Why you still need to do market research
Knowing your target audience is a tough subject. Even the most expert marketers understand that A/B testing through different methods and forms needs to be done to understand what type of market they want to pursue. There are too many demographics, interests, and profiles of consumers that it’s too hard to dwindle your ideal customer into five, maybe six different characteristics.
That’s why market research still matters and why surveying is an important tool to get this done. You still need to conduct surveys and surveys where you get the right information and the right data.
Beforehand, here are a few things you need to keep in mind before designing and executing your survey:
1. Know who to survey.
We get it – what’s the point of a survey about knowing your customers when you are trying to understand who they are? Ideally, a focus group is a great lift-off point. A focus group is a select group of people selected at random to participate in a controlled series of questions. You can ask them about a particular product or service that matches yours and you can start slowly, but surely building your ideal customer profile from there.
2. Know what data you need
The goal here is to know detail by detail who your customer is, but make sure to set goals that are achievable through your survey. These can be items such as geographic location (where do they live?), compensation range (how much do they earn?), occupation (what kind of job do they have?), etc. Establishing a basic idea of your customer can help you move forward with more complicated profile builds such as interests and behavior.
4. Know what platform to use.
There are a lot of survey platforms available in the market today, all of which have unique features and a wide range of services. Choose one that fits your overall requirements. For example, if you require only a simple survey builder and nothing complicated, there are apps out there like Survey Monkey and Type Form that can get the job done for you. If you’re looking for a more omnichannel approach with your surveys, then platforms like Survey Sparrow are generally cheap to use and have a wide range of features that can help you not only collect information but analyze and categorize the data as well. The platform also hosts omnichannel marketing options that allow you to reach out to your target respondents in more ways than one.
5. Execute
The dissemination of this information is the next step and is the most critical. Once you’ve identified your target audience, and understood what survey platform to use and what data you’ll need back, it’s time to pick a medium to get the word out there. You can always go with an oldie but goodie in large focus groups and university thesis assignments, but with the digitalization of our world today, you can’t go wrong with using platforms like Facebook, Linkedin, Tik Tok and even Google ads to get the word out.
What’s important when you’re doing a survey is to make sure the entire flow and experience are seamless. Just like how you would want your product to be appealing to your customers, you want your surveys to have the same effect.
Take time to learn and get more information about the top survey platforms, market research apps, and dissemination strategies by looking at our latest blogs.