You may have a really great business idea, for a particular product or service, and you may already have the beginnings of a good business plan. However, many new business owners don’t check to see if there is actually a viable market for their products or services. Businesses can find out a great deal about their market, who their potential customers are and what their potential customers want. Conducting market research is a great way for both established business owners and new business owners to find out more about their customer base.

Types of Market Research

Market research can be separated into two different varieties. Firstly, there’s the type of market research that you conduct yourself, which is known as primary market research. This type of market research requires that your business create surveys and other materials needed for market research. It also involves your business conducting these surveys and then analyzing the results. The other type of market research is called secondary market research. This type of research involves analyzing the research that has been conducted by people, such as the government and other businesses. Both primary market research and secondary market research have their advantages. Primary market research, when conducted properly, can garner the most relevant results for your business. However, it can be more time-consuming and costly than secondary research. Secondary research is already there for your business to analyze, which saves you both time and money. However, this research has done for other business and organizations. It has not been carried out with the specific needs of your business in mind, which means that you may not be able to find secondary research that is as relevant as the primary research you do yourself.

How to Conduct your own Market Research

Conducting your own market research is worth it for business owners. Here are some steps to consider when approaching research.

Ways to Collect Data

Interviews:

This is one of the simplest ways you can collect data. You can conduct interviews on the phone, by email and even face-to-face.

Questionnaires and Surveys:

This is a great method of collecting both qualitative and quantitative data. Frontier Marketing can help you create and distribute surveys to people via email, on your business’s website, your blog or by mail.

Focus Groups:

A focus group is a group of people you bring in for a presentation. These people are screened to ensure that fit your customer base. Once they are at the meeting, you can ask them questions and follow-up questions.

Steps to Conduct your Research

The first step is to think about what type of information you want to get out of your research. Once you know this, creating your questions will be much easier. When creating your survey or questionnaire, you have to make sure that every question you ask is clear. Vague or ambiguous questions may confuse people and lead to inaccurate answers. Once you have constructed your survey or questionnaire, you need to distribute it properly. You need to get your questions or your survey to the right group of people. Sending the survey to your customers via email or placing the survey or questionnaire on your business’ website are two great ways to get your questions to the right people.