Solid Market Research: A Secret to Success

So you’ve decided that 2018 is the year you will start your business and turn your passion into profit. You’ve thought through all the steps and have begun reading everything about starting a business and entrepreneurship you can get your hands on. A simple truth is that all successful businesses have one thing in common - they make money. As simple as this sounds, in the real world, this is much easier said than done.  

In order prosper in today’s marketplace it’s important to understand four things, 1) your market, 2) your customers, 3) your competitors, and 4) larger industry trends. Comprehensive and accurate market research is the key to gaining the insight necessary to build a successful business.  

The first thing you must look at is your potential market. This is not the actual market served, which is limited to your existing customers. Your target market should be much wider than the people you already reach. It must include all those whom you could reach and who may want what your business is offering. The market for personal computers is much larger than individuals, it includes homes, schools, business and government organizations. Then you must divide that market into useful slices or segments. Segmentation helps you target specific people with focused messaging and allows you to concentrate on user needs.  

High-quality research will reveal details about your current customer-base and allow you to target new market segments. For example, before you open a car wash in your area, it is important to find out how many people have cars in your neighborhood, if they demand clean cars and if they are willing to pay someone else to wash their car.  

One the most important features of any proper market research study is the competitor analysis. It’s important to know who in the market is doing something similar to you, what are they charging, what are they doing well, and how they might improve. Check competitors websites and social media accounts to compare their content to yours and to find out what consumers are saying about them. Check their SEO by Googling the products or services they provide. Then figure out how you can do each of these things better than they do it. This will give you a leg-up on them and allow you to gain market share.  

Lastly, understanding larger trends that impact your customers, competition, and market, in general, can help you with long-term planning. What trends or fashions influence the purchasing decisions of your market segments? In cars, are people responding to higher fuel prices by buying smaller cars? The questions asked and specific things that impact your target market will differ for each business. But it’s important that you become aware that larger market trends can affect your target market.  

You need to be able to measure and quantify your market. These three simple steps will help you establish a cost-effective market research study for your business and increase your ROI.  

1) Just the right sample size: This is a bit of a Goldilocks scenario, the sample used can’t be too small, or the data gathered will be inaccurate. It can’t be too large because then the survey won’t be cost effective. It needs to be just right. And you need the right sample for your overall population.  

2) Catch’em all: Your surveys must reflect all characteristics from which it’s drawn, such as geographical area and population segment. Make sure that the sample accurately reflects all aspects of your market in order to give you accurate and useful information.

3) Get useful results: Successful studies follow basic statistical rules. Most results can be calculated using simple maths and broken down into percentages that most people can understand. 

Getting to know your market, your customers, your competitors and the overall trends and fashions that influence your target segment(s) can really help your business grow. Market research studies can save you and your business time, money and keep you from making potentially business-ending mistakes.