How to better understand your audience as a coach: real use case
Being a coach means knowing your audience, staying closely connected, and keeping up with what people actually need and what they’re struggling with. Successful coaching business is about ongoing research, attention, and iteration, which is undoubtedly tough!
To support other coaches, we're sharing Knappie's story, because we know how challenging it is to keep your offers relevant, your clients engaged, and your business sustainable.
The challenge: what does my audience actually want?
Knappie is a local dog coaching service founded by Ayla Verschueren. It helps owners deal with common behavior issues like leash pulling, barking, or separation anxiety. Knappie already had a strong foundation, offering in-person coaching, online content, and tailored behavior support for all the common dog issues.
To adjust the messaging and offer more relevant coaching, Ayla needed a clearer understanding of the biggest issues her audience was facing. She also needed to better understand the format of coaching Knappie's audience prefers the most. Should she organize another webinar? Launch a new online course? Gather a community group? Even if you have nothing to do with dogs as a coach, the questions are likely familiar.
Instead of launching another offer based on gut feeling, Ayla ran a short survey to learn what their audience truly needed. Turns out, people were more than willing to share! The insights were specific, surprising, and immediately useful.
In the next section, we’ll break down how Knappie conducted their survey, what they learned, and why every coach, regardless of their niche, should consider doing the same.
Understanding the audience's pain points with Weavely
The set-up
Using Weavely, Ayla built a branded, AI-generated survey. It took minutes to set up thanks to Weavely’s AI form generator. She used natural language, and added a mix of multiple-choice, drag-and-drop, and open-ended questions.
The open-ended format was especially useful. It revealed the specific language Knappie’s audience used, like “dog languageˮ versus “learning to read your dog (corporal language)ˮ. This approach helped Knappie refine their messaging to ensure it resonated perfectly with their audience, using the exact terminology they understood.
On the design side, Ayla used Knappie’s color palette, uploaded the logo, and applied a clean, visually appealing layout. The result: a survey that looked professional and followed a logical flow, all with minimal effort thanks to Weavely’s AI styling features.
What Knappie asked their audience
The survey included clear, specific questions like:
- “What problems are you currently facing with your dog?”
- “How would you prefer to learn: online courses, 1-on-1 sessions, or something else?”
- “If we did a giveaway, what would you love to win?”
Knappie didn’t overcomplicate things, they just asked directly. That kind of openness is part of what makes a coach feel trustworthy. People respond when they know you’re genuinely listening to their problems.
Collecting responses
Instead of posting on Knappie’s brand page, Ayla shared the survey on her personal Facebook profile, where her strongest connections already existed. Many of her followers already knew her work or were dog owners themselves, so the engagement was more natural and direct. It paid off with 37 responses on the first day of sharing, and 19 more trickled in afterwards.
Lesson: Your best engagement might not come from your business page. It could be your personal account, a newsletter, a Slack group, or a niche Facebook community.
Cost of running the research
€0 - form building + data collection were entirely free
Learnings
Some results were expected: leash pulling and reactivity were the top challenges for dog owners.
But others were surprising:
- Online courses were more popular than 1-on-1 sessions - even though Ayla assumed people preferred personal coaching
- There was strong interest in a community aspect - dog owners want to talk to each other, not just to a coach
- People described their dogs’ issues in their own words - for example, "reading dog language" instead of "canine body language"
- Custom dog drawings were one of the most requested giveaway items (emotional connection > everything) - it’s a smart move to test the reward before spending time or money on it!
From the results of the survey, Ayla even spotted distinct audience segments and generated some marketing ideas for Knappie:
- The mindful dog parent (holistic, wellness-focused)
- The curious learner (loves flexible self-study)
- The social caregiver (wants connection + personal support)
How to better understand your audience: learnings for other coaches
No matter your niche and whether you're a coach, trainer, or small business owner, the takeaway is the same:
- Ask regularly: don’t assume your audience wants the same thing forever.
- Use open-ended questions to learn how people talk about their problems.
- Don’t wait for perfect conditions: Knappie got 56 solid responses from a simple Facebook post.
- Make it easy on yourself: let technology do the heavy lifting. Weavely helped Knappie build the survey in several minutes, made it look clean, generating both structure and phrasing.
Looking to create a custom survey to better understand your audience as a coach?
Weavely is an AI-powered form builder that helps users generate high-quality surveys with smart questions and branded design. With no limits on forms or responses, Weavely gives the freedom to collect as much data as you need to make data-driven decisions. Weavely forms and surveys are easy to share, embed and even add as pop-ups on your website. And once the responses start to roll in, you can use its free AI survey analysis feature to summarize your data, find patterns and visualize it.
