Copywriting Research: 15 Tips for Dissecting Your Target Audience

Knowing your prospect is the most essential ingredient when it comes to copywriting research.

Why?

It’s simple – the prospect is your buyer. He or she is the one you need to win over, persuade, and convert.

Know them, feel their emotions, speak their language, and you’ll get more conversions … more sales … and more profit.

The less targeted your copy, the more generic it will be … and the lower the conversion rates.

So before you put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard, crack open your web browser and do some detective work.

Here’s how:

15 Copywriting Research Tips for Prospect Dissection

If you’ve never done copywriting research before, then these 15 tips will get you off on the right foot.

Here they are in no particular order:

1. Grab low hanging fruit – find and follow them on social media, then learn what they have to say.

2. Talk to them on forums.

3. Follow blogs, big and small.

4. Find and read trade magazines … and the ads inside them.

5. Create email alerts with Google Alerts, Talkwalker, IFTTT, etc.

6. Read comments on YouTube videos, blog articles, etc.

7. Buy and try relevant products from Amazon.

8. Read and store Amazon reviews.

9. Copy and paste the best stuff into your spreadsheet.

10. Paste photos into your research document.

11. Make a list of slang terms, key phrases, lingo, pop culture references, and other tidbits that your prospect will “get.”

12. Read past and present promotions from your business (or your client’s business).

13. Read past and present promotions from competitors.

14. Read customer data cards, product data sheets, and any other reference material from your or your client’s business.

15. Use this information to build out a “persona” for your prospect.

Whether you are a copywriter, a marketer, or an entrepreneur writing your own copy, research is essential to effective communication with prospects.

This short starter list will help you get started with your copywriting research.

Conclusion: This Is Just the Beginning

If you are a hardcore copywriter and want to make hardcore cash, this is not the end-all be-all of copywriting research … it’s just the beginning.

A-list copywriters attend seminars, speak with prospects in person, become participants in their chosen field…

In short, they do whatever it takes to enter the conversation already going on in their prospects heads.

Now … I know…

It sounds like a lot of work.

And it is.

But the payoff is massive ROI gains, exceptional sales results, and a significant competitive advantage.

Most copywriters and business professionals don’t go this far … which is exactly why you’ll be able to crush them if you do go the extra 10 miles.

Good luck with your dissections.