Conduct your Market Research

Carrying out market research can benefit all businesses. Market research will assist you in understanding your business domain, including your potential customers and their requirements. Master how to examine your market regarding products, services, customers, and competition. 

Reasons for Market Research 

Knowledge gained through market research enables you to understand your customers and their needs and observe competitive activities. This comprehension can empower you to focus your marketing endeavours better, make evidence-based business decisions, and seize opportunities fully. Ensuring market research is an ongoing part of your business plan and routine functions is crucial. 

Here are some steps to get initiated with your market investigation.

Comprehend Which Market Segments to Investigate

Your market research should encompass the following:      

• Customer base
• Competitors
• Products or services
• Suppliers
• Business venues and local areas
• Industry and market trends.

Employ Existing Market Research

You can leverage both primary and secondary research methodologies for your market studies.        

• Primary research involves first-hand information collection.
• Secondary research incorporates facts and data previously assembled and analyzed by others. Before delving into brand-new information about your market, consider utilizing a study already conducted. For instance, you can seek market analysis reports, government statistics, and publications from trade and industry organizations. Sources of government statistics and data 

Investigate Products and Services

Probing your business concept with customers can offer insights into its potential success. Your team can acquire customer feedback on your product or service through direct contact, surveys, focus groups, or social media polls. Executing a trial run or pilot test of your product or service with a select group of clients can fine-tune your concept. It can assist in determining idea viability, identifying issues, setting a price point, projecting growth, and assessing competition.

You can also determine your product or services:    

• Positioning: Are your products or services high-end, comparable, or a low-cost alternative to your competitors?
• Anticipated demand: What volume of products or services are your customers likely to purchase? For example, how much would a single customer purchase over six months or one year?

Assess Your Customers

Methods to gather customer data include emails, online surveys, interviews, and direct conversations with customers. 

You can determine:   

• The needs of the customers
• Their willingness to pay for different products
• The anticipated demand for your products. 
• Understanding how your customers think and behave (including their preferences) can help to target your marketing activities more effectively.
• Utilizing existing customer data 

If you have been operating for some time, you might already possess tools and customer information that you can use for your research. 

Check your:    

• Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system
• Data from customer loyalty or reward programs
• Records of sales/Point of sale (POS) system
• IMS or Inventory management system
• Customer complaints, feedback or suggestions record
• Reports on customer service benchmarks and targets
• Website statistics and web traffic. 

Marketing is about identifying the problems your business or product can help solve.

Study Your Competitors

You can gather data about your competitors through the following:        

• Observing their advertisements and sales activities
• Studying businesses in your industry and region via trade magazines, advertisements, or site visits
• Networking events
• Online channels like websites, blogs, social media and other digital marketing channels. 

This competitor data can be used in your SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis when formulating your marketing plan. 

Conducting a competitor analysis can help you comprehend where your business or products stand in the marketplace. 

Questions to consider when researching your competitors: 

• Who are your competitors?
• What do they offer to customers?
• Where are they located?
• What marketing strategies do they employ?
• What's their customer interaction?
• What social media platforms or digital channel are they using? 
• Investigating overseas potential customers

If you plan to export your products or services outside Australia, it is crucial to research foreign markets. Find the most suitable international markets for success.