Research tools that help you know your target audience

A couple of days ago I wrote an article about knowing your avatar/target audience, “Know your customer avatar“. Then I wrote about questions you should ask yourself to find your customer avatar. In today’s post I thought I’d give you what sources I use when I research for my target audience. I realize that we are all different and that we have different target audiences, but Internet is the source for information as we all know so let us use that to our advantage. We have the opportunity to research within all the fields that we have our business in.

Find out everything about your target audience

When I research for my target audience I look to find everything about them so that I can make marketing material that is appropriate and attractive to that particular audience. It can be all from colors and terminology to what kind of role-models they have, to values and websites they visit. The purpose is to find out as much as I can about the audience wether it is local or international so that I can talk their “talk” and walk their “walk” and use languages and pictures that “speak” to them.

Look at yourself, what are you looking at and what is stopping you during your day to stay and watch something or learn about something new? What intrigues you? That is what you want to achieve! Have them to stop and get a moment of their time! We are exposed to a lot of ads and information every day, so it is crucial that you do research to find your target audience, or you will throw your money in the bin.

Research tools that I use

There are a couple of websites that I really can recommend that will help you start your research and grow your business online. Here they are, enjoy!

Website traffic

• Alexa, www.alexa.com
• Similarweb, www.similarweb.com

These two sites will give you website traffic statistics. You can find out age groups, countries where the website is used the most, information about similar websites where their traffic is coming from, how they are getting their traffic to the site, weather it is organic or paid advertising and most of all similar websites where you can carry out even more research. Check it out!

Search engines

Of course you start with entering keywords that you believe are used by your target audience at a search engine, for example google. Google present you the most used keywords related to your word when you write it in the search box. This can give you an indication on what are thought after the most.

YouTube – videos

Another great place to do research on is YouTube. Here you can find out even more about your audience. What terminology they are using, what kind of clothing do they wear, what attitude have they got, what are their role-models are pushing etc.

Magazines

What magazines are your target audience reading? What can you find out there? A tip is to look at the ads displayed so that you can see what is considered attractive ads to your audience.

Ok, you say, BUT how can I use this information to my advantage? As I briefly described earlier, we use it to create ads or articles, or any marketing material that we need to reach our target audience so that it is attractive to them. For example when using digital automated marketing we can create our own lead capture pages and completely choose the messaging ourselves without the help of an agency. I use a tool called Simple Lead Capture Pages where I create my ads after I have done the necessary research and feel content with the information that I have got.

Competitors

Don’t forget to research your competitors. They are as important to learn about as your customers. What can you do that is unique, what are they doing now and are they successful by doing what they do?

This is the way I do my research so that I target the correct audience. I hope that you found this article about researching your target audience helpful and that you can utilize this information in your business.

All the best,

Carina Asp
Marketing Coach