4 Tools to Help You Analyze Your Audience

We've been talking a lot this month about why analyzing your audience is important, but now it's time to talk about some of the best tools to move forward with this analysis. Here are a few of the best...

1. Google Keyword and Adwords tools
These tools from Google have a lot of use beyond research for your adwords campaigns. They're a great way to discover keywords and phrases your audience is searching for, and also to reveal terms they're using in large volumes that you may not have thought of. It's a great way to learn how to speak the same language as your customers and to connect with them in the content you're producing. Using Keyword and Adwords data analytics for marketing decisions will help you develop new approaches and refine the overall marketing strategy.

2. Facebook Insights
Social media is a great way to get a clear picture of what types of content are resonating with your audience. But beyond tracking the number of likes and shares on each post, Facebook insights provides data about every person who interacts with your Facebook fan page. This includes age group, gender, geography, and language of the people who've seen and interacted with your page and posts. You can also get detailed graphical data about changes in your page's fan count, reach, and engagement from week-to-week.

3. Google Analytics
Google Analytics will not only tell you the location of visitors, the pages they view, the time spent on your website, but also HOW they got to your website, whether it be through other links or a keyword search. This information can be valuable in a lot of ways, but the bottom line is that you're getting the full picture of what pages on your website your audience is spending the most time on (what's most interesting to them), as well as what pages might be causing a breakdown in conversion - if a large percentage of visitors leave after viewing a certain part of your site. Additionally, if certain links are driving a lot of traffic to your site (like from your Facebook page, for example), then you know your marketing efforts on that channel are well-suited for your audience.

4. Surveys
The simplest way to figure out what your audience likes and wants is to ask them. It might seem like a no-brainer, but I think many of us are tempted to try and convince our customers that we can read their minds. However, there's nothing wrong with asking if it means you can better provide a product or service that's going to improve the lives of your consumers. You might even identify needs of your customers that you didn't know they had, opening the door for potential growth in your business.

There are lots of different ways to analyze your audience, but the important thing is that you're attempting to understand the interests and needs of your target customers. When you consistently produce content that resonates with them or provides something useful, you're building that connection and positioning yourself for lasting relationships with your audience.

If you want to learn more about the best ways to analyze your audience, make sure you register for our Audience Analysis seminar on September, 26!