March 24

4 Takeaways From Our 2017 Reader Survey

2  comments

This is our second year doing our reader survey. Late in 2017 we asked you about what you liked and didn’t like. In short, we wanted to understand the demographics of our audience so that we create content and products that are aligned with what you expect when you come to a website named “Excel TV”.

Now that we have 2 years worth of data, we can start to see if our demographics are shifting.  Where appropriate, I have compared the results for the past 2 years.

Demographics

Metric

2017

2018

Respondents

58

123

Percent Male %

86%

77%

Between Ages 45-54

34%

20%

Between Ages 55-64

16%

32%

Level: Intermediate Manager

26%


31%

Department: Finance

23%

14%

Department: Accounting

7%

14%

Country: United States

38%

43%

Country: United Kingdom

5%

11%

Country: Australia

9%

10%

Similar to last year, the demographic looks a lot like me.  A middle-aged male, with a numbers crunching background in a Western, English speaking country.  Not too many surprises there.  There are some interesting movements in the demographic from last year, though.  So let's dissect it a bit (the analyst in me just can't help it).

Compared to Last Year

We can't dissect this too much due to the sample size.  58 vs 123 respondents isn't exactly a huge sample size.  But some of the movements make sense based on what happened in our business last year.  So here goes...

Percent Male dropped and visitors are slightly older than last year. No idea why there are fewer males.  There is a possibility that one of our larger female affiliates in Australia (thanks Danielle) helped to influence this.  Respondents being older may be because we started selling products last year.  Our courses are premium Advanced Excel courses and are not meant for the frugal buyer.  This may impact the age of our visitors.  But all in all...  I think that the age & gender of our respondents is more likely due to our smaller sample size last year.  We shouldn't read to much into it.

Less Finance and more Accounting visitors.  One of our affiliates that supported our courses in 2017 provides CPE credits to Accountants.  This influx of traffic (predominately USA traffic) likely influenced the results.

More USA, UK and Australia visitors. If I had added an additional row to the table, Canada would have been fourth.  This is likely driven heavily by our American accents and our connections with other partners/affiliates in Australia, Canada and the USA.  Last year we released an Excel PivotTable Course by Ken Puls (a Canadian).  These countries tend to be considered "buyer" countries in the online market.  So I'm not frustrated at all by the results. But we will eventually need to appeal to a more geographically diverse audience.

Compared to Facebook Audience

Metric

Website 

Facebook

Respondents

123 respondents

7,277 Likes

Percent Male %

77%

83%

Website#1:United States

43%

5%

Website#2:United Kingdom

11%

>1%

Website#3:Australia

10%

>1%

FB#1: India

3%

37%

FB#2: Pakistan

>1%

10%

FB#3: Egypt

0%

7%

So our social media following is much different than our website following.  This is likely because an early follower of ours on Facebook was Rahim at Excel Basement.  Here is his Pakistan based Facebook Page.  He suggested others follow us, which heavily slanted our early social media following towards the Middle East.  Not much to learn here other than our early success on Facebook hasn't necessarily been what's fueled our growth in 2017.  Check out the Excel TV Facebook page or our popular Excel TV Facebook Group

About The Reader

  • Things he gets asked about most in Excel: Pivot Tables, Power Query, VLookup, Data Cleansing, Formulas, VBA/Macros/Automation, and Database Connections
  • What hasn’t worked for him: Excel Books, Google Searches, Most Youtube Channels and Udemy
  • He values the opinions of people like Mike Girvin, Mynda Treacy, Jon Acampora, Jeff Lenning, Avi Singh, Bill Jelen, Chandoo, Sumit Bansal, Michael Alexander, Ken Puls, John Michaloudis and of course the Excel TV Hosts. He mentioned lots more people. But basically, if you are online and have a presence that provides regular value, then he follows you and values your opinion.
  • Sample of things that keep him up at night include: VBA, Automation, Data Cleansing & Presentation
  • He is most interested to learn about Power BI, Power Query, SQL & Sharepoint

His Views of Excel TV

  • He doesn’t need to know much more about the Excel TV hosts.  One person was curious about how Jordan keeps his curls.  And another expressed that they liked the old Youtube "show" format and that in its current form the "website" isn't particularly unique in the Excel community.  Spoiler Alert: Season 4 of the show will be back this summer.
  • Regarding purchasing a future Excel TV product… he already feels confident in the Excel TV Hosts but would need to see a product that fit his needs at a price point that made sense to him.  In short… price, time, quality, and need.
  • Interested in topics like Power BI, Visualization and Predictive Analytics
  • If you are a survey geek, then I will share the full results with you by following this link

The Takeaways

  • Audience - Our average reader/viewer is a male (that's why I keep saying "him/he") that is in Finance/Accounting and is getting older.  A decade older than last year. Advancing in his career and has crunched numbers for a while.  He just wants to get the damned report out.  Automate it if he can.  And hopefully at a price that his employer will pay for.
  • Topics - The average reader is quickly moving into advanced topics like PowerBI, PowerQuery, Sharepoint, and Predictive Analytics.  While the current form of the website is set up as more of an Excel and Data Visualization hub.  Excel TV is in the finishing stages of a Data Science Course (Power BI & R).  But there is scant free content on the site around these topics.  We need to consider this in our product and content roadmap.  In short, our readership is maturing.  And as such, they desire more advanced topics that help them get through their day at work.  Perhaps shorter courses/tutorials that hit more precise problem areas would be useful.
  • Products - Average reader isn't opposed to our courses and products but needs them to hit a price point for purchase.  Excel TV will need to look for ways to meet the value that the customer expects.  The courses are actually underpriced, as all courses are facilitated by Excel MVPs, Authors, that are experts in the field they are teaching (this is unique in the Excel blogger world).  But we must find ways of either communicating that value, or we will have a difficult time competing in the market longer term.  This may include lesson giveaways, etc to let users appreciate the value
  • Content - Admittedly, our FREE Excel content has become stale.  We last recorded a show almost 2 years ago.  By no means will we likely ever return to the 20 shows we did in our first season.  But there needs to be fresh content coming out of Excel TV on a consistent basis.  This became difficult for us 2 years ago because we needed a way to show our loved ones that the effort we put into this 'labour of love' was worth all the time it took away from our families.  So we spent some time creating a business model that works for everyone.  We are now ready to ramp up the content again.  The Excel TV show is scheduled to return in the summer of this year.  Additionally, our resident Excel MVP Jordan Goldmeier will be unveiling fresh weekly content very soon.  Stay tuned.

Next Steps...

Are we on the right path?  Did you see something different in the survey results?  Want to know how Jordan keeps those curls kickin'?  Hit us up in the comments section.

And until next time.  Keep on Excellin'


Rick Grantham
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