These are the terms that your potential customers use to describe the solution they need. Be careful about getting caught up in industry-specific jargon or self-speak — if your audience doesn't understand your terminology, you need to start speaking their language before they leave and take their business elsewhere.

Example: People who really need a new car may search for several potential solutions like "auto repair," "used car dealer", or "used car trade-in value."

Understand the way your audience communicates about their needs and the solutions they think they need. Until you learn how they think and communicate, you'll struggle to reach and engage with many potential customers.

These are the ways that your audience would describe the pain that is motivating them to take action. These phrases are often used before they are aware of all the potential solutions and answers to their questions.

Example: Before everyone knew about cars, folks who really needed cars, but didn't know they existed, were probably going to Google and searching for "faster horses."

Okay, that didn't really happen...but you get the idea. This is what your potential customer might ask or search for before they even know that your solution or your company even exists.

Another Example: If you sell project management software (your solution), understand that your audience is probably searching for terms related to their need (the pain) more often than searching for your exact solution. So instead of Googling "project management software," they may be searching for "a better way to organize emails by project" or "ideas for more efficient project management."