Have you ever read a blog post that was also a… kidnapping? Well, you’re about to.

Hey! I’m Jemilla from Storytella Studios®.

Sara isn’t here today — I’ve taken her hostage so I can take over her blog. She’s busy shucking oysters and creating a custom New England itinerary for me.

…I’m just kidding. She’s probably playing with too-adorable-to-be-true Woo and getting another tattoo.

(but I had you going for a second there, didn’t I?)

In all seriousness, I asked Sara if I could share some wisdom on her blog, and she agreed! And yay for that, because I love educating people.

Lately, it’s been on market research and how it’s a vital first step in any copywriting project.

Before us word magicians take out our wands and bippity-boppity-boo all over a Google Doc, we’re using that wand like a shovel to dig deep into data and market insights from across the internet.

Because those insights are how we figure out how to write the right copy.

Our clients usually come to us because:

• They’re having trouble really getting to know their ideal clients, targeting them, and reaching them
• They need a word magician to connect what they’re selling to what their consumers want, and get them super excited about the offer
• They need their copy to convert like crazy

And we don’t just start tapping away on a keyboard to check all those boxes. There are important steps we take first, before we ever start to fill in that blank document.

Let’s get into it ⬇️

#1 — Getting to know your brand & your competition

This is usually in the form of a brand questionnaire, an onboarding call, some serious online stalking, or all three!

I consider this part of the market research process because we’ll discover things that you probably don’t even consider — like cool vocabulary and phrases that are BOMB and could easily be a headline, or what we should highlight about your offer(s).

With those insights, we can figure out what sets you apart compared to your competitors. We compare and contrast everything — your offers, your target audience, the vocabulary you use and your brand tone of voice, and any strengths or opportunities we can explore in your messaging.

Once we do that, we can move on to the next step ⬇️

#2 — Getting to know your target audience

There are a couple ways we can do this:

1 – ASKING YOU

You are our first source of information about who your target audience is. You’ve likely banked away a bunch of insights about your ideal consumer while doing work for the past while, and you just need someone nosy to pull it out of you (a.k.a. us copywriters).

However, you don’t know enough about them — that’s why you came to us! So, we’ll also ⬇️

2 – Conducting a consumer survey/interview with your past clients or any unfulfilled leads

I personally LOVE doing this because we can pull so many juicy words and phrases directly from their mouths, and use it in your copy (with their consent, obvi)! The more we learn, the more complete a consumer profile we can build. Combining this information with insight we got by ⬇️

3 – Crawling the internet for readily available information about who’s the ideal consumer for what you’re offering

There are countless reports, statistics, and qualitative research articles out there that fill in any insight gaps about who your ideal consumer is. We use search prompts like “Who uses (product/service)” and “Target audience for (your field of work)” or “How many people (action)”; i.e. don’t wear SPF and “(product/service) reviews” to help us find relevant information, and voila! We have a consumer profile!

But the market research doesn’t stop there ⬇️

#3 — Getting to know the market

We’ll keep digging through the internet (our mental biceps are HUGE) for insights about if there’s a need for what you’re offering, how saturated the market is, and the keywords and search terms your ideal audience uses to find the kind of thing you’re selling.

That last one is called SEO keyword research, and she’s a hefty (but necessary) undertaking.

With the voice of customer insights we got from consumer research + the keyword research we conduct, we’ll be able to embed the juiciest, algorithm-friendly, most click-worthy words and phrases into your copy — and the sign of a great copywriter is when it feels effortless, not clunky.

*takes a deep breath*

See how much work that was? And we haven’t even started writing yet!

But I promise you, if copywriters just started 😬writing😬 without gathering these insights first, we’d be starting at the blinking cursor on the blank page for a HELL of a lot longer.

(and wasting your hard earned money)

TL;DR? Market research matters for copywriting because:

• We’ll know the best way to talk about your brand and offers (and sell them)
• We’ll better understand your target audience and use the words that resonate with them and reach them in their corner of the internet

That’s it, really. I guess it wasn’t that serious I had to entice you with a fake kidnapping at the top there 🤪

But how about a cool as heck workshop where Sara and I team up to show you how to do sensory storytelling that makes your copy hit harder than ponzu on oysters?

Oh, would you look at that! Sara just walked in. I’ll let her takeover 👋🏾

Okayyyy, everybody say thanks to Jemilla for educating us!

*crowd says “thaaaanks Jemillaaaaa” in unison*

In all seriousness, though — when Jemilla asked me if she could come tell you about the importance of market research for your brand (and your copy), I thought to myself why the hell would I say no?

& if you’re not following her yet, here’s your chance.

ANDDDD if you liked what you learned in this post, make sure you subscribe to my email list to be notified when my 👀 upcoming workshop 👀 with Jemilla drops soon!