Target Market Research gives valuable insights into your customer. In this article we discuss:
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As a business owner, I can attest that marketing is one of the hardest parts about owning your own business. I’m always questioning myself, “What strategies do I use to reach more people?”
Coming from a marketing background, I know one of the most effective ways to develop new strategies is market research.
Market research is defined as the gathering of information, including qualitative and quantitative data to determine how viable and successful your product or service would be, and/or is. This information allows us to discover our target market, collect and document opinions, and make informed decisions regarding our company. It involves the detailed evaluation of our customers, competitors, and current economic trends.
The type of research I want to talk about today is “Target Market Research”. This means gathering information about your business's target audience, and existing customers to determine how viable and successful your product or service would be, and/or is, among these people and how best to communicate with them.
You may be the owner, but do you know whose opinion matters the most in your business?
Your customers! They are the ones who are buying your product or service, right?
So when it comes to getting their opinion, we don’t want to play the guessing game. We want to know what they think about our product, our business, and us. This will allow us to shape our business and product to better cater to them.
Doesn’t every business owner wants to:
Market research is the direction to go if we want to achieve any of these things. To map it out, once we gather our information from market research, we can use it to tailor our messaging and marketing to our customers’ tastes and meet them where they’re at. Once we catch their attention, we position ourselves favorably in their eyes, then we can increase brand awareness to push customers to make an informed buying decision that leads them towards us.
If you’re not convinced that target market research is important to your business, check out this fact:
An average company loses 50% of its customers every 5 years. Let’s also consider that the cost of replacing them can typically be 6-7 times more expensive!
So, we want to not only attract customers but keep them happy and engaged with our products and services. To do this, we must gauge changing interests, values, and expectations.
How often we perform market research entirely depends on our business and what stage we’re at. It’s always a great idea to do this type of research before the launch of a new product or service to check the waters. The last thing we’d want is to launch this great idea and invest a lot of money into it just to find that the market is not interested.
The best way to decide how often to do it is to think of the long-term plan for your business.
We can use these questions to guide your decision
(via: The Insight Advantage)
These are great questions to ask ourselves to really gauge the market and guide us towards making well-thought-out decisions.
So - are you ready to start your market research? Let’s get started! Here are four steps to successfully conduct market research:
This is a great way to get started with market research but truthfully there’s so much more that goes into it. I actually recently had a market analysis done for my company through one of my clients. If you’re interested in knowing more about the process of hiring an outside company and how we use the results in our business, reach out to us! We’d be happy to talk more! Or we can talk more about options for your business in a complimentary coaching session!
I am a certified Business Coach, providing business help, business advice, business coaching and mentoring services to successful and emerging business owners. I have a passion for helping businesses like yours grow and become profitable, so you, the business owner can enjoy the lifestyle you deserve.
As your Business Coach and advisor, I will help you deliver the results you desire using proven tools, methodologies and systems, tested and perfected over tens of thousands of businesses worldwide for over more than two decades. I will hold you accountable for your results and just like a sports coach, push you to perform at optimal levels. Let's schedule a complimentary Business Coaching session to get