Target Audience Research Tips?

[SharpKiwi]

Any tips on identifying the target audience?

[Brother22]

It depends on your niche, I find the best way is to search my main keyword + blog and read through comments to get a read on the demographic. Also you could try and search related keywords to see what sites pop up.. If you're running a website now try doing a survey if you're looking for more direct information. I think SEOmoz uses http://www.surveymonkey.com/

Hope this helps!

[KeriMorgret]

If this is for a client, you can also ask them for any research they have already done into their target audience for their other advertising and marketing efforts, such as buying TV ad time, newspaper ads, or a radio spot.

[EssEEmily]

You might find some useful information from Google Analytics. If your client already has a Facebook fan page there is some useful information in the Insights.

If they have an ecommerce site, they could add questions to the checkout process in order to learn more about who is ordering (just be careful not to interfere with the user experience.

I haven't personally used it, but Quantcast might be another option.

[SharpKiwi]

I just realized searching [keyword] + testimonials was a great way to find the type of people who would become prospective clients. Further research such as client surveys, web statistics are great ideas