Generate High-Quality Consumer Insights Through Secondary Research

The world of product development is obsessed with “talking to the customer.” If you’ve read any 101 books on entrepreneurship or engaged with a UX research team, you know that consumer insight is synonymous with primary research. However, there is valuable learning to be had before you even get to speak with your target audience in person.

Your customers don’t only come to life when you speak to them. Every day, they venture the internet and leave a trail of breadcrumbs along the way. Many underestimate it, but this trail can actually help you uncover a wealth of consumer insights that can guide your development process.

I’m here to remind you that you can unlock meaningful consumer insight by pursuing a quick sprint of desk research before diving deeper into user interviews. Turning to secondary research fills in the gaps that primary research leaves. It is extremely useful if you don’t have the resources to conduct primary research yourself or outsource it to research firms. And, without having to deploy an army of researchers to scope out data, the time and resource efficiency are invaluable.

Social chatter – no better place to start

Whether it’s the latest thread on Reddit, a discussion under an industry blog, or a niche Facebook group, you should aim to find your users where they spend their time. Try to uncover the conversations they lead, what trending topics interest them, questions they repeatedly ask, and what values matter to them the most.

Sites like Quora are great hubs for secondary research, with conversations happening about everything from UI hacks to brand perception. Questions range from “What makes a CRM system a success or a failure?” to “What is the best AI chatbot?” and you can use Quora to tap into today’s digital conversations. With a user base of people looking for solutions, Quora reveals volumes about existing pain points and allows you to enter the conversation and shape the solution alongside others.

Social media listening is also key, but rather than just following certain keywords, you can, for example, set up a Twitter list with relevant industry players. Let’s say that your target audience is CTOs looking to automate operations – adding these people to a group you follow in real-time can help you learn about their needs from a different insider perspective.

Review sites as a treasure trove of consumer pain points

Similar to how Glassdoor and Indeed can paint an image of a company’s operational challenges, review websites can direct you towards the key watch-outs to be mindful of as you build up your business and adjust your product.

Websites such as G2, Capterra, B2B Crowd, Clutch, and Trustpilot let you explore the existing solutions in the market and develop a hypothesis on how to fulfill a gap in the market. You can’t expect to get objective insights from a competitor’s website, so if you want to dive deeper into user feedback, third-party platforms are a safe bet. However, as you look at the negative feedback, remember to note what users have been appreciating as well. By collecting verbatim comments, you can then cluster the feedback and draw broader conclusions on what users have liked and disliked about the existing players.

When considering B2C products, Google Play and Apple’s App Store also reveal interesting information that you otherwise might not come across. For example, by setting different location settings, you can see what users in different areas have been struggling with when it comes to competitors’ solutions, uncovering precise focus points for further UI and UX improvements. Also, platforms like App Annie aggregate download data, reviews, and other metrics to provide a comprehensive overview of apps.

Media as an amplifier of the consumer’s voice

If you see an article mentioning competitors in your market, or one that’s elaborating on a trend you’re investigating, look into the comments section and see what’s being discussed. Often, it can provide a fuller story and more insight into current consumer trends. 

Podcasts, webinars, and report launches can do wonders to advance greater user understanding, but it’s also good practice to subscribe to specialized industry newsletters or set up Google alerts for topics related to your business, so you don’t miss any important updates. The aim here is to parse through relevant channels to find those pieces of content where your consumer has been interviewed on the topic of your research.

Let’s say that a journalist at the Wall Street Journal created a comprehensive report on how consumers are looking to curb emissions through consumption. Such work can reveal important consumer behavior trends and narratives that you can leverage to help shape your messaging and product presentation – and you could even follow up with the interviewed individuals. Following journalists that cover a beat relevant to your industry can help you get to know your user audience in a more authentic and broader way.

Leveraging others’ packaged insights 

Even if you did your best, you might not have the research capabilities of McKinsey or Nielsen. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t have access to their insights – though, be ready to do some filtering and digging.

The US Census page is among some of the big databases that aggregate primary research. From electric vehicles to ethnic diversity in business, you can find extremely niche data both on the national and state levels. In Europe, data.europa is the place to go.

Consumer Barometer is another interactive tool that explains how consumers research items before making buying decisions. Answer the Public is worth exploring when you want to learn about the digital conversations happening around a specific theme or keyword, and lastly, Tegus transcribes calls from qualitative research and investor-led interviews.

Consumer insights help businesses map their customer journeys and improve the UX throughout. But to reach that goal, it’s time to look well beyond the traditional methods. By assessing information that’s already out there, you can save yourself some heavy lifting on research or supplement the data you get from your primary interviews.