The Importance of Market Research

What’s so important about Market Research?

Market Research enables you to discover exactly what your audience wants to hear–NOT just what you want to tell them. It allows you to create content specifically for your audience’s needs. This will make them feel as if your blog was created just to help them, and they will keep coming back to it and invite their friends.

Market Research enables you to discover exactly what your audience wants to hear--NOT just what you want to tell them. Share on X

Blogging requires coming up with fresh content on a regular basis, and effective Market Research gives you a wealth of information to use when developing that content.

How does one conduct Market Research?

First, grab a notebook to use for researching your Topic of Interest. Start by doing a Google search about your topic. Google Suggest offers additional ideas. You can use this to drill down deeper into your topic. For instance, I typed Civil War into the Google Search Bar, and the following suggestions showed up:

Once you’ve drilled down and discovered your main topic, the next place to visit is Amazon. In the previous posts, I listed several of our own authors and the topics of interest within their books. I’m going to use Good vs. Evil as an example of how to conduct market research at Amazon.

In the Department dropdown list, choose books and then type the topic into the search bar at Amazon. I put Good versus Evil. On the lists in the right-hand sidebar, I picked Christian Books & Bibles. At this point in my market research, I usually look at nonfiction titles. I chose the subgenre of Christian Living. (We’re looking for pain points that are relevant to our readers.)

There’s a book titled Good or God? I clicked on it and then viewed the Table of Contents using the Look Inside tool. The back section contains Devotions and Discussion Questions. One of the devotions discusses how Eve must have felt disappointment when she believed God had withheld something from her. The author goes on to discuss the conflict between what we want and what God directs us to do.

Temptation. Confusion. Doubt. Disobedience. These are all pain points that may be relevant to your audience. You can discover more about your audience’s needs by viewing the “also bought” list on your book’s sales page. See what books your readers are buying. Make a list of issues they may need encouragement on. What questions might they have? What solutions are available to them that they may not know about? Not every reader has pain points this serious, but some do.

Make a list of at least 20 topics that are relevant and useful to your readers.

For something lighter than the deep points of pain (racism, divorce, abandonment, etc.), let’s talk about Ghost Towns. Make a list of things one may wish to learn about ghost towns. That list could include historical events, prominent citizens, cause of the town’s demise, etc. Write down at least 20 items.

Now you have 20 blog post topics that your target audience will find fascinating. Do some research, write your posts, create social media content to promote those posts, and rinse & repeat. That is how you use market research to grow a blog audience.

The next post in this series will share how to market with your blog.