Audience research is essentially any research conducted on a customer base to find out about their attitudes, behaviours, and habits – to understand them. The sample can be made up of any group of interest – whether this is nationally representative, or focused on a particular age, gender, region, ethnicity etc.
The purpose of audience research is to answer a range of business questions, such as to find out what interests them, who influences them, what problems they have, what they think of existing products etc.
Conducting audience research will enable you to get a better understanding of your audience, which in turn will help you connect with your customer and help your company grow. Audience research can help you prioritise how best to meet their needs or decide who to focus on, how to reach them, or what to offer them.
When planning a leaflet distribution campaign, you should know as much as you can about the type of people that are most likely to buy your product or use your services. This way you can target them directly with your flyers to be put through their letterbox.
Demographics of your customers should be considered when conducting the research. If your regular customers are male, then maybe consider where you would find the most male customers. You could also make the design of the leaflet more appealing to male residents.
Another demographic that is often considered is the wealth of an audience. If you are selling something expensive such as high-end watches, then you would need to target areas that are wealthier and are full of residents with more disposable income. Again, the design of the leaflet should be considered with this as, a more high-end product would need to look more formal and less playful to get the response you want from potential customers.
You can conduct this research using existing data of your previous customers. If it is a particular sale, you are advertising, then you can consider who is most likely to benefit from that deal and who is most likely to engage with the offer you are presenting. People with less disposable income for example may react better to 90% off sale.
There are companies that can conduct this research for you including our office staff. Having this information presented clearly and correctly can improve your marketing campaign dramatically.
You would then use this, alongside the information you gather on the location you plan to deliver to. You will then get your flyers to the correct audience instead of wasting thousands, trying to find someone who MAY buy your product.