Technology
10 Audience Research Tools to Understand Them Better
Marketing tools get the job done when reaching audiences, driving them to your site, and purchasing your product or services. However, many businesses take their marketing strategies to the next level with audience research. The insights offered by audience research tools are valuable. And it helps marketers create personalized campaigns to entice audiences to their products or services. But which tools should you use? We list the ten best ones!
Audience Research vs. Market Research: What’s the Difference?
The terms audience research and market research are interchangeable. However, there’s a stark difference between the two. Market research covers discussions or insights on market trends and various audiences. Meanwhile, audience research focuses on a specific demographic.
1. SparkToro
One of the leaders in audience research is SparkToro. You can rely on SparkToro to give pertinent information about your audiences, such as job titles, education, preferences, hashtags, and language. And they crawl over 80 million pages to get the information you need to understand your audience. They gather audience data from these platforms:
- YouTube
- Apple
- GitHub
- Medium
- Vimeo
- Dribbble
Features:
- Know your audience with actionable insights
- Get contact info of potential leads or customers
- Track metrics and improve marketing campaigns
Pricing:
- Free
- Basic – $50/mo
- Standard – $150/mo
- Agency – $300/mo
2. Ask Your Target Market
If you want another audience intelligence tool, Ask Your Target Market is one option to consider. They have an all-encompassing tool to understand your market, improve your brand and product, and craft better marketing campaigns. If you want to use this as your primary audience research tool, expect these features:
Features:
- Know consumer decisions
- Ask consumers with surveys
- Learn more about consumer purchase behavior
Pricing:
- Lite- Free
- Plus – $150/mo
- Max – Custom
3. Audiense
Get ahead of competitors with the help of Audiense. The UK-based audience research tool has two solutions to help brands optimize their marketing strategies: Audiense Insights and Audiense Connect. This tool is ideal for businesses learning more about their Twitter audience. But Audiense Insights provides a comprehensive overview of your audience.
Features:
- Audience segmentation
- Provides personality insights and recommendations on what content to reach your audiences
- Benchmarking and reporting
Pricing:
- Free
- Audience Intelligence – £1199/mo (~US$1,500/mo)
- Twitter Marketing – £39/mo (~US$50/mo)
4. SurveyMonkey
You can conduct audience research yourself by using a survey tool like SurveyMonkey. Using SurveyMonkey as an audience research tool is ideal if you have a huge customer base. If you have around 200+ customers, you can understand your customers better with a survey. Plus, you can use their responses to guide your marketing strategy.
Features:
- Create branded surveys in minutes
- Link the survey anywhere
- Get insightful reports based on customer responses
Pricing (Team Plans):
- Team Advantage – $25/user/mo
- Team Premier – $75/user/mo
- Enterprise – Custom
5. Typeform
An alternative survey tool to SurveyMonkey is Typeform. With Typeform, you can get a pulse of your audience’s behaviors and preferences through quantitative and qualitative data gathering. Like SurveyMonkey, you can customize your survey with branding colors or templates.
Features:
- Sync tools such as Google Sheets and Slack
- Generate more leads
- Get unlimited responses with the Enterprise plan
Pricing:
- Basic – $29/mo
- Plus – $59/mo
- Business – $99/mo
- Enterprise – Contact sales
6. BrandMentions
Social listening is another form of audience research. BrandMentions is one platform for that purpose. You can get ahead of competitors on the platform with the Business Intelligence solution. You can use amazing tools, such as:
- Hashtag and brand trackers
- Social mentions
- Social media trackers
Features:
- Connect with influencers
- Reach out to and engage with consumers regularly
- Supercharge your content marketing with article ideas and high-quality links
Pricing:
- Growing Business – $99/mo
- Company – $299/mo
- Enterprise/Agency – $499/mo
7. AnswerThePublic
SEO platforms or tools can give you insight into your audience too. AnswerThePublic is one of the most popular audience research tools to understand your consumers. With AnswerThePublic, you can search for your keyword and get insights about your customers’ searches, such as:
- The 5Ws, How, Can, Are, Which
- Keywords + Prepositions
- Comparisons
- Alphabetical list
- Related searches
Aside from those, how can AnswerThePublic help you?
Features:
- Unlimited daily searches (subscriber-exclusive)
- Monitor suggestions
- Organize your searches with folders
Pricing:
- Free (Limited searches)
- Monthly – $99/mo
- Annual – $79/mo
- Expert – $199/mo
8. Statista
One underutilized audience research tool is statistics. And there’s no better source for updated statistics than Statista. The market and consumer data website offer insights into any industry or demographic. You can find trends and consumer behavior patterns. But here are other services that Statista offers:
Features:
- Customized reports and analysis
- Use AskStatista for quick but comprehensive analyses
- Access to eCommerceDB to get customer insights about consumers
Pricing (Single Accounts):
- Free
- Starter – $39/mo/billed annually
- Project Account – $1950 (billed once)
9. SimilarWeb
SimilarWeb is a comprehensive platform guaranteed to optimize your marketing and sales campaigns. One of its main features is the market intelligence tool, giving you an idea of your market and audience.
With their Audience Analysis tool, you can build and segment audiences. Plus, get more insights through behavior and trends. In addition, they promise to help you get ahead of competitors with these other components.
Features:
- Market analysis
- Benchmarking
- App intelligence
Pricing:
- Free
- Research Intelligence Premium – Talk to a product expert
10. Buzzsumo
Although Buzzsumo is a content marketing tool, you can still learn more about your audience on their platform. You’ll know more about trends and updates in their Monitoring solution. Plus, you can monitor who mentions your brand. This allows you to understand who’s interested in your business. And those who you can still reach.
Features:
- Track and get alerts for keywords
- Get updates on new articles about your business
- Monitor links
Pricing:
- Free
- Pro – $99/mo
- Plus – $179/mo
- Large – $299/mo
Final Thoughts
Many audience research tools have hefty price tags. But it’s worth investing in considering the information you can obtain about your audiences. However, if those are too pricey for your taste, there are budget-friendly solutions that could help you better understand your audiences.