Do you want to learn how to do market research? In this post we show you 8 steps to make your own.
Take safe steps. This is a wish of almost all entrepreneurs. And while we can’t control or predict every aspect of a business, there are activities that will help us. Market research is one such tool that enables a preview of the future.
Its function is similar to that of a lighthouse, since it guides the positioning of a company, its most qualified decisions and can highlight the most effective strategies to maintain positive and growing results.
Its use consists of collecting and interpreting data and information. With research , you will be able to gain greater insight into your niche and target audience. With that, you will be able to have ideas for your business and make more assertive business decisions.
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Why is it so important? Every day, millions of companies and entrepreneurial projects appear and launch themselves in the market with the hope of succeeding and occupying a privileged place in the minds of consumers.
But not everyone becomes victorious or successful, and many end up closing the doors for good.
- Why does this happen?
- What do entrepreneurs fail?
- Why is no one coming to buy your products?
- Do they know their market and research about it?
We may have an answer for this. For this reason, we have prepared this material in which we explain what market research is and why it is so necessary before carrying out any entrepreneurial project.
What is market research?
Market research , or also known as market research , is a data collection technique that allows entrepreneurs to find out about purchasing intentions or certain details about their market niche .
When a company wants to launch a new product, a new marketing campaign or make any change or strategy development, it is necessary to carry out a market analysis to obtain valuable information that can help ensure success for the business .
For example: if you are about to launch a new product on the market, such a research can help you find out details such as how much money your customers would be willing to pay for the product, what features of the product would be appreciated, what size, color or shape the customer would like the product to have, etc.
That will help you find a balance point in which both your customers and your business benefit.
There are two ways to obtain this information, which are:
- Primary research – when you do the research yourself, you collect and analyze the data;
- Secondary Research – When the search is done by a third party and is available to whoever wants to access it. Some examples are academic studies and reports from private companies.
In short, marketing research is a technique used to systematically collect information that is then interpreted and used to make decisions.
Brands and companies need to research the market to learn about industry and consumer trends. Market analysis has the power to act in your favor, since it can indicate where it is necessary to concentrate your efforts, what aspects must be improved or modified, where it is convenient to invest resources, the feasibility of the project, among many other ideas.
Before the growth of the digital age, surveys were carried out in the most diverse ways: by telephone, approaching on the street, questionnaires in public places, etc. Now, with social media and research sites , it’s much easier to conduct marketing research.
Often, it is not even necessary to do the research via a questionnaire . You can use surveys or take reference data from your market through the benchmarking process .
What is market research used for?
You must be thinking: marketing research is only for large companies. That’s where you’re wrong! All companies, even small ones, need market research to better understand their performance.
It doesn’t matter if your business is a digital product, a startup, an agency or a multinational, the routine of a business is guided by certain decisions. And nothing better than data and concrete information to help in this process. And that’s what market research is all about , making decisions based on data and information.
Advantages of conducting market research
- They allow having more documentation when making decisions that favor the growth and development of a business or company.
- They provide real information that helps solve problems.
- They allow to know the size of the market that you want to cover, in the case of selling or launching a new product.
- They allow knowing the real needs of consumers and details such as tastes, preferences, buying habits, income level, etc.
- They help to know how you change the customer’s buying habits so that entrepreneurs or business owners are able to respond and adapt to them.
- They offer valuable information that can be used to maintain or occupy an important place in the market.
- They allow new market niches or micro-niches to be detected .
These are just some of the advantages that it has for a company or entrepreneur to carry out market analysis correctly and for this it is necessary to resort to various data collection methods, such as surveys, evaluations, observations, etc.
Do you want to know what each one consists of?
We will show you the most used!
How to do good market research?
Market research is carried out through questionnaires, which can be answered through interviews, email or on social networks. The basic steps to prepare the investigation are:
- Definition of the objective of the investigation , either for a specific product or for the business in general;
- Who are the target audience , if they are your clients or potential consumers, for example;
- How many people will be interviewed, that is, the sampling ;
- The questions to ask. The simpler and more direct, the better;
- Conduct research on the chosen channels ;
- Survey data collected;
- Analysis of responses and planning of the next steps based on the data.
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Marketing research techniques
There are many research and data collection techniques that can be used in marketing research . Some are:
SurveysIt is one of the most used methods to obtain information and can be carried out manually or online. The survey is a method with which a lot of information can be collected in a short time, it does not require specialized personnel for its application, it is easy to carry out and, also, if you do not have a large budget to carry it out, you can do it online.
There are many free or paid platforms that allow you to carry out surveys over the Internet very easily and quickly, such as Google Forms . The main advantage of this alternative is that it offers greater coverage, saves money, can be accompanied by images to make it more attractive, is easy to fill out, is anonymous, and also has no limit on questions.
Interviews
The interview is a method to collect information that can be done by phone, face-to-face or email. With the interview it is possible to collect information reliably and without risk of manipulation. However, it is a method that requires more economic resources, time and personnel.
Evaluations
Also known as the market test, it consists of trying to know directly the appreciation of a person towards a product, service, idea, etc.
A market evaluation or test is generally carried out before the launch of a new product, with the main purpose of evaluating its acceptance and reducing risks.
Suppose you want to evaluate the acceptance of your new info product . To carry out this method, it is necessary that you select a representative sample and send your product in exchange for their comments or criticisms about the product received.
This technique is very useful since it allows you to find out what people think about your product and receive comments with which you could make improvements in the presentation, content, or even modify its price before starting to formally promote and sell it.
Observation
It is a very traditional method of market research that is very accurate and economical. It can be carried out in two ways: through direct observation on the site, or also through designed devices such as a traffic counter.
The application of this technique will depend a lot on the objective of your investigation . For example, if the objective of your research is to know the preference of a specific product, the use of the technique could consist of visiting the places where the consumer normally buys the product and observing, for example, how they examine the product, what products decide to buy etc.
Focus Group
The Focus Group is a technique whose mission is to analyze and receive feedback on a specific research topic.
This technique is characterized by bringing together between 6 to 10 people and a moderator who regulates the times and promotes the exchange of ideas for between 30 minutes and 1 hour and a half.
In this meeting, each participant will answer some questions prepared by the researcher with the greatest transparency and depth possible.
The purpose of its application is for each one of the participants to express their ideas, opinions and experiences to know in detail the causes of due behaviors or preferences.
Transfers
The signing is an investigative technique that helps the other previously seen. This technique seeks to record the data obtained in instruments called files, which contain synthesized and organized information from all the information previously collected. This instrument saves research teams a lot of time, money and effort.
Online research
Online research, in reality, is a tool that helps the other techniques that we have discussed, taking into account the growth of digitization and the innumerable advantages that digital connectivity offers, online research has gained great importance.
Through digital tools it is possible to find out about some hobbies or behaviors of the audiences to which we are addressing, in addition it is also possible to get closer to find out their opinions regarding experiences and inconveniences with a product or service.
Thus, through online media, companies can collect important data about their consumers or potential consumers, understand them better and reduce research costs.
8 steps to do your market research
Do you remember the little step by step above? We are going to understand how the process works for you to do your market research .
Carrying out a market study is much easier than it seems, it does not matter if you have a large company or if the only thing you have is a business idea in your mind, anyone can do it!
But… How to do a market study ?
Now yes, the time has come to get down to work and start researching the market . You just need to follow these 8 (and very easy!) steps:
Define the objectives of your research
To begin, it is necessary that you consider what the objectives of your research are ; that is, the reasons or the need for which you have decided to carry out this investigation.
Having the objective of your research very clear will help you to better ask your questions or the criteria on which the data collection will be based.
Market research can be carried out with very different objectives. The most common objectives are:
- Help the development of a company or business.
- Satisfy the needs of customers through the ideal product or service.
- Determine the degree of success or failure that a business idea may have.
Define the target audience for market research.
No research can be done without the target audience being well defined. Yes, it is mandatory!
To help in this task, it is essential to create your buyer persona, that is, the representation of the ideal client and who will probably buy your products / services. This more detailed understanding will help build more assertive questions and the data collected will be more useful.
So that you understand the difference between the target audience and the buyer persona, these are their main points of difference:
- The target audience has a broader definition, such as: Men, 25-35 years old, who work with digital marketing.
- The buyer person provides more complete information, such as who this person is, their habits, their work, etc.
In market research , you can create both profiles. If you want a more general search, to find out the acceptance of a possible product, doing research with the target audience in mind is the best option. If it is about measuring the level of satisfaction or discovering the pain to create solutions, working with the person will bring better results.
Decide the method
Now that you know the objective of your research , it is time to decide which method you will use to collect the data. Online surveys? Observation? Interviews? There are many alternatives available that allow you to obtain data from your customers or potential customers directly!
Remember: it is also important that you select a field sample ; that is, a representative sample of your market.
What is a field sample and how to select it?
A field sample is the technique by which a sample of the population to be investigated is selected. Whenever you develop market research , it is necessary that you select a sample. The reason for this is because, obviously, it is very difficult to interview or observe all your clients or potential clients.
It is important that you take into account that the larger your sample, the greater certainty you will have about the results obtained in the investigation . That is, the fact that 20 people say they would be willing to buy your product does not mean that it will be successful. It is necessary that it be a representative sample in your locality and this can be determined in two ways:
- Probabilistic or random sampling.
- Non-probabilistic sampling.
Probabilistic or random sampling consists of selecting people at random from a given population. This technique allows all people in the population to have the same probability of selection and inclusion in the sample, which guarantees that the selection of people to participate will not be manipulated.
On the other hand, non-probability sampling looks for different types of people to form a representative sample of the total population.
To select these people, their demographic and psychographic characteristics are taken into account, such as age, sex, gender, interests, average income, etc.
Collect the data
After being very clear about the method to be used and the number of people that you will use as a sample , it is time to collect the data and, for this, you need to design your instrument .
For example, if you have selected the interview or survey as the data collection method , you need to design a questionnaire.
Following this, it is time to collect your research data . This is something that can take days, weeks, or even months; it all depends on the size of your sample and the collection method selected. The important thing is that all the people involved in the investigation commit to collaborate throughout the investigation and, above all, are willing to act according to the results.
Market research is a technique that will allow you to find out everything that no one will ever want to confess to you, such as, for example, that your product is expensive, that your business idea is of no interest to anyone, that your product needs to be improved, etc. .
And many have the following question: where to start the investigation , especially if an audience has not been created? Start with people close to you, such as friends and acquaintances. The search can be simple, like a question on WhatsApp, for example, and thus continue the conversation.
The important thing is that all the people involved in the investigation commit to collaborate throughout the investigation and, above all, are willing to be honest.
Study the competitors
Within market research , the study of competitors is a fundamental part. After all, if they are successful and present in the market, it means they did it right. And there’s nothing wrong with finding out what it is and always trying to do better.
Some tools that will help you find potential competitors are:
- SimilarWeb is a tool that provides the ability to analyze different websites, by collecting data. With this tool it is possible to track traffic, detailed traffic sources, audience and many other data of your competitors.
- SimilarTech is a lead generation, competitor analysis, and market intelligence tool that lets you know what technologies your competitors have on their websites.
- SEMRush is a well-indicated tool for marketers, as it has complete resources to analyze and monitor competitors based on keywords or domains on the web;
- Google Keyword Planner can also be used to study your competitors. Just enter their URL and you will have access to the data related to the terms that bring them the most traffic;
- Buzzsumo is one of the most comprehensive social media monitoring tools available, allowing you to analyze campaign and post performance.
- Google Trends is a tool that supports us when analyzing search volumes and trends in different geographic regions and time periods.
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Collect data from other sources.
Crossing data is important to know if your business is moving along with the market in general. Therefore, you can analyze research from other (reliable) sources and collect other data to complete your research.
Some good sources are:
- The National Commission of Markets and Competition ( CNMC ) is the body that often launches surveys and content with important data on various markets.
- Audience Insights is a tool that provides global information about people connected to your website and Facebook users, so it will be easier to create relevant content to capture the attention of your target audience.
- Think With Google is the official Google blog, focused on marketing and sales. A piece of advice is, in addition to reading the publications, to subscribe to their newsletter to regularly receive studies and analyzes carried out by those who understand the Internet.
Classify the information collected
In market research, data classification is extremely important, since it will have a very large impact on any study.
The same database can be understood in different ways by whoever collected the data or by whoever will perform the analysis. For this reason, it is important to align expectations with those who are going to continue with the process, as well as clearly define the classification prior to the investigation.
The correct way to classify the data will be the one that achieves the objectives that the research seeks, that is, depending on the objectives, the classification of the data will be sought. Since a wrong understanding of the objectives or an inadequate classification of the data can lead to error and bias the investigation.
Analyze the data and present the results
Once all the information and data about your market have been collected, it is time to analyze them. This is a very important step: there is no use designing a great instrument and spending time gathering all the information, if the data will not be analyzed correctly or, in the worst case, will end up hidden in a folder.
Analyze in depth each of the data that you get with your research , do not make the mistake of underestimating any comment or statistical data, however small or insignificant it may seem.
Prepare a report that summarizes the results of the investigation and, above all, the solutions, recommendations or next actions to be taken.
Research is a great tool that can help you turn your business around, develop a great idea, or avoid failure . Many entrepreneurs make the mistake of underestimating the power of market analysis out of fear of wasting time, money, or simply not necessary.
Do not leave with doubt! Dare to investigate what the market thinks about you, your product or your ideas.
Ready for your next market research ? cheer up! You may find the answer you need to become a successful entrepreneur .
If you have any questions, leave us a comment. See you later!