“Market Research” is the process of collecting information about potential customers. It’s like taking a peek into your customers’ and competitors’ worlds, and using your findings to accelerate your marketing strategy.
You can conduct market research in several ways:
Primary Research: talking to and observing your own customers, creating new research. This includes surveys, interviews, and focus groups, for example.
Secondary Research: using existing data and research that others have done. This can include scrolling social media and reading press releases and reports.
When do I need to conduct market research? #
Market Research can help when you:
⚡are worried about low conversion rates
⚡ have launched a new product
⚡ are noticing an expansion or change in your market
⚡want to understand your competition
Businesses should conduct research often to keep up with the ways markets evolve. By staying on top of each wave of change, you’re empowered to understand what consumers want, making it easier to engage them.
How do I conduct market research? #
Begin by asking yourself a few short questions:
⚡ “Who is my target audience?” This includes age, gender, location, and financial position/buying habits.
⚡ “What is demand like at the moment?” Are people keen to buy what you’re selling? Why/why not?
⚡ “How many similar projects are on the market?” Asking this question helps you innovate and stand out.
You can then choose a research method(s) to carry out.
Here are some of the best methods.
PRIMARY RESEARCH #
⚡Survey #
Create an online survey, using a third-party website. (Survey Monkey, and Typeform are good examples)
Run a test of your survey – share it with a small sample group first. This will help you to identify issues of wording, clarity, navigation, or confusion
- Make the necessary adjustments
- Send out a link to that survey through email, Social Media, or SMS
- Once you have your responses, remove any incomplete responses
- Put the rest of the data into graphs and charts, to help you to understand and visualise it
You can also use social media to set up polls and surveys. This will be less in-depth, but works if you have quick questions. For the research methods below, recruitment processes are very similar. Put out calls on social media, or via SMS/email. You can use your personal networks, too. Remember to use participants from a variety of sources so you have broad opinions on offer. If all participants are from your mailing lists, they’ll all have similar ideas.
You may also need to incentivise participation with discounts.
⚡Focus Groups #
Select or hire a moderator and co-moderator. They will need to ask questions, take notes and observe behaviour. Someone external to your business can be less biased, but you may also need them to understand the business well. Think about what’s right for you.
- Create a series of open-ended questions that will help you understand your participants’ behaviour. Think about follow up questions, too.
- Choose somewhere to conduct the focus group. It should be easily accessible by public transport
- Plan some activities and questions. Some should involve group work. Others should encourage participants to write ideas down, in response to questions you ask E.G. ‘What sort of emails do you find most engaging?’, ‘Discuss the top five reasons you might unsubscribe from a campaign.’
- It’s focus group time! Explain the purpose of your focus group, and establish rules. Pay close attention to verbal and non-verbal responses, and collect data to identify themes and patterns
⚡Interviews #
- Develop a list of interview questions. To help you get started, we recommend these examples
- You can ask about subscription habits and preferences or ask about some examples of Calls-to-Action.
- Ask about what frustrates participants and how often they click on links
You can conduct interviews remotely or in person, depending on your preference. You can also see what works best for participants
Make notes of participants’ answers, and don’t be afraid to dig deeper on certain answers
⚡Observation #
There are a few options for conducting observations. Look back on how your past campaigns have performed, or even run a new campaign and note what happens. Consider A/B testing as an option.
⚡Review-mining #
Have a look at your businesses’ reviews, and also those of your competitors. Google Reviews is a good place to start with this.
- Are lots of people inspired to take action by similar Calls-to-Action?Think about key phrases and language that customers use time and again. These can help you to understand their expectations, desires, and dislikes
- Make note of key themes. Do lots of customers identify the same frustrations?
- Segment the feedback you find. Are certain age groups more likely to complain about particular Calls-to-Action? Do those who have a more frequent purchase history respond well to mailing lists?
⚡ Social Media #
Look at the comment sections of your own socials, and of competitors. Compare and contrast what customers are saying.
- Identify trends – what’s popular on socials right now? Can you include this in an email, to drive up engagement?
- How do your competitors manage their brand? This involves thinking about handling customer concerns, as well as their successes
- Use follower lists (yours and competitors’) to understand audience demographics. This will help you to segment your lists
⚡ Government and Market Reports #
- These can provide valuable insights into trends, which you can take advantage of. Databases such as Mintel Reports can be useful, as can the Government’s Market Data Insights
- Make sure that the reports you use are up-to-date. This means that they are recently-published, and relevant to your industry. Assess who the author is – are they credible? You can always Google the website, and see what other people have to say about its credibility
- Cross reference a few different reports. This will verify accuracy, and help you understand the bigger picture
- Ask yourself questions. What do my competitors do well? What is the demand like at the moment? How can I utilise this? How big is this market? Who is buying from it?
⚡ Competitors’ websites, press releases, and reports #
- Research and identify your competitors
- Look at their website. Think about structure, navigation, and headings. How do they present content to their visitors? As a viewer, what do YOU like about it? What do you dislike? Can you take any of this forward to your email campaigns?
- Think about the way they use market trends. Subscribe to their mailing lists for a while, and observe
- Many companies share their press releases and reports. You can use these to understand how customers responded to their products, and learn from their mistakes
- It’s important that you don’t just copy them- your business has unique value. You can use theirs as inspiration, and to monitor changes. But bring your own voice to it as well
Research done. What now? #
Use your findings to segment your audiences.
The data you have gathered reflects:
- a) Who your customers are
- b) Their marketing preferences
This information is very helpful in laying out potential email marketing segments.
The good news is, we’ve got lots of articles on email segmentation to help you make use of your findings. Check out:
- The Most Profitable Email Marketing Segments for You.
- How to build a loyal audience with strategic email segmentation
Want more support with your research? Remember, the experts at Zap are only a message away. Contact us to find out more.
