The Fastest Way to Understand Your Audience Without Talking to Them

“Talk to your customers” is one of the most common pieces of advice in marketing. And it’s not wrong. But it’s also not always realistic.

Maybe you don’t have direct access or contact information for these folks. Maybe your team doesn’t prioritize customer interviews. Maybe you’re a founder wearing seven hats, or a marketer who doesn’t have a warm list to call. Or maybe you’re just under a deadline and don’t have 10 weeks of lead time to schedule two dozen interviews.

Fortunately, you can still understand your audience — where they go, what they care about, what’s holding them back, and how they describe their needs — without ever sending a survey or hopping on a Zoom.

Because your audience is (passively) pushing this data around the web. You just need to know where to look.

What “Understanding Your Audience” Really Means

Understanding your audience isn’t about segmenting them by gender or pulling a keyword research list. It’s doing audience research to find out:

• What topics they care about most
• What language they use when describing their problems
• What motivates them to act (and what holds them back)
• Where they spend their time online—and which sources of influence they trust

When you have that kind of insight, everything gets easier. Spending ad budget on the channels that matter gets easier. Writing pain-point-oriented copy gets way easier. Uncovering topics that people care about so that you can write resonant content gets a heckuva lot easier.

• Writing landing page copy that converts? Easier.
• Creating content that resonates? Way easier.
• Developing a product or campaign that actually gets used? You guessed it… E.Z.R.

The best part? It’s shockingly painless and surprisingly efficient to get most of this information. 

The Fastest Tools for Instant Audience Insight

Start with five questions for your audience research so that you can better understand your audience:

1. What do they read, watch, and follow?
2. What are they really thinking about the problem(s) you solve?
3. What influences their decision making?
4. What are they doing on your site?
5. What technology are they using?

1. What Do They Read, Watch, and Follow? → SparkToro

C’mon. You had to know I would lead with this. If you know who your audience is — even roughly — you can use SparkToro to instantly uncover:

• What websites they visit most
• What podcasts they listen to
• Which social accounts they follow
• What keywords they search on Google
• What apps and platforms they use (e.g. Do they really use ChatGPT or Perplexity as much as traditional search? Do they still use Medium? Are they shifting from Twitter to Bluesky and Threads? Sticking to Pinterest and Reddit?)

Want to know what podcasts engineering managers are listening to? Which YouTube channels people who search for home appliances watch? Or the Search & AI Tools among the audience visiting a brilliant but niche blog post? You’ll get a list in seconds.

SparkToro is the audience research tool that lets you bypass the guesswork and go straight to the watering holes so you can show up in the right places and speak their language.

Use it to:

• Find content inspiration, media partners, and creator/influencer collaborations 
• Validate whether your messaging mirrors audience interests 
• Research competitors’ audiences too (they’re fair game)

2. What Are They Really Thinking? → Reddit, Quora, and Review Sites

If you want raw, unfiltered, unmoderated opinions from your audience, go where they complain.

Reddit, Quora, and Google Maps (for physical businesses) are goldmines for honest breakdowns of what people struggle with, and importantly — because you’ll never get this in a customer interview — the questions they’re too embarrassed to ask publicly.

Search using job titles (“CFO”), problems (“marketing attribution”), or product types (“project management software”). Read the threads. Notice the phrases that repeat. Those are your headlines waiting to happen.

If you’re in the software business or if you’re a new company (or have a new product), review sites like G2 or Trustpilot can be especially useful. For ecommerce, take a closer look at Amazon and Google Shopping reviews too. Really pay attention to the 2-3 star reviews — especially for competitors. These often contain brutally honest critiques and unmet expectations in the customer’s own words.

Use these to:

• Swipe voice of customer (VOC) language
• Identify messaging gaps or misaligned expectations
• Create content that tackles real objections or concerns

3. What Influences Their Thoughts? → Social Listening

To get a sense of what your audience is thinking, what they’re skimming, and the people and ideas they’re paying attention to, look at the feeds. Go where your audience is hanging out (LinkedIn? Threads? Both? Again, SparkToro is a cheat code for this), create a list of key folks in your audience or at least people who best represent them, and follow along. Twitter/X has the list functionality, on Instagram you can create a finsta, or an alt account specific to your audience so that the Explore tab can serve you relevant content, and on LinkedIn you can create a saved search. Here’s what that looks like — pay close attention to my search filters:

You’ll see how your ideal customer describes themselves, what they post, what gets engagement. You’ll even be able to do some light competitive intelligence as you can peep on your competitors too.

Use this to:

• Validate use cases
• Identify thought leaders
• Message/converse like a peer

4. What Are They Doing on Your Site? → Google Analytics + Hotjar

If your audience is already engaging with your brand, your website behavior tells you exactly where they’re confused, intrigued, or bouncing.

Start with Google Analytics 4 and Google Search Console:

• What are your top landing pages?
• Where do people drop off?
• What keywords do they search for to get to your site?

Then layer in Hotjar or Microsoft Clarity:

• Where do they click (or rage click)?
• Are they scrolling all the way to your CTA?
• What sections are getting ignored entirely?

This kind of behavioral data doesn’t just tell you what people say they want. It tells you what they do which is often even more valuable.

Use these to:

• Spot messaging gaps
• Refine your user journey
• Prioritize fixes, content, and pages that remove friction and improve conversion

5. What Problems Are They Actively Solving? → Search and Job Boards

If you want to know what your audience is prioritizing right now, pay attention to what they’re searching for — and what they’re hiring for.

• Use Google’s autocomplete and People Also Ask boxes to explore common phrasing.
• Look at Google Trends to spot seasonality or emerging interest.
• Browse job boards like Indeed, Wellfound, or niche boards related to your audience’s industry.

Job postings especially are a goldmine: they show where companies are investing resources, what pain points they’re addressing, and even what software or skills they expect people to know. It’s audience research with a budget attached.

Use these to:

• Spot emerging trends or pain points
• Get real-world language you can reuse in messaging
• Identify business priorities that overlap with your value prop

Remember: Your Audience Already Told You Everything

If you’ve been waiting for permission to skip the surveys and still get quality insights, here it is.

Start with what your audience has already said and done. Use the digital breadcrumbs they leave everywhere. Do your audience research. You’ll be amazed at how much clarity you can gain from the behavior you see with your own eyes.

Because the fastest way to understand your audience is to start listening where they already speak.

Consider using SparkToro to help you figure out where to listen. Create a (free) account today and run your first search!