Market Research 101: Know Your Audience Like a Pro
How to perform market research to gain greater understanding of your audience
Ever feel like you're shooting in the dark when trying to reach your audience? Instead of guessing, floundering, or simply not trying because it’s “too much to figure out,” let’s fix it with some market research magic.
Understanding your target audience’s demographics, interests, and pain points is crucial to improving your marketing performance.
If you don’t know who your audience is, where they spend their time, how they consume content, or what interests them, you will not maximize your marketing efforts and eventually, it will fall flat.
Imagine fully knowing your target audience and speaking to them directly about how you can alleviate their pain points with your product or service. For most marketers, it’s hard to grasp, but it doesn’t have to be that way.
How To Do Market Research & Understand Your Target Audience
Follow the steps below and you’ll have a much greater understanding of your target audience, guaranteed.
Step 1: Start with Demographics
Demographics are simply the details about your audience. These can be groups and/or ranges, or super specific! Define the demographics for your target audience by including age, gender, income, location, etc. The more you can focus in on these, the easier it will be to market to them.
Example Demographics:
Age: 35-45
Gender: Females
Income: $100,000+
Location: Metro Atlanta
Tools to Use for Identifying Demographics:
Sign in and go to Reports > User Attributes > Demographic Details for your website
Social media insights
Surveys
Prepare these in online forms, email campaigns, or social polls and share them with your audience to learn more about who is actually engaging with you online
To collect data, create surveys, analyze your current customer base, and use free online tools. Go into information gathering mode! Find out what you know about the audience that currently follows and engages with you, then decide if that is ideal for where your business is going. If there are gaps to fill, you’ve got work to do, my friend!
Step 2: Discover Their Interests
Now that you have a better picture of the demographic details of your audience, it’s time to dig a little deeper. What are they into? What are their hobbies, interests, and online behaviors?
Use social media listening tools (Hubspot has a great list of free ones here), find private online groups of people who fit your target audience that you can join, and dive into content engagement metrics on social platforms and Google Analytics.
Practical Examples:
What topics get the most likes, shares, or comments?
What time of day is most popular for your social posts?
What formats get the most engagement? Video, blogs, image carousels, etc.
Which distribution channels are most effective? Email, social, website, podcast, etc.
Step 3: Identify Their Pain Points
Find out what is bothering your audience and/or what is causing them some level of frustration that your business can solve for them.
How to Find Pain Points:
Read customer reviews
Check out competitor feedback
Use keyword research tools (like Google Search Console) to see what people are searching for
To address pain points, tailor your messaging and product offerings to solve these problems. Communicate how you can make their lives better when they use your product or service.
Step 4: Put It All Together
With all of this new information at your fingertips, you can bring it all together into a singular, cohesive visual. Create a customer persona document, which combines demographics, interests, and pain points into a clear profile. Here is a free Buyer Persona Template that I made just for you!
Wondering how to use this information? Tailor your marketing strategies, content, and ads to better connect with your audience. Now you know who you’re talking to and can craft a more personalized message and deliver that message to them wherever they spend their time and in a way that makes sense for them.
There is power in knowing your audience.
Knowledge is power. Understanding your audience is essential to successful and intentional marketing. The mindset of a great marketer is to consistently put oneself in the shoes of the customer. Keep your buyer persona front and center everyday so you can look to it for marketing decisions. Always ask yourself, “Is this important and worthwhile for our audience? Will it make an impact?” You won’t know the answers to those questions if you skip out on market research.
Need help getting started with marketing?
… or just don’t want to do it yourself?
