5-Step Framework To Conduct Pain Point Research On Reddit (With AI)

Want to connect with your reader?

Find out what problems they want solved in their life. And then educate them on how to solve them.

There are a bunch of ways you can do this.

• You can guess.

• You can run a survey.

• You can ask ChatGPT to "come up with problems."

While these “work”…

The best thing you can do is talk to a real human.

But most people don’t have the time.

So the next best option is to listen in on your target audience where they already hang out. And there is no better place than on Reddit—”the internet’s water cooler.” There are over 57 million active users and 100 million subreddits where they hang out. That’s a lot of conversations for you to eavesdrop on for every topic imaginable.

The beautiful part?

You’re hearing real people, in their own words, talk about what’s bothering them.

You can use this for:

• Writing better hooks

• Validating product ideas

• Building high-converting landing pages

• And anywhere else you need to speak to pain

So today, I'm going to show you how to use Reddit to find what people are struggling with and then test those problems using “Outlines As Content.”

Let’s dive in.

Step 1: Choose Your Keywords

Start with a specific topic and brainstorm 5–10 search terms your target audience might use when venting or asking for help.

Keep the language casual, like they’d say it—not how you’d write it.

Example for freelance writers:

• "freelance writing problems"

• "copywriting dead?"

• "can't land writing clients"

• "tired of $0.03/word gigs"

• "how do I find better writing clients?"

You can use ChatGPT to help generate a list of these based on your topic.

Here’s a prompt: