What Content Attracts and Converts Clients the Best?

How to attract clients with outcome-driven content (even when using AI)

If you've been asking ChatGPT or Claude (or whatever your chatbot of choice is) to write your social media posts and blog content for you, chances are it's telling you to lead with hooks like:

• What's your biggest challenge in [work/life/love]?

• Do you keep attracting the wrong [friends/partner]?

• What's not working in your [work/life/relationship]?

• When Posting Feels Pointless and Motivation Is Nowhere to Be Found

• Stuck, Spinning, and Second-Guessing Everything? Let’s Talk

Why Pain-Led Content Struggles to Attract Clients

Sounds reasonable, right? For years, we've been told to ask our audience what their pain points are. To lead with them to show we understand. There are even copywriting frameworks and templates, like PAS (problem - agitate - solution) that force us into this model. So no wonder the bots are giving you this too... we've trained them on it.

But... these struggle posts are not doing you any favors.

What You Focus On Grows

When you lead with pain and struggle, you're going to get more of it back.

Think about it. If I ask you "what's horrible in your life right now" you're going to tell me all that's not going well. That might be an overdrawn bank account, bills up the wazoo, a relationship that's tanking, a job you despise. It's going to end up being a total downer of a conversation!

But if I ask you "what are you working towards right now?" you might tell me that you're working towards your first $5K month, or cutting expenses, or implementing date nights to strengthen your relationship. And it will be a higher-vibe conversation, full of promise and hope and solution orientation.

That's the shift we want to see. From focusing on the pain, to focusing on the promise. From venting about the problem, to focusing on the solution. From expanding the lack, to expanding the possibility.

What you focus on stays in focus.
What you focus on you see more of.
What you focus on grows.

The Hidden Cost of Struggle-Focused Content

When you're leading with "what's your biggest challenge" or "what's frustrating you right now" it's going to attract people who need to vent, who are not focused on forward movement, and who probably aren't even ready for it.

Now, that's not to say that you shouldn't acknowledge your people's pain or, make them feel seen — because you really do want to do that. That's part of building trust. That's part of being of building authority. That's part of letting them know that you are the right person to solve their problems or help them with whatever it is that they need help with.

But if you're openly inviting negativity, you're not going to help them help themselves.

Reframing the Struggle Into Solution-Orientation

So, how can we reframe this, so that we can acknowledge the pain but not dwell on it?

Instead of saying something like, “What's your biggest challenge?” You can try, “What are you working towards?”

Instead of "Where are you feeling stuck?" try "Where do you feel close to a breakthrough?"

And then something like "What's not working?" becomes "How are your results shifting your approach?"

I can't tell you how many times I've been asked "Where are you stuck?" and I've wanted to yell "I'm not stuck! I'm making progress, but it's slow and I'm not sure if I'm doing things in the right order."

Reframing the question isn't a positive spin. It's not being a Polyanna. And it's not whitewashing or ignoring pain. It's helping people think ahead. To spark ideas. To understand that solutions are just around the corner even if they can't see them. When you lead with solution-orientation, you can then ask about the struggle without focusing on it.

Two Conversations, Two Outcomes: One Attracts Clients, One Doesn’t

Compare these two conversations:

Where are you stuck?
I can't attract clients. I'm posting and posting but nobody's signing up for my thing.

What are you trying to get them to sign up for exactly?
My lead magnet. But it's nobody's asking for it. I'm telling them to drop an emoji to get the link but they're not dropping the emoji. They say stuff like "nice smile" and "this is awesome" but they don't drop the emoji so I don't know if they're just being nice or they want it but can't follow instructions. Then I have to ask and then they don't answer, and I don't want to be pushy or harass them so... ugh!

Where are you posting?
On Facebook and Insta mostly. I'm getting a few likes, but I think that's just my friends trying to be supportive.

Why do you think it's not working?
I don't know. The algorithm hates me? Or maybe people are just burned out? Or maybe my audience just isn't serious. Everyone says lead magnets are supposed to work but this one just… doesn't.

Have you tried changing anything?
I mean, I've tweaked the caption a bit. I've changed emojis. I've posted more. Less. Different times. Nothing sticks.

What do you think you're doing wrong?
Honestly? Everything. Maybe my niche is off. Maybe my offer sucks. Maybe I waited too long to start. I see other people doing the same thing and it works for them, so maybe it's just me.

How does that make you feel?
Defeated. Exhausted. Like I'm shouting into the void.

End result: lots of validation, zero movement, no insight, no next step, just emotional depletion.

versus....

What are you working on right now?
I'm trying to drive traffic to my lead magnet.

How’s that going? Are you getting any interest?
It's slow. I'm getting a few clicks, but not as many as I'd hoped.

Who is your lead magnet for?
Coaches who want more clients, but who feel overwhelmed by marketing.

What problem does it help them solve?
It helps them clarify their messaging so they can talk about what they do more clearly.

When someone lands on it, what do you want them to think or feel?
Like, “Oh wow, this makes sense. I feel less scattered already.”

Do you think your posts are inviting that feeling — or something else?
Hmm. I think my posts are more like… “marketing is hard” vibes.

What kind of person responds to “marketing is hard”?
Probably someone who just wants to complain… or commiserate.

What kind of person downloads a messaging guide?
Someone who wants clarity. Someone ready to clean things up.

If you wanted to attract that person, what would you talk about instead?
Probably progress. Or what changes when messaging clicks. Or what becomes easier.

What’s one small shift you could make in your next post to test that?
I could talk about what gets easier once your message is clear — instead of asking what’s frustrating people.

End result: no advice given, they arrive at the insight themselves, and now have an action plan.

Your Next Steps: How to Attract Clients Without Focusing on the Pain

My challenge to you moving forward is next time that you're about to hit publish on a post, ask yourself, is this a struggle post? Am I asking people to go deeper into the pain and just have a venting session, or am I asking them to be solution-oriented and forward thinking?

If the answer is "this is totally a struggle post" then your challenge is to go back and ask yourself, "How can I shift this from struggle to solution orientation?"

Training Your AI to Lead With Outcomes (Not Pain)

And if you're using AI to help you write your hooks and headlines, get ready to push back on the output you get. You're going to have to be it's guide and teacher. When you prompt it, make sure to tell it to lead with desire and solution orientation, not pain and frustration. Sometimes that means telling it "this is all wrong, you're leading with the pain. Please reframe this and lead with the desired outcome."

TL;DR

Struggle posts attract strugglers.
Outcome-driven posts attract clients.

If you want better leads, stop asking your audience to vent and start asking them to think forward.
And if AI keeps giving you pain-based hooks, it’s because that’s what you asked for — teach it to lead with outcomes instead.

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For more tips like this, join us in the Skool community, Funnel Forensics, where we plug all the leaks in our funnels to get better results!