Hey besties,
I realize I haven't created a blog post yet that introduces who I am and why I'm here. I'll get to that at some point, but for now, just know that I was once a shy, timid baby marketer. I had some pretty incredible managers back in my agency days that really helped shape who I am as a marketer today.
I wanted to start this blog as a way to share all of my trials & tribulations, but also my real successes over the past 8+ years that I've been in the digital marketing space. For starters, this blog post will be focused around the first place you want to start when figuring out your marketing strategy: YOUR AUDIENCE.
I can't stress this enough. If you don't know who your audience is, what makes them tick (vs. ick), where you can find them online, you'll find your results to be sub-bar, if not non-existent.
I'm going to be breaking down some of my favorite FREE audience research tools that can help you get started today, including Google Trends, Google Alerts, Answer the Public, Reddit, and more.
What are Audience Research Tools?
Audience research tools are resources and platforms that provide marketers with valuable insights into the characteristics, behaviors, preferences, and demographics of their target audience.
These tools enable marketers to gather data-driven information about the people they aim to reach, allowing for a more informed and strategic approach to marketing campaigns.
Before creating a marketing plan, it is crucial for marketers to conduct thorough audience research, and here's why:
1. Deep Audience Understanding: Audience research tools provide essential insights into demographics, behaviors, and preferences, laying the foundation for effective marketing strategies.
2. Tailored Messaging and Content: Starting with audience research enables marketers to customize messages and content, ensuring they resonate with the target audience.
3. Optimized Marketing Approach: By identifying the most effective channels and staying updated on audience trends, marketers can optimize their marketing plan for better engagement and competitiveness.
Free Audience Research Tools to Get Started:
First up, let's start with FREE tools that every marketer can use to get started, whether you're on a budget or not. Each listed tool is something that I use in my digital marketing tool belt on a DAILY basis across my clients.
Each tool will include a basic overview, benefit's, how to use, and certain considerations to keep in mind to get the most out of each tool.
1. Google Alerts:
- Overview: Google Alerts is a versatile tool that allows you to monitor the web for specific keywords or phrases.
- Benefits: Stay informed about industry trends, track mentions of your brand, and keep an eye on your competitors.
- How to Use: Set up alerts for relevant keywords related to your business and receive email notifications whenever those keywords are mentioned online.
For example, let's say you own a beauty business and one of your main competitors is "Sephora". You can set up an alert to receive email notifications when there is any mention of Sephora in the news. Keeping track of what your competitors are doing can help you identify trends, understand competitors strategies that you can leverage, and identify gaps / opportunities for your own brand.
You can even set specific parameters for how often you'd like to receive updates, from what sources, regions, etc.
2. Google Trends:
- Overview: Google Trends allows you to explore the popularity of search queries over time and across different regions.
- Benefits: Understand the popularity of specific topics, identify seasonal trends, and discover what your audience is searching for.
- How to Use: Enter relevant keywords and explore the trend data to inform your content creation and marketing campaigns based on current interests.
For example, let's say you own a winery and you're trying to figure out when you should be prioritizing marketing campaigns to drive more wine sales.
Using Google Trends, consumer interest for wine products steadily increases into November & December (i.e. the holiday season).
This is a good indicator that you should be investing more into your campaigns to bring in the largest return on investment leading up to the holiday months.
3. Answer The Public:
- Overview: Answer The Public is a unique tool that visualizes search queries and questions people ask on the internet based on a specific keyword.
- Benefits: Gain insights into the questions your audience is asking, identify content gaps, and create valuable, targeted content.
- How to Use: Enter a keyword related to your industry, and the tool will generate a visual map of questions people commonly ask, helping you tailor your content to meet their needs. Filter for "Google Search", "YouTube" & "Bing" to see how users are searching for your keyword differently across the web.
For example, if you're looking to create content around a certain niche such as "Facebook ads", type this keyword into Answer the Public to find highly searched questions, prepositions, and comparisons about this topic. Easily map out your blog and social content using this free data.
Note: You're only allowed 3 free searches a day, so use them wisely! 1-2 keywords is suggested for optimal results.
4. Reddit (+ Quora):
- Overview: Social forums are a vast online community with discussions on virtually every topic imaginable.
- Benefits: Explore niche communities relevant to your industry, monitor discussions, and gain insights into the unfiltered opinions of your target audience.
- How to Use: Join relevant subreddits, participate in discussions, and pay attention to the community's sentiments to understand your audience on a more personal level.
Reddit (+ Quora) are both incredible forum communities to get real-time insight into what your audience's pain points are. This wealth of information can help you shape your product or service around these pain points.
Quick tip - type in "Reddit: [your keyword, question, brand]" into Google or your preferred search engine to find a list of all sub-reddits / forums discussing your keyword, questions, brand. You can virtually do this with ANY website to find quick information.
4. SparkToro:
- Overview: SparkToro is a powerful audience intelligence tool that helps you understand your audience's behavior, preferences, and the influencers they follow.
- Benefits: Identify trends, discover influential voices in your industry, and refine your marketing strategy based on real audience data.
- How to Use: Enter a topic or a competitor's social account or website, and SparkToro will provide insights into the audience's interests, websites they visit, and social accounts they follow.
For example, if your audience frequently talks about "Facebook ads", type in this keyword to find data about additional topics they talk about online, who your audience follows, visits and engages-with, and who your audience watches, listens-to, and reads.
How can you translate this data into a marketing plan? See below:
- Additional topics they talk about online >> Content creation plan with relevant hashtags.
- Who your audience follows, visits and engages-with >> Create a PR list for potential guest blogs & content partnerships.
- Who your audience watches, listens-to & reads >> Create advertising campaigns that target these websites.
Note: The free version allows 20 searches/month with a list of sampled results only. You can still find great nuggets of audience data with the sampled results if you know where to look.
In Conclusion:
In conclusion, the discussed free audience research tools—Google Alerts, Google Trends, Answer The Public, Reddit (+Quora), and SparkToro—provide marketers with invaluable insights to inform and enhance their marketing strategies.- Google Alerts: Enables real-time monitoring of online mentions, keeping you informed about industry trends, competitor activities, and brand mentions.
- Google Trends: Provides data on the popularity of search queries, helping marketers understand trending topics, seasonal patterns, and shifts in user interests.
- Answer The Public: Visualizes user queries related to a specific keyword, aiding in content creation by addressing the questions and concerns of the target audience.
- Reddit: Offers a vast online community where marketers can observe unfiltered discussions, gain insights into audience sentiments, and engage with niche communities.
- SparkToro: Offers audience intelligence, helping marketers understand their audience's behaviors, preferences, and influencers, guiding strategic decisions for targeted and effective marketing.
Together, these tools empower marketers to stay ahead of industry trends, refine their messaging, optimize marketing channels, and gain a competitive edge by understanding and connecting with their audience on a deeper level. Incorporating insights from these tools into a comprehensive audience research strategy is essential for creating impactful and successful marketing campaigns.
Now, go forth besties, and get to know your audience like you've never done before. Cheers.