Conducting market research is very important for those who want to start a virtual business or for those who are already in the market.
It is through market research that you are able to understand your target audience and your competitors.
In this way, it allows you to make all the decisions about your business in a more assertive way to minimize risks.
These actions are extremely necessary for those who want to succeed, as the virtual environment is highly competitive and you need to seek a differential to stand out from your competitors.
In this sense, market research can be carried out before you start your business, or later to better define which digital marketing strategies will be used.
If you want to know more about market research, what is market research, and how to apply it to your business, in this article you will have access to this information?
What is Market Research?
Market research is a tool that aims to help you obtain data about the market you are in, so you can find the best strategies for the development of your business.
Through market research, you collect data and information that will help you make important decisions that can impact your business.
In addition, this tool allows you to understand more about consumer behavioral characteristics, and consumption habits, as well as perform an analysis of your competitors.
Why We Do Market Research?
In any type of business, it is necessary to make decisions that will define the best strategy to be applied in your business.
Based on the market research you are able to obtain information that will contribute to your decision-making.
The market undergoes constant changes and consumers are also influenced by various external factors.
It serves as an aid so that your business can be successful and you can continue offering services for a long time.
Through it, it is possible to know data about your competitors, and your target audience, in order to define niches that have not yet been explored and what challenges you can expect to start your business.
The market research also plays an important role in innovating and differentiating your competitors.
How to Do Market Research?
Although the advancement in technology allows obtaining data without having to use more traditional research methods, conducting market research through questionnaires is still one of the most used methodologies.
As for market research, we can say that it is possible to carry out primary or secondary research:
- Primary research is the one where the research is carried out by the company that will use this data.
- Secondary research is when professionals or specialized companies are hired to carry out research. In this case, we may also include publicly available reports, articles, and data.
Still regarding the research, it is possible to use the analysis of qualitative or quantitative data:
- Quantitative analyzes are those that present in numbers the data that prove the general objectives of the research.
- Qualitative analysis is not so objective, as it allows understanding of the details and complexity of the information obtained.
Let’s now understand how to structure market research so that you can do it and apply it to your business.
Define the Purpose of Your Search
The first step for you to start a survey is to understand what the purpose of carrying out the survey will be.
Usually, this objective starts from a problem that needs to be solved, you need to identify which problem you want to solve.
For example, if you are starting an e-commerce and you want to investigate if a certain product will be in demand for your target audience, you have defined an objective for your market research.
Remember that the objective must be easy to understand, this prevents you from losing focus during the elaboration of your research.
Define the Research Target Audience
To whom should you direct your survey questions? For suppliers? Consumers or your competitors?
If we follow the previous example of investigating whether a particular product really attracts the public’s interest, it would be an example of research aimed at consumers.
There would also be the possibility of conducting a survey with suppliers, given that a product that has high demand is a product that consumers are looking for.
It is important that you define for whom the survey will be carried out, as this will facilitate the elaboration of the questions.
Set the Sample Size
Remember that for the survey to be meaningful you must have a minimum number of participants that pass part of your sample universe.
To define a sample size you must also take into account that some people who receive your questionnaire will not answer them.
Make a Question Script
Before writing the report, you need to brainstorm several questions that you think you can include in your analysis.
Then, you need to filter these questions to include in your questionnaire only those that make the most sense and allow you to achieve your objective.
Remember that the questions must be clear and objective and even if possible tested before being applied in a survey.
Prepare your Questionnaire
After defining the questions that will be used, simply design your questionnaire.
In the virtual environment, there are several tools that you can use to create questionnaires.
The most well-known tool is probably Google Forms, but there are other similar tools that you can also use like Typeform, Cognito forms, and others.
The important thing is that you know how to use the tool later to perform data collection.
Apply the Questionnaire
Once ready, the next step is to deliver the questionnaire to your target audience.
You can spread it through social networks, in email marketing campaigns, or even join specific groups such as Whatsapp, Telegram, or Facebook.
Analyze your Results
Finally, after your survey has been answered by your audience, it’s time to collect data and cross-reference information.
To make the data more visible, you can put it in tables, or build graphs to facilitate the information.
You can even build presentations or infographics if you are doing more than one survey.
It’s an easy way for you to keep your data safe and easy to interpret in case you need to use it on other occasions.
You can use tools like Canva to build charts and infographics for your research.
Canva is a feature-rich design tool that lets you create presentations, graphics, and infographics to use in your everyday life.
The advantage of using Canva is that it has dozens of templates ready for you to edit as you wish.
Use interactive features to make your search results easier to interpret.
How to Get Data through Digital Marketing Tools
As we have already mentioned, the most traditional way of obtaining data is by carrying out market research through questionnaires.
But you can also have access to information if you look for the data that is available in newspapers, magazines, blogs, and websites.
And yet, although they are less focused on a specific objective, in the virtual environment there are some tools that can help you understand more about the behavior of your target audience.
These tools have great potential for you to optimize your digital marketing strategies.
E-mail Marketing
You can use the email marketing strategy to send emails with promotions from your online store to your customers or relevant content to drive them through the sales funnel.
You can count on tools that optimize this work and quantify how many emails are being read by your audience.
It is also possible to perform A/B tests to find out which content interests your target audience the most and thus direct your campaigns to this type of content.
Advantageous, no? And you don’t need questionnaires, just access the tool and it makes this data available through a dashboard.
If you want to use a tool to get this data, you can use Mailify which is an email marketing and automation tool.
With Mailify you can generate email marketing templates quickly and with a single click.
It is an easy-to-use tool that contains everything you need to communicate and develop your business.
CRM – Customer Relationship Management
CRM platforms are also useful for you to store data on your customers, and to know which stage of the sales funnel they are in.
Pipedrive is a sales-focused tool that helps you increase your productivity and your business’s revenue.
With Pipedrive you manage your leads, create forms to do your market research, and let your team know who they are contacting and what purchases were made by each customer.
Marketing Automation
Marketing automation, in addition to allowing you to simplify some simpler actions in Marketing, provides you with information and insights on what you need to improve within your business.
One of the most used marketing automation tools is RD Station.
RD Station is an all-in-one tool as it allows you to capture contacts and combine pages, create forms, run email campaigns, and much more.
Manage your Marketing in one place and have a complete view of the funnel to analyze and improve your results.
In addition to saving time with traditional market research, you also receive assistance in optimizing your sales process.
Learn About the Main Types of Market Research
After understanding which marketing tools can help your business, let’s now understand what are the main types of research you can carry out.
Product Launch Research
If you are thinking of starting a business it is necessary to do market research on the products you intend to sell.
You need to make sure that your product will be in demand, and you also need to make sure that consumers will pay the price you intend to offer it.
Consumption Habits
To learn more about your customers, you can conduct a consumer habits survey.
This type of research allows you to develop sales and marketing strategies that are aligned with consumer needs.
From there you can also investigate which are the most suitable channels to communicate with the consumer and use the multichannel strategy.
Market Analysis
The market analysis aims to make you identify what is the main consumer need that you must meet.
For this, you must investigate which market niches have not yet been explored and present a differential potential to the consumer.
Brand Strength
The objective of this research is to analyze what is the perception that your customers have of your brand and to make a comparison between the competitors.
That way, you can investigate and find out what are the harmful elements and what improvements you can make to make a rebranding process, for example.
Satisfaction with Consumers
This type of research aims to analyze the feedback your company receives from consumers, after all, they are the ones who decide between buying with you or buying with competitors.
To find out what consumers think of your business, you can conduct satisfaction surveys.
Satisfaction surveys are a great way to find the main points you need to improve in your business.
You can use the forms or even arrange a short interview with a client.
Don’t forget to offer some kind of compensation like a discount or a freebie, after all, you are taking your customers’ time to carry out this type of research and they will surely feel more satisfied.
Satisfaction with Your Employees
It is also very important to understand what quality of work you offer your employees.
Therefore, in order to identify improvements and know how your company can improve and offer them better quality in the work environment.
A team that feels unmotivated, outside the company’s plans, and overloaded will hardly bring good results.
Also, conduct surveys with your employees.
Benefits of Investing in Market Research
If you are still in doubt about whether investing in market research is necessary for your business, we will address the main advantages of using this tool.
Know your Audience Better
Through better knowledge of your target audience, you can build personas to define which digital marketing strategies you should use.
Personas are a semi-fictitious representation of your ideal customer and through them, you can have broader behavioral information that will help you make more assertive choices.
In addition, it is also possible to understand quantitative aspects such as market potential, the company’s market share, and qualitative aspects such as lifestyle, behavioral characteristics, consumption habits, education, and income, among others.
Understand the Strategies Used by the Competition
You start looking at your competitors and strategizing to stand out.
Through market research, it is possible for you to carry out an analysis of which strategies your competitors have already used and which were successful.
And it’s also a way for you to see what they haven’t done yet and look for new alternatives to attract your audience.
Size of the Market
Market research allows you to anticipate trends, visualize which is the most profitable segment for you to operate, and identify which demands are on the rise.
Thus, it is possible to stand out and get ahead of the competition in offering the best service to the consumer.
Conduct market research and improve customer satisfaction
In this article, we cover what market research is, how you can do it, and apply it to your business.
Market research is important in many ways, and we’ve also seen that many marketing tools provide relevant data so you can improve your performance.
An element that is very important to increase your performance is to offer quality customer service, as this factor also influences your customers’ satisfaction levels.
Good sales! All the Best!