In this guide, we break down exactly how you can conduct market research to grow your business with minimal investment of time and budget.
How to do market research?
Define your Buyer Persona or ideal client
A buyer persona is a fictional, descriptive profile used to target people who are most likely to become loyal customers. This “buyer persona” tells you who your customers are, their interests, behaviors, and spending patterns. Understanding your customers as human beings, and not just a set of data, helps you create content and messages tailored to their specific needs.
For example , if you own a dog food company, your buyer persona might highlight someone named “Eric.” Eric is 36 years old and works as a field engineer in Indianapolis. He wants to keep his dog healthy, but his job is stressful and time-consuming, making it difficult for him to walk his dog. Eric needs to buy dog food that he can trust is made with whole foods, tastes good to his pet, and is affordable for his income level.
buyer persona example
Buyer Persona “Eric” helps a dog food company understand the specific wants and needs of their ideal customers.
Even if the person in your buyer persona isn’t real, you should still treat them like a model customer . Give them a name and add details about their life, such as age, location, interests, and purchasing behaviors. Keep in mind that a buyer persona should be built with real data. If it’s helpful, you can also find a stock photo of a person who represents your ideal customer. Be sure to include common pain points your persona faces, so you can determine market niches your product can fill.
Try to keep your ideal buyer personas gambling data korea limited to no more than five . Having more than one type of buyer persona is perfectly fine, but it's important to be realistic about who you can effectively reach when developing a marketing campaign .
Analyze your competition
Competitor analysis is an exercise in finding out who your main competitors are and what makes them successful (or unsuccessful) in interacting with their potential customers. Understanding the ways in which other businesses are successful will help you make informed decisions and identify ways in which you can outperform the competition.
Conducting a competitor analysis involves a bit of research . Start by identifying local and online businesses that compete with yours. Explore their website and other marketing channels to examine their customer-facing experience, looking at:
Website performance : Do pages load quickly? Is it easy to navigate?
Social Media Platforms : How do they interact with their followers?
Pricing structure : How much do they charge for products and services? Are their prices appropriate for their audience?
Reviews : How do their customers feel about them? Keep in mind that businesses with the best reviews are their strongest competitors.
Gather as much information about your competitors as possible. You can put it into spreadsheets to better analyze it, and our marketing templates can serve as a basis for this.
Ask your current and most loyal customers what they like about your business
A valuable way to find out what’s working and what’s not among your most valuable customers is to go straight to the source: the people who are already buying from you. These are the people who embody your ideal customer base. We’re willing to bet that these customers also look a lot like one of your buyer personas.
Fortunately, with the advent of social media and digital technology, it is easy and cost effective to speak directly to customers.
Ask for customer feedback through satisfaction surveys
Businesses that collect feedback make more informed decisions because they can address the biggest issues affecting their customers. A recent SurveyMonkey study found that 83% of small businesses that identify themselves as “successful” measure customer satisfaction.
Use survey software like SurveyMonkey to follow up with customers after they make a purchase. Keep your surveys short and simple – 5-10 multiple choice or short answer questions. Always follow up with negative respondents to offer a solution.
Read customer reviews
Online reviews are powerful ways to build customer trust. Data from ReviewTrackers shows that 94% of consumers will decide not to engage with a brand after reading a negative review, making a compelling argument for staying on top of your positive and negative reviews.
Check online reviews once or twice a week to keep track of your online reputation. Respond to positive reviews to thank satisfied customers for supporting your business, and respond to negative reviews to resolve issues, if possible. Always offer an apology for a bad experience, regardless of whether the problem is fixable.
Four websites control about 88% of all online reviews : Google, Yelp, TripAdvisor, and Facebook. If you have a Google for Business account, you can respond to reviewers, but keep in mind that your response will be public, so be careful or… come up with a response plan.
Use social media to speak directly to your audience
Social media marketing allows businesses to connect directly with their audience . It is a free way to build a brand, generate sales, and drive tons of traffic to a website using engaging content.
Instagram makes it easy to connect with your audience with interactive features designed for Stories, like stickers, question prompts, and quizzes. Use these features to talk to your followers and ask them for their opinions on your products and services. For example, if you’re a skincare company looking to choose a new supplier, use a question sticker to ask your followers what their favorite product is. Your followers can introduce you to new brands you may not have considered before.
Goldune is a sustainability startup that sells products to environmentally conscious consumers . Even though Goldune has only been around for about a year, they’ve developed a strong community-based following thanks to their collaborative approach to social media. Goldune has become a master at leveraging Instagram Stories to learn from their followers about the products they sell and the brands they should work with.