How to Do Market Research: A Guide and Template

Running a successful business takes a great amount of dedication and usually requires doing market research to learn what your target audience and others seek for solutions to common problems.

Market research can play an important role in letting you know how your company is perceived by the target customers you wish to reach.

According to research, companies that frequently conduct market research are more likely to improve customer retention, enter a new market, launch a new product or service, and increase their revenue than those companies that conduct infrequent market research.

Furthermore, you can improve the effectiveness of your market research by using a transcription service.

Hiring transcription services to transcribe your market research can also speed up data collection from audio and video interviews.

Here's a guide for planning your market research.

What Is Market Research?

Market research is what a business does to answer questions about its industry and target market.

Although you cannot use it as absolute proof of anything, the data you collect will give you deeper insights into the people you're trying to reach. It can involve collecting data on your competitors as well as customers.

You should view market research as a series of investigations rather than a one-time project. Once you stop studying your market, you risk allowing competitors to gain an advantage if they double down on research.

Some of the most effective and easiest ways to collect market data include offering online surveys and inviting customers to share their experiences with and thoughts on your brand online.

Another way to get valuable feedback from your target market is to conduct regular audio and video interviews with customers. It can either be one-on-one conversations or focus group interactions.

By hiring transcription services to do market research transcription, you can gain greater insights into customer values and perceptions relating to your brand.

Be aware that one respondent's views don't reflect that of the entire market.

However, their responses can help develop more personalized engagement with customers. Keeping this valuable data stored in a customer relationship management (CRM) system will help you segment your market into groups.

You can then improve your communication with individual customers based on the market segments to which they belong.

Types of Market Research

Your research plan should set out to include quantitative and/or qualitative research.

Ideally, you have the resources to integrate both types of market research because this combination can deliver valuable insights to increase profits. Here are the differences between these two main types of market research:

• Quantitative research: Any studies you've done that have generated a wealth of useful data fall under this category. It's helpful to use spreadsheets for organizing raw data, which can be turned into graphs and charts. Quantitative research helps you measure your company performance, such as the number of conversions vs. leads.
• Qualitative research: Collecting data from social media engagement, focus groups, and one-on-one interviews will give you a clear view of target market opinions. Qualitative research helps you understand the emotions and values of individuals attracted to your brand.

How to Do Market Research?

One of the keys to effective market research planning is focusing on actionable data that points to clear outcomes for improvement. Here are the essential steps to do market research:

1. Define your research purpose: Know what answers you are looking for before you look for resources. That way, you specify what you're seeking to establish as your market niche. Without being specific, you can get overwhelmed and sidetracked by irrelevant information and lose track of what is valuable for your goals.
2. Create a market research plan: Your plan should begin with mapping out exploratory primary and/or secondary research sources. Then you can determine specific primary research projects and participants to focus on areas that you've decided are important. Small businesses tend to start out with small studies or brainstorming sessions to shape their initial marketing strategies.
3. Gather data: Recently, companies that have adopted digital infrastructures or IoT technology are in a strong position to collect large amounts of data in real-time. Companies investing in this smart technology will have a clear edge over competitors that don't. But no matter how digital your enterprise gets, you should never lose sight of the fact that in-person conversations help build a deeper understanding of your target market.
4. Study analytics to discover insights: Analytics represents the driving force behind the purpose of digital transformation. The big data you collect from IoT and various other channels helps you learn insights about your market that competitors may not see. Examples of valuable analytics include the number of visitors to your website, the time of day with the highest traffic, and where your visitors are from. There are many other facets of your audience you can study, so you need to prioritize the metrics that help reveal new compelling market insights.
5. Document your findings: A market study is worthless if you don't document the findings and archive your report somewhere for future reference. Your findings will help set the boundaries of your marketing efforts while influencing refinements to your product or service. Share the findings with your team to help back the direction of your marketing goals.
6. Make adjustments: Every business evolves over time based on new information it absorbs about the market. IoT sensors that generate a wealth of real-time data help you make faster decisions than relying on traditional methods without them. Regardless of how fast you acquire data or learn new insights, it will be necessary to periodically revisit your business model to ensure it aligns with the changing market.
7. Keep on running tests: The end of one study should mark the beginning of a new one. By continuously researching your market, you'll be up to date on target market tastes and purchasing behavior.

Why Should You Do Market Research?

Not only will market research make your business more competitive, but it will also help you find market holes that no one is serving, despite interest.

You should craft your market research on factors that affect your industry. That means coming up with relevant survey questions that point to concrete answers regarding consumer curiosity.

Market research will help you locate market participants while you learn various aspects of their personal data. It will also help you learn what customers expect from a brand and how to communicate with them to earn their trust.

Additionally, you'll learn about current market trends, attitudes, and triggers that lead to sales.

Transcription services will help organize your data in a meaningful way so that you can reference it in various ways.

Not only can these services help you pinpoint useful information from a seminar or webinar, but they can also translate your web content from and to different languages if you aim for a global market.

Primary and Secondary Market Research

Understanding the differences between primary and secondary market research will help you prioritize your data collection strategies.

Primary market research relates to information obtained through your own interviews and sources. Secondary market research often comes from data published by reputable sources such as commercial and non-profit research firms.

If you are doing a study on the number of people employed in your industry, you can turn to the Bureau of Labor & Statistics for secondary market research.

When you want to learn about national consumer trends, you can investigate pollsters such as Pew Research, Gartner, and Forrester.

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Market research is what helps businesses gain an edge over competitors targeting the same customers. Outsourcing market research transcription to a reputable specialist is an effective way to speed up data collection from customer video interviews.

GMR Transcription Services, Inc. is one such transcription service that can help you bring the most out of your market research for your business.

Our market research transcription is performed by 100% US-based human transcriptionists who can provide maximum accuracy and confidentiality of your valuable research materials. We also don’t charge extra for focus group transcription, unlike some other companies. Register today to get started with us!