specifically at the section that asks the users to explain the problems being solved.

14/ Unsuprisingly, the user provides some great insight about their JTBD!

Here, I pulled out 2 key things that I think are valuable.

1. [Accurate] Marketing and sales attribution is a huge JTBD
2. Connecting marketing and sales is another big $$$ benefit!

15/ These are both hugely valuable.

We can now speak to these specific pain points:

- How to better align sales and marketing
- How to improve marketing and sales attribution

And, we can credibly connect these pain points to the solution and ultimately connect it to HubSpot.

16/ Problem⟶Solution⟶Product

We need a clear line of sight from the initial JTBD to the product itself.

17/ Part of our workflow for all new clients is going through reviews, mining these insights, and itemizing them in a worksheet that we use.

This gives us a solid foundation to understand the buyer, their needs and pain points, & also steer our entire content marketing strategy.

18/ If we're working with a client who doesn't appear on these review sites or is launching a new product or service, then we look at reviews of other similar products to glean insights about specific features.

19/ For instance, if our client's product has an email automation feature, then we would want to look for reviews specifically about email automation in other products and try to understand the JTBD and pain points of that specific feature to help us piece together our insights.

20/ Don't rely on keyword tools to tell you what customers want.

@JHTScherck has been sharing some excellent examples lately of tools completely missing huge opportunities of topics & queries that matter to buyers.

21/ Try to build the universe of topics from the ground up.

Then, use tools to fill in gaps or validate thinking.

22/ Customer interviews are, of course, the gold standard.

But, there are lean techniques that are 10x better than guessing or relying entirely on Ahrefs to inform your keyword strategy.

23/ Content & SEO has evolved beyond guess and check.

To win in 2021, we have to be smart, data-driven, and insightful.

We need a human-first approach to making content.