Conducting market research is an essential part of any business, whether you’re just starting or trying to scale. Through market research, you can understand your target audience, analyze your competitors and stay updated with industry trends. This enables you to make informed decisions that will drive your business growth and expansion.
Therefore, this post is a guide for small business owners trying to conduct market research for their business. Let’s dive right into it.
What Is Market Research?
Market research is a detailed process where a business owner gathers, analyzes and interprets information about a target market. This usually includes;
the target customers.
The business competitors.
And current industry trends.
When market research is done right, a business owner can fully understand who their customers are, the current trends influencing consumers’ behaviours, and what competitors are doing to stay ahead in the digital space.
This helps a business owner to craft strategies that will help attract and convert potential customers into customers.
How Does Market Research Work?
Market research is like a guide that points business owners in the right direction. Your research needs to focus on the people most likely to buy from you. Conduct detailed research about them to create a buyer persona. Additionally, analyze your competitors, visit their websites, check out their social media handles and see what they do right.
After conducting your research and gathering quality info, analyze this data, create strategies, and use them to make better business decisions.
You can use tools like google sheets, excel or other data analysis software to record, organize and interpret your data.
Conducting market research as a business owner in Nigeria is s good way to help your audience better.
How?
With market research and analysis, you can create strategies to help you serve your customers better.
Furthermore, it enables you to utilize the platform where your audience is most active, create different offers or consider discounts for customers who find your prices too high.
And most importantly, you can use it to improve your customer experience and satisfaction.
Methods Of Market Research
Market research is divided into two main categories. The primary research and the secondary research.
1. The primary research method
This process consists of the collection of new data directly from customers. This method is put to use when business owners try to launch a new product, improve an existing one or understand consumer behavior. This usually seems like a feedback mechanism where you ask potential or existing customers certain questions in order to create a tailored product or service for them. This process involves methods like interviews or survey forms.
2. The Secondary research method
This process involves using research pulled from already existing sources. While primary research is focused on first-hand information, secondary research looks at existing data. This includes:
Market trends
The use of social media.and
Statistics.
Types Of Market Research
Surveys and questionnaires
Businesses use forms to get feedback from a specific group of people. Surveys help business owners collect data on consumer preference, behavior and satisfaction. This can be conducted through emails or through cold calling.
For instance, a business owner can send surveys to a particular group of people who recently used a product to understand their perception about it. These surveys are usually easy to fill and provides a certain range of answer to the business owner.
One-on-one interviews
During market research, a business owner can utilize the personal interview method to get a deeper understanding of customers needs and wants.
A specific group of people are targeted for this primary research method type.
This gives an in-depth insight into customer preferences. Can be done face-to-face or through the phone.
Focus groups
A focus group is a qualitative research method which usually involves a small selected group of people. They are led by a moderator who seeks to gain insights, feedback and reactions about a product or service.
The participants usually represent the target audience. These people are used as a first line of action before launching or promoting a product or service.
Observation
This method involves watching and analyzing consumer behaviour without directly interacting with them. Researchers use this method to gain real-time feedback on the audience’s perception of their product or service.
How To Do Market Research
We’ve looked at what market research is and how it is an essential step to take in order to help businesses make informed decisions. Now let’s look at the step-by-step guide on how to do market research effectively.
Define your market research goals
Before you start your research, determine why you need to conduct market research.
A clear goal makes it easier to know what to look out for. Therefore, to conduct a market research effectively, a business owner needs to understand the impact this can have on the business growth. Market research can be quite expensive, a vague goal would lead to waste of resources and incomplete data.
Identify your target audience
Determine the specific audience your research needs to target. This is necessary if your product has different target audiences in a target market. Or if you’re trying to create a new product for a new target audience.
Start your market research
Once you’ve identified the audience you want to target, determine the research method you’ll be using. Once that is settled, go ahead and start your research.
Utilize technology for easy data collection
The world has gone digital. Therefore, make use of technology to gather information and data during your research. Use technologies that can help automate or streamline your questions and the answer you receive to ensure that no data is lost during the research process.
Analyze data
Analyze collected data and determine patterns and trends that signify what your audience is interested in. Use this data to make decisions and improve your product offerings.
Regularly monitor and update your research
Market research isn’t a one time thing as market trends and consumer preferences can change over time. Therefore, regularly update your data in order to stay competitive and provide exceptional customer satisfaction.
Conclusion
Market research is a key process that helps businesses stay competitive. It’s a process that can position a business for long-term success. The more you understand your market, the better you can meet customers demand and provide exceptional service.
Therefore, let this post be a simple guide to help you conduct market research, analyze and gain insight into your business growth.
