Research is a key tool we should use regularly to be able to understand our industry, audience and their behaviour. It’s not just something for the business plan, or major product launch but is a useful touch point to keep your client’s and potential client’s on board with your plans and proactive approach.
Market research can both be time consuming and expensive so make sure you define your objectives, the sources and types of information you aim to collect, to guarantee getting the information you need. Objectives vary from business to business and here’s a list of potential market research objectives to get you thinking.
- To identify potential new customers
- To learn more about existing customers
- To inform their decisions regarding existing and new products or services
- To better understand competitors
- To test new markets and products
- To identify performance, pricing or promotion opportunities
Primary market research will expect you to carry out research yourself in the form of interviews, focus groups or questionnaires to name but a few. Try looking at Survey Monkey and maybe even some social media polls to get things started at a low cost. This form of research will be incredibly accurate in achieving your set objectives as you can ask specific questions directly to your audience.
We can often be afraid of the answers so it’s important to balance the questions and be prepared for negative comments to be able to make positive changes.
Don’t forget to search the internet or industry body archives for current secondary research that although it was created by another company with their own objectives, it may still give you seen key statistics and insights to save you time and money.
Once collected, be sure to analyse and act on the results to help you plan ahead, identify market trends and get ahead of your competition!
If this all seems too daunting and you don’t know where to start, then get in touch with our team to look to manage the project for you.