This post will outline some of the ways you can find out more about your target customer by researching what their needs and desires are so that you can create better marketing and products for them.

1 – Facebook Audience Insights

This is free to use if you create a facebook Ad account. You don’t actually have to run ads to get the insights you need. You can find out things like pages liked, brands followed, relationship status and more

2 – Google Trends

This is a great free tool to track search patterns or trends. You can use it to see how search terms are performing over a period of time. You can see the geographical regions that the searches are mostly coming from, you can tell what time of year a particular item is most on people’s minds and other insights such as overlapping searches.

3 – Facebook Groups

You can either start your own group and build it up or access any of the groups that’s already operating in your niche. From there you could just lurk and observe the conversations, look out for the ones that mention problems that you could solve. On the other hand you could become active and build relationships with the group in order to learn more about them.

4 – Amazon Reviews 

You can use amazon by looking at the reviews of existing products. Look out for common themes that come up as a pain point.

5 – Social Media Comments

This includes facebook, instagram, linkedIn or any other social media site you are part of. You can come through comments and gather useful intel on around a specific industry, niche or a product.

6 – Online Forums

I love old forums as they are simple but effective. You can find all kinds of forums in various niches around the internet where you can either read the questions and answers, or ask you own and trigger useful responses that will help you understand your target customer.

7 – Survey Your Existing Customers or Audience

It is very easy to overlook them and try to chase new customers, but these are the best people to ask about what they actually want. They will tell you if you make it clear that you are looking to improve what you offer and help them even more. You can run surveys, polls or even interview them live.

There you have it. Go out there and get the information. But most of all, you have to listen to what they actually want, and pay attention to the language they use so that you can use it back to them. It creates a much better connection and improves conversions.