Posted by: Troy White
July 29, 2010
Issue #977

Using Free Research
to Grow Your Business

Fellow Business-Builder,

Nothing can build your business faster than developing a deeper insight into who your ideal clients are.

Going from selling to ‘everyone’ to selling to a 35 year-old female with two young children (under eight) in school, a family income over $75,000, a dog, a second home in vacation country, and reads Vanity Fair and People while surfing Facebook …

Knowing that information is invaluable while drafting your ideal client profile.

Clayton shared a brilliant post on this.

If each and every one of us had a list of personality traits like that, can you imagine what would happen to revenues, profits … the economy!

Some very recent information on entrepreneurs  …

The TD Small Business Happiness Index just analyzed the happiness levels of small business owners in twelve North American cities, including seven in Canada.

The survey also ranked five American cities, and small businesses in two of them were happier than their Canadian counterparts. Los Angeles was first overall on the list, registering a 36% rating on the happiness index. Boston, with 31%, also beat out Canada’s top city, Calgary.

62% in Calgary say they would describe themselves as very happy, while 89% said they are happier running their small business rather than working for someone else.

The majority of Canadian and U.S. small businesses say they work for more than 50 hours a week, with 38% of Canadian businesses revealing they put in 60 hours or more at the office.

Think about what this short little summary told us about entrepreneurs.

We LOVE to work – 38% of us work TWICE as many hours as those in the employed world.

We LOVE our businesses.  Despite the fact that we work long hours, earn less per hour (on average) than most employed, 89% of us wouldn’t change things.

It’d be interesting to see what percentage of the general population consider themselves ‘happy.’  It could be more than the entrepreneurial crowd, but I doubt it.

Just this little bit could give you some amazing insights into who you are trying to reach, and how you can get their attention.

Here’s the entire article.

Some other tools you should be using:

1. Magazines.com is a great resource for finding hot headline ideas.  It is also a great place that shows you what people are reading.  Here are the top 10 magazines:
1. People
2. Time
3. Sports Illustrated
4. Food Network Magazine
5. Good Housekeeping
6. This Old House
7. Women’s Health
8. Maxim
9. Entertainment Weekly
10. Cooking Light

Are your ideal clients reading these publications?

Look at what is most popular in each category.  Then go find their media kits.  A media kit can give you some powerful ideas on who you could or should be targeting. Their likes. Their needs. Where they live and how they live.

Once you know who you are targeting and what they are reading, you would have a fantastic snapshot on your ideal client profile.

But you still need to dig deeper  …

2. Go to Barnes and Noble, Chapters (Canada) – spend an afternoon flipping through magazines.  Have your pen and paper ready and take a ton of notes.

Note the common subjects

Note the letters to the editor section

Note the unusual publications that sell to specific niches.

Note the cover blurbs. (good magazines typically use similar headlines on the cover … because they know that’s what sells!)

3. http://www.google.com/products  - note the frequently searched product area.  Click refresh and note how the changes show up.

Keep clicking refresh and you will quickly see how many different types of products people are looking for (and buying) from Google.

Dig around and see what people are buying there that relates to your business.

4. www.amazon.com – note that ebooks have now taken over Amazons top revenue source.  Pdfs now outsell print … now that is an opportunity for any astute marketer!

A fantastic place for customer research

Look for books on your area of expertise.  Note the best sellers.  Read the customer feedback (invaluable).  Note the book titles.  Note what else Amazon is selling other than books in this field.

5. http://answers.yahoo.com/ - a great place for either wasting your time or pinpointing what you are looking for.  Start with the most popular tags under your specific area of interest.  Get a keen eye for quickly scanning for good information (amidst all the nonsense).
6. http://www.ehow.com – Another portal people go to when trying to find information.  Some of this can be helpful, others just plain old distracting.  Look at the Top 10 eHows for Business:
1. How to Write an Executive Summary
2. How to Start a Cupcake Business
3. How to Write a Business Proposal
4. How to sell things on Craigslist.
5. How to Send a Fax From a Computer
6. How to Look Up a Business By Their Tax ID Number
7. How to Start a Porn Business
8. How to Calculate Percent Change
9. How to Develop a Business Plan
10. How to Find a Restricted Phone Number

Info marketers – selling info on starting a cupcake business or a porn business is in hot demand!

