How to Conduct Market Research for Small Businesses
09/08/2023
Effective market research comes with many benefits for your business, especially when conducting such research for a small business. Market research helps you understand your chosen industry and target audience in more depth, gathering valuable data about your customers and their needs – this paves the way towards a business that fully understands its audience and how to best meet said needs.
For small businesses, this can be a crucial step, as many industries are struggling with staying afloat in oversaturated markets – market research can place you in front of other competitors and highlight your strengths.
Here is how to conduct market research for small businesses and our top tips…
Define Market Research Goals
Any research needs to have a goal, which will pave the way toward a sense of accomplishment once completed. Without an end goal, you may find that research seems sporadic or confusing, as there aren’t any guidelines to go by.
Firstly, define your target audience and its demographic – who are they, what are their interests and are there any budget or timeline constraints? These are all questions that will help you conduct more effective market research once answered.
Whether you’re conducting market research just to find out more information about your customers, or you’re after targeted Ad information for sales-driven techniques, having goals will outline a stronger strategy and develop your market research accordingly.
Create a Strong Market Research Strategy
Creating a cohesive strategy when thinking about market research will help you reach your goals and pave the way to a more successful researching session. There are multiple methods of conducting market research, these may include - surveys, interviews, emails, polls and more.
Depending on the type of data you're after, you may opt for just one research method, or combine them all.
Some methods make it easier to develop infographics, spreadsheets or data analysis.
Take Action
The final step toward conducting effective market research is taking action based on your findings. Whether ‘action’ comes in the form of developing content that is better catered for your target audience and reflects its findings, or more precise Ads that will have a better ROI due to being better-targeted from the research.
Taking action may not be as obvious as you think it is – it could also involve changing your product or service offering, adjusting your marketing strategy or even entering a new market.
Market research is an invaluable tool for gaining insights into your target audience and demographic. By conducting thorough research, you can strategically plan your actions and achieve a substantial return on investment.
Looking for a business valuation? Use our free valuation tool and receive a quick and easy business valuation, no strings attached.
Click Here to Use Our FREE Business Valuation Tool
Get quick and easy insight into the real value of your business, without any obligations.
At Intelligent, all of our experts use a specific formula that will give you a free and highly accurate baseline valuation so that you've got a figure to work with that most realistically resembles the value of your business.