Hey there Reader,
We're back with part 3 of the Rebrand Newsletter Series.
In week 1, we talked about how to achieve brand clarity.
In week 2, we went over how to create a blueprint for your brand.
Now, in week three, we're digging into the research.
If you're anything like me, the term "research" brings to mind the smell of old books and memories of Starbucks cups bearing lipgloss marks, neatly arranged highlighters, a laptop, notebooks, sticky notes, and a stack of books.
As a business owner - you’re sharp as a tack with a google search bar and do your best to find the answers to your questions online.
But when it comes to researching for your brand, things can get a little more complicated.
If you want to understand your audience and how to position your brand, what questions are you trying to answer?
In this week's newsletter, I'm covering what research does for your brand, how to do it, and what questions you need to answer.
Keep Reading For Newsletter Highlights
- Behind the Brand → 3 Tips for Filling Out Your Brand Blueprint
- A Note From Catie → How I Knew It Was Time for a Rebrand
- Need Help? → April Availability
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4 ways to get started with audience research |
Knowing your audience is more important than your logo, website, or Instagram feed.
In fact, none of those things really matter at all if you don’t have a strategic understanding of who you are selling to and creating for.
The research you do into understanding your audience will pay off in how your brand and messaging attract, nurture, resonate with, and convert fans into clients.
Taking your time here is worth the effort - and it is something you can (and should) revisit as your brand & offers evolve.
But just what does doing audience research look like?
Here’s 4 ways to get started with audience research:
If you haven’t already - be sure to get the brand blueprint from last week's newsletter - the entire “Who is the ideal client & what problems do they need help solving columns from the worksheet will help you get started here.
- Testimonials: Ask for any new or updated testimonials from clients who are still a good fit for your brand and whom you would like to work with again. Don’t just email and ask for a testimonial, though—prompt them to describe what problems you helped solve and what was unique about your solution.
- Surveys: You can also survey your audience—this works best if you have an existing audience (even if it is small) on Instagram or via email. Think of ways to give some kind of a thank you at the end of an incentive for someone to take the survey. I like type form because it tells the audience exactly how long it will take to do it, so as long as you keep it short, most people can’t say no to 2-3 minutes.
- Threads & Forums: Search and read through Instagram threads or forums like Reddit to see what common questions or problems your target audience is discussing, how they refer to themselves, and how they identify their problems and needs.
- Polls: Another easy (and ongoing) way to do audience research is through polls. You can post polls in your feeds and (newly) in captions on Instagram, which is a simple way to get instant feedback from your existing audience and test messaging and ideas.
**Ps. A quick note on SEO. I typically will conduct SEO research as part of my audience research - because my audience is searching for these keywords, phrases & questions. However - I didn’t want to dig into SEO research here because it is truly a beast in its own. If you want to learn more about how to conduct SEO research - I recommend this workshop.
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a note from catie
Even though I have done it in the past, I am still revisiting my audience research this week for Cedar June’s rebrand. If you are an existing brand that is rebranding or pivoting in some way, be sure to revisit your audience. This is something that can and should be done as your brand evolves.
So far, I’ve:
✓Revisited SEO research
✓Sent out an audience research poll (you can take it here if you’d like)
Now I need to:
- Update my testimonial database & ask to send out new testimonial asks
- Gather data from all the research
- Do some research on threads and see what I come up with
**Ps. Next week, we will combine these first three weeks and use all of the information and brand data we’ve gathered to position our brands.**
Till then, keep scrolling to learn how we can work together 1:1 this spring.
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now booking
I have one remaining spot to work with a client 1:1 open this spring. After that I won't be taking any new client projects until late July. If you are interested in working together 1:1 and want to snag the last spring spot.
Need some help figuring out the next steps for your brand? Click here to book a 60-minute consult.