Market research is the most important step in setting up any business. Whether you are trying to set up an online business or offline business, unless until you understand your target market you cannot make appropriate decisions.
What is Market Research?
Market research is the process of finding appropriate market or niche by extracting and analyzing data and information. Market research is conducted by applying scientific methods and management principles.
The purpose of market research is to gather information and use that in decision making.
Irrespective of your niche or market segment, you need to perform market research in order to optimize your Return on Investment (ROI).
So if you are small business, blogger or internet marketer, market research should be the first thing which you should do in order to move forward in your business. There is no point in shooting in dark without adequate information and knowledge.
Market research is the backbone of your decision making process.
How To Do Market Research?
There are varieties of market research methods which can be used to perform market research related activities.
market research is the key
These methods can be classified into;
Exploratory Research – Exploratory research is conducted when you don’t know much about the subject and are looking for more information about a topic. As this moment, you are not looking for an end result. This method involves looking at the data and exploring the possibilities around.
Exploratory research basically serves the purpose of identifying the appropriate research structure, design and path.
You need to get secondary data in order to further confirm your findings.
For example- you want to start a blog or an online store to make money but not sure about the niche. Before you finalize your niche, you need to do some research on finding the correct research approach for your blog or ecommerce store. This is where exploratory research kicks in, which will involve researching on tools and other resources along with information which can help you in determining the best niche for you.
Descriptive Research – Descriptive research is a more rigorous research method. It involves defining the specifics of your research. You need to identify;
- Who
- What
- Where
- When
- How
If you can identify and answer the above points, you can know your target customer (who), product (what), location of targeted customer (where), future demands and how you can reach them.
It requires in-depth data analysis before you should reach a conclusion.
Example
You are looking to set up an internet marketing blog where you will advise about IM, SEO, SMM and affiliate marketing. You will be making money through affiliate marketing. If you do proper market research, you will have better understanding of the demands of the specific products which people are seeking and you can design your blog accordingly to fit into the needs of your visitors.
Analytical Research – analytical method of market research is the extension of descriptive research because it takes the data mining and analysis to the next level. So you have collected a data and defined specifics in descriptive research, now you want to extract the information from the data and based upon your objective, you make appropriate decisions to implement your policy or campaign.
Analytical research includes;
- Case studies
- Observation
- Historical analysis
- Attitude surveys
- Statistical surveys
Example
Keyword research is a very good example of analytical research where you target a specific keyword within a particular niche.
Other Market Research Techniques
There are few other market research techniques also like Causal Research, Quantitative Research, Qualitative Research, Conceptual Research and Modelling Research but I am not going to discuss them today as it will increase the amount of information which can lead to confusion.
Sound market research practice criteria
- Your market research principles and methods should be consistent.
- Your market research practices should be replicable.
- You can define certain questions and market research provides the answers to them.
- Data extracted and analyzed through market research implementable.
- Your market research is clearly related to your current, short term and long term goals.
Market research in Internet Marketing
Market research is imperative for the success of any business. Whether its offline business selling consumer durables or online business in the form of an online store or blog, you need to perform market research in order to achieve your objectives.
Most of the bloggers, ecommerce store owners and affiliate marketers tend to run after PR, alexa rank and seo in particular. They completely ignore the fact that everything boils down to satisfying your target consumer’s need and achieve your professional goals.
You can never succeed even if you have got tons of back links or solid social media foundation unless until you are moving in the right direction.
Market research helps you in identifying that right direction for you.
When you do proper market research, you know;
- What is the problem?
- What is the solution?
- Who is your target audience?
- How you are going to satisfy them?
You can answer above questions, you don’t need to run after everything around or follow the herd mentality.
You need data to gather and analyze information. You can use online free and paid tools to get that information. But you are “The One” who is going to pull the trigger.
Market research activity for internet marketing includes finding;
- What people are looking online?
- Current trends
- Problems faced by the people
- How people are seeking information
In general we refer to market research as keyword research in internet marketing or blogging but market research is much more extensive and elaborative.
Keyword research doesn’t limit to your post titles, it also tells you “How people are search for information”.
You can run those queries in search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo and analyze the results.
You can use tools like (for online market research only);
Final Thoughts
No matter how you do it, but market research is critical for your business. You should perform a thorough market research before you move further in your niche. You should analyze data and try to correlate that to your niche.
Once you know what to do? It is easier to achieve your targets.
Please share your thoughts on market research and don’t forget to share it with your friends.
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About akhilendra
You know those situations we find ourselves in sometimes .Late on the mortgage payment.social Media work from home
Hi Akhilendra,
I think research is the key to starting a successful business. For example if you don’t keyword research when starting a website or writing a post on your blog it is possible that all the on-page seo is useless.
Always research before you start something, it saves you a lot of time and effort in the long run.
Great post man, really enjoyed reading it.
~Philip
Doing research is must for all business, good article Akhilendra.
Market research is indeed very helpful. I consider it as the foundation of the business!
Thanks Melly for stopping by.