{"id":803,"date":"2022-01-14T14:31:34","date_gmt":"2022-01-14T14:31:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/01\/14\/3-tips-to-research-not-market-to-your-end-users\/"},"modified":"2022-01-14T14:31:34","modified_gmt":"2022-01-14T14:31:34","slug":"3-tips-to-research-not-market-to-your-end-users","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/01\/14\/3-tips-to-research-not-market-to-your-end-users\/","title":{"rendered":"3 tips to research (NOT market to) your end users"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Tom Swanson<\/a>, Engagement Manager at Heinz Marketing<\/em><\/p>\n

Knowledge is power, or so the saying goes. In marketing, this is true in a literal sense, as our grasp of audiences and individuals is the key to reaching them. \u00a0As buyer behavior changes, we need to not only understand our buyers now, we need to know what shifts are coming and how to adapt. \u00a0We need a \u201cfinger on the pulse\u201d of their behavior and how they are engaging.\u00a0 I am just full of those old sayings today.<\/p>\n

Getting a deep understanding of how buyers want to buy is key, but it is not always clear how to do this.\u00a0 In fact, as with most things in marketing, it is complicated by all of the biological parts (read: human elements).\u00a0 People have preferences in how they want to engage, and those are personal.\u00a0 Some channels will work better at scale than others, but that one enterprise buyer you are targeting might be in a niche channel and not see your carefully written social blasts.<\/p>\n

So how do you find folks?\u00a0 What is the key to conducting research to inform a strategy that needs to scale, but also needs to reach people at an individual level?\u00a0 The short answer is time and an open mind, but you are here for specific tips, so let\u2019s get into it.<\/p>\n

Before we go any further, though, read this crucial disclaimer: this post is not to give ideas for where to market. Many of these spaces are communities that are by the end users and for the end users.\u00a0 You are welcome to lurk, but if you try to market, you will be met with backlash. \u00a0People come to these places to engage with others in their field, respect that.<\/p>\n

Tip 1: Reddit can be serious business<\/h3>\n

Personally, I hate Reddit.\u00a0 I hate how addictive it is and how easily it sucks away hours of life.\u00a0 I hate that I am susceptible to the ongoing dopamine hits that it promises, just to see another video of ferrets rolling around in the sand (anybody see that this week? OMG!).<\/p>\n

However, Reddit is not just an image sharing site, it is a forum.\u00a0 People go on there to rant about problems they have, and the number of niche subreddits is staggering.\u00a0 If you can avoid getting pulled into one of the myriad time wasters, you can find some real great stuff.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s say you are trying to market some sales tech solution, you might go and check out https:\/\/reddit.com\/r\/sales<\/a> (172K members).\u00a0 In there, you might search for \u201crant\u201d to find threads of people expressing real problems they are facing today. \u00a0On top of that, scrolling through the comments will show you people experience similar problems, solutions being offered, and complaints with existing sales tech today.<\/p>\n

To give you a sense of the options available on Reddit, here are some other niche subreddits that are interesting:<\/p>\n

The value of community is undeniable.\u00a0 It is not that these are on Reddit that makes them popular, it is that they are communities that consistently create value for the users.\u00a0 Sometimes this is raw, angry catharsis, but a lot of the time it is identity validation and commiseration.\u00a0 Either way, both are valuable for marketers to know about when crafting messaging that is meaningful and reflects the true needs of the end user.\u00a0 Get on it.<\/p>\n

Tip 2: Demand is where the complaints are<\/h3>\n

\"Disappointed<\/a><\/p>\n

Complaints are a marketer\u2019s best friend.\u00a0 Honestly, this is something of a drilldown of the above tip about Reddit, but it warrants repeating because it is crucial.\u00a0 You need to know the problems your target market faces each day.\u00a0 Product-market fit depends on them, your GTM strategy is fueled by them, your messaging is defined by them, and so forth.\u00a0 Demand is where the complaints are.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Not to mention that when people complain, they show you how they really communicate.<\/p>\n

