Surveying Your Audience & How To Do Market Research Calls
Understanding what your audience need and want from you
You know who holds the key to the decisions you need to make in your business?
YOUR AUDIENCE
They hold the keys to making decisions around basically everything - content, funnels, copy, products and services. The LOT!
About 18-months ago I did some deep dive research on my audience for a business pivot and course I had planned.
It. Was. Gold.
It was so golden that I’m currently running some research calls again.
So let me tell you eeeeverything I’ve learned about audience research to date…
Set your objectives
(yeah I know, yawn… but this will make your audience research all the more powerful)
Before you ask your audience ANYTHING, you need to get clear on the objectives of this operation.
What do you actually want to know?
Are you looking to get their feedback on an idea you’ve had for a course or service?
Do you want to see how clear your brand messaging is to your audience and up-level it?
Do you want to know what they are struggling with, and what their goals are within the niche you help people with, so you can come up with a never ending bank of content ideas?
Do you want to know what kind of language they use so you can tweak your sales copy?
Because, yes, it would be great to sit with your audience alllll day long and ask them all sorts of questions - but… you don’t have the time for that, and neither do they.
You need an objective, not a hypothesis
Be careful to set a genuine objective - rather than trying to ‘prove a hypothesis’ Eg:
Objective: I want to understand the most common wants, needs and goals of my ideal audience so I can create a bank of content ideas and refine my service.
Hypothesis: I think my audience need a programme that helps them do X - let’s see if they agree with me.
I definitely went into my research 18-months ago with a hypothesis. The problem with that is that you’re not as open minded to what your audience realllly need your help with. You end up looking out for the clues that prove you’ve got a great idea, rather than listening to the subtle comments that reveal how you can best help your people.
Pick your audience research format
In my research I did a combination of, sending a survey to my mailing list, asking questions in my Instagram stories and running market research zoom calls.
They all served a different purpose, but together they made for a powerful formula of audience insight gold. Here’s the lowdown on all three.
1: Ask the Audience - in your Instagram stories
The simplest and quickest way to get some feedback or ideas from your audience is to ask them questions in your Instagram stories.
This is a great way to get an indication of how your audience are feeling. It’s not the most high-qual research going but it’s enough to give you a taster of where they’re at - EG:
How are you feeling about your reach on Instagram right now [using the slider sticker]
Pop quiz on visibility - Q: When I think about going live I - A: Get excited, I LOVE going live B: get a churn in my stomach but I know I need to get on and do it C: Feel physically sick - there’s no way I’m doing it [using the quiz sticker]
Which camp are you in: A: Tea person B: Coffee person [using the poll sticker]
Ask me anything about [your niche] [using the question sticker]
2: Audience surveys
You mentioned sending a survey out to your mailing list. Surveys are GREAT! This is where you can get the *volume* of responses that can confirm what you’re starting to see in your Instagram story polls or your market research calls (we’ll get onto those).
But here’s the BIG question though - why should your people answer your survey?
Why should they give you their time and their mental ~THINKING~ energy? No joke. That is a BIG ask. We all have decision fatigue and we are all time-poor.
Offer them an incentive to answer your survey.
Enter them into a prize draw for an hour session with you, free access to your course or a juicy hamper of lovely things anyone on your list would love to drop through their letterbox.
And keep your survey short and sweet - 7-10 question absolute max! I find Typeform or google surveys is best for surveys.
3: Market Research Calls - The creme-de-la-creme of audience research
Research calls take a bit more prep, organisation and time BUT they’re so worth it because not only will this help you understand how you can help and serve your people better, it will also give you some juicy intel into the type of words and phrases your people use. Words that you can put directly into your sales copy to instantly connect with your people.
When I’ve run research calls in the past the format has always been - we jump on a call, I ask 6 or 7 questions which we chat around for about 20-minutes. Then, in return I give them 20-minutes of free coaching.
It’s a deal that most people find irresistible. So my advice is - be selective about WHO you interview.
Rather than putting a shoutout in your weekly email to ask who’s up for doing a research call, in return for *juicy incentive* (like I did the first I ran research calls and got a ton of responses to filter through). Identify a handful of people who are your dream clients/ customers and contact them directly with your research-call-with-tempting-incentive offer.
You only need between 5-10 research calls to get a really full picture of your ideal audience. If that sounds too time-intensive, run your research as a group call.
What questions should you ask your audience?
Qual & Quant
Ask a mixture of quantitative (how many headshot sessions have you had before) and qualitative questions (how do you feel about having headshots taken?).
This gives you a good mix of tangible numbers, and deeper insights into how your audience feel/ talk/ behave etc.
Ask open questions
What, where, how are generally good question starters for your research. By asking open questions you’ll get them talking and from those more detailed answers (than a yes/no answer) there will be hidden gold.
Don’t rely on asking your audience what they WANT
What your audience WANT and NEED are often two different things. Let’s take the example of my course Make a Plan Make it Happen (which, yes, it’s on my list to give a revamp).
What people tend to WANT is the planning part - tell me how to make a plan, that is the solution to my problem of never getting this project off the ground. But actually, what they NEED is the Make it Happen part that helps them overcome procrastination, perfectionism, self sabotage etc - because that’s really what’s reallly keeping them stuck.
The chances are, it’s the same for your audience. So, in your research create some questions that will help you get to the bottom of what they WANT *and* what they really NEED.
Finally, some question prompts to help you get started:
Out of 10 how confident do you feel about XYZ
It would be great to know a bit more about XYZ. Could you tell me a little about that?
What challenges & barriers are stopping you from XYZ
What support do you need to help you XYZ? And how would you like that support delivered?
What’s the number one thing you need help with right now?
If I say XYZ, what does that bring to mind for you?
How many XYZs have you got [1-10] 10-50] [50-100]
Complete the sentence - XYZ makes me feel…
What’s stopping you from XYZ?
In a year’s time, where do you want to be/ How do you want to feel about X?
One question NOT to ask your audience
Do you think X is a good price? Would you want to buy this product?
Pricing is a decision that sits best with you. You know what your costs are, what your income goals are and what you need to be charging to feel GOOD (and maybe a maybe a little *toe-dippy* outside of your comfort zone) about delivering your services/ products.
Nuance window (Totally stole this concept from You're Dead To Me)
As much as I said up top ^^ that your audience hold the keys to all the decisions you need to make in your business - they don’t. Not EVERY decision.
It’s REALLY important that you factor in what YOU want to do in your business, and what YOUR version of freedom and success looks like.
If your audience collectively agree that they all want you to run in-person workshops all over the land… but that’s your idea of hell - don’t do it!
If your audience say they want you to offer your brilliant work for free, or run a 6-month course for £25… don’t do it!
If your audience say they want you to run a self-led online course, but your heart is in groups and communities - don’t do it.
There’s always got to be that consideration about what YOU want to do - and that’s the final non-negotiable gatekeeper to what ideas you run with, and which you don’t.
Because, you're building a Freedom Friendly Business here!
Wanna tuck this in your pocket for when you’re doing your audience research? Bookmark it & pin it for later:
