|
|
|
|
When launching a new product, campaign, or new line of service, a majority of businesses choose to forgo market research, which is an important process. While many organizations cite cost as the reason to skip this vital step, other companies think it's too time-consuming, or simply not necessary-this couldn't be any farther from the truth.
It's no secret that marketing has become more fiercely competitive than ever before. Companies fighting over the same consumer base have made this a "dog-eat-dog" world. Hence, it's important that you use actionable insights to gain an edge in your strategy. There's no better way than market research services to gain a broader, deeper knowledge of your audience and streamline marketing efforts.
Market research is a critical business function as it helps in understanding the target market and audience segment. Plus, by extension, stakeholders can figure out the actual need for a service or a product. Remember, a business with a better understanding of its consumer's needs, wants, and preferences top the pedestal.
How do Market Research Insights Help in Future-Proofing?
Some organizations think it should be the first thing to cut when discussing an upcoming product/service launch. It's quickly ignored or discarded for something more immediate since it is a long-term payoff and doesn't immediately turn into revenue.
Statista revealed that 35% of businesses fail by developing an irrelevant product in the current market as they fail to test their product fit and/or establish minimum viable product (MVP)-lack of business market research is the reason. So, the main lesson learned is companies must do their homework. The time and cost of professional business market research services are worth the investment every time; it need not cost hundreds of thousands of dollars!
If you're a famous sports brand testing out a new shoe or a beverage brand launching a new drink, market research might cost upwards; but if you're a small business trying to figure out if a product is a good fit for a specific locale, or whether you should launch a new line of business-there are cost-effective ways to do market research.
Here's a list of a few of the best tried-and-tested best practices in market research function:
Try Freebies
Before dipping your toe into paid research, you can use free online tools such as Google. How? Search the phrase you'd use to describe the product and review its popularity. If there are millions of searches, the popularity is high and it's in high demand. But, if there are a couple of hundred results only, you might be barking up the wrong tree.
Email For the Win
The email marketing campaign is another smart tactic for efficient market research. Targeting a segment audience via email works phenomenally well, irrespective of whether you rely on an internal email list or purchase one from external companies that specialize in list creation. Many digital ad agencies specialize in surveys and provide legitimate lists. Purchasing these lists within a specific vertical is a great way to target them specifically.
Let's say you're a dental manufacturing company and looking for dentists to sell your product. There are very specific lists that you can buy to find and target the audience. You can break down the list by specialization, location, size of practice, etc. Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to do business research without breaking the bank.
Going Digital
When you say 'market research' the image that comes to mind for many people is a person standing in the grocery store who offers free samples of a new product. While this can be effective, the digital realm is a much faster and easier option. You get ample opinions on running an online poll when you stand in line in the grocery store. It's more like: 20 people versus 5,000; and that's a significant difference.
Twitter and LinkedIn host online polling and offer solid results. It's vital to slice and dice the audience until stakeholders are polling the right segment. It is important to ensure that geographical location is accurate as it's not uncommon for those polling to use a much bigger geo-target setting than necessary, by default. This can skew results.
Also, do not forget simple ad campaigns on Instagram, Meta, Twitter, or LinkedIn. Running an A/B test using different slogans, images, and copy tells you what is resonating with the target audience and what isn't.
Professional Help
You can always rely on professionals to help you with vital tasks like market research. The experts can determine how frequently certain words and phrases are searched and give insights into what is being searched and how. They help you refine the best words/phrases and use them when promoting a product or business.
They can also help you with polling and/or surveying. After assessing your business objectives and pain points, they offer customized solutions according to the budget and campaign size. Pro tip: anything over $10,000 must be handled by the pros.
To conclude, fish, where the fish are, is the first rule in fishing. The last thing you want to do as a business is waste time and effort fishing for the wrong customers in the right place or 'fishing' for customers in the wrong place. Market research, therefore, helps you 'find where the fish are.'
No doubt the global revenue of the market research industry exceeded 76.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2021, as sourced from Statista.
Now that you know an efficient research process can make or break your business, it is a good time to look for web research services in India. Be smart and put in the effort and time to make sure your product/service or line of business is truly resonating with your target audience.
|
|
