4 ways you can learn about your buyers

As marketers, we know that there’s nuance to research methodologies. The important part of any research process is to not subscribe to one methodology and apply it to every piece of every project. Research requires nuance and understanding of the data needed to move the project forward. It’s important to understand what type of information you can successfully gather with digital analysis tools and what kind of information you should only gather from 1:1 conversations with your customers.

When people say, “know your customer” what they mean is you need to understand who your customers are, how they behave, and why they behave the way they do. When you understand all three of those pieces about your customer, you can be assured that you understand your customer.  

And the best way to learn all three of those pieces is to perform different types of research. At Best Buyer Persona, we use a four pronged approach to research so we can answer- who the customer is, how they behave, and why they behave the way they do. In this piece, we’ll cover all four types of research and what they can help you learn about your customers.

‍

The Four Types of Research

   
1. Digital Intelligence
   
2. Social Listening
   
3. Surveys
   
4. Customer Conversations
 

When to use digital intelligence

First, so that we’re all on the same page- digital intelligence is the data gathered from tools like social media, third-party data, your website data such as Google Analytics, heat maps etc. It’s the sum of all that data. Digital intelligence is everything you can learn about your buyer’s behavior without having to ask them a single question.

Digital intelligence is helpful when you need to know how your customers behave online. You're able to see what communities they belong to, what content they engage with, and even how they engage with that content. Best Buyer Persona’s favorite tool for learning all of this information at a glance is Audiense.

Audiense’s Insights tool gathers the data from online sources and uses IBM Watson intelligence to generate a report that details demographic information like genders, job titles, locations, languages used, social platforms used, influencers, and top brands.

For example, here’s a screenshot of a report I pulled on B2B SaaS founders. With a few keywords, I can see the demographics, locations, interests, and words they use to describe themselves online or in their bios.

‍

How you can apply digital intelligence data

The kind of information you gather from tools is very helpful when planning your next marketing campaign. Because you’ve learned where your audience spends their time online, the types of conversations and questions they have, as well as the types of content they engage with- you can create a marketing strategy that will meet their needs and show up where they are.

Favorite tools:

   
• Audiense
   
• Sparktorro
   
• HotJar
 

When to use Social Listening

Using social listening to learn about your audience is a different approach than using social listening to engage with your audience. Both are valuable and have their place, but for the purpose of buyer personas, we’re going to focus on using social listening as a way to learn more about the words your audience uses, the questions they have, and the platforms they engage with.

Social listening can be done daily, weekly, or monthly when you’re using it to research your audience. To listen to the right audience, use keywords you’ve heard your buyers or customers use; either during customer support calls, sales calls, or your own customer chats.

Monitor the dashboard and see actual conversations from your audience. You can filter to find conversations or questions about your product or service, see trends and interests, and other topics they’re sharing readily. This allows you to not only learn their problems and questions but also participate in the conversations and topics that are most relevant to them.

‍

How to Use Social Listening data

The learnings from your social listening should guide your participation on social media. It’s not just about where to promote your product, but rather what topics are important to your audience, and how does it make sense for your company to join in on the conversation. What are the trends or communities your audience is interested in? Knowing where to meet your audience is a crucial piece of actually knowing your customers.

‍

Favorite Tools

   
• Brand24
   
• Sprout Social
   
• Agorapulse
 

‍

When To Use Surveys

Surveys are a great way to ask specific questions to a large portion of your customers. The important thing to remember about surveys is that it’s not an optimal way to uncover the emotional insights from your audience. They’re best used to ask yes or no questions, things that can be answered by a multiple source question, or something that can be answered in just a few words. People rarely want to write long-form answers on a survey.

‍

How to Use Survey Data

The data gathered can be organized and visualized via charts, graphs, percentages, etc. In order for your survey to have the greatest impact, use surveys at specific times to gather specific answers. For example, how did the customer hear about your product? That survey question is best asked right after they finish checking out. If it’s a b2b saas- a great time for that survey question is while they’re onboarding, if it’s eCommerce, a great time to ask the survey question is right after checkout.

Favorite Tools

   
• Typeform
   
• Google forms
   
• SurveyMonkey
 

When to Use Customer Conversations

Customer conversations help you learn the “why” behind any question, assumption, or behavior of your audience and buyers, which is why they should be used in conjunction with the other aspects of research. You’ll already know how your customer behaves, so the customer conversation gives the opportunity to uncover the emotional insights, stories, struggles, frustrations, and delights of your consumers.

Knowing why they behaved the way they did will improve your positioning, marketing, and messaging. It helps you serve your customers with more empathy and in a way they want to be served.  

‍

How to use the Data from Customer Conversations

The best way to apply what you learn from customer conversations is to keep a record of each conversation, take notes, organize all the learnings, and share them with your entire organization. Regardless of who has the chats, the data should be accessible to everyone. Because every department will be looking for different pieces of information. Marketing may want to hear common phrases, questions, and frictions with onboarding, whereas the product will recall frustrations with the UX or suggestions for more features. A central source of truth for customer data that is applicable across the organization is an incredible valuable asset.

‍

Favorite Tools:

   
• Zoom
   
• Fireflies.ai
   
• Otter.io
 

Which Approach Is Best?

For Best Buyer Persona, the four approaches to research: digital intelligence, social listening, surveys, and customer conversations each play an important part in the research process and creating the most accurate and actionable jobs to be done buyer personas. But the approach that is best for your company, is the one that can be done consistently, within your budget, and the one you will use.