6 Ways to Drive Business With Better Market Research & Analysis

Market research & Analysis keeps changing along with consumer trends post-pandemic. Here are six flexible tips to help you understand your target customers and adapt your strategies.

One of the biggest marketing mistakes young businesses make is trying to market without enough information. Market research and analysis is a critical first step for any campaign. This post is going to look at how you can do market research and analysis to drive your business goals.

Re-evaluate your business goals

Before you commit to market research, take some time to review your goals.

Which areas of your business are you looking to improve?

Some examples include acquiring new customers, increasing your retention rate of existing clients, expanding the demographic you appeal to, etc.

When you have a list of goals in mind, organize them by priority. This will show where in your operations marketing effort is the most important. Most of the time, attracting new customers or clients is at the top of the list. That said, don’t neglect the next one or two things. Focus most of your effort on your highest priority, and see how you can do a little towards the other goals along the way.

Deepen your knowledge of your customer base

You need to know how your buyers see the world they live in. It sounds a little dramatic, but it’s an essential step in advertising. There’s a strategy called psychographic segmentation based on this approach.

Research your customers’ desires, interests, values, lifestyle, habits, buying behavior, etc. This data adds a new dimension to staple demographics like age, gender, and income bracket.

When do they view your content?

Are they students, laborers, administrators?

Do they rather react to social issues or personal stories?

Analyze interactions with your brand to gather this information. Use direct feedback methods too: conduct questionnaires, ask for interviews, post value polls, etc. Then segment the insights from this deep dive and create a far more accurate customer profile that will let your marketing campaigns skyrocket.

Take advantage of online surveys

Utilize survey software to the max.

It’s one of the most convenient tools you have available for gathering massive amounts of insight in a short time. Consider what you would like to learn from/ about your customers, phrase it as a list of questions, and circulate them.

You can also use survey templates to save time on planning and writing your own. Most survey service providers group their questionnaires by category, so you can choose for your specific purpose: customer satisfaction, brand awareness, brand loyalty, competitor research, etc.

You can adapt the available templates into different formats. Consider phrasing your questions as a quiz, poll, would-you-rather selection, etc. As a bonus, embed the surveys on your site and social media pages to drive more traffic.

Keep your questionnaires short

Questionnaires and interviews are great for marketers, but annoying for the customers.

People are likely to navigate away if a survey takes up more than five to ten minutes of their time. Avoid this by keeping it short and succinct. Keep the questions straightforward and use simple, everyday language.

Break the survey up into segments. Having shorter sessions chunked out for them will prevent your audience from feeling overwhelmed. Also, here’s a hack for your future marketing efforts: if you have any open-ended questions, put them at the beginning. Place the less important ones later, and multiple-choice or yes-no questions towards the end.

People will give you the most information at the start, when they’re still fresh, interested, and focused. Their attention will dwindle as they go along, as will the quality of their feedback. By leaving the easiest questions for last, you give them a chance to rest between sessions. It also reduces the risk of getting faulty data, because there’s less room for them to make mistakes with closed-end questions.

Invest in brand research

Your idea of your brand tends to be quite different from how people actually see it.

You should regularly update your information on that. Pay special attention to subtle signals like your color palette, how your slogan is phrased, etc. They can have an immense impact on people’s opinion of you – or if they even recognize your brand in the first place.

You can use a system like Net Promoter Score to research your customers’ view of your business. First, you need insight into your reputation in general. Find out what people say about your offers, prices, overall content, your social media presence, their experience on your official website, etc.

Next, find out the degree of the consumers’ loyalty to your brand. What do they think of you compared to your competitors? How likely are they to stay with you if another brand offers the same or similar service at a lower price? How likely are they to recommend you to their friends?

Utilize incentives

The best way to improve your market research is to improve your data collection. The more information you gather, the more accurate your analysis. Customers are more willing to share their thoughts if they get something in return.

Offer things like a one-time free service, a notable discount, a free guide or accessory, etc. Choose items or services that people would be happy to get. You need to give them something they will see as equally valuable to the time they spent taking your surveys.

Summing up

To summarize: prioritize your goals and gather a lot of data to reach them. Incentivize your customers to give you deeper insights. Understand their pain points, desires, and their view of your brand. Utilize survey software and keep your questionnaires short to maximize their effectiveness.