Market research for copywriting and product development

Market Research For
Copywriting And Product
Development
Vanessa Blais presents…
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In the beginning, you have the initial brainwave, the
brilliant idea for a product or service that you think
will sell well in the marketplace.
However, at this stage, it is nothing more than a notion
or an idea. After this, a period of intense market
research must always follow to establish whether
your supposition about making money is realistic or
not.
Often times, the idea occurred because you
encountered a problem or difficulty for which you
sought a solution where no solution already exists.
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Market Research For Copywriting And Product
Development
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Audience Immersion
Whether you're writing your copy yourself, or if
you're hiring an experienced copywriter, one
or both of you (preferably both) should know
who the targeted demographic is, and even
more importantly, how they talk.
You need to speak their ‘language,’ and that
means, know their jargon.
You need to prove that you know what their
pain feels like.
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Market Research For Copywriting And Product Development
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Places To Look
Forums
Blogs
Podcasts
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Notes To Take
***Url’s (To Bookmark)
Stickies
Categories
Comments
Q & A pages
FAQ pages
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Power Tip
Make use of Quantcast and Alexa
Check each site with Quantcast (www.quantcast.com) to find the demographics of
your target market… male, female, age, education level, income level etc.
Quantcast will also show you other sites that share the same demographic audience.
Alexa (www.alexa.com) is known for providing traffic statistics for websites, but they
also include demographics, and other sites with the same demographics… and if
they’re ranking on Alexa, then those sites have at least some traffic. The most
trafficked sites that meet those demographics will be listed here.
Which not only means more research for you to dig into, but also, gives you possible
opportunities for driving traffic to your site as well.
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Immersion
Study the categories on forums. If they subject has a whole
subforum or category on it, that means it’s important.
Even if it’s not active…
Example: Forms.
There probably won’t be a lot of activity on a ‘forms’ sub-forum of a
credit repair site or a real estate site. But it’s still important enough
to have a category…
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Immersion
There probably won’t be a lot of activity on a
‘forms’ subforum of a credit repair site or a
real estate site. But it’s still important enough
to have a category…
*** It’s still important to read the comments! This could be one
way to find your USP. So don’t skip it!
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These are the main categories on a popular credit
repair forum
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Although this particular forum doesn’t have
many sub forums, it has quite a few ‘Sticky’
posts in the forums and subforums that it
does have
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Immersion
Example: Forms.
If there are questions about forms, or requests
for forms that aren’t included- again this is
something that you if you can, you should
address both in your product, and in your
copy.
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Immersion
• Pay close attention to all site’s content and social media. Notice if any social media is dedicated
to one specific category or sub category of their market. Look for patterns…
Example: Does the site you’re looking at use it’s YouTube channel specifically to deliver content on
paying off debt? Or negotiating debt? Perhaps their ‘video’ channel on YouTube is dedicated to
discussing strategies on deleting unpaid debt from credit reports.
Also… note if the YouTube channel is ‘popular.’ Does it have a lot of subscribers? Does it have a lot
of comments? Are many of the comments actual ‘discussions’ between ‘core’ groups of people
that you recognize from their robust interaction with the other viewers? (That’s a strong
community and it tells you that this is a popular topic with the credit repair crowd.)
BONUS- Influencers
When you find members of the forum, and the blog, and the YouTube channel, offering
themselves as ‘part of the community’ in all of the communities’ areas, you’ve found a
‘power influencer.’
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Immersion
You can find “Power Influencers” on any site that has ‘social’ aspects, such as
forums, or even blogs (regular blog commenters make for strong communities)
 Blogs
 Podcasts
 YouTube
 Facebook
 Twitter
Click Here For The Epic List of Market Research Resources
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Don’t Forget To Use The “SEARCH”
function.
You want to immerse yourself in the ‘culture’ of the market.
Do they have their own slang, or jargon? What are their acronyms?
You want to ‘absorb’ all that you can about this group of people and assimilate
all of it into yourself, your product and your copywriting.
It will be very tempting to join in, and sometimes you might be tempted to ask a
question just so you can join in…. But FIRST..
Use The “SEARCH” function.
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Especially on forums! Often times the newbie
questions have been answered so many times over
that the site admin has made them sticky’s.
It’s not that the old timers have become cranky about
answering the same questions over again, (well,
sometimes it is) but more likely that it’s just that it’s
taking away from what might be a much more
valuable conversation for the group to be engaging
in.
So just use the search function. 
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Get deep into all the blogs and forums, and
Twitter profiles, and Facebook pages of your
market.
Absorb what they say, how they say it… pay
close attention to ‘feeling’ words…
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Start Mindmapping Your Copy
Mind mapping software can be quite rigid.
I prefer to use a whiteboard, or even more
preferably, a 3 sided presentation board, with
post-it notes (you can thumb tack them too) so
that I can move my ideas around.
One app you can use that doesn’t have the rigid
demands of mind mapping software is…
Padlet- http://padlet.com/
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Padlet is very
straightforward and
easy to use.
Unlike Mind Mapping
Software which forces
you to define parents
and children first and
doesn’t easily allow you
to move things around,
Padlet is super
simple…
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You’ll see a blank wall
with this image on the
right side of your
screen…
Just ‘double click’
anywhere on the ‘wall’
and type in whatever
you want.
You’ll be able to move them
around later
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When you double click on the
wall, a small box will appear.
You type in your thought there-
then just hit “Enter” on your
keyboard.
Double click again, and a new
box appears, and you type
again.
To move your boxes around, just
grab, drag and drop…
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What To Put In Your Mind Map
K.I.S.S.- Keep It Simple and Stupid. Don’t try to map out the entire sales letter
here. What you’re looking for is words and short phrases that seem
important and will jog your memory when it comes time to write your copy.
Acroynms
Buzz Words
Feeling Words
Reviews/Complaints
Write down anything that jumps out at you… especially if you see/hear it a lot
from the ‘communities’ that you’re studying, and especially if it’s a complaint.
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Remember, those complaints are where you
will begin to discover and develop your USP
Once you have your USP, you will then begin
to write your sales letter.
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Before You Write…

Market research for copywriting and product development

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Market research for copywriting and product development