You’ve heard market research is THE way to creep into your customers’ minds and live there rent-free. But how do you translate this newfound knowledge into powerful content writing that converts your audience into customers? Read on, my friend, and all will be revealed!
But, first things first.
What are the best types of market research for content ideas?
OK, so you’re an ambitious and knowledgeable coach or wellness business owner and you want to know more about how your ideal customer thinks and what they want to hear from you. Here are the best ways to do market research to get to the bottom of it and take the guesswork out of it.
Reviews and enquiries
Your reviews and enquiries are a GOLDMINE for insight into your customers’ pain points and how your services help them overcome obstacles in their life.
Look closely at what they say they need help with, how they describe what you do, and especially how they FEEL before, during, and after working with you.
Surveys
Market research surveys are an awesome and time-efficient way to poll many people all at once. So, if you have a database of existing or previous customers, send them a Google Form (or similar) to ask what brought them to you, what problem you solved, and how they sum up the feeling and experience of working with you.
No database? No problemo. Create the survey anyway then put it on your socials, ask your network to tag people in your niche, and/or send it to target customers you’d love to work with. As an incentive, you could offer a £5 Starbucks voucher or free/discounted service. Often, this is a great foot in the door and leads to future work once they experience what you can do. Win win!
1:1 interviews
As fantastic as surveys are, your dream customer is likely to type a lot less than they’d actually say, so approaching existing or ideal customers to spare you 20 minutes for a survey is THE BEST way to do market research on your target audience.
Again, offer an incentive and note down or record their words – without the time to think before typing, they’ll express themselves much more emotively during these calls (I use Zoom to record and save) giving you so much amazing insight to work with.
How do you turn market research into content?
OK, so onto the nitty gritty, You have all this insight into your customers’ mindset, needs, and dreams. What now?
How TF do you use your market research to write social media posts, blogs, and emails that prompt them to rush to your DMs asking to book your high ticket offer?
Here are five simple steps to success.
1. Compile your data
First of all, you need to work out how you’re going to compile all this juicy data so it’s easily accessible and catalogued into a logical system to enable you to use it to for content ideas.
I love Trello for getting and staying organised, and it lends itself to compiling market research data and organising it into a content plan.
Group together categories of customer pain points and list different words they use to describe each problem. For example, if a major enemy for your target customer is imposter syndrome, you might list words they use to articulate this, like: comparisonitis, insecure, low self-esteem, unconfident, out of place, fraud, found out.
Gathering and viewing it all in one place will save you time trawling through research to create content, and give you a super clear perspective on the main obstacles you help your customers overcome.
2. Turn problems into content topics
Now you have all your data neat and clear, it’s time to use it.
Start by picking out a problem your customer is experiencing. This blog post was literally inspired by a response to a market research survey I sent out, for example. I asked what free resources my target customers would like to see, and one of them asked for advice on how to turn market research into content.
And hey presto!
Answering a problem you know your ideal customer is going through via your content is a highly targeted way of bringing value to your audience. You know for a fact that at least one person – and others like them – will already have an appetite to listen to what you have to say. It’s always better to be super specific in adding value for that one person in the confidence similar people will share the same problem, than creating generic content that excites no one.
3. Mirror your customers’ language
Pay VERRRRY close attention to the language your customers use to express how they feel now, how they felt when they worked with you (if applicable), and how they dream of feeling.
You may be using similar words or phrases to describe how you can help them, but by tweaking your language to mirror theirs you’ll tap into their exact feelings and experiences, and that’s when they begin to feel like you’re living inside their head.
Little changes to your language make a huge difference to how much it resonates with your audience. Say you’re a sobriety coach who talks about quitting alcohol, but your audience says “give up drinking”. Making that slight change in language is likely to make their eyes and ears prick up when they encounter your content as it’s literally a thought whizzing around their minds.
Sometimes the alterations are bigger. Many coaches, for example, talk about limiting beliefs, assuming their customers recognise this language. And while it’s kind of self-explanatory, if it’s not common parlance for your customer they’ll struggle to connect it to what they’re feeling.
So, instead of opening a social media post with: “Do you struggle to overcome limiting beliefs about yourself?”
Try drilling down into one specific example of a limiting belief, like: “Do you tell yourself you’d never make a good leader?”
4. Start with a blog then repurpose
My best advice for turning market research into content is this.
Start by addressing your customers’ biggest problem in a blog post, like this one.
Then, pick out sections, quotes, statistics, and bullet points from your blog to use as individual social media posts, videos, and emails. This way, you get down the maximum amount of information and value you have on this topic in the longest form piece of content – your blog – then save time on all the other types of content by pulling from your original blog post for inspiration.
5. Tell their story
During your market research, ask your customer to describe a typical scenario relating to the problem you solve. For example, how do you feel about your current job? Or, what happens when you think about trying a yoga class?
This gives you an insight into their thought process and allows you to turn it into a story that will be recognised by others going through the same thing.
Using the information they provide, use storytelling to paint the picture. So, if your research reveals your customer wakes up feeling anxious and overwhelmed before they’ve even got out of bed, you’d start your story like this: “6am. Your alarm goes off and before you even open your eyes properly you feel the anxiety and overwhelm building up at the prospect of another day in a job you hate.”
If you’ve been in this situation too, tell them. Show why you understand and explain how/why, before going into how you’ll help them break free of the situation that’s holding them back.
They’ve shared these specific insights with you, so use them to call out others in this situation and show how you have the answer to their challenges.
6. Sell the dream
Finally, always remember to sell the end result, rather than your services. Your services are the vehicle that will transport them from A to B, but they care less about what it entails and more about how they’ll feel at the end of the journey.
So, don’t spend too long explaining how your coaching sessions work or what’s involved. Instead, sell the benefits they’ll experience afterwards, like earning that promotion or payrise, pursuing their passion as a career, or discovering a new hobby that brings them joy and calm. Every time you mention your solution, use the “so what” factor to draw out the benefit of it.
For example, “Book your first yoga class to experience an hour devoted to YOU and your physical and mental wellbeing, bringing a slice of inner calm into your demanding life.”
Get support writing content that resonates with your clients
Got your market research but need a little extra help writing content that connect with your ideal client?
BE A CONTENT QUEEN is an online content writing course loved by coaches and wellness businesses. It’s self-paced so you learn at your own speed and develop your content writing confidence, clarity, and skills over six fun, practical, and relatable video sessions.
Abi, life coach and yoga teacher, said:
