Content marketing research is important to the success of advertising your business on the Internet.

You need to know who you are marketing to and where you are doing that marketing to maximize efficiency and effectiveness.

Understanding how to figure this out will help you greatly and save you time and money.

Pose Questions and Seek Answers

Having questions keeps you from getting distracted. These questions are what you are on a mission to answer when it comes to content marketing research.

Some of the questions you may want to ask are:

• Where can I find my audience online?
• What do my consumers do for work?
• What is the biggest struggle for my consumer?
• What do consumers like to read online?

Try to answer these questions with as many details as possible. The more information you have, the more you will know how to market to reach your consumers.

Also, remember to think from your customers’ point of view. Otherwise, you only come up with content marketing research custom tailored for you (the marketer!) and that isn’t terribly useful to us.

Survey Target Consumers

When you find some consumers as you’re answering your questions, ask if they would be willing to complete a survey.

These surveys can give you a deeper look into what you need to do to market your content. Always be trying to think a few steps ahead and kill two birds with one stone.

Interview Past Customers

Past consumers are great resources. You may want to provide them an incentive when they help you, so they will be more willing to assist you with your content marketing research.

When you interview your consumers, ask them these types of questions:

• What made you purchase from us?
• What did you like most about our website?
• How did you hear about us?
• Did you read any blogs or articles written by us?
• Where did you find the content?

These questions will help you understand your consumers a little more, and they provide insight where you should publish or market more articles.

Spy on Your Competitors

Your competitors can help you with your content marketing research.

The easiest way to find your consumers is to look at their followers on social media. You’ll be able to see which social media posts are most popular with your consumers. You will also be able to see what your competitors are doing that may be different than what you’ve tried.

Search for Consumers on Social Media

With billions of people using social media, your consumers are on one of the popular social networks. You can find them by using the search engines on those social networks.

Use keywords in the search engine to bring up people with those words in their bio and posts. When you find these consumers, follow them, and if they follow you back, reach out to them. This is the essence of social media. You connect with people socially, so they learn more about your business.

Once you connect with more people, you can start to research what type of content they share. Pay attention closely to the content they are sharing. Use the information in that content to publish your own similar pieces with a unique twist.

Research Trends on Google

Google Trends is a great resource. It provides you information on what people are searching for in real time. You can use the information from the resource to publish content that consumers will want to read when they want to read it.

When you know what people are searching for, you can take those keywords and search for them yourself. You’ll see which websites they are going to looking for information.

While you probably can’t get your content on those sites, you can figure out how consumers are using those sites.

They may be reading the articles on it and then moving on, or they may be sharing it on social media. If they are, you can then go to social media to see how it’s being shared. With your article on the same topic, you can present it to social media users using hashtags and the keywords.

Conclusion

Content marketing isn’t as difficult as it may seem.

You need to do your research and then use that information to cater your content to consumers and present it where they are online. Try these tips this week to gain more information about your consumers’ content wants and needs. Once you have enough information, start publishing content and market it effectively.

How do you do your content marketing research? Is it effective for you? Let us know in the comments below!