How To Do Market Research For Content Creators

Summary

This video script reveals the secrets to effective market research, guiding creators to develop compelling content that resonates with their audience. It simplifies market research into a six-question checklist—covering who, what, where, when, why, and how—which helps identify audience needs and preferences. The script also suggests leveraging best-selling books, Google Trends, and direct conversations for insights. It emphasizes the importance of understanding audience behaviors and motivations to create content that stands out and connects.

Takeaways

• 🔍 Market research is crucial for creating engaging content that meets audience needs.
• 📝 The six-question checklist (who, what, where, when, why, how) is a simple yet effective tool for conducting market research.
• 👥 Understanding your audience's 'miracles' (goals and desires) and 'miseries' (problems and frustrations) helps tailor content to their needs.
• 🌐 Knowing where your audience is active online is key for strategic content distribution.
• 🕒 Timing is important; consider life events and daily routines that might influence content consumption.
• 🤔 Delve into the 'why' behind audience motivations to understand the benefits they seek from your content.
• 📈 Google Trends is a valuable resource for gauging topic popularity and identifying trends over time.
• 📚 Best-selling books can serve as a rich source of market research by revealing popular topics and audience interests.
• 🗣️ Direct conversations with your audience can provide deep insights but require careful targeting and interpretation.
• 💡 Use the gathered market research to create content that is helpful, valuable, and desirable to your audience.

Q & A

What is the main purpose of market research according to the transcript?

The main purpose of market research is to gather information about consumers' needs and preferences to create better, more effective, and more engaging content that gives the audience exactly what they want.

What is the simple six-question market research checklist mentioned in the transcript?

The six-question market research checklist is who, what, where, when, why, and how. These questions help to identify the target market, their needs and desires, their online presence, life events affecting their behavior, motivations, and their preferred methods for achieving goals.

How can understanding 'miracles and miseries' help in content creation?

Understanding 'miracles and miseries' helps in content creation by identifying the audience's goals, dreams, problems, fears, and frustrations. Content can then be tailored to address these issues, moving the audience from their miseries towards their miracles.

Why is knowing where the audience is active online important for content creators?

Knowing where the audience is active online is important because it helps content creators to reach their audience where they are already spending time, increasing the chances of engagement and ensuring that content is distributed through the most effective channels.

How can life events influence content creation strategies?

Life events can influence content creation strategies by affecting audience behavior and needs. For example, getting married, having a baby, or changing jobs might make them more receptive to certain types of content at different times, which content creators should consider when planning their content.

What role do motivations play in understanding audience needs for content?

Motivations play a crucial role in understanding audience needs for content as they reveal the underlying reasons why someone would want to consume specific content. This insight helps creators produce content that aligns with the audience's desires and expectations.

Why are best-selling books considered a valuable resource for market research?

Best-selling books are considered valuable for market research because they reflect the interests and problems of a large audience. Their titles, descriptions, and reviews can provide insights into popular topics, audience concerns, and potential gaps in the market that content creators can address.

How can Google Trends assist content creators in their market research?

Google Trends assists content creators by showing the level of interest in specific topics over time and across different regions. It can reveal trends, seasonal patterns, and related topics, providing strategic insights to inform content creation and timing.

What are the two warnings given about talking to people for market research?

The two warnings are: 1) Ensure that you are talking only to your ideal audience, as their opinions are the most relevant to your content creation. 2) Be prepared to interpret and rephrase responses, as direct feedback may not always be in a format that is immediately useful for content strategy.

How should the data gathered from market research be utilized by content creators?

The data gathered from market research should be used to create helpful, valuable, and desirable content that resonates with the audience's needs, interests, and preferences, ensuring that the content is engaging and relevant to the target market.

Outlines

00:00

🔍 Mastering Market Research for Engaging Content

The speaker introduces the concept of market research as a fundamental step in creating compelling content that resonates with the audience's desires. They emphasize the importance of understanding the audience's 'who, what, where, when, why, and how' to tailor content effectively. The speaker suggests using tools like Google searches for social media demographics to identify where the audience is active online and to understand their behaviors and preferences at different life stages. The goal is to move the audience from their 'miseries' (problems) to their 'miracles' (goals and desires) through content that addresses their deeper needs and motivations.

05:02

📚 Leveraging Best-Selling Books and Google Trends for Market Insights

The speaker advocates for the use of best-selling books as a rich source of market research, suggesting that analyzing book titles, descriptions, and reviews on platforms like Amazon can reveal valuable insights into audience interests. They also highlight Google Trends as a strategic tool for gauging the popularity and seasonal trends of topics, as well as for discovering related topics and searches. The speaker concludes by emphasizing the power of direct conversations with the audience for obtaining in-depth understanding but warns against the pitfalls of including non-ideal audience feedback and the need for interpreting responses beyond their surface level.

🗣️ The Power and Pitfalls of Direct Audience Engagement

The speaker discusses the value of direct engagement with the audience, such as phone calls or video conferences, for gaining a deep understanding of their needs and problems. They stress the importance of focusing on the ideal audience and being cautious about the input from those outside this group. The speaker also advises on the need to interpret audience feedback carefully, looking beyond immediate responses to uncover the root causes of their issues. The final step is to apply this data to create content that is helpful, valuable, and desirable to the audience. The speaker ends with a call to action for viewers to engage with the video by liking, commenting, and subscribing for more marketing tips.

Keywords

💡Market Research

Market research refers to the systematic gathering and analyzing of data about consumers and their preferences. In the context of the video, it is presented as a crucial first step for content creators to understand their audience's needs and wants. The video emphasizes that market research is not as complicated as it sounds and can be simplified through a six-question checklist, which is a practical approach to this concept.

💡Audience Engagement

Audience engagement pertains to the level of interaction and interest that an audience shows towards a creator's content. The video suggests that understanding the audience's 'miracles and miseries' is key to creating engaging content. This involves knowing their goals, dreams, pains, and problems, and using this knowledge to craft content that resonates with them.

💡Content Creation

Content creation is the process of producing material intended for an audience, such as articles, videos, or social media posts. The video stresses that effective content creation is rooted in market research, ensuring that the content meets the audience's needs and preferences. It is about moving the audience from their 'miseries' (problems) towards their 'miracles' (goals and desires).

💡Social Media Demographics

Social media demographics involve understanding the characteristics of different social media platforms' user bases. The video highlights the importance of knowing where the target audience is active online to ensure that content is distributed on the right platforms. This is exemplified by the suggestion to use Google searches to find out which social media platforms are popular among certain demographics.

💡Life Events

Life events are significant occurrences in an individual's life that can influence their behavior and needs. The video mentions using life events such as getting a new job, having a baby, or moving to a new city to understand when and how to engage with the audience. This helps in timing content to be more relevant to the audience's current circumstances.

💡Drives and Motivations

Drives and motivations are the underlying reasons that prompt individuals to take action or have certain preferences. The video suggests that understanding these deeper psychological factors is essential for creating content that appeals to the audience. It involves asking why the audience seeks certain benefits and why those benefits are important to them.

💡Best-Selling Books

Best-selling books are publications that have been highly popular and sold well. The video recommends using best-selling books as a source for market research, as they can provide insights into trending topics and audience interests. Titles, descriptions, and reviews of these books can offer valuable data on what the audience is looking for.

💡Google Trends

Google Trends is a tool that analyzes the popularity of search terms over time by region and other factors. The video suggests using Google Trends for strategic market research to understand the level of interest in a topic, its growth or decline in popularity, and its seasonal trends. This tool can also suggest related topics and searches, providing a broader perspective on audience interests.

💡Direct Conversation

Direct conversation refers to personal interactions with individuals, allowing for a deeper understanding of their needs and preferences. The video emphasizes the value of talking to the ideal audience to gain insights that may not be apparent through other research methods. However, it warns against including opinions from those outside the target audience and the need to interpret responses carefully.

💡Content Strategy

Content strategy is the planning and implementation of content creation and distribution to achieve specific goals. The video outlines a content strategy that involves understanding audience needs through market research and then creating content that addresses those needs. It suggests using the insights gained to create content that is helpful, valuable, and desirable to the audience.

Highlights

Market research is essential for creating effective and engaging content that meets audience needs.

Market research defined as gathering information about consumers' needs and preferences.

A simple six-question market research checklist: who, what, where, when, why, and how.

Identify your core and ideal audience by understanding who is actually engaging with your content.

Understand your audience's 'miracles' (wants, goals, dreams) and 'miseries' (pains, problems, fears).

Determine where your audience is active online to ensure content reaches them effectively.

Use 'when' to identify life events that may influence audience behavior and content receptivity.

Explore deeper motivations behind why your audience wants to consume your content.

Investigate how your audience has tried to achieve their goals and what approaches they prefer.

Best-selling books on Amazon or Barnes and Noble can serve as a rich source for market research.

Book titles, descriptions, and reviews provide insights into audience interests and needs.

Google Trends offers a strategic view of topic popularity and trends over time and geography.

Direct conversations with your audience can provide powerful insights but require careful targeting and interpretation.

Ensure that audience feedback is from your ideal audience to avoid misleading data.

Rephrase questions and ask follow-ups to uncover the root causes of audience problems.

Use market research data to create content that is helpful, valuable, and desirable to your audience.

Transcripts

Today, I'm going to show you the secret

to doing market research the right way,

which is going to help you create better, more effective,

and more engaging content

by giving your audience exactly what they want.

It's a big promise to make, I know,

but once you see how this all works,

you'll never go back to making content the old way again.

It all starts by, first, going over,

"What exactly is market research anyway?"

Well, the official definition is

that market research is the action or activity

of gathering information about consumers' needs and preferences.

But that makes it sound way more complicated than it actually is.

But what if you could get access

to the world's best market research instantly?

Well, my friend, I have good news because this secret, I speak of

isn't really that much of a secret at all.

It's just that most creators don't spend the time to look into it.

First, I'm going to give you a checklist to work with,

and then I'll show you where to go to put all of this into action.

