Are you looking for a new way to understand your customers? Do you know where they spend their time online, their average annual income or revenue, and their most significant problems relevant to your solution? How about how they like their coffee?
trapthecar.com
motormunch.com
theautospaces.com
theautomirror.com
drivetheauto.com
Considering all the data you hold, you probably think you know your customers pretty well. You may also feel that you understand them and deliver what they need. Does that sound like you? Then you might want to think again.
Market research shows that 44 percent of brands feel recommending products on past preferences is imperative, while just 11 percent of customers agree.
However, it’s essential to recognize that marketing isn’t a guessing game. Simply putting yourself in your customer’s shoes for a few minutes and imagining how they think and feel isn’t enough.
trapthecar.com
motormunch.com
theautospaces.com
theautomirror.com
drivetheauto.com
Deep, ongoing market research is one of the best ways to truly understand your customers. Whether over the phone, on Skype, or over coffee, one-on-one conversations are often the most effective ways to get inside your target market’s head. If you’re starting market research, I recommend this as your first step.
Unfortunately, this method is time-consuming, and it’s not for collecting vast volumes of data. However, that’s where online market research comes in; it can help you round out the information you’ve amassed during your one-on-ones, and it’s a great way to flesh out your customer personas.
trapthecar.com
motormunch.com
theautospaces.com
theautomirror.com
drivetheauto.com
Additionally, market research can help product managers get the feedback they need during the product cycle, enabling them to create better products and keep current products fresh for longer.
Sounds great, doesn’t it? But where can you go online to learn about your customers?
Well, it depends mainly on where your customers spend their time. In this article, I detail the websites, tools, and techniques that have proven most effective for me when conducting online market research about a target niche.
Let’s get started.
trapthecar.com
motormunch.com
theautospaces.com
theautomirror.com
drivetheauto.com
Quora
Quora is a great place for market research because it revolves around people holding in-depth conversations about a broad range of topics, from social media to startups to ethnic junk food. Type a keyword or phrase related to your product in the search box, and Quora delivers a long list of conversations, at least some of which reveal how your target market is thinking about things related to your business.
For example, there’s a huge increase in remote workers. Let’s say I’m thinking of developing a tool that makes it easier to recruit contractors, and I want to learn more about what’s on community managers’ minds. You can search ‘social media’ and immediately see a list of questions about your product or business idea.
Here’s an example from late 2022, shortly after Elon Musk’s acquisition and changes to Twitter:
trapthecar.com
motormunch.com
theautospaces.com
theautomirror.com
trapthecar.com
motormunch.com
theautospaces.com
theautomirror.com
drivetheauto.com
drivetheauto.com
Well, with 305 upvotes and 22 replies, and counting, that certainly engaged people! Of course, that was at a time when Twitter was in great flux and people were uncertain about its direction, exactly the time that people would be asking questions.
However, that kind of concern can happen at any time in any industry.
trapthecar.com
motormunch.com
theautospaces.com
theautomirror.com
drivetheauto.com
When you’ve found an important topic to your potential audience, this could be a great potential blog topic to write about.
Huw sounds pretty knowledgeable, doesn’t he? Of course, I want to do my due diligence and make sure that he is a true authority in the world of tech.
trapthecar.com
motormunch.com
theautospaces.com
theautomirror.com
drivetheauto.com
The next step here would be checking Huw’s profile and reading some more of his answers and hearing about his credentials. In this case, it’s pretty clear that he knows his stuff..
If I think he is an authoritative source with writing skill, I could then decide to invite him to write a guest post on your blog. You can apply this process to all different types of guest blogging candidates.
Keyword Research
trapthecar.com
motormunch.com
theautospaces.com
theautomirror.com
drivetheauto.com
As Copyblogger points out in its free guide, keyword research isn’t just about SEO. “At its essence, it’s market research. It tells you what people are interested in and in what relative numbers,” and “it reveals the actual language people are using when they think about those topics, which provides you with insight on how to converse with them via your blog.”
If you’d like a specific example, turn to page 14 of their guide. It breaks down exactly how to:
Interpret keyword research to understand your niche
trapthecar.com
motormunch.com
theautospaces.com
theautomirror.com
drivetheauto.com
Identify which kind of business/product/service/blog would generate traffic or money
Determine what types of content would get the attention of your audience
In the meantime, here are some tips to help with your keyword analysis:
First, look at the big picture. Don’t get bogged down in the details of individual keywords. Instead, take a step back. What trends do you see? What are people searching for? What matters to them?
trapthecar.com
motormunch.com
theautospaces.com
theautomirror.com
drivetheauto.com
Assess keyword profitability. In a nutshell, keyword profitability measures how much money you can make from ranking for a particular keyword. Several factors go into calculating keyword profitability, including search volume, competition, and CPC (cost per click).
Pay attention to search intent. Searchers use keywords for different purposes, so paying attention to what people search for when using a particular keyword is essential. For example, do they want to buy something? Go somewhere? Or learn something? You can tell by the questions they ask:
trapthecar.com
motormunch.com
theautospaces.com
theautomirror.com
drivetheauto.com