Episode 412: Market research for online business

In today’s episode, I’m going to walk you through what makes great market research for online business.

I’m also going to dispel some of those myths about what market research needs to involve so that you can understand how powerful market research can be and deepen your understanding of how you might go about it.

Let’s dive in!

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I would pretty confidently guess that at this stage of life, you’ve likely experienced being part of someone else’s market research multiple times.

Your market research experience could be that you’ve:

• Had someone ask you a couple of questions as you walk past them in a shopping mall
• Had someone ring you and ask you “just three really quick questions” for their market research
• Filled in a long unwieldy survey for some company whose mailing list you’re subscribed to (shoutout to the airlines – they always seem to have the longest surveys with the weirdest questions)
• Answered someone’s question on social media or via email

I would say that most people have participated in multiple forms of market research.

But unfortunately, if you have participated in that, it’s likely you’ve also experienced some of the worst possible parts of being part of market research.

Maybe you’ve answered someone’s question on social media and then immediately realise they’re just using it to bait you into having a conversation with them because they’re trying to sell you something.

Or you’ve said yes to doing a research interview with someone, and they only ask you one tiny question and then try to fix a problem that you didn’t ask them to fix.

Or (and this is THE WORST) you’ve been interrupted at dinner time by a phone call from someone wanting to ask just one question so that they can help save the rainforest, and then thirty minutes later you’re still stuck on the phone watching your delicious vegetarian lasagna go cold but you can’t seem to end the conversation.

The first thing I want to say is that just because you’ve had one of those horrible experiences participating in someone’s market research where you feel like you’ve been misled or lured in, doesn’t mean that all market research is bad.

It doesn’t mean that market research isn’t one of the most valuable things that you can do (particularly in the online business space) to maximise the effectiveness of your marketing strategy and your messaging as you move forward in your business.

I don’t want us to write off market research as being something that those dodgy people do that we’re not going to engage in it because we’re not willing to do that to people.

Market research doesn’t have to be a misleading thing.

It can be something that’s highly connecting, that’s mutually beneficial, and that can help you move forward in your business quickly.

When we think about market research through the lens of what it’s doing for us as business owners and why we would engage in market research, I think one of the best things to focus on is great messaging.

When you think about great messaging that you’ve heard or you’ve seen online, it’s super resonant.

Great messaging speaks to us. It speaks to our heart. It speaks to a secret desire we might have.

Great messaging can sometimes help us to make sense of our existence or a goal that we have and we can’t seem to achieve it.

Great messaging is effective when it feels like you really know me.

Sometimes, I read people’s content and I feel like you know me better than I know myself.

That amazing resonant messaging that reflects our lived experiences, that seems to know us more than we know ourselves, is often the result of really effective market research. There’s a real understanding of what the audience desires, what they are struggling with, what barriers are in the way, and why those barriers seem to be so tricky for them.

When we have that depth of understanding of our audience AND we combine that with an understanding that’s very tangible about lived experiences (it’s a very practical, day-to-day, story-based reflection of what’s going on for us) that’s when that messaging really shines through.

That’s what I think of as some of the best, most effective and resonant content in any business.

In order for our messaging to be able to reflect that depth and speak to the tangible factors (the things that go on, the little secret worries and desires that we have, or the frustrating things that we do each day without understanding why we do it to ourselves), our market research needs to effectively source those insights.

When you think about what great market research is for an online business owner, it’s research that gets you those insights, tells you that story, speaks about that lived experience, and generates that depth of understanding.

That way, you can craft messaging that gives actual insight so that you can reflect what’s going on for that person, even when they think no one saw.

That resonant messaging is really powerful. That’s where people say to me that it feels like I’ve been peaking in their windows.

Nope! I just know you really well because I listen, observe, watch, ask questions, and I’m curious about who you are.

A phrase that came up in a version of the Client Attraction Challenge that I ran in 2023 was “Be a student of the human”.

That is something that I think I do very well.

My market research has never been done through the lens of what question I can ask so that I can write sixteen blog posts tomorrow.

Yes, that is an end goal of something that comes out of my market research. But I don’t do my market research through that lens. It’s just something that I can create when I do great market research.

I always conduct my market research through the lens of:

• How can I understand this human more comprehensively?
• How can I be a student of the human that I am trying to reach and connect with with my content?
• And how can I be a student of their day-to-day experience, their dreams, goals, ideas, frustrations, challenges, what’s happened in the past, and what they’re hoping to do in the future?

I want to really understand them.

Great market research comes from that lens.

It’s not about asking a question on social media that gets the maximum amount of replies so that you can grow your engagement.

That kind of market research might work for one cheap, ego-driven result (ie. a number of people who’ve engaged) but does that actually get you any closer to sharing deeply resonant messaging? Does that get you any closer to deeply understanding the experiences of your ideal clients so that you can better support them and help them move forward? No.

My number one piece of advice when it comes to creating market research strategies for your business, is to be a student of the human.

Whether you’re:

• Crafting a survey that your audience can fill in
• Asking open-ended questions on email, socials, or at the end of your Facebook Lives
• Conducting interviews of individuals in your audience so that you can get that depth of understanding

In all of those different strategies, ask yourself: how can I be a student of the human? How can I be curious about this person’s experience, existence, dreams, goals, and challenges? How can I look at this from all of those angles, so I can get that depth of understanding of who this person is, what it is that they’re wanting to achieve, what’s getting in the way, how that shows up, and what they’ve tried before?

All of those questions are going to help me deepen my understanding.

Of course, the more specific you are when you pick the niche and the human that you want to be a student of, the more tangible, resonant and effective that messaging can be (this is why we niche!).

The more effectively you understand where the insight that market research gives you belongs in your messaging ecosystem, the more effectively that messaging can do its job.

If that’s something you’re interested in, I recommend you go grab my free Core Messaging template: tashcorbin.com/coremessage

That will help you to understand what to do with the insight that you get from that market research.

If you’ve already got that clear (if you already have a strong messaging ecosystem and content strategy) but you’re looking for more depth, or you’re looking for more connection and resonance with what you put out there, then just focus on being a student of the human.

Study that person’s existence and their goals through all of those angles as much as possible.

But as I said, the more specific and niched you are, the more insightful that market research will be.

If you’re still feeling like your niche is super broad because you want to help everyone, then that Core Message template will also direct you to my niche training and anything else you may need to work on.

The last thing that I want to talk about when it comes to market research is what market research then gives you as a business owner beyond that amazing messaging.

One of the things that I love about doing market research is the connection that it can create with my exact ideal client.

If you’re doing market research interviews and you share the criteria of who you want to interview, a short-sighted churn-and-burn marketer would recognise the people who say they’re keen as already being their ideal client, so instead of asking them questions, they would just try to sell to them.

I’ve seen people use that strategy before.

It’s terrible, short-sighted, and doesn’t actually add any value or get you the insights that you’re looking for.

You’ve sacrificed the messaging insights for the sake of having the short-term goal of selling to them.

But you could have both!

When it comes to doing market research, you can connect with people who are in your niche and who are potential ideal clients AND get those insights.

But the secret to having both is using consent-based approaches.

When I say consent-based approaches, I mean that you shouldn’t say you’re doing market research to inform your content strategy for the next twelve months, and then simply use that to lure people onto a call, ask them surface-level questions, and then start selling to them.

That’s not consent-based. That’s not what they said yes to.

Instead, I want you to think about what would make it a win for both of you, regardless of whether they purchased or not. And then be upfront about what that is.

For example, in the Take Off program, we do a market research interview process where we do interviews one-on-one with people who are within your niche.

But we do it in a way that whether the person buys from you or not, the interview and the thank you gift means that you have gained a bunch of amazing messaging insight for your business, and the interviewee has gained something as well.

It allows you to practice your qualifying questions – starting to qualify and understand whether they would benefit from progressing to the next step, and gauging their interest and excitement for continuing the conversation about how you might work together. If that person is excited and interested in getting further help with that, then they get access to that and they get the opportunity to hear about that from you.

It’s a win/win/win/win. And it’s just one interview and free gift process!

It’s so powerful.

But the reason why it’s so effective and does such a great job is because it’s built on a consent-based approach.

In previous years, I’ve seen people who’ve joined the Take Off program, done my market research interview process in the Take Off program and got clients out of it following my step-by-step process. Then they have misunderstood why it is such an amazing and invaluable process, and they’ve shortcutted the process so that they can still get their ideal client to jump on a call and then they can do their sales pitch.

And THEN they go out and teach the process. But it’s not the consent-based win/win/win/win version of the process that I taught them. They have not understood the core content-based principles underneath the process. They’ve just tried to steal it and go and teach other people. But it doesn’t work as effectively with other people.

It’s so fascinating to see. People don’t understand why it’s so powerful.

It’s powerful because it creates connection with consent.

It is a win for both people regardless of whether they buy from you or not.

That is where people get very short-sighted.

They get all excited that if they do market research, they’re going to make sales, so they look for ways to shortcut their way to those sales.

That’s a whole other conversation, but I just wanted to circle back to this sense of whatever you choose to do for market research.

