5 Ways to get to know your market audience

11 Jan 16 1:58 am

5 Ways to get to know your market audience

If you don't understand your market audience, then you're stumbling around in the dark. If you don't know what they struggle with, how can you offer useful solutions? If you don't know what they get excited about, how can you create content they'll actually read? Why would they sign up to your mailing list if you don't offer anything they want?

Ultimately: If you don't know them, you'll have a hard time marketing to them.

This is important for your keyword research, the content you create, the incentive you use to encourage people to sign up to your mailing list... everything.

It all comes back to your market audience: Making your site the source that meets their wants and needs.

So how do you get to know them? Here are my top tips:

Tip #1: Pick 2-3 top forums in your niche, and check them out regularly.
It's overwhelming to try to do forum research all at once, not to mention inefficient, so don't.

Just pick the top forums and spend a little bit of time reading the newest or most popular threads each day. Do it on your phone when you're hiding from your kids in the bathroom, or when you're on a work break. Even if you do it just once on the weekend, that's better than nothing.

Things to look out for:
- What do people complain about?
- What have people found useful?
- Are there different ways of doing the same thing? (i.e. "I did [X]" then "Oh, that didn't work for me, I found [Y] more useful")
- Is there any jargon being used? Colloquialisms? Popular acronyms?

Make notes as you go. Once you know these things, you can find keywords that target their problems or desires, and create content that offers useful solutions using the language they're familiar with to make it feel like home.

Tip #2: Whenever you read a blog post in your niche, read the comments
You'll often read other posts when familiarizing yourself with a niche or doing research for your content. While you're there, look at the comments. This will tell you what was well received, and what was lacking.

Tip #3: Look at hashtags
Social media is HUGE, so search hashtags in your niche. What are people saying about your niche topic? It also pays to look at this at least once a week or so. You'll see trends as they happen on Twitter and Facebook.

Tip #4: Look at keyword volumes
It pays to look at keyword volumes, not specifically for SEO, but just to see what people are searching for the most. These are often unresolved issues or the most common queries in your niche.

Head to the Keyword Research module in AffiloTools here: https://tools.affilorama.com/keywords/research

Enter keyword ideas, from what you've found online and from your imagination, and see which ones are being searched for most. Don't forget to make use of the "Related keywords" tab to get some extra ideas.

The higher the search volume = The more people are searching it into Google

Are there common themes to the phrases that are searched for most? Can you see what questions people are asking most? Could you create a resource on your site that answers their question or fixes their problem? Yay for audience awareness!

Tip #5: Ask people questions
Go and ask questions directly:
- Start threads in the forums (you'll become an active member too which is useful)
- Ask people you know or work with who might be interested in your niche topic
- Ask students who study the topic in your city or area
- Ask professionals or experts in your niche - flick them a simple email

You're asking the same types of questions:
- What do people in this niche struggle with?
- What do they get passionate about?
- What things are tricky (i.e. What works for one person doesn't work for another)
- Are there any words or acronyms that are popular?

Let them give you the answers, and build interaction at the same time. Making relationships with your audience or experts in your niche like this is awesome.

So! Set aside some time, use the tips above to get to know your audience, and watch your site become more popular over time.

Let me know if you have any questions or extra suggestions below, I'd love to hear from you!