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Simple SEO and Marketing, Business Growth, Organic Marketing, Copywriting, Online Business, Blogging, Content Creation
Ep 224 // Market Research Intimidating? 6 Mindset Shifts for Massive Growth
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Faith Hannon
All right, y'all. So today we are digging into a topic that's not talked about a whole heck of a lot, and that is market research. Why does market research even matter? And some mindset issues, roadblocks, lies, whatever you want to call them that you have to get over to see market research the right way, to see market research in a biblical way, and to really start to see market research as something that you can do with and for your customers, to serve them better and use your God given gifts to glorify God and help your people. So get ready to take notes and be prepared for a few maybe painful mindset shifts. But it'll be good, I promise. Hey there, fellow entrepreneur. Welcome to simple SEO and marketing. Do you want to grow your business with sustainable traffic sources? Have you heard about the power of search engine optimization? And you want to take advantage of it to get more traffic, more eyeballs on your business. But when it comes down to it, does SEO feel complicated and hard to implement? Are you tired of wondering what in the heck to do with your website to get more traffic and more leads knocking on your door? What if I could tell you that there was a simple, proven system for using SEO, blogging and copywriting to get leads from your website and not just any leads. Hi. Converting lead. Hey. I'm Faith Hannon, wife, mama, copywriter, SEO strategist, and barrel racer. And for the last eight years, I've been figuring out what works and what doesn't work in the world of online marketing to get organic traffic. And now I'm here to share all the things I'm learning in the trenches of SEO, copywriting and content marketing. How does 300%, 500% or even 12,000% market more traffic in a year sound? What could your business do with that kind of traffic increase? How many more people could you help? So listen in and prepare to take note. I'm about to drop simple, actionable SEO, marketing and copywriting tips, all with a heavy dose of Jesus loving encouragement. Let's get you more traffic and more leads so you can help more people with your God given gifts. Okay, so fun story. Market research is something that I have had experience doing, got started doing market research when I was like a junior, sophomore, junior in high school. High school, y'all. And I've been out of high school for a minute. So this is a topic that when I was brainstorming, I just, I'm like, oh my goodness. Like, it's just taken me back. So I'm gonna take y'all back with Me, because I think it's funny. So flashback to, like, little baby high school faith. And I was in this marketing class, I tell you, I've had a marketing brain since I was born. And I'm not joking. Anyway, I was in this marketing class, and for part of this class, we got the option to do competition. So of course I'm in, right? And I decided that I was going to do this partner competition, and we needed to do market research, focus groups for whatever business we decided to do it for. And bless our hearts, we picked this business in downtown, and it was a kite and ski shop. And we somehow convinced the owner of this business, this little store, to let two high school kids come into his store on a busy Saturday and hand out surveys to customers and get responses. And I can, like, I can see this happening, replaying in my mind. And here I am, very friendly kid, like, no problem talking to people, but I'm like, talking to these rando people in the store. Like, they're just trying to shop, right? They're just trying to live their lives and buy stuff. And I'm like, hi, can I interview you? And bless their hearts, most of them said yes. And this is not how I'm saying you should do market research. But what I want to say is, you know what? You have to get started somewhere. Everybody starts somewhere, even if it's in a little kite and ski shop in downtown old Colorado city. Because it's just one of those things that I feel like market research. Everybody's like, ugh, so hard. But really, once you get over it, once you get over the hump, the hard part of, you know, making yourself do it, it's really not that bad. Market research is actually super key for business growth, copywriting, SEO, and ultimately serving your people. So in today's episode, we're going to break down. We're going to break it down, right? Okay, first, I'm going to chat a little bit about why does market research matter? Well, point blank, if you don't do your market research, then you could quite possibly be creating content, creating products, marketing products that nobody actually wants. Now, they may be beautiful, very helpful, lovely, crafted so well, you poured your heart and soul into it. But if nobody wants to buy it, if there's no actual demand for what you're creating, then you're not going to sell very much, if any. And so if you don't do your market research and don't do it often, then you won't have a product that's verified. You won't know for certain that this is something that will sell, or maybe you have something you've sold a little bit of that something, but you're stuck. Well, it could be because the market doesn't actually. There's no demand for what you're trying to sell. And I think as online business owners, sometimes it's really easy for us to forget some of the foundational elements of running a good business, because we don't necessarily have a huge cost of production of goods. Like for me to go out and write a course or write a blog or, you know, film something or record a podcast. Like, I don't have a heap of. Of money involved in that process, just my time. Right. Which is obviously valuable, but we need to kind of shift our mindset there and remember, like, will the market bear this? Is this what my people want? Am I talking about it in a way that resonates with them? Am I talking about it in a way that you know is going to actually sell it? Okay, so we're going to chat about some traps around market research that I want to help you overcome. And we're going to kick them in the teeth. We all kick them in the teeth, y'all. All right. Trap number one, lie number one. Whatever you want to call it is when you feel like you already know what your audience wants. Well, you might. You might know what they want, but have you verified it? Do you have research from customers that says, hey, this is actually what I want, and this is what I'm actually willing to pay Dolla Dallas for? Now, here's the kind of tricky part. Sometimes we have people that are like, oh, yeah, I'd pay a million dollars for that. But then they don't actually, one, have a million dollars or two. When push comes to shove, they're not going to pay that for it. So you have to do your market research in such a way that you're like, is this somebody that is full of baloney or not? And it's always best to do market research with somebody who has actually bought the thing. Right? Because, you know, the proof is in the pudding. But sometimes that's not an option. Right? Or sometimes maybe we're trying to test out a new product or a new audience, and so we have to find the right people for that. Okay? But you can never assume that your current knowledge is enough, because unless you are selling as much as you want and more and more and more and have enough left to give to every good work. Like the Bible talks about, like, God wants to supply our needs, so that we have more than enough to give gift to every good work. Unless you are rolling in sales, you can still probably improve. Okay? And here's the other fact of life. The market evolves. What worked, you know, in the market a year ago or five years ago or 10 years ago is not necessarily what works now. And unless you do the market research, you don't know that. All right? Now, lie number two we gonna talk about is I don't have time to do market research. Well, sorry about you. You're gonna have to make some time. And the fact is, market research can be as complicated as you make it. Now. You don't have to do what little baby high schooler Faith did and go set up shop in a random shop downtown. You don't have to do that, right? We live in the world of zoom. Praise the Lord. But market research, if you do it right, it will actually save you time because you're going to know, okay, I am creating content. I'm creating an offer. I'm building for what actually is going to work instead of just throwing spaghetti at the wall and hoping that something sticks. Now, when you're doing market research, I am always a fan. I'm going to spoil myself here. I'm always a fan of doing conversations with people because, you know, we've all filled out surveys, right? We've all filled out surveys. And how many of us take the time to sit and, like, spill our guts and livers on a survey form, right? We don't. I don't. People don't do that for the most part, right? Sometimes we do. But when you can set up a conversation with somebody and actually see them eyeball to eyeball, over zoom or in person, One, that creates a sense of connection. Two, it's so much more likely that they're gonna really share their heart around something instead of just quick yes, no answers. Okay, now, trap, lie, whatever you wanna call it. Number three is this. What if you ask. What if you ask people if they're willing to do some market research? What if you ask people if they will, you know, do calls with you and nobody responds? And. Or you just don't wanna bother people, right? Well, the fact is, sometimes they might not respond, and that's okay, right? Think about how many requests for surveys you get in your inbox and how many you ignore, right? I ignore so many. And it's okay. People are busy. But you don't need every single person in the world to do a good market research for your business. You don't need 900,000 responses necessarily. You just need a few really, really good ones from the right people. And so, yeah, you might ask and might not get responses right away, and that's okay. Maybe you need to ask a different way. Maybe you need to set up your market research process to be, you know, feel more personal or be more streamlined or be easier for that person, for crying out loud. Right? But don't take it personal if nobody responds, don't take it personal, right? We're all busy, so maybe you wait a while and ask again, okay? Or maybe you have a really good client and you interview them afterwards. But even if you ask, you know, put it out in your email list for, you know, market research, nobody responds. Don't take it personally. And maybe y'all, you need to offer some incentives for doing the market research. Some of my most successful market research projects have been, okay, I would love to do a 15 minute call, you know, 15 minute, like, quick questionnaire call with you, and in exchange we'll do. I would love to give you 30 minutes of coaching valued at whatever my current coaching prices were. Ton of responses that way, right? And that way, people feel like they're getting help and they're getting, you know, served by you, and it creates a way better connection and you don't feel bad for asking. Okay? And then number four, the number four lie that I need you to kick in the teeth with me is it'll make me look like I don't know what I'm doing. Well, you know what, y'all? Nobody has everything figured out. Nobody, Nobody. We all need to grow. We all need Jesus. We all need to get better at what we're doing. And when you think about some of the most successful people in life and in business, they are teachable. And that is something that God tells us to do. In Scripture, we are shown to have a teachable spirit, right? Jesus asked questions, y'all. We can ask questions. Okay? So get over that lie that if you do market research, it's going to make you look like you don't know what you're doing. No, it doesn't make you look like you don't know what you're doing. It makes you look like you care and you want to do a better job. All right? Number five is that I'll get negative feedback that I don't want to hear. And that's hard. That's hard because. And I get that to a degree, because words of affirmation is one of my, like, main love languages, right? Which for somebody whose love love language is Words of affirmation. That means that, like, criticism hurts worse than people who don't care about words of affirmation for the most part. And so sometimes having negative feedback, it. It really does hurt. It is nobody's favor, right? But if you kind of remove your feelings from the situation and realize, okay, I am getting negative feedback here, I am getting some criticism here, how can I do this thing better? And if you'll look at it as an opportunity to improve instead of, you know, somebody coming against your worth as a person or coming against your value as a business owner, and instead look at it as an opportunity for growth, it'll completely shift that perspective for you. And actually, I have a scripture that I want to share with you that I have shared with my children a lot and have to remind myself of. And that is Proverbs 12:1. In the NIV, it says, Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but whoever hates correction is stupid. And in the nlt, it says, to learn, you must love discipline. It is stupid to hate correction. I think sometimes as business owners, we get so, you know, attach. We attach our value, our value as a human, our value as a child of God to our work and our business. And that is so wrong. You are loved because you're made in God's image. You will be loved whether you fail at business miserably or succeed wonderfully, because you are loved, because you are equipped creation of the most high God. And you are made in his image. You are so valuable to him that he sent his son to die for you, to save you from your sins. And when we get that perspective and when we stay in that frame of mind, then it's really so much easier to ask, like, hey, how could I have done better here? Hey, what would you like to see? Or is there a part of the process that felt clunky to you that you would like to see improved? Or do you have any ideas for how to make this better? Right. Being able to ask those questions, those kind of hard questions from a place of, hey, no matter what they say, God loves me. That is where I want you to be. That's where I want all of us to be. Okay? And the last trap thought that I want to talk about is gonna surprise you that I'm saying it, but it's. I'll just do keyword research instead of market research. Now, y'all know I love keyword research, and it's absolutely crucial to your SEO strategy. But sometimes y'all, the words that people type with their little fingers and the words that come out of their mouths are different, vastly different sometimes. And when you will get in conversation with people and do market research, you're going to find so many gold nuggets for one, how to serve people better. Two, two, how to market your product better. Okay. And so yes, keywords research is highly valuable. Absolutely should do it. Market research also highly valuable. They have to go together. Now you will find that sometimes the words people say again are very different than what they type and that's why you have to do both and you have to use your market research in the right places and your keyword research in the right places. So if you are wondering exactly how to do this keyword research, where to use the keyword research when you're done, and some starter questions and make sure that you stay tuned for this entire podcast series where I'm going to break it all down and if you're like faith, just do it all for me. Well, one, I can't do your market research for you, but two, I would love to help you take that market research and a great SEO strategy and craft it into a website that speaks to your people and sells well. So if you're somebody that you're ready to have your SEO and your copy done right, then book a call to see if you're a good fit to have a VIP day or full website copy package because I would love to serve you and help you serve your people better through great SEO, great website copy and implementing some great market research strategy with and for you. All right y'all, we'll chat with you next week. Bye. Thank you so much for listening in today. Hopefully this episode gave you some really tangible tips for better SEO and marketing to get more leads and more sales from your website. If it did, can I ask you a quick favor? Would you please share this episode with a friend and then just take 10 seconds and go leave a written review on Apple Podcasts. That is the very best way to help more Jesus loving entrepreneurs scale their businesses so that they can help more people with their gifts and make an even bigger impact for the Kingdom of God. And guess what? We now have a Facebook community where we can learn, hang out and laugh. Go join the Facebook group now. It's linked in the show notes and all the other things, courses, coaching and copywriting can be found at my website, faith hannon.com until next time. God bless and I'll talk to.