Regardless of your industry or niche, market research is a critical tool to use to set your business apart from the competition. Wondering what market research is and how you should leverage it? Keep reading!
Market research is the process of collecting and analyzing data about your target market. Whether introducing a new product in the ecommerce space, offering services in the local market, or anything in between, market research can provide efficient insight and tangible data about how your brand should approach the market.
It’s also a valuable way to assess how a new product or service would perform in a current market, based on the behaviors, interests, and needs of the target market.
Let’s dive into the nitty gritty of market research. We’ll cover how you can perform research for growth, the four common methods of research, and how you can implement your findings into your business.
How to Become a Market Research Analyst for Your Brand
Whether you’ve already launched a company or product or are still in the planning phase, market research is always relevant and helpful to elevate and improve your bottom line. Here are the four methods you can utilize to help your brand flourish and grow.
Surveys
Through focused surveys, you can gain valuable insight into your target audience’s wants and needs, simply by asking them. You can send surveys via text or email and require short, concise answers. Surveys are quick and easy to complete. Thus, making them the most common and popular option to perform market research in any niche or market.
Interviews
If you have the capacity, hosting one-on-one or group interviews can provide very helpful insights into your target market. Interviews can help you to understand your target customers, and what they want and need. They can also help you create empathy for your target audience. Ultimately, helping you to improve your products or services, based on those conversations.
Focus Groups
If you have the bandwidth and experience to host focus groups for your brand, they can provide valuable insight into your target market, their interests, pain points, and needs. However, focus groups can be difficult to control if you’re inexperienced, so we don’t recommend this strategy over the former two.
Observation
Observation involves watching a consumer interact with your product from a fly-on-the-wall perspective, like in-person in a shop, at a fair or market, or in a trade show setting. It may not seem as powerful or productive as interviews or surveys, but you may be surprised by the intel you gather through observation.
Effective Marketing Research Strategies
Now that we’ve answered “What is market research?” and how you can leverage it to your advantage, let’s discuss the common strategies used in market research.
Create User Personas
User personas are a specific segment of your target audience, based on demographics, characteristics, and needs. Creating personas can help you segment your audience into real people so you can develop different marketing approaches for each persona.
Social Media Listening
Social media listening allows brands and businesses to monitor what users are saying about their brands and products online. Brands can use this information to determine trends and gauge authentic consumer interest during research and development for new products.
Competitor Analysis
Market research can’t be complete without looking into the competition and what they’re doing well, where they’re falling short, and what their customers are saying. This critical analysis will tell you how your brand chalks up to the competition.
Many companies use the SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) to determine any gaps they can fill in the market or where they can improve on what the competition is currently offering.
Elevate Your Marketing Strategy with Brand Creative Solutions
Market research is just one piece of the puzzle that makes up your digital marketing strategy. If you are looking to grow a new business, Brand Creative Solutions is the solution you’re looking for. Our goal is to help prospective entrepreneurs understand the intricacies of business development while keeping their eyes on the prize. With our expertise, your new venture will grow and flourish in no time.
For more information, fill out a form on our website, and we’ll be in touch!
