Market research is collecting data about your target audience and consumers to either gauge the future success of a new product or improve upon an existing product. Market research can answer so many questions about the state of your company.
There are two main overarching types of research. Primary research and secondary research. All other forms fall under these two main research methods.
Primary research refers to the gathering of first-hand information about your target market. Some examples include online surveys, interviews, observations, focus groups, and ethnographic research. Primary market research tends to fall into one of two subgroups: exploratory or specific research.
This kind of primary market research is focused around potential bumps in the road that would be best tackled as a team. Think of this as the first step when it comes to research. Before focusing on a specific subset of research, organize a list of potential problems. This can often be done through open-ended interviews or small group surveys. Check out the easy-to-use survey tool in Sav's web builder.
Specific research typically comes after exploratory research. This is when your team focuses on issues and opportunities that have already been flagged as a top priority after exploratory research. In specific research, the business can take a more precise subsection of their consumer audience and ask questions aimed at solving a specific problem.
Secondary research, also known as desk research, involves compiling all the data and public records you have at your disposal. This is when you’d study trend reports, market statistics, industry content, and preexisting sales data. Secondary research is essential when it comes to analyzing your competitors. There are three subcategories that fall into secondary research; public sources, commercial sources, and internal sources.
Public sources are the most accessible of the three source types. They’re typically free to view. The most common types of public sources are government statistics from organizations like the U.S. Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Commercial sources typically come in the form of market reports compiled by a research agency. These typically cost money to read and download, making them less accessible than public sources. Check out this list of the top 50 U.S. market research companies.
This is the market data your organization already has. Your company’s individual stats when it comes to average revenue per sale, customer retention rates, and account health data are imperative when it comes to identifying flaws and opportunities for your business. It’s your company after all, who knows better than you?
Now that we've covered the overarching market research categories, let's dive into the various types of market research you might conduct.
Interviews are a great opportunity for face-to-face interaction with your audience. Ask open-ended questions and use your interviewee's answers to shape your buyer personas. By creating this buyer profile around your flesh and blood customer you are able to shape your entire marketing strategy around the needs and wants of your ideal customer.
Observation-based research is similar to blind product testing. Stand back and watch the ways your consumers go about using your product or service, what works well in regards to user experience, what roadblocks do they hit. Once you can visualize the struggles your users encounter, it’s easier to prioritize fixes and improvements.
Buyer persona research gives you insight into the identity of your target audience, what their values are, why they want your product or service, and what they need from your company.
Market segmentation is where you divide your target audience into different segments based on certain defining characteristics. By breaking your users into subcategories you can more effectively meet their needs, understand their obstacles, and prioritize their goals.
Pricing research revolves around the pricing of similar goods or services and what your consumers are willing to pay. Pricing research plays an integral role in developing a pricing strategy for your product or service.
No one knows what your users want better than your competition. Competitive analyses provide insight into what's doing well, what your target audience is already going for, which of your competitors are leading the pack, and ways to separate yourself from the competition.
The best insight into what your users want often comes from their own mouths. Customer satisfaction research provides a glimpse into your consumer's mind. What can you do to keep them coming back?
Now that we covered almost every form of market research, where do you start? What truly goes into conducting market research?
Understanding your potential customers and what their pain points are, makes it easier to create content and products directly aimed at them. Follow the steps below to create your own buyer persona
Name: Develop different names associated with your different personas so it's easy to differentiate between them
Field of work
Company size
Job description and details about their role
Responsibilities and superiors
Age: How old are your average users?
Gender: Does your business cater to a particular gender demographic?
Salary: How much spending money does your typical customer have?
Location: what geographical perks or setbacks do your consumers typically face?
Education:
Does your reading comprehension level match the average highest form of education displayed by your typical buyer?Family: Is your audience made up of single young adults or do your consumers have dependents?
Hobbies: How do they like to spend their free time?
Interests: What do they like to do? Where do they get their news?
What are your consumer's life goals?
What roadblocks are standing in their way?
How can you help?
What are your users' core values?
You can learn a lot about a market by getting to know your competition. Determine your biggest competitors and dissect every part of their market strategy.
When it comes to your competitors there are two major groups that you categorize them between: Industry competitors and content competitors.
Industry competitors are competitors whose products or services overlap with yours. When identifying what businesses are within your industry start general, like education, construction, entertainment, food service, etc.
When it comes to content competitors when in doubt, Google it. Search engine results are very telling. Take the general category that you determined above and narrow it down into a couple of subcategories. Take a bakery for example, the general category would be food services and then broken into subcategories like event catering, bakery, cakes, etc.
Check out these amazing free resources for streamlining your market research.
Keep an eye on your internal market data and SEO with the tracking analytics available in Sav’s web builder.