A simple six-question market research checklist

I use to help keep me on track

is the who, what, where, when, why, and how?

At each stage, I'm asking who is my market,

not just who I think they are,

but who the people are that are actually engaging with me,

consuming my content,

and who make up my core and ideal audience?

Next, I ask, what are their miracles and miseries?

Their miracles-- all of their wants and goals and dreams and desires,

and their miseries-- all of their pains and problems

and fears and frustrations.

It's my content's job to help move them away

from their miseries and towards their miracles.

Then I ask where,

as in where are they present and active online?

Where do they spend their time reading and watching

and socializing and engaging?

A quick Google search for a term like Social Media Demographics

will show you what kind of people

are using what social media platforms,

which is going to give you a huge advantage over your competitors,

and will make sure you're creating content in the right places.

Then I ask when,

which helps keep me focused on my audience.

I try to see if I can find any life events

that may prompt a change in their behavior,

such as getting a new job or having a baby

or getting married or divorced, graduating or moving to a new city.

Not to mention what's going on in their lives

that may make them more open and receptive

to content at different times of the day

or week or month or even year.

For example, someone working a nine-to-five job

has a very different schedule than, say, a work-from-home entrepreneur

or a stay-at-home parent.

All of these are factors that need to be considered.

After the when, I think of why.

This is where I'll look at the deeper drives and motivations

behind why someone would want to consume the content I'm creating,

and ask questions like what are the benefits

they're hoping to get out of this?

And why are these benefits important to them?

And then, lastly, we have how,

as in how do they want to achieve their goals,

and how have they tried to do it before?

For example, if someone wants to lose weight,

do they want to do it through diet, training,

or are they looking for a magic pill?

And if they've tried and failed before, how did they try,

and what did they like or not like about those approaches?

Now, I appreciate this is a lot to think about,

especially if this is your first time working through something like this,

but it's things like this

that really separate the amateur creators from the pros,

and can mean the difference between content that connects

and content that gets ignored.

Now that we've got that covered, next, we need to go over

some of the best free-market research platforms

available to you as a creator today.

So let's start with best-selling books.

What? Best-selling books?

Yeah, you heard me right.

Places like Amazon or Barnes and Noble

are one of the fastest and easiest places

to get ideas and inspiration and do market research.

Books, and, specifically, their titles and descriptions,

are a goldmine for what words and topics and problems

people have and are interested in.

After all, compared to, say, something

like a quick social media post or a story,

which could take all of 10 seconds to create and post,

a book, especially a decent one with lots of good ratings,

probably took months, if not years, to make.

So the odds are good that a little bit of effort

went into crafting an appealing title and tagline

and description for it,

not to mention the chapter of contents

also contains smaller hints and clues

about what their target audience is interested in.

Look up books that cover the same topic as your niche,

and see what the titles are, how many reviews they have,

and what the reviews have to say.

The titles will tell you what people want to read about,

assuming the author did some basic research themselves.

The number of reviews will show you how many people care

about the topic enough to post a review,

and the content in the reviews will uncover

even more golden nuggets about topics or issues

that were addressed well or insufficiently addressed in the book,

leaving the door wide open for you to talk about it

and create content on those topics.

Google Trends is another great place for market research and ideas,

especially at a really high, 30,000-foot strategic level.

All you need to do here is simply enter a search term or topic,

and you'll be able to see the level of interest this topic has.

You can break it down further by looking at different countries,

different states and different timelines.

And you can see if your topic is growing in popularity,

decreasing in popularity or staying the same.

Not to mention, you can also track if your topic is seasonal.

For example, snowboarding is obviously more popular in the winter months,

and gardening in the spring and summer months.

Google Trends will also suggest related topics and related searches

to give you even more data and inspiration.

This next suggestion is one of the most powerful of all,

but it does come with a few warnings.

First, when it comes to market research,

nothing beats talking to people and hearing their words,

seeing their facial expressions and body language, if you can,

and trying to get a feel for their wants and needs,

as well as their problems and frustrations.

So if you have the chance to talk to someone,

pick up the phone or videoconference with them,

this is a powerful tool to get right to the heart

of what matters, what doesn't.

But there are two warnings here that can lead you seriously astray.

First, you want to make sure

that you're talking to only your ideal audience,

the people that you are and want to be making content for.

Nobody else gets a vote

or gets to say what they like or don't like.

If you're not making stuff for them,

their opinion simply doesn't matter.

Next, of the people you do talk to,

you may have to read between the lines a little bit.

In other words,

what they say is probably not going to come out

in a perfectly formatted search engine-friendly response.

You're going to need to rephrase your questions,

ask follow-ups,

and try to really get to the cause of their problems,

not just the superficial symptoms.

Then, once you have this data,

the next step is to use it

to create helpful, valuable, and desirable content

that your audience can't get enough of.

All right. Thanks so much for watching.

If you enjoyed the video,

make sure to hit the like button and say "Hi" in the comments below.

Of course, subscribe for more tips and helpful advice

on marketing yourself as a creator.

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