What Marketing Research Is, How To Do It (Step-by-Step)

Marketers and researchers are always talking about the importance of market research. But what is marketing research? 

How do you actually conduct a market research project? And, most importantly, why is market research so important for growing your business? This blog post will teach you all the basics. Let’s get right to it!

Takeaways
1. Understand the Basics of Marketing Research and Its Significance.
2. Follow a Step-by-Step Guide to Conduct Effective Market Research.
3. Learn How to Choose the Right Research Methods for Your Objectives.
4. Gather and Analyze Data to Extract Valuable Insights.
5. Use Market Research to Enhance Decision-making and Strategy Formulation.
6. Embrace Skepticism and Critical Thinking in Interpreting Research Results.
7. Implement Social Media and Innovative Tools for Comprehensive Research.
8. Discover the Top 10 Rules of Marketing Research for Success.

What Is Marketing Research?

Marketing research is a process of collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data to answer questions about your customers, your products, and your competitors. 

Marketing research can help you understand your customers better, improve your product and service offerings, and identify new business opportunities.

A good marketing research project will provide valuable insights into issues ranging from strategic direction (Is this the right product to be sold?) to tactical decisions (How much should we charge for this?).

Learning the top 10 rules of effective marketing research is crucial for accurate insights. Explore the comprehensive guide on Discovering the Top 10 Rules of Marketing Research to enhance your research strategies.

Why Is Marketing Research Important?

The biggest benefit of marketing research is gaining a deeper understanding of your target audience. This allows you to better understand what they want and how you can meet those needs.

You’re not just trying to find the right audience for your product or service you’re trying to create something that will fill a need for them, be it entertainment or utility. If you don’t know where that need lies, then how are you going to develop something that fulfills it?

To do this effectively, it’s important first and foremost that we define what “marketing research” actually means (and doesn’t mean).

Marketing Research Vs. Market Research

Marketing research is a process of gathering information to help you make better decisions. It’s an important part of any business, and it’s not the same as market research.

Market research is the process of gathering information about the market and your competitors’ products or services (e.g., pricing, quality, brand perception) so that you can determine who your target customer is and what they want from their product or service experience.

ocial media platforms hold a wealth of information for marketing research. Uncover the strategies in utilizing them with the help of How to Use Social Media for Marketing Research and gain valuable insights for your campaigns.

How To Do Marketing Research

Marketing research involves gathering data about the market, the customers, and competitors. It helps you to understand who your customer is, what their problems are and what solutions you can offer them.

Marketing research will help you to:

• Understand your customers’ needs and wants
• Identify areas of improvement in your business or product offering
• Create new products/services based on this knowledge

Step 1: Identify The Problem You Want To Solve

When you’re conducting marketing research, your first step is to identify the problem you want to solve. 

This could be anything from “I want more leads” to “I want to increase sales” or even “I’m not sure what people are doing with their time and money, so I think we could make some changes.”

Once you’ve identified what you’re hoping to accomplish in your research, it’s important that you set some guidelines for yourself so that your process will be effective and efficient. 

First of all, it’s good practice to clearly define the scope of your project what exactly do you mean by “more leads”? 

Is this an objective number (i.e., 100 new leads per month) or something more subjective (i.e., increased engagement on social media)? 

It also helps if there’s a target audience for this goal: who should be receiving these new leads? Are they current customers? New prospects? Or both?

Step 2: Define Your Buyer Persona

Defining your buyer persona is a big step. You’ll want to give them an identity and create a story around them.

The first thing you need to do is figure out who they are, what their goals are, where they live, how old they are, and whether or not they have children or pets (if so, what kind of pet?). 

You can also include other details like their education level and income along with any hobbies or interests that describe this person in more detail.

In addition to knowing all of the details about your buyers as people though, you must know how the products or services you offer will help them reach those goals both in general terms as well as specific ones for each product or service.

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Step 3: Plan Your Strategy (And Budget)

Check your budget. What kind of money are you working with? How much time can you spend on this project? What kind of resources will you need to complete the research and analysis efficiently, e.g., recruiting panels, surveys, focus groups, etc.?

Know your goals and audience. Who do you want to reach with your marketing research efforts and why? What specific outcomes do you expect from the research? 

How will those results be used for decision-making purposes down the road what will happen as a result of these insights (e.g., actions taken by stakeholders such as sales teams or product development teams)? 

Understanding these things up front is critical for ensuring that any data collected is useful and actionable in some way and doesn’t just sit on someone’s hard drive collecting dust until they get around to analyzing it someday (which probably won’t ever happen).

Assess the competition’s strengths/weaknesses relative to yours:

• Is your brand strong enough so that customers would care about what they say when being interviewed by an independent researcher (i.e., not biased)?
• Do competitors take steps like sending out newsletters periodically so as not only to keep existing customers engaged but also to attract new ones through word-of-mouth advertising?

Step 4: Formulate A Hypothesis

This step is all about the why. Why are you doing this research? What problem are you trying to solve? Whom does it affect? How big a problem is it, and how much do you want to fix it for people?

These questions will help clarify your objectives and give them purpose. If there’s no clear goal, then your research won’t be useful or actionable and if it isn’t actionable, then what’s the point of doing it?

To start thinking about these questions, consider what kind of person you want to become in 3-6 months (or one year). What kinds of fitness goals could you reasonably set in that time frame that would make a difference for yourself and others around you? 

It’s okay if they seem ambitious just remember not to get carried away with wild dreams or go too far beyond what seems possible or reasonable at first glance.

Step 5: Analyze The Data You Already Have

Once you’ve collected all your data, it’s time to analyze it.

You can use data analysis for two things: answering questions and making decisions.

Answering Questions

You can use your existing data to answer research questions that you currently have. For example, if you’re wondering what kinds of content are popular among your audience.

Look at the type of content they’re sharing on social media you’ll be able to see which types are more successful and which aren’t as much based on how often they’re shared and why people share them (or don’t).

Making Decisions

You can also use your existing data to make better business or marketing decisions in the future. 

For example, if one type of content is performing better than another in terms of engagement rates or click-throughs from social media posts, then maybe there’s a good reason for creating more posts like that in the future!

Discovering a market with demand is a cornerstone of successful marketing. Learn how to find your market’s sweet spot with insights from How I Found the Market That Had a Demand for My Product and tailor your strategies accordingly.

Step 6: Conduct Primary Market Research

Once you’ve done your secondary research, it’s time to move on to primary market research. 

This is the most expensive and time-consuming type of market research, but also the most effective way to find out what your customers think. The two most common forms of primary market research are focus groups and surveys.

Focus groups involve bringing together 6-10 people who fit into your target demographic and asking them questions as they interact with prototypes or products that you want feedback on. 

You can record this session so that you can see how participants react to different products, features, or prices at different times in their discussion. 

Surveys are similar but involve sending out questionnaires online or through email rather than inviting consumers into a room for discussions (like focus groups). 

A survey allows you more control over exactly what questions you ask potential customers because there’s no need for human interaction just enter their answers directly into an online form!

Step 7: Analyze Results And Form Conclusions

Once you’ve collected your data, it’s time to analyze it and draw conclusions. But before you do that, make sure that the data is truly representative of what you’re measuring. 

For example, if you are trying to measure how well a new product is selling in stores, make sure that all of your stores have been included (some stores might be closed for holidays or choose not to take part).

Make sure that your conclusions are backed up by the data and that they are actionable. That is if we learn from our research that customers prefer our competitor’s products over ours because they offer more variety and better quality at a lower price point than we do; 

This would tell us something useful about how we should change our marketing strategy to compete with them better. 

Finally, make sure your conclusions are believable based on what has been learned through previous research or experience in similar situations (or both).

Step 8: Put Your Findings Into Action

Once you have completed your research and put together an action plan, it’s time to execute. This is where things will fall apart if you don’t have the right team in place.

Make sure you have the right people on your team. This means hiring people who are passionate about marketing and understand how to use data to drive results. 

You also need individuals who are willing to learn new skills as they go along and adapt their approach based on feedback from customers or colleagues.

Make sure your budget is sufficient for executing the research findings and putting them into practice and make sure those budgets are easy to access when needed!

Ensure that all stakeholders involved have access to technology tools that can support this work; ideally, this would include shared databases accessible by multiple users with varying levels of training (i.e., not just one individual).

The landscape of marketing research is evolving. Dive into the details of The New Marketing Research Paradigm to stay updated on the changing methodologies and approaches that can reshape your insights.

Conclusion

Market research is a crucial step in the marketing process it’s the foundation of any successful marketing campaign. And while many of its methods may have changed with time, it remains one of the most important aspects of business today. 

It’s always best to start by figuring out your buyer personas and developing a strategy from there. 

Then you can create surveys, conduct focus groups, or gather data from other sources like social media or analytics tools. The last step is analyzing what you find so that it can be applied to your overall goals!

Further Reading

Here are some additional resources for exploring the marketing research process:

SurveyMonkey’s Marketing Research Process Guide: A comprehensive guide to understanding and implementing effective marketing research strategies.

Shopify Blog: The Marketing Research Process: Dive into this blog post to gain insights into the step-by-step process of conducting impactful marketing research.

Doxee Blog: How to Conduct Market Research in 7 Steps: Learn about a concise and effective 7-step approach to conducting market research for your business.

FAQs

What is the importance of marketing research?

Marketing research helps businesses understand their target audience, analyze market trends, and make informed decisions to improve products and strategies.

How do I choose the right research methods?

The choice of research methods depends on your goals. Quantitative methods provide statistical insights, while qualitative methods offer deeper understanding through open-ended responses.

What are some common challenges in marketing research?

Challenges include biased responses, sample representativeness, and interpreting complex data. Addressing these ensures accurate results.

How can I ensure the reliability of my research data?

To ensure reliability, use consistent survey methods, validate questions, and maintain a representative sample size.

What are the key steps in analyzing research findings?

Analyzing findings involves data cleaning, data transformation, and drawing actionable insights from patterns and trends.