Katelyn Bourgoin 🧠 Profile picture
Apr 25, 2022 18 tweets 7 min read Read on X
The best marketers are customer-obsessed

Here are 6 free tools to help you better understand your audience and market smarter (even if you’re not techie) 👇
Let me preface this by saying that if you really, REALLY wanna understand what works with buyers, you should

*Wait for it*

Talk to actual buyers

Buyers are the best source of contextual insights. Period.

That said, if ya need a quick hit of inspiration these tools can help...
Let’s explore each tool using an example

Imagine that you work for an ad agency that just signed Skims—Kim K’s shapewear co

Kim is in the middle of an expensive divorce so she demands that your team grow sales FAST

There’s just one problem: you know *nothing* about shapewear
If you can’t figure out what works with buyers—and fast—you’re fucked

Time for some quick research, right?

Luckily an incredibly helpful research tool is hiding in plain sight...
Tool #1: Google Autocomplete

When you type something into Google, it will automatically suggest popular searches

Typing: “Skims vs” will show you who your top competitors are in the minds of buyers
Tool #1: Google Autocomplete Con’t

And if you want to understand the types of solutions people are searching for...

Search “Shapewear for” and presto—you now have some clues about the different use cases for your product

(Who knew that even Olympians want shaping support?)
As a former Google Engineer wrote in his book:

“Google searches are the most important dataset ever collected on the human psyche”

Which brings us to our next free tool...
Tool #2: @answerthepublic

AnswerThePublic is sort of like Google auto-complete on steroids

You can enter a keyword and it will reveal what people are searching for that’s relevant to that topic

Apparently buyers are looking for “shapewear with butt pads” — interesting 🍑
With summer coming, you know shapewear will be topical and you want to follow the conversation

Enter tool #3: @TalkWalker Alerts

Setup a free alert for your brand name or keywords

Now you’ll know when you’re mentioned in blogs, forums, websites or Twitter and you can eavesdrop
Tool #4: @sparktoro

SparkToro helps you discover your audience’s sources of influence

A free search reveals that people who follow Skims also describe themselves as “wives” or “mothers” and use the hashtag #euphoria

I bet some 🔥 content ideas are already brewing, huh?
Tool #5: Facebook Ad Library

You know Spanx is a top competitor from your “Google vs” research

You can use Facebook Ad Library to search and see all the ads that they are currently running

The longer an ad has been running, the better it’s probably performing—cool, right?
If you’re looking for some quick inspiration and your audience hangs out on Twitter, check out:

Tool #6: Twitter Advanced Search

Weirdly, you can’t easily access the search form within Twitter

But you can Google it or go there directly and bookmark it for later
Tool #6: Twitter Advanced Search Con’t

It’s a great tool for finding popular tweets from competitive brands...

Like this one from Yitty—a popular shapewear brand for plus sizes
Tool #6: Twitter Advanced Search Con’t

Searching for relevant keywords—like “shapewear”—and filtering results by popularity can reveal interesting insights... like this one from @TheYelitsa

I bet a lot of spapewear brands are making this mistake without knowing it
TL;DR?

Use these 6 free tools for oodles of inspiration:

• Google autocomplete
• @AskThePublic
@TalkWalker Alerts
@SparkToro
• Facebook Ads Library
• Twitter Advanced Search

These tools are super rad but...
They’re not a replacement for real buyer research

If you wanna market smarter you must go deeper

What you really want are *buyer stories*—that’s where the gold is buried

The problem?

Marketers often can’t get buy-in from clients/teams to gather buyer stories

On that note...
Me and @coreyhainesco are working on something new

We’ll teach how to use scrappy research methods + targeted experiments to quickly figure out what works with buyers

You won’t need permission & you’ll look like a badass in the process

Interested? Comment “👀” for early access
Did you find this thread helpful?

Follow me for more scrappy research tips → @katebour

And if you’d re tweet to share the love, I’d be so grateful 🙏

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Katelyn Bourgoin 🧠

Katelyn Bourgoin 🧠 Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @KateBour

May 17
My newsletter is read by 72,648 people and was named one of the top marketing newsletters by Forbes

I use these 7 buyer psychology tips to write emails people *actually* wanna read 👇
Before we dive in, there’s one thing you have to promise you’ll *never* use

Clickbait

Because nothing will kill trust (and eventually kills your open rates) like clickbait

Got it? Good. Let’s get to it!
Tip 1: Short subject lines

Attention spans are short AF, so… your subject line should be even shorter

Limit your subject line to 2-5 words (~50 characters)

Preview to make sure it’s *not* cut off on mobile (~42% of emails are read on mobile) Image
Read 10 tweets
Mar 22
I run a $745K/year business with 0 full-time employees.

Here are 6 lesser-known tools I use to get sh*t done and sell more stuff:
This isn’t one of those threads where I’ll share the same 6 tools everyone always talks about

These are tools that you either:

A) Haven’t heard of
B) Hadn’t considered using this way

Ok. Let’s dive in...
1. @Coda_hq (Notion alternative)

How I Use It:
> Manage newsletter production & sponsorships
> Create templates, guides & internal docs
> Plan/write social posts (like this one!)

Why I 💛 It:
> Generous free plan
> Super intuitive yet powerful Image
Read 9 tweets
Feb 23
We launched Wallet-Opening Words on January 28th and it’s already generated $78,390 in sales

Here are 4 *science-backed* tactics we used in the launch

(You'll wanna bookmark this)
Before we dive in...

Selling digital products ain’t easy money

(Despite what gurus say)

Having a great product isn't enough—you've gotta cleverly package and promote your product so people understand its value

Here are 4 tactics we used & why they worked (backed by science):
Tactic 1: Run pre-sale first week of January

We kicked off the new year with a pre-sale campaign

WOW wouldn’t be ready until late January but people who pre-ordered got special pricing and a surprise bonus (more on that in tactic 2)

Result: 304 pre-orders in just 2 days
Read 12 tweets
May 25, 2023
We’re all biased

Here are 9 mental errors that could be killing your marketing growth and costing you customers:
Decision-making is hard work

Our brains don't like thinking hard and so we use shortcuts to decide faster

Sometimes these shortcuts lead us to misinterpret the world around us

Recognizing these mental errors can make you a better marketer (and human)

So let’s get into it...
1. Loss Aversion

People want to avoid losses

The pain of losing something is 2X more powerful than the pleasure of gaining

In marketing, loss aversion can lead us to desperately try to do everything ourselves rather than hiring experienced people because we fear losing money
Read 14 tweets
May 5, 2023
Have you heard of the priming effect?

Understanding this behavioral glitch is key if you want to make a great first impression.

So here's the gist:
Our current environment affects how we perceive experiences, brands, and even other people.

Behavioural scientists call this “the priming effect”

And it's powerful.
We’re unconsciously primed by everything we see, hear, smell, taste, and feel.

For instance, if you hear happy, upbeat music, you’re more likely to feel happy and upbeat.

But, it gets even crazier...
Read 7 tweets
Apr 1, 2023
Do you love being ignored?

You're in luck—the Ignorable Challenge is here

We put up billboards in remote places all over the world with tips to help you become *ignorable*

(Although if all goes well, these billboards will never be seen)

Here's the 1st tip Image
Tip 2/ Wait until a post is perfect before you publish

When you set an impossibly high bar for content quality, you'll never publish anything...

Which means you'll never get seen

A perfect way to be ignored Image
Tip 3/ Target everyone

Have you heard the saying: "When you market to everyone, you market to no one"?

That means that marketing to everyone is a failsafe way of being ignored—yeee-hah! Image
Read 12 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(