Guides › Content & Writing
Find real customer problems to write about online
A list of the questions and frustrations people share in public forums about your field, turned into article and product ideas.
When to use it
Once a quarter, or when you're short of ideas
Step by step
Find where people talk
Search Google for your topic plus 'forum' or 'reddit', and look at community groups and question sites where your customers ask for help.
Copy the discussions
Copy the text of 10 to 20 relevant threads or questions. Leave out usernames and anything personal.
Ask the AI to find patterns
Paste the text into your AI assistant with this prompt.
Prompt to copyHere are public forum posts where people discuss [topic]: [paste, usernames removed]. Identify: 1) the 10 most common problems or questions, ranked by how often they appear; 2) the exact words people use to describe each (short quotes); 3) what they've already tried that didn't work; 4) for each problem, one article title I could write and one product or service idea for [business]. Output as a table.Save the best ideas
Paste the table into Google Sheets and add the ideas to your content plan.
What you get
Problem: 'My sourdough is always flat' (seen 14 times) | People say 'pancake', 'no oven spring' | Tried: more yeast, hotter oven | Article: 'Flat sourdough? It's probably your proving time' | Product idea: proving basket starter kit.
Tips
- Use the customers' own phrases in your headings; they're the words people type into search.