(By the way, if you are looking for some more practical strategies on how to do market research, I have a live training about this coming out in the next few weeks after this podcast is released. Keep an eye out for that in your inbox if you’re on my mailing list, or on socials if you follow me over there.)

Whatever it is that you choose to do (whether it’s interviews, making form-based surveys or asking questions on your socials), always look at it through the lens of consent.

Another example of this is where people ask questions on social media through the guise of being market research…

But they’re just using it as phishing.

We don’t allow phishing questions in the Heart-Centred community anymore, but there was a time when someone was teaching people to come into the community and ask a question.

For example, they would say “I’m doing some market research. So single women, could you tell me what’s your favourite thing about being single?”

Of course, being the most amazing community on the internet, all the single women in the Heart-Centred community would jump in a provide their well-thought-out answers.

They thought that they were helping this person to create content because that’s what they were told. But then that person would slide straight into their DMs and try to sell to them.

They didn’t care what the answer was. They just wanted to come into the Heart-Centred community and find out who all the single women were. But they couldn’t blatantly ask who was single because that would be too obvious and no one would fall for that. So they tricked people.

That is not consent-based.

If they asked their question honestly and openly and stated their intention to slide into everyone’s DMs, people wouldn’t answer.

Does that justify luring and tricking people into answering the question? I would argue no, it doesn’t. That’s not consent-based.

That doesn’t mean that you can’t ask open-ended questions on social media to help inform your market research.

You’ll have seen me asking questions on social media where I’ll say, “I’m creating podcast episodes for the next few weeks, and I’m focusing on messaging and market research. What questions do you have for me about messaging and market research? And what do you wish I would teach?”

People give me those well-thought-out answers, and I actually use them to inform podcast episodes. I use it to inform the webinars that I’m creating, the freebies that I’m building and my content on socials.

I actually use the content in the way that I said I would use the answers.

But because I’ve asked that question and I’ve got that insight from people, when I do create subsequent content, it resonates far more effectively with my audience and it attracts more audience who are within that same space.

I don’t need to slide into all of those people’s DMs and sell to them.

Instead, I can just thank them for being so considered in their answers. I can let them know how helpful it was. If I need to ask follow up questions, I can ask permission to ask follow-up questions.

I’m not coming at this through the lens of there only being so many leads in the world and I have a scarcity mindset that every opportunity is an opportunity to sell.

I’m not that kind of salesperson. I know that this is just the beginning.

If someone answers a question like that on my socials, I’m really grateful because it’s helped me so I want to reciprocate and be helpful to them by then honouring their insight or their question.

If I can answer it for them straight away because the podcast episode won’t come out for another six weeks, then I might offer to do that.

Or if it’s someone whose business I already know a bit about, I’ll also sometimes give them a little personalised advice in the comments.

That person gets double value add having answered my question. I don’t have to slide into their DM uninvited. I can just give them that free advice there in the comments. Or if I’ve got something that might help, I can ask for their permission.

Just because it could be valuable to me to have identified them as a potential lead for my business, doesn’t mean I then have to treat them as a lead.

We’re not at that stage of our connection yet. That wasn’t the context in which I asked the question. And it’s not consent-based for me to then use that information to hard pitch sell them and agitate their current state.

That’s where I think a lot of people misunderstand the purpose of market research and the level of relationship you’ve just built with that person.

Consent-based practice means that if you’re not sure, you can ask.

And that’s the powerful part of this.

If you’re not 100% sure that someone is enthusiastically keen to continue this conversation, you can just ask.

I will finish this episode up there by saying that market research for online business is powerful and amazing. The two biggest benefits you’ll get are:

1. Your messaging will be far more resonant.
2. You will be able to build more connection with your existing and new audience members in a really powerful and relationship-building way, so long as you do it with consent-based practice.

If you are wanting to know how to translate that research or the insight that you get from your market research into messaging, make sure you come and grab my free Core Messaging template: tashcorbin.com/coremessage

In going through that free resource, you’ll be able to see what information you need, so it will also help you to ask better questions and inform the way that you ask questions to get that information and those insights.

As I did quickly mention, I will be doing a free training coming up soon on how to conduct market research in a way that grows your business and builds connection. Make sure you keep an eye out for that one.

If you’re not on my mailing list, going and grabbing that free resource will add you to my mailing list and ensure that you don’t miss my upcoming workshop.

Feel free to get in touch with us and ask to go on the mailing list if you’re not sure.

Thank you so much for joining me for this episode of the Heart-Centred Business Podcast.

Until next time, I cannot WAIT to see you SHINE.