• 3 min read

šŸ”„ Primary research = your brandā€™s secret weapon

Special thanks to Robert Manigold for inspiring this week's content!

Do you really know your customer? Is your product market fit all in your head? It's easy to rely on public studies and assumptions. But hereā€™s a reality check: using the same public industry stats everyone else is using, gives this many competitive advantages: 0.

Your audience isnā€™t some statistical mean; theyā€™re actual humans with quirks, annoyances, and specific needs. This is where primary research steps in. Iā€™m talking about going straight to real peopleā€”your customers, would-be customers, and the ones who *foolishly* passed on working with you to find out what they think. In real life. Straight from them. You get it.

Primary vs. secondary research

In Primary Research, you create the data yourself by going straight to your audience. In Secondary Research, you rely on existing infoā€”industry reports, competitor analyses, or public stats gathered by a third party. Both are useful, but today we're talking about the core benefits of Primary.

With primary research you get:

  • Unique data no one else has access to
  • 100% pure insights from actual customers
  • Research framework that is custom to a specific goal you have

(In other words, you choose the lens to look through.)

My picks:

  • 1 on 1 interviews: customers, partners, and if you're sneaky, ex-employees of competitors
  • Surveys: send to existing customers, or run a paid one on SurveyMonkey
  • Polls: via email or social
  • Focus groups: these are old school but I still love them. The dialog between people in the same space is pure gold that you can't get in a 1:1 or survey
  • Mapping tools: HotJar, Wantent, and other tools that track facial expressions and eye movements
  • A/B testing: the kind you already know about, plus now IG Reels lets you do Trial Reels to test performance on a group of non-followers.

Overhelming? Are you a team of one? Here's the starter kit:

  • Talk to a handful of customers
  • Ask a prospect who never converted why they bailed
  • Run a small survey that ask customers what they struggle with

Learn how to do research and build a brand framework in my Masterclass: The Brand Framework Course or join the community for research resources and help.

IKYMI, we've made some big changes in the my private marketing community!

Brand Insiders is serving up more industry trends, jobs, live events, discounts, and networking in 2025:

If you're not already in the community, join us! Sign up here

Letā€™s get more out of 2025, together āœŒļø

What to know this week

āœŒļø Nike + Lego? YES PLEASE. Check this collab dropping 2025.

šŸ‘€ Instagram prioritizing views over likes in new algo update.

šŸ’ā€ā™€ļø I'm doing a weekly AMA, for all your burning marketing questions. This week we talked about getting your team onboard with a LinkedIn strategy, and how to decide what skills will help give you an edge for specific roles.

šŸ¤– What are the legal, ethical and economic implications of AI in creative work AdWeek's Jenny Rooney moderates ā€œTo AI or Not to AI,ā€ a debate between David Lee, chief creative officer at Squarespace & Rei Inamoto, founding partner of brand consultancy I&CO.

āœļø I started a new series where I break down jargon terms into how I explain it to my mom.

Hot jobs

Did someone forward you this email and want your own? Subscribe here.
Join my private Brand Insiders community here

Find me here: LinkedIn TikTok