# Audience Research

Research an audience's pains, language, and competitor positioning on the web and compile the findings into a structured research file for downstream copywriting.

## When to use

- Before drafting landing pages, ads, or emails for a new segment or offer.
- When a copy brief lacks voice-of-customer evidence or competitor angle data.
- When existing copy is underperforming and the messaging may be stale or off-target.
- When a human or another agent requests fresh market/audience research on a topic.

## Tools

- `browser-search`: run queries to find forums, reviews, competitor pages, and articles about the audience and their pains.
- `browser-navigate`: open the most relevant search results, forum threads, review pages, and competitor sites.
- `browser-extract`: pull structured text (quotes, headlines, pricing, positioning claims) from each opened page.
- `write-file`: save the compiled research into a single research file artifact.

## Playbook

1. Confirm the target audience, product/offer, and research goal from the task or brief; if any is missing, ask via `send-message` before proceeding.
2. Use `browser-search` for the audience's own words: forums, review sites, Reddit threads, Q&A sites, and social posts mentioning the problem the product solves.
3. Use `browser-navigate` to open the strongest 5-10 results from that search.
4. Use `browser-extract` on each opened page to capture verbatim pain-point quotes, recurring phrases, and objections — this is the voice-of-customer material.
5. Use `browser-search` again for direct and adjacent competitors serving the same audience.
6. Use `browser-navigate` to open each competitor's homepage, pricing page, and top landing pages.
7. Use `browser-extract` on each to capture their headlines, value propositions, pricing structure, and calls to action.
8. Synthesize findings into sections: audience pains (with quotes), voice-of-customer phrases, competitor angles, and gaps/opportunities for differentiated messaging.
9. Save the synthesis with `write-file` as a single research file, then summarize the key findings and file location via `complete-task`.

## Failure modes

- Search or navigation returns 401/403 or a paywall: skip that source, note it, and continue with remaining sources.
- Empty or irrelevant extraction results: refine the search query and retry `browser-search` with narrower or synonym terms.
- Rate limited or blocked by a site: back off, move to the next source, and note the limitation via `update-memory`.
- Target page structure has changed or extraction yields garbage: fall back to `browser-search` for alternate sources covering the same audience or competitor.

## Done when

- A research file has been written via `write-file` containing distinct audience-pains, voice-of-customer, and competitor-angle sections with sourced quotes or claims.
- The task is closed via `complete-task` with a summary of the top 3-5 findings and the file location.
- Any blocked or inaccessible sources are noted rather than silently omitted.