5 tips for conducting better marketing research

It involves gathering information with the purpose of understanding customers’ behaviours and actions so that better products and services are provided. Besides, market research helps a business connect with audiences more effectively while staying on top of trends shaping the actual market.

Proper marketing research can help achieve solid business decisions in the long run, as decisions are solely based on accurate data. The market research also contributes to finding and securing new business opportunities that leverage growth and development while minimising business failure. Finally, with market research, your ability to secure funds from investors and stakeholders will improve, which will attract more investments for your company.

But conducting market research is time-consuming and differs for every business. Fashion, healthcare and education sectors need different questions answered and solved. Want to learn how to plan your market research method more efficiently? Keep reading.

Identify opportunities for your needs

Knowing your business well enough is the only way to boost it. It’s not sufficient to prioritise only activities that make a profit but to understand the ones that don’t and try to look for a solution. But if you had different purposes at the beginning of the business, it would be best to change how you approach them at the company’s current state.

Analysing new opportunities for the organisation’s current growth requirements is done by brainstorming the company’s different perspectives of where your business can grow. The next step is to analyse some of the following aspects and try to pinpoint potential areas of improvement:

- Current trends on the market, from social media to blogging;

- Demographics will help you understand if the age, occupation or income of your target audience has changed;

- The market size of the industry your business is part of;

- Forecasted trends you may need to be prepared for;

- Key competitors and if you have something to learn from them;

Conduct brand research

Brand research gives you more insight into the general opinion customers have on your business. Depending on your reputation and visibility, you may be able to have a better understanding of the marketplace’s condition and your company’s role in its dynamics. Sapio Research and strategy  will provide insight into the following:

- The amount of familiarity between your customers and your brand;

- The memorability of your logo and company name;

- The comparison made by your customers between your company and competition;

- The overall brand perception and awareness of your business in the market;

- The way your website is perceived based on your social media presence and content;

Building a brand research plan can be challenging. You may need to include surveys, workshops, social intelligence and such to allow different perspectives for competitive analysis, brand awareness and associations.

Base your conclusions on data

Sometimes, especially in smaller businesses, getting to certain conclusions based on assumptions is possible. Although it’s normal to get to these ideas by noticing specific patterns, these theories are better to be avoided. Any unverified information based on collected data isn’t necessary and has no use in your company’s development. Analysing data might include some of the following guidelines:

- What easy questions can you answer regarding data dynamics ?

- What are the metrics you’ll use for providing a consistent bias?

- Do you have a special digital format to track these metrics?

- How can you link metrics to your company’s activity?

Bias is quite a tricky element in marketing, but some cognitive biases are used to optimise marketing strategies. For example, the framing effect shows that customers are more likely to purchase a product based on the way it’s presented.

Improve communication skills

When conducting your market research, it’s best to have clear and understanding language as well as expressions so that your customer audience will be able to get the message and formulate a clear response. Written communication especially must be at a higher level, but that doesn’t mean using technical words or challenging expressions, regardless of the industry. At the same time, if you choose to perform research by calling customers and having your team speak to them, verbal communication skills should be polished enough to engage with any person encountered.

As a business, improving communication techniques can be done through the:

Adapting the message to the audience (sometimes, even to the person speaking to);Being authentic and avoiding a robotic approach;Practising active listening when waiting for a response or an explanation from the customer:Asking for feedback at all times from other team members;

Being transparent

Taking surveys and researching might seem confusing for some people. They might start with questions regarding the safety of their data and even other out-of-the-box inquiries that your team should be able to respond to. The way responses are formulated is essential because if they’re vague and don’t cover the entire issue at the moment of speaking, it might lead to a lack of trustlack of trust in the other person talking.

Training is necessary for your team to be transparent while conducting surveys. It involves all the information and data required to help them understand the need for this action for the company’s sake. Therefore, this brief introduction to how clients need to be approached must take more time so that everyone is fully prepared to conduct this mission.

Transparency is one of the most appreciated features of a company. That’s because it shows you’ve got nothing to hide within your organisation and helps people understand your intention and willingness to support their needs without focusing on profit.

Bottom line

Conducting marketing research in this fast-paced technological era is a challenge for any type of company. It’s time-consuming and requires all participants to be fully aware of the responses and questions involved so that valuable data will be provided. But this research is the best way for a business to regain its power and become more competitive in the market, which is why more organisations should do it frequently.