my “secret weapon” for research
Photo by Luke Chesser on Unsplash
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Earlier this year, I worked on a Kickstarter launch for a company called Carnivore Snax.
It was the first project for Chris Orzechowski’s new email marketing agency, Orzy Media.
Last Friday, Chris asked if I would be willing to put together a short training for the copywriters on the team.
He said:
“Would you be interested in doing a little teaching on Monday’s call?
I thought it’d be cool for you to share your thought process on how you nailed the voice for Carnivore Snax. And maybe we can walk through those awesome product descriptions you wrote
if not, I won’t be offended. Just lemme know what you think”
I said:
I won’t give away the whole training here, because that wouldn’t be fair to Chris. And in general, I try not to be a dickhead.
But I did realize one important thing while putting it together. And I want to share it:
When it came to this project, Instagram was my “secret weapon” for research.
Largely because I was a member of the target audience and was already following the Carnivore Snax co-founder, Sylwia, on Instagram long before Chris approached me about the project.
So really, my “research” on Instagram was actually just me developing a genuine interest in the Carnivore diet before I even started the project.
I think Instagram can be a great research tool because it gives you a direct look into your customer’s life.
You get to learn about their desires, their challenges, and their sense of humor. And you get to do it in a very organic way.
You get to see pictures of who your customers are IN REAL LIFE. (Sure, maybe they’re flexing a little bit for the ‘gram… but who doesn’t?)
The bottom line is:
Instagram lets you learn a lot about your customers in a very deep way.
They’re no longer faceless identities. They’re real people.
So if you haven’t thought about using Instagram as a research tool… give it a shot.
Robert