There just is no end to the great insight you can pull from real people commiserating with one another.\u00a0 These spaces are a goldmine for understanding your audience.\u00a0 Don\u2019t be dissuaded by funny formats, this is how your audience communicates, you would do well to not get haughty about it.\u00a0 It is also just fun to browse, but let\u2019s not get distracted like I have while writing this post.\u00a0 The more you can embrace the formats, without over-indexing and being too \u201cHello, fellow kids\u201d, the better your messaging will perform.<\/p>\n

An excellent example of this comes from my experience in the Advertising Operations world.\u00a0 It is a high-stress role, and people need a place to complain.\u00a0 So, during my time in the space 10 years ago, we went to https:\/\/happensinadops.com\/<\/a> (language warning, but if you aren\u2019t ready for swearing then this tip might not be for you), the very best place to go to see the challenges of AdOps work, clearly outlined in meme format.\u00a0 It really was one of the best sites of its kind, even though it is now rarely updated.<\/p>\n

If you can look past the memes and frustration, what is there are real issues people are facing each day.\u00a0 You owe it to yourself and your product team to find these complaints and understand them.\u00a0 Bring them into your messaging.<\/p>\n

One note for this point: these places change often.\u00a0 They are memes by nature and are usually run by volunteers, thus they tend to rise and fall quickly.\u00a0 As much as I love HappensinAdOps, i recognize that the young people of the AdOps world have moved on to TikTok, Discord, and Slack.\u00a0 If you are tapped into your target audience, and have good relationships with your buyers, they can generally point you in the right direction.<\/p>\n

Tip 3: Comments > Original Posts<\/h3>\n

\"Women<\/a><\/p>\n

Are you going onto forums, communities, and advice sites and just pulling posts?\u00a0 If so, you are absolutely doing it wrong.\u00a0 It is easy to get hung up on the original post, but the comments are where the real value is.\u00a0 If the comments go deeper than those people who just say \u201cThis!\u201d (seriously, who are these people?), then you are seeing something that resonates and drives a person to share their own experience.\u00a0 That means this has weight and is worth exploring.<\/p>\n

More importantly, though, the comments are where you will find people explaining their use-cases.\u00a0 Whether you are on LinkedIn, Reddit, or my beloved HappensinAdops, the comments are full of interesting niche cases where folks give you a direct eye into their true needs.\u00a0 Depending on the size of the audience and the niche you are targeting, you can spend essentially infinite time diving in.<\/p>\n

Comments are also excellent sources of powerful, qualitative data that can inform strategies and make great additions to slide decks.\u00a0 This stuff is all out there, for free, if you go and find it.<\/p>\n

Finally, comments are often offering answers to problems, suggestions for things to try, and similar problems from other fields.\u00a0 If you go deeper into comment threads, you will even find reactions to solutions and people sharing how a solution went for them.\u00a0 Bingo.<\/p>\n

To demonstrate this, here is a great rant thread from the solutions engineer subreddit linked above: https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/salesengineers\/comments\/plkc6p\/se_rant_thread\/<\/a>.\u00a0 It was easy to find, I just searched \u201crant\u201d in the subreddit search bar.\u00a0 Put yourself in the shoes of someone trying to research this target market, and you can pretty quickly see the value.\u00a0 These are real use cases, complaints in real time, laid out in comments.<\/p>\n

Here is another one in the same subreddit: https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/salesengineers\/comments\/ply0tz\/ae_rants\/<\/a>.\u00a0 The top comment thread in this one, started by user NetJnkie, is a conversation between SEs about relationships with their AEs.\u00a0 Gold, all of it.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n

Everyone has different places they go to communicate about their job, but if you can find and respect these, they are a real opportunity for you to get an understanding of your buyers.\u00a0 People want to be heard and understood.\u00a0 If you can dive into the huge amount of qualitative data that people put out there, you can connect your product to their problems in meaningful ways.<\/p>\n

So, next time you are doing research into your users, take a step back from the industry reports, market research, and \u201cstate of\u201d whitepapers, and dive into what real people are saying.\u00a0 You need all of these tools to really understand who your end users are at both a quantitative AND qualitative level.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n