Market Research: Important Tips Before Starting A Business
Market research – When you think of starting a business plan research either online or offline, you need a lot of planning. But most of the time in your planning you exclude the market research strategies, which results in loss. Market research analysis is very important for both online and offline business markets these days. With proper research and analysis of the market it becomes easy to sell a product or service. Market research is broadly classified on two bases one is your product research type and other is your customer research type, we will later in our article what these two means.
This blog will help you to understand and define market research and analysis and will let you know how to conduct market research techniques in the real world, which will help you to always be on top and doesn’t let you drown. Also, by applying this technique you will stand out from others or your competitors. After reading this article you will be able to research the market thoroughly and will understand your customers, your market and reaction to your targeted consumer analysis.
What is market analysis?
Market research is the process of collecting information from our customers of their experience through which you can determine how successful you are right now; and what improvements you need to grow your business more. Market study increases your potential customers and gives you proper direction to move forward. What is business research answering several questions regarding your business like: who is potential customer, where is your target customer, how much customers are willing to pay, who are your competitors and last one is your strength and weakness.
Why is market research important?
In simple words through this technique you meet your targeted audience. As out there in the world there is a huge competition. If you fail at any moment, in no time the customer will find better and another place to buy his desired needs. Before reaching to you, your customer has already researched it, so you have to stand out and be unique and give a reason to your customer that why they should buy it from and same will apply for bloggers too, as why one should read their blog. Through market research for small business you will not only attract customers but also you can identify new problems and you can give solutions to them as a product or service. Through market research reports you can catch up with the trend.
Market research is a necessity to know some parameters like demand, market size, economy, location, market saturation, price.
How to do market research steps?
There are two types of market research and two ways to do pro market research: first is direct method and second is using the existing market research data or source.
Direct research is a bit complicated and time consuming, but it is more effective than using predefined data. You can use different strategies in direct research like: market survey, questionnaire, focus groups or in depth one to one interview. Whereas in existing you can save your time, but data will not be specific. So, it can be used to get a general overview or market segment and market sentiment.
Learn: – About keword research importance and its tools
Key points while analyzing market:
Define your customer
Well when you first think of starting a business you obviously think how will you convince your customer to make a purchase. But have you thought that everyone is not your customer and not everyone can be? First understand buyer personas, this way you will know how to make a larger reach and audience in your industry research. So before making any strategy first analyze your potential customer and define them on the basis of:
- Age
- Income
- Gender
- Location
- Occupation
- Education level
- Marital or family status
After shortlisting them through above mentioned criteria, now understand them. Also repeat this process in a time interval to welcome new customers and check if old customers are active or not.
Look into your business
This comes when you are already running a business. Just have an outlook on your business and current status. Analyze in which direction you are moving, growth of your business and market trends. It will allow more investors to fall in for your company.
Prepare yourself
Well here prepare means preparing yourself for everything. To identify your business value and understand your customer, prepare a list of questions and go for it to a focus group or an online survey or calling interview. Just make sure there is a time limit for individual surveys.
Shortlist your competitors
Till now it’s all about your business data and your customer, but now taking a step ahead of it. Identify all your primary competitors, competition in business and their targeted audience. Its not necessary to go through the whole company, sometimes you can just compare it through a single product or service wise. Research competitors their strength, weakness, opportunity and threat (SWOT) and compare it with yours. You will see where you are standing right now in the market.
Convert data into work
This whole procedure may look discouraging, but as time will pass you can actually see the results and a constant incline graph of your business. Now, conclude everything and every data that you have collected and make a presentation or any form for your better understanding. This form will help you implement all the data into the real world. We cannot suggest anything specific on implementing here as data may vary from business to business and mode of your business that is it may be online and offline.
Conclusion
Techniques mentioned in this article are for both online market research and offline or primary market research. It’s not easy like old days to establish a business and run it fluently. You have to keep going with trends and these market research will help you know the market trend analysis and direction of the market.
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