How Market Research Can Boost Your Marketing Strategy
Without a deep understanding of your customers, your marketing will not be effective. Market research is the best way to get to know your customers better and is the foundation of an effective marketing strategy.
Market research isn't just for big companies, and it doesn't have to be expensive. In fact, small businesses with small budgets and limited resources can make more money.
Being small can actually be a real superpower when marketing to customers. Small often means being closer to your audience (an easy shortcut) and the ability to quickly distance yourself from larger competitors (less bureaucracy).
>See also: Small Business Marketing Trends in 2023
Market research will help you create content and deliver messages that speak directly to your target audience. This ensures that your marketing budget is optimized and that your marketing efforts translate into sales.
Research can identify market needs before launching your product or service, help you understand your customer, what motivates and retains them, and still save you money in the long run.
Whether you're starting a business or have an established business, there's no excuse not to research your target market. Knowing who buys your product and how it might change over time will help you stay relevant and meet demand.
Start with a marketing strategy
Search-based marketing starts with a strategy. Your marketing strategy is the overall plan that will drive your business forward. Determine how you will market your product or service and if done effectively, you should create consistent demand for your business.
Your marketing strategy includes who does what, which Tweets and Instas, when, flyer design, press release dates, and more. Understand what you're trying to achieve from the different marketing channels you use.
Understanding your customers through effective market research will help you position your product or service in the market and ensure that your marketing reflects what is important to your customers.
>See also: Marketing a new business
5 Reasons You Need Market Research
Your marketing strategy should be based on strong positioning, which means you need to understand how to position your product or service for customers, ensure your message resonates with your target market, what channels to use and what content to create. to keep yours. The brand is relevant.
#1 - Product Placement
To know how to effectively position your product or service, you obviously need to know who your customers are and what motivates them. You probably gathered this information when you started your business. But are your customers the same today as they were last week, last year or 10 years ago?
It's common for a company's customer demographics to change over the years. Therefore, market research will help you better understand the demographics of your customers. Customer behavior is also changing.
Knowing who buys your product (and who doesn't) will help you better target your customers. Can you create a customer profile from the information you already know about your customers? If you can't, you really need to brush up on that knowledge.
Customer surveys and interviews are a good way to gain new insights and make sure you're positioning your product or service correctly in the market. You'll learn why customers use your product over your competitors (or vice versa). What's important to them (be sure to go beyond the obvious use of your product or service and ask about their broader interests) and why they use your business or their businesses.
#2 - Speak your customers' language
Understanding customers helps businesses communicate effectively. If you want to get good engagement and conversions from your marketing, it's important to speak your customers' language. Remember that how you describe your offering and the value it provides may not match how customers describe it.
The language and tone you use will vary depending on who you are talking to. Are you talking to lawyers? Cool, hip Gen Z teenagers? They don't speak the same language.
Engaging in market research activities such as customer interviews can help you determine the appropriate language and tone to use in your marketing materials.
When interviewing customers for research, don't put your words in their mouths, ask them to describe your product or service in their own words and how it helped them. Bring what you learn to your own marketing
If you want to understand the language of your customers, it's also helpful to see where they hang out online (in communities, forums, professional associations, and even LinkedIn). Pay attention to how they write. What words do they use?
#3 - Channels
If you're a small business, you may not be able to work across all available marketing channels. Understanding where your audience prefers to consume content will help you focus on the channels that matter most to them.
To find out, you can now start to see which channels work better for you than others. Most platforms have analytics to help you. You can also ask customers where they consume their favorite business content, what their top three channels are, and in what context they use each (eg Instagram on the go, TikTok at night, newsletters at work, etc.).
Remember that it is always better to use a few channels very well than to overwork yourself.
#4 – Content Marketing Strategy
You spend a lot of time, money and effort creating marketing campaigns that you "hope" to do. But crossing your fingers isn't enough and shouldn't be the basis of any marketing campaign.
Does your audience prefer video over audio? Want advice or case studies? Do they have general questions about your department?
Answering these questions will help you invest time, effort, and money into content that converts.
You can do this by asking your audience directly (social media, surveys) or by looking at what content has performed well in the past and more. Did it go well? Was the message clear? Did customers like the image or the tone?
How customers react to previous campaigns helps shape the new campaign, increasing its reach, appeal and effectiveness.
Platforms like Public Answers are also a great resource for small businesses to show what people are searching for in specific categories. This is a great way to get relevant content marketing ideas for your business.
#5 - Branding
If you don't have enough control over your brand, you need to ask yourself a few questions: How do your customers see you? How does your brand stand out from your competitors?
Market research can be used to improve your brand through the following topics:
- Personalization: What attributes do customers associate with your brand?
- Brand awareness: Do customers recognize your brand? Do you know how good that is?
- Comparison: How does your brand compare to its main competitors?
You can ask your customers for feedback on a variety of topics, such as how attractive your website is, the online checkout process, or customer service. The more information you have, the better changes and improvements you can make.
Apart from effective marketing, market research can help your business on a larger scale. Engaging customers early will greatly increase your chances of success, deciding which features to market first, or scaling and growing your business.
> See also: Six Digital Marketing Tools Every Small Business Needs
How to do market research
Market research doesn't have to be scary or expensive. Before calling a professional, you can start with the tools you have.
> See also: A Guide to Conducting Market Research for Small Businesses
Start with a desktop survey
You'll be surprised how much free data is just a click away from your computer. Major budget consulting firms publish quarterly and annual trend reports on all kinds of topics that you can read for free. And trade associations like the BIRA Retail Association publish free trend reports.
Another thing you can do is set up a Google News alert for your business keywords (eg consumer + trends + reports + flavor) to get new information straight to your inbox.
Protect your customers
Talking to your customers is the best data-generating method of market research. Identify people in your customer database and ask them if they would be available for a quarterly interview. All you need is half an hour of their time and in return you can offer them a discount or a gift card. If you talk to customers every three months, you can track sentiment. However, avoid talking to friends or family because they often tell you what you want to hear.
ask the right questions
One of the biggest mistakes a small business can make is asking your sample audience directly if they will buy your product or service in the near future. Bad at predicting how people might behave. Plus, they'll probably always tell you what you want to hear. Instead, if you're looking for a new scented candle product, ask open-ended questions like, "Tell me how you like to relax before bed..." or "How important is your sense of smell to you?" What smells do you like?"
Five tips for effective market research
- Preparation is very important when conducting market research. Think back. What type of research are you looking for?
- The right questions are essential to get the relevant information. Spend time adjusting/testing to make sure the answers match
- Think about your audience and make sure your sample size is large enough to be truly representative
- Decide which method to use (qualitative or quantitative) and contact a trusted researcher like OnePoll to ensure coverage and targeting .
- Allow time to review results after data collection; Get trends/insights and then act
Kay Atty Tucker is an experienced product manager with over 12 years of experience leading teams and delivering exceptional products and services. In 2020, he founded ProductJungle, a company that helps hundreds of businesses better understand their customers. He is also a consultant, speaker, writer and editor for the popular Jungle Juice newsletter.
His "Do Penguins Eat Peaches? " Other Unexpected Ways to Discover What Your Customers Want will be published by Practical Inspiration Publications in October 2023 and is available for pre-order now.
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