Market research is one of the most powerful tools growing businesses can add to their arsenals — especially if they’re thinking about expanding product lines, moving into new markets, or investing more in marketing.
But what if you don’t know how to do market research? To gather high-quality data that informs strategic decisions and increases the chance of success, business owners need to choose the right market research methods and understand the basics of data analysis.
Read on to learn how to conduct market research, including how to use primary vs. secondary research methods, leverage top online tools and resources, and make research-based business decisions.
Instead of making assumptions or relying on your gut, market research lets you go straight to the source — your customers — and uncover their priorities, painpoints, behaviors, and decisions.
With this information at hand, you can:
By proactively adapting your business to match target customers’ evolving needs, you cement loyalty and protect your bottom line from encroaching competitors.
Several strategies and market research tools can help businesses fuel their research process and learn more about their customers.
Take these steps to start conducting market research for your business:
Before you start sending links to surveys and paying for social listening tools, you should first determine who you will be researching.
That’s where customer personas come in: fictional, generalized representations of who your business should be targeting. Here are some ideas on how to define your customer personas:
There are many different types of market research that businesses can utilize. First, it’s important to differentiate between primary vs. secondary research. While each type provides valuable insights for growing businesses, they have key differences in their approaches and applications.
Primary research involves collecting new, original data directly from target customers, typically through surveys, interviews, focus groups, and observation. While primary research lets you tailor questions to get the specific information you need, it is typically more time-intensive and expensive to conduct — especially when aiming for a larger sample size.
On the other hand, secondary research involves analyzing existing information from industry reports, government data, academic studies, and company databases. Although secondary research is usually quicker and more affordable to conduct, it may yield data outdated or incomplete data, or even data that doesn’t fully align with your specific business goals.
Here’s a closer look at what each type of market research entails.
Primary research: conducting surveys and interviews
Surveys and interviews are the bedrock of primary research methods, but they can be challenging to get right.
Use these tips to ensure your efforts yield valuable and actionable data:
Secondary research: Analyzing competitors and market trends
While secondary market research may appear easy to conduct, it can be daunting if you don’t know where to start looking.
Here are some tricks to keep in mind when analyzing competitors, staying on top of industry trends, and understanding evolving consumer behavior:
Secondary research can be conducted quickly and affordably by leveraging online resources and databases that provide market insights, trends, competitive intelligence, and consumer behavior data.
Here are some top online tools and resources to check out when learning how to conduct market research:
Remember to leverage broad market and consumer insights by benchmarking them against your business’s data and analytics, which you can uncover using PayPal’s reporting tools.
Gathering data is just the first step. The true value of market research comes once you interpret the findings and apply them to your business decisions. Use these steps to get started:
When conducted effectively, market research helps you gain a better understanding of the market and subsequently make smarter, data-driven decisions that increase the odds of sustained growth. It can also offer the insights you need to create a tailored marketing strategy — a must-have for every growing business.
In partnership with three expert business owners, the PayPal Bootcamp includes practical checklists and a short video loaded with tips to help take your business to the next level.
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