Be it launching a new product or polishing your current ones, market research will always be the starting point for rational decision making. But, in 2024 effective market research means having to learn new tools, technologies, and best practices.
This guide will take you step by step through everything that concern market research from setting your objectives to utilizing the latest tactics to extract value from the information gathered in order to turn insights into actionable strategies. Continue reading so that you do not waste effort in the field.
Understanding what market research
It is the process of gathering information regarding the target market, contemporaries, and the world in which the business is operating, then analyzing and interpreting the collected data. Gears and cogs of a business requires understanding of the client’s demand, hypothetical existing gap in the market, as well as solid evidence acquired from modifying various elements of your business.
Market research in a changing world which is prone to innovations like the ones happening in 2024, is crucial in making sure the business does not lag behind its contenders or fail miserably.
The groundwork in any project that aims for successful market research is focusing on pinpoint goals along with defining the target audience.
Explain Your Research Objective
Consider the questions below:
• Which questions do you want to answer?
• What would you like to find out? A new market gap, an opportunity to improve your product, or perhaps measuring customer satisfaction?
If, for instance, you own a SaaS company, your goal may be to determine what features customers appreciate the most. Goals provide direction on the research that needs to be carried out.
Identify Your Ideal Customer
Design comprehensive buyer personas which include:
• Demographics (age, area of residence, level of income)
• Psychographics (core values, hobbies, and frustrations)
• Social Media behavior (shopping behavior via social media platforms and online)
Developing an audience makes sure that all attempts made in research will be accurate.
Primary Vs. Secondary Research: What Are The Differences?
The two branches that define the type of market research done are; primary and secondary research. Knowing when to apply each of these is crucial for obtaining the right information.
Primary Research:
Collecting new information through:
• Surveys: Set up Google Forms or Survey Monkey and have members of your target audience respond to the questionnaires.
• Interviews: Talk to people one on one.
• Focus Groups: Bring together a specific number of people so they can discuss or give out opinions about a product/service.
• Observations: Study how customers use various products in public places.
These techniques are best suited for answering very particular questions regarding your business.
Secondary Research
This includes collecting information from several sources of data, including:
• Industry reports
• Websites of rivals
• Published document by government
• Whitepapers
Sites such as Statista and IBISWorld are excellent sources of secondary data. This is an inexpensive method to gain a better understanding of the market before conducting thorough primary research.
Which should you go for?
For deeper understanding and specific, actionable insights about your business, use primary research methods. For a broader understanding of your industry alongside identifying trends, secondary research is effective.
Top Tools and Resources for Market Research in 2024
With the right tools at hand, the market research process becomes easier and more effective. Below are some of the best tools available in 2024.
Survey Tools:
• Google Forms (Free): Simple and great for crafting basic surveys.
• SurveyMonkey (Paid): Advanced options for building complex surveys plus access to analytics.
• Typeform (Paid): An appealing user-friendly platform designed for captivating surveys.
Social Media Analytics:
• Sprout Social (Paid): Analyzes audience behavior across social media platforms.
• BuzzSumo (Paid): Examine leads and competitor content to uncover popular material within your market.
Competitor Study
– SEMrush paid version: It is like a treasure map when it comes to discovering a competitor’s SEO, advertisement, and market trend secrets.
– SimilarWeb paid version: Compare and contrast competitors’ traffic sources and check their ranking compared to your business.
Market Studies and Results
– Statista: Easily find qualitative reports at bay in a particular field alongside market stats and analyses.
– Think with Google free version: Get important statistics that monitor the market and check customer behavior straight from Google.
Consumer Evaluation
– Hotjar: Check how a customer engages with your site, monitor the sections they click or hover on by using heatmaps and recorded sessions.
– Qualtrics: This tool is best when utilizing customer satisfaction surveys outlined by the client.
Evaluating and explaining the collected research data
Indeed collecting summarized reports becomes daunting after a while. However, try to remember exploring deeper until you arrive at actionable insights that offer changes is where the real excitement lies.
The most important milestones to analyze the data
1. Structure the acquired information
Start with clustering the data based on the order that enhances easy access, starting with: consumers’ age, gender, product buy, and so on.
2. Seek what is repetitive
Look for important guiders and essential measures among the uncovered data. An example being, is a household product being utilized by specific older age groups?
3. Using other means of analysis
Power BI and Tableau are examples of raw data turned into numbers and placed in a visually understandable manner, therefore easier to present with the company.
4. Concentrate On Insights
Not all data points will offer the same value. Spend your time on insights that are within the scope of your research objectives.
Transforming Insights Into Steps For Action
Market research becomes useful when it can be put into action. Follow these steps to implement your insights:
• Custom Tailor Your Advertising Marketing
Employ demographics and psychographics to create ads that are specific to your audience.
• Improve The Product Offering
Listen to your customers in order to enhance current products or create new ones to address an identified market gap.
• Improve Customer Care
Reduce the identified pain points through survey feedback to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.
• Get Ahead Of The Competition
Use research to pinpoint blunders in your competition’s tactics and place yourself ahead of them.
If, for example, the research you conducted uncovered that your customers do eco-friendly products, market your product as an eco-friendly product and mention those features heavily in the marketing messages.
Being Pro – Active In The Market Research Industry
Technological Progress
New technologies like AI and machine learning are changing the dynamics of the market research business. Predictive analytic tools, like IBM Watson or Growth.ai, have the potential to uncover trends and insights at an unprecedented pace.
Further Training and Development
As a result of constantly evolving market trends, subscribe to industry newsletters, attend webinars, and read relevant reports from Nielsen and Gartner.
This will help keep your market research approaches up to date so they always make a difference.
