How to Do Marketing Research
Behind most great marketing plans is a solid base of research. By gaining a thorough understanding of your customers, competitors and market factors, you can develop a targeted, effective marketing plan. As you plan a market research strategy, do so with a budget in mind; it is easy to overstep your financial boundaries with sophisticated research techniques. Use a combination of first-hand research and knowledge-gathering from published sources for a complete picture.
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Instructions
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Identify your research goals. Choose specific objectives that will help refine your marketing strategy, product development, business growth or public relations efforts. You might want to know more about the other messages consumers are receiving, for example, or the most successful days of the week for email marketing. Use the goals as a framework for selecting research methods.
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Use your customers as a resource. Talk to your existing customers to find out information about their perceptions, needs, wants or constraints. If you are looking for information about how your company measures up to competitors, customers can be a valuable resource. Send out surveys, call customers directly, or interview members of your target audience to find out why they have chosen competing products or services.
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Research your competitors. Collect your competitors' marketing materials, read through their websites, and make mock sales calls. In doing so, you can gather information about their messages, sales processes and customer service. Note how they market products at different times of the year, and follow their social media presences to keep on top of new developments.
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Use existing systems to gain information. Look over your business practices to find those that can help you gather information about the market and customers. Use invoices and bills to identify where your customers live, for example, or monitor the sales of certain products based on time of day and time of year. Monitor the number of calls, emails and social media responses you get and track times so that you can gauge customer behavior for each method. Use that information to determine the best times to send out each type of marketing material.
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Capitalize on the research that's already been done. It is unlikely that you are the first company to conduct market research for your industry, audience base or type of business. Search through trade publications, regional chambers of commerce, and national industry-specific magazines for disseminated information about professional studies. Gather the information that is pertinent and make an effort to track it down to the original source to verify its reliability.
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References
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