I had written a blog article about market research a few years ago and thought it was time to update the information. Many of my clients seem to think that market research has to be expensive … but it doesn’t. I’m sure most of you have a lot of data at your fingertips, from your website, your CRM, and information that you’ve garnered anecdotally by talking to customers. So, why aren’t more companies using the market research that they have at hand? Let me share a recent encounter I had.
I just returned to the office after attending a trade show. While I was there I was approached by someone who was starting a new company and they wanted to get some market research to confirm their thoughts and ideas about a particular marketplace. I got to thinking that many of my clients don’t often add market research as a component of their annual marketing plans. And I wondered why not. Of course, if you are starting a new company, I thought it would behoove you to confirm your theories about the market trends in your industry. But, I wondered, why don’t established companies want to budget even a little bit of money to either purchase marketing research or design their own market research study? And even if they do spend the money, why does the report usually sit in a desk drawer and never is read or analyzed?
Well, I’m not sure that I’ve come up with a good answer, but I think sometimes we don’t want to see or hear the truth. If your company is humming along at a pace that is comfortable for you, you probably don’t want to hear that you should be moving in another direction. Or, if your company is making buggy whips (just kidding), for example, you don’t want to hear that the automobile has replaced the horse and buggy. I’m being facetious, of course. But, I think most of us plod along doing the same thing year after year because that’s all we know how to do or because it’s just too difficult to push that boulder up the hill. We don’t want to make waves in our company. We don’t want to get caught in the political crossfire. So, we don’t do any market research.
Time to change your attitude about market research.
Market research is an invaluable tool to either confirm that you are headed in the right direction with your marketing strategies or to pull you in the opposite direction. Whether you are in start-up mode, pitching your company to angel investors, or launching a new product, market research is essential. For example, if you find out that the particular market you currently serve is trending downward and that some other technology is replacing it, why wouldn’t you want to re-applicate your product line or create an entirely new product line to continue to serve your customer’s needs?
Market research doesn’t need to be expensive.
There are two types of market research. The first type is called Primary Market Research. This is research that you gather yourself. You could hire a market research company and spend thousands of dollars, but you may already have much of the information you need in-house. Here are a few ideas:
- Talk to your sales reps. They can be a great source of industry information about your competitors, about your customer’s wants and needs, and about general industry trends.
- Review your competitor’s advertising and collateral. Where are they advertising? What types of applications are they pushing? Check out their websites, and many times, you can download their sales material without filling out a sign-up form. Take a look at how your competitors are positioning their company and products.
- You can also plan a small focus group in conjunction with a trade show where you know your target audience will be attending. Gather a small group at a rented room (for privacy) on the exhibit hall floor or in a nearby hotel, and create an open forum for discussion.
- Take a look at your CRM. I find that most of my clients use Salesforce or some other CRM but they never analyze the information. What good is gathering data on your customers or prospects if you never look at it? Analyze where your customers found you. Was it via an advertisement, a trade show, or your website? Take a look at which media works best for you.
- Create your own survey using one of the many online survey companies like SurveyMonkey, for example. Putting together a short survey, say five questions at the most is very easy. Email the link to people on your email list or post on social media sites, and then analyze the results. Just asking a few questions may get you the answers you need.
- And don’t forget to look at the analytics on your website. I know looking at Google Analytics or whatever you use can be a bit daunting, but you most likely have someone in your company who can run a report for you so that you can see which pages are the most popular, how long a visitor is staying on each page, and where they typically enter and exit your website. Or set up UTM codes to track your URLs.
All of these ideas are easy to accomplish and cost-effective.
Try secondary marketing research.
Another type of market research is secondary market research. You can find much of this type of research on the Internet. Some companies typically will sell their research studies for a fee. But, there is a lot of information for free on the Internet. You can garner this type of information from trade associations, government databases through the Freedom of Information Act, and don’t forget your local library if you prefer low tech. The librarian may become your best friend. Here are a few resources:
- International Trade Administration: https://www.trade.gov/data.asp
- U.S. Census Bureau: https://www.census.gov/data/data-tools.html
- Dun & Bradstreet: https://www.dnb.com/
Market research can also help you with content marketing strategies
Market research isn’t just for gathering industry, competitive, or customer data. How about researching the type of content your customers crave.
- Search on social media sites like Twitter. You can see what’s trending. Search via hashtags to see what people are talking about. Or search for keywords that describe your company.
- Look at business platforms like LinkedIn. Join groups and see what the members are most concerned about.
- Identify the top online media and influencers in your market space. If possible, plan an interview with them and pick their brains for industry trends and future predictions.
So, make a resolution for 2020 to gather information about your products, your customers, your competitors, or industry trends. You’ll be able to make better strategic marketing decisions with good solid marketing data and analysis in hand.
To your marketing success,
Sheila
P.S. Do you need a bit more help with your market research planning? I’ve developed a FREE resource that will help you plan your next market research project. Just click the link below to download it now. And if you need some one-to-one help, sign up for a FREE 30-minute consultation. Sign up today.
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