I stumbled one day on a great target marketing/advertising research technique that I use to this date.

I was in a client’s office and I saw a pile of trade magazines that I had never heard of. The client swore that he received about 10 or so a month and most just sat there but he went on to claim that he poured over two of them the day they arrived.

From that day forward I began asking my clients what they read, where they got their information and who they trusted as resources.

It’s amazing what this information tells me about my clients, but it’s also an amazing way to get up to speed in my client’s particular industry in a real hurry.

Now, I also take this practice to another level.

Part of my initial marketing planning with a client involves interviewing some number of existing clients to try to uncover marketing opportunities. I have added my little marketing research tactic to these interviews. When I can uncover the “must read” publications – according to the actual market and not a rate card from a publisher – I can narrow my advertising and public relations scope to focus only on those publications that the market actually uses.