The Method

How Market Research Can Help You Make Better Decisions

Market research can help you make better decisions for your business and avoid costly mistakes. Market research can determine the success of your business, whether you are entering a new marketing campaign, looking for new customers, or launching a new product.

With market research, businesses can gather data on a range of topics that include product designs, sales channels, branding, and customer service. With all of the data gathered, they can create effective business plans or adjust their current operations. With that being said, it is crucial that you have market research that is well-planned, meaning that you are asking the right questions to the right people. Poorly designed research will give your unreliable results, which can steer you in the wrong direction.

Some Common Research Mistakes Businesses Make

Relying on the Interest

Some business owners may think that they don’t need market research and they can find free data on the internet. While the internet is a good starting point, it may not give you all the information that you need for your unique business. In addition, information may be incomplete or outdated, making it unsuitable to use when making important business decisions.

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Surveying Your Personal Network

Talking to your friends, family, and colleagues is a great starting point when looking to improve your business but your efforts should not stop there. To have truly meaningful and useful insights, you have to know and understand the opinions of sales prospects, customers, suppliers and stakeholders.

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Heavily Relying On Anecdotal Feedback

Many businesses receive feedback from clients and other stakeholders but that is not enough. In order to have accurate business insights, they have to be collected in a systematic manner.

Work Samples

How Can You Gather Insights About Your Business?

Look at Your Internal Information Sources

Within your business, there may be several unused resources that can provide valuable insights. Talk to your sales team and other front-line employees. The things you learn from them will give you an insight into the competition, customer’s reaction to your new/old products, as well as new markets you could tap into. While the information you gain from them might be subjective, regular employee feedback that is collected systematically will paint a picture over time that you can utilize to better position your business in the marketplace.

Learn How

Don’t Forget About Secondary Market Research

Your market research plan should begin with published information. Data from secondary research will provide you with an overview of different market opportunities. They will usually consist of previously collected consumer demographics, and industry trends among other factors. Previously published information will give you the context that you need to create a profile of your market and industry, which you will need in order to create an effective business plan.