Have you ever started an advertising campaign with high hopes, but were disappointed with the results? Or what about launching a new product with great interest, just to find out that the market was not interested? These situations happen in business. And that’s where doing marketing research makes a difference.
If you have big goals, market research can help your business take the right steps and avoid wasting time and money on negatives.
Not only that, but marketing research can help you find happy customers. For example, 94% of diners choose a restaurant based on online reviews, one study suggests. One study found that 82% of customers expect an immediate response to sales or marketing questions. Knowing these types of facts can help you incorporate procedures and tools to please the customer and attract new ones.
In this article, we explain what simple marketing research is, which includes different types of market research. You will learn quick and easy marketing techniques, which strategies work best, and how to take advantage of existing third-party information. The ultimate goal is to achieve success.
What is Market Research?
Market research is the process of gathering information about targeted prospects, customers, market size, competitors and more. Businesses use this knowledge to improve products and services, set prices, increase lead flow, increase sales, improve customer satisfaction, and improve marketing and advertising campaigns.
So, If you do not take anything from this market research definition, remember one thing: data is the basis of a company’s marketing strategy. Research is the beginning of directing your marketing to the right place.
Marketing research prevents you from making the wrong assumptions or advice the same size as the one and making expensive mistakes. In a world of trial and error, market research is gaining momentum with minor errors.
Types of Market Research
Advertisers use two different types of research: basic and secondary research. Whether you know the terms or not, you probably know both.
First, let’s look at the initial research. Basic research refers to data collection processes that have not yet been collected by another organization. In other words, basic knowledge is simply the information you reveal and collect. When people tell you their information about your business or their level of satisfaction with your product or service – that’s the key information. The basic research includes the following:
Survey
The survey involves asking people questions that they can quickly answer in order to express their ideas, opinions, attitudes and behaviours. Companies do research by mail, telephone or more today, online. Exploration is one of the most common research methods for a small business.
In Human Research
Personal research involves talking directly with the buyer, potential customers or existing customers – and includes:
- Interviews – This is an individual’s collaboration to get deeper into sites that practice the beliefs of the interviewer. Negotiations are less expensive and may involve simply calling the customer.
- Focus Groups – A focus group gathers between 5 to 10 people in a group session to provide feedback. Focus groups are expensive and really need an experienced assistant to get unbiased information.
- Ethnography – Ethnography simply means communicating with others in their natural environment. The most common method is “flying on the wall” when a researcher calmly looks at someone in a store or uses a product. The digital approach includes temperature maps to test when a visitor’s attention is delayed on a web page.
- Other Marketing Research
- Diaries – People track their behaviour to see how they interact with your products or services.
- User Testing – Users test and provide feedback on how they feel about your product or service in real-time. We’ve all seen examples of this in TV commercials: blind taste testing.
- Key approaches such as those above have many uses, but small businesses find themselves in two situations. First, small businesses use them when they try to disclose actual user information about their product or service. Second, they use key methods when they need to understand how their customers feel about their company.
Next, let’s look at the second study. The second study involves using information that has already been collected by another organization. Most secondary information is an online research and is free or low cost. Examples include:
Government research
So, U.S. data Census (a good place to start Census Data Gems).
Information from government agencies such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics, FEMA or SBA.
Third-Party Research
- Research reports (not yours), or information collected by other companies. Example: research chart from eMarketer.
- Second data from trading organizations such as the National Retail Federation. Publishes industry statistics and studies.
- Information is provided by special digital tools. For example, Google Trends data, which shows public search trends.
