Market research is imperative when it comes to any organization – new or established. You need it to understand your target market and increase sales. Highly effective organizations understand the importance of market research continually taking place. As smallbusiness.gov puts it, organizations conduct market research for numerous reasons throughout various stages of development, all of which are equally important.
- Identify potential customers
- Understand your existing customers
- Set realistic targets
- Develop effective strategies
- Examine and solve business problems
- Prepare for organization expansion
- Identify business opportunities
Below, we have described in more depth some of the most important market research habits of highly effective organizations.
1. Set Your Objectives
You need to figure out an end goal and ask yourself a few questions before you even start. For example, do you know what kind of research you need? Don’t waste your time, and effort, rushing into conducting market research without being fully prepared. While determining your objectives, you also want to make sure you do the following:
- Determine whether similar research has been conducted by your organization in the past
- Asses any existing data that may be relevant to your objectives
- Decide who will be using the data and how they will use it
- Establish a timeline and budget for obtaining the data
2. Set a Budget
As mentioned above, you need to figure out how much your organization can spend on market research before you begin conducting your own or acquiring syndicated research. Research before investing in your research – find what information is available, first, before making a final purchasing decision. When determining your budget, it is important that you understand which types of market research are available in different price ranges. This is critical in ensuring your organization sets a realistic budget that you can easily maintain.
3. Understand Your Target Market
Trends are constantly emerging, and, in order to continue being successful, you have to stay on top of the current trends. Market research is necessary to understand your potential customers and the existing ones. You may find population shifts and discover a new or increased target market. In order to maintain a competitive edge, you have to understand who your customers are and what they value.
4. Create Your Advertising Campaign
Now that you’ve updated yourself on the current trends and data in your market, you are ready to put together a successful advertising campaign. You may have even found new business opportunities that you want to advertise. By analyzing the data and information you collected from your market research, you can determine how to effectively reach your target market.
With your research findings, you develop strengths, any new and existing opportunities and eliminate weaknesses within your business. Most importantly, you have to remember to continue to conduct market research. As we have learned, it’s not just a one-time thing.
Interested in more information about market research? Download our free white paper How to Use Social Media for Market Research.
Thanks for reading!
Kathleen Zacrep
Social Media Coordinator,
MarketResearch.com
