Market research is probably one of the most overlooked aspects of your marketing strategy. Why is marketing research so important? Market research is the systematic design, collection, analysis, and reporting of data relevant to an organization’s specific marketing situation. You may be thinking, okay, and what does that even mean? What is the point of market research?

When companies dive deep into their marketing research, they are able to extract data and analytics that will only help them understand their niche better. Why does that matter? The more you know your niche, the more you know your audience, and the more you know what problem they need to solve. Collecting data can be extremely useful for companies when expanding or scaling their company. This is due to the plethora of information they can collect. What kind of information, you ask? You can gain insights into customer motivations, purchase behavior, and satisfaction levels. You can assess market potential and market share and measure the effectiveness of pricing, product, distribution, and promotion activities.

So, how do I even begin to “market research” for my company? There are steps when researching, but to save the headache, I will share simplistic steps with some examples.

Step 1: Defining the problem and research objectives. Questions that may arise when you first dive in might include, “Why aren’t customers repeatedly purchasing my product and/or service?”. Take an honest look at where your clients stand in terms of your product or service. A confused mind says no. Being able to humbly see where those pain points are will give you a better understanding of where to go moving forward.

Step 2: Developing the research plan for collecting information. You may be thinking, how am I even supposed to collect research, or what am I even supposed to do to find it. An example of this could be to send a postcard or an email with 25% off their next purchase if they complete a survey. This benefits your clients by giving them a deal, and it also benefits you to be able to get raw evidence for whatever problem you are trying to solve.

Step 3: Implementing the research plan –  collecting and analyzing the data. This is done by tracking and coding the responses you receive. Having all of the information organized in a way where you can identify patterns will lead to the next step.

Step 4: Interpreting and reporting the findings. What does their feedback mean? Does this problem we are trying to solve have something to do with us? Our competitors? Our industry? Identifying the problem, receiving feedback from direct customers, composing the data, and interpreting the results will lead you towards improving your product or service on a grander scale.