Tips for do-it-yourselfers.
One thing I miss about working in a big agency is having access to a research department. Nothing helps you craft a powerful brand story better than real, honest-to-goodness customer insights. Of course, the budgets that solopreneurs and small branding firms usually have to work with are rarely ample enough to fund customized research. And while it’s always good to get out in the field yourself every now and then, barriers like access and time make this kind of mother-in-law research difficult to do well.
That’s why I found Will Blunt’s two-part article, Nine
Ways to Sharpen Your Online Customer Research to be so interesting. It offers
you a number of tips and tools for understanding your customer, many of which
are free. Though his primary focus is online behavior, the insights you pick up
will be useful regardless of the branding or communications effort you’re
working on.
For instance, if you’re interested in understanding some of the
challenges your customers are facing, check out some online question-and-answer
forums such as Quora, Yahoo Answers, Fluther, and Spring.me.
Do you think that keyword research is just about website
optimization? Well, as Blunt points out, it also gives you "valuable insights into the language your customers are using—and therefore your customers themselves." He also recommends using Quick Sprout to analyze the keywords your
competitors are using. It’s a great way to see what customer pain points
they’ve uncovered and are targeting.
Blunt
also provides useful advice for using the BuzzSumo search function, as well as Twitter Advanced
Search, LinkedIn Groups, and Google + Communities. He even offers some suggestions for paid
market research.
All
in all, a valuable read for anyone who’s ever wished they could just pick up
the phone and call their research department.