7. YouTube.com – again, far too many time wasting opportunities here, but you should know what is available for your niche, and look for the total number of views for insights into what people want for information.
8. Alexa.com gives you some good market insights as well for people who visit specific sites. 
9. Facebook and Google keyword research – nothing new to marketers, but are you using them to their fullest potential?  I interviewed Brian Bagnall about Facebook advertising and you may find the interview recording very informative http://www.blog.smallbusinesscopywriter.com/facebook-advertising/

These are free tools available to anyone who goes out and gets them.  And yes, these are just a start.  There are countless research tools out there – some free – some paid.  You are the one who needs to look for specifics in your industry – and determine if you have the time to put into your research, or the money to hire people to do it for you.

There are many paid tools as well … but this is not the time or place to recommend one over another.

Here are a couple of examples of highly relevant pre-done research reports:

http://www.epmcom.com/moms - specific information on selling to moms.
http://www.unitymarketingonline.com/ - specific for selling to affluent buyers.

Most definitely, the fastest way to get your research done is to hire someone to do it for you (or find pre-packed researched results you can buy).  It costs money, but will be specific to your target market.

Dig deeper … people have changed the way they buy. 

Old ways aren’t working like they used to for many … it’s up to YOU to find the new ways they are buying.

If you have other research tools you use, please share!

To your success,

To your success,

Troy White
Editor, Small Business Mastery
Supplement to THE TOTAL PACKAGE

Looking for resources related to this article? Try some of these.

Looking for more of Troy’s articles? Check these out.

Looking for past issues of The Total Package? Click here for our archives.

A Final Note:

If you have specific subjects you would like addressed, or have any comments on what you have seen here, please send me a message and I will see how I can help.

“To escape criticism – do nothing, say nothing, be nothing.”

– Elbert Hubbard

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11 Comments »

1. Comment by Sean McCool — July 29, 2010 @ 9:48 am

   Supposedly, YouTube now gets 12% of all internet traffic… so somebody is watching.

2. Comment by Deanna — July 29, 2010 @ 10:14 am

   Great stuff, Troy! Thanks!

3. Comment by Brian Keith Voiles — July 29, 2010 @ 11:08 am

   How do I find someone to “hire” to do research for me? Someone I can trust — who knows what they’re doing, and who knows what a direct marketer like me is looking for?

   I’d like to see an answer to this question as I’d prefer to have someone else do the digging.

4. Comment by Troy White — July 29, 2010 @ 11:41 am

   HI Brian, Long time - great to hear from you.

   Here is one that came across my desk lately - looks like they ‘get’ our type of research and their rates are very reasonable. I cannot personally vouch for them as I haven’t used them yet - but may be worth a look - http://www.jhResearchServices.net

   If anyone else has researchers they want to share - please do.

   Thanks, Troy

5. Comment by Roberta — July 29, 2010 @ 4:45 pm

   Great article and FABULOUS info. I will be doing even more research.
   I agree that buyers are changing and I experience some frustration with the books that keep talking about customer loyalty and keeping a customer for life. I think that thanks to the internet, more education and some bad experiences, more people are shopping around today then ever before. Social media has a higher influence on buying patterns than advertising. And in the current economy, more people are being more discerning in how they spend money than ever before.
   Now to go follow all the article links.
   Thank you

6. Comment by Mike M — July 29, 2010 @ 7:00 pm

   Brian,
   AWAI recently came out with a course on becoming an
   internet researcher.
   Their newsletter last week said Early To Rise had just
   hired 5 researchers through an ad to AWAI’s job pool.
   I’m sure Executive Director Katie Yeakle can help you out.
   kyeakle@awaionline

7. Comment by mark — July 29, 2010 @ 7:56 pm

   Interesting post.

   I always found clickbank to be an interesting source of info.

   It shows you what products are selling…and you can see how they are being promoted.

8. Comment by Brenda Svoboda — July 30, 2010 @ 4:12 am

   Great info! I can’t believe cupcakes beat out porn in the top 10 list. Now could be the time to repurpose my info product (cakes, not porn).

   Thanks much.

9. Comment by Jonathon Pugsley — July 30, 2010 @ 4:54 pm

   Great article! I am having a chellenge with getting traffic to my blog and website. Can you write an article on that subject that would help. Thank you.

10. Comment by Anthony — July 31, 2010 @ 5:59 pm

    Troy,

    Excellent, as always.

    The Total Package has an amazing group of A-list contributors. Kudos to Clayton, Wendy and the others who put their heart and soul into such an invaluable resource.

    All the best,
    Anthony E. Russell

11. Comment by Sarah Clachar — August 2, 2010 @ 11:15 am

    Troy,

    Great collection of resources. I also often just google [my topic] and “forum” and find discussion groups online. Great insights!

    Sarah Clachar
    Natural Health Copywriter