7 Effective Ways to Collect Market Research

ways to collect market research

Why would a business collect market research? How do you collect market research? What are the best ways to collect market research? These are some of the questions that may have lead you to this article.

Understanding how to collect market research can alter a company’s marketing strategy. Let’s learn why and how below.

Why Is Market Research Important?

Why do businesses collect market research? How does target market data apply to me? Let’s dive into the following questions to find out:

  • Does every single person in the world want to buy your product/service?
  • Does every single person in your country or state want to buy your product/service?
  • How about in your city or municipal area?

If you answered “no” to any of the above, then target marketing is for you. Targeted marketing will help make your marketing more efficient—only marketing to those who would be interested in your business.

According to Investopedia, “A target market is the market a company wants to sell its products and services to, and it includes a targeted set of customers for whom it directs its marketing efforts.” In other words, without identifying your target market, your marketing has no direction.

7 Best Ways to Collect Market Research

1. Dish out short and sweet polls.

ways to collect market research

If you give your audience a ten-, five-, or even one-minute survey, they may lose their patience and give you faulty answers. Instead, hosting a poll on social media with 1-3 short questions is possibly the best way to collect marketing research.

Almost every social network supports polls or surveys. Distributing these social questionnaires to your followers allows you to obtain raw market research to know what your audience likes and dislikes. It also allows your audience to grow closer together as they discuss specific topics in your industry.

2. Dip your toes into experiential marketing.

Experiential marketing, or marketing with events, is among the top ways to collect useful marketing research information. Hosting events is a very doable marketing strategy for any type of business:

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Participating in experiential marketing guarantees you fresh, quality market research data. At events, you can set up live interactive polls, hand out surveys, or question your guests directly. You can also take note of what products interest them most at your event, which booths they prefer, and so on.

3. Interpret your analytics.

Among the other ways to collect market research, analytics are perhaps the most insightful. One of the advantages of using internet to collect market research data is the advent of analytics. Audiences can be consciously or unconsciously dishonest on polls and surveys, yet analytics speak for themselves. They are concrete.

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Set apart time to interpret and discuss your analytics with your team. You can obtain analytics from a variety of sources depending on your business model—your website, social media pages, videos, phone calls, software, apps, etc. Create an action plan for how to alter your marketing strategy to best agree with (or improve) your analytics.

4. Create a “social experiment.”

ways to collect market research

If you are wondering how to collect market research data, getting face-to-face with your audience in an unexpected way is a creative way to do so. If you can locate your target audience, think about creating a social experiment, similar to experiential marketing, to get their reactions and to tailor insights.

By formulating a social experiment in your local area, you can see how real people respond to your brand, your message, and your ideas. Furthermore, a well-recorded social experiment also fuels great promotional content.

5. Host a research-driven contest.

ways to collect market research

Let’s say your leading research question is: “Are my customers interested in improving communication with their loved ones?” To find out the answer, you could host a video contest asking customers to describe a common problem they face with familial communication.

Or, you could host a contest to obtain the most referrals from your existing customers. Be sure to provide rewards to the winners! This could help you determine how your customers communicate and what rewards they prefer.

6. Pay for it, the modern way.

ways to collect market research

One of the most effective ways to collect market research is to pay for it. Although you can collect much market research on your own, other companies can provide insightful data in your target market. You can’t do it all yourself, so don’t be afraid to delegate your market research to another B2B company.

For example, many apps, services, and software collect curated, customized data to fit your needs. Ask professionals in your industry where they obtain their market research. Also, search for your own fresh suppliers of high-quality market research.

7. Watch what you say.

If you want to achieve the best response from your audience, then you’ll have to learn how to speak to them. In other words, take note of what you say to your customers through emails, messages, phone calls, and even copywriting. Then, watch how they respond to different words and statements.

For instance, you might achieve more engagement with “Hello, do you have any questions about our products?” as opposed to, “Hello, how are you?” in your customer support chat box. All in all, determine what keywords lead to a response in your audience.

Takeaway

Among these seven ways to collect market research, start by choosing one and applying it to your business marketing strategy. Without proper market research, targeted marketing is almost impossible.

If you want to obtain insightful, curated data from your market, Valoso is ready to help. So, simply visit our homepage and get in touch. Our team of professionals is ready to help with whatever challenges you face.