Understanding your audience’s biggest pains and problems is critical for creating great content. If you already have a large audience you can simply ask them what they want to know, but if you are just starting out you will have to get a little more creative.
Pat Flynn of SmartPassiveIncome.com recently sent out a newsletter about how to use Google to find forums related to a niche and then search those forums for the common pains that audience has. That newsletter inspired us to write this post about how to use reddit to do the same thing.
1. Find subreddits relevant to your niche
Reddit is a wealth of communities and there is likely one or more subreddits that is closely related to your niche. If you already know which subreddits are relevant to your niche, you can skip to the next section. If not, take a minute to read our step-by-step guide to finding subreddits.
2. Search each subreddit for pain
There is a search bar at the top of the sidebar in every subreddit. Try the following search terms to find posts where your audience is reaching out for help or complaining about a problem.
- “hate it when”
- “need help with”
- “need advice on”
- “can anyone help”
- “can’t/cannot find”
- “I’m/I am looking for”
These searches will produce an array of posts, so comb through them carefully to find the pain.
3. Investigate each lead
Each lead has the potential to be a valuable piece of content on your website if you do the proper research and planning. The first step is to identify the problem. People asking for help or complaining about a problem will often add a lot of unnecessary information so strip away the filler and figure out what they really need help with.
Once you know the problem, you can then search for content that has already been published on the subject. The obviously place to start is in the comments section of that thread. Note any informative comments and see if the original poster recognized them as solving their problem. Then check Google and YouTube to see what content has been published outside of reddit.
Do not be discouraged if you see content already posted on the subject. You can put your own spin on the problem, provide a more elegant solution, or build on the solutions of others.
4. Get more leads
Another way to get content leads from a subreddit is to simply ask them what their problems are. This is a more advanced technique that we only recommend for true redditors that have taken the time to become a part of a community on reddit. Luckily, we have our Beginners Guide to reddit which will put you on the path to becoming a redditor.
Once you have experience engaging the community, you can post a question to a subreddit of interest to uncover problems that need solutions. With your question, you can include information about your goals (e.g. “I am creating YouTube tutorials for xyz…”).
TL;DR
Creating great content usually means you are solving difficult problems for a group of people. Use the reddit search feature to find people that have problems you can solve and then create content that solves their problems.
