You have at your fingertips, probably 24 hours a day, access to asking questions, commenting, sharing content, and giving your opinions. The internet is a giant web waiting for you to mine it for information. You can find where your target market is talking and then settle in to listen. They’ll tell you everything you need to know in order to connect them to products and services they need.
Forums and Q&A Sites
Find the online forums and question-and-answer sites that are focused on your niche. You can use them to discover what people are talking about right now. For example, if you are a work-life balance coach, you can visit a work-life balance forum and see what people are discussing. If there’s a lot of discussion around work-life balance for working women in mid-life, you can create a report or course on that topic.
Visit a question and answer site such as Quora and notice what people are asking questions about. Answer a few questions in your niche and engage in conversations to see what information the audience is seeking.
Read threads that are relevant to your products or services and they’ll tell you exactly what people are looking for. You can search these sites for keywords and if you don’t find what you need, start your own thread asking for opinions. That’s what these sites are designed for and people will readily answer your queries.
Social Media Sites
On social media sites there is a lot of discussion and engagement on a wide variety of topics. You can use them to find out what’s trending and how people feel about it. When you visit these sites pay attention to what posts are getting “likes” and “shares.” When a post is getting a lot of people talking about it you know it’s a popular topic. You can look at your own page’s likes or what your target market likes on your competitors’ profiles.
The detailed profiles on social media sites make them ideal for market research. Read your customer’s profiles and find out what other interests they have. This is a great source of in-depth information such as what they think about current events, or how they use the products and services they buy.
Although marketing is now generally accepted on social media sites, you should still be subtle. Take a friendly and personal approach. Interact casually and be helpful. Your followers and friends will be more receptive of your marketing questions.
Each social media network offers unique ways to do market research. You should concentrate your time on the one your target market prefers. However, it’s a good idea to have a presence on all the major sites.
Have you used any of these tactics for target marketing research? What has worked best for you?
Leave a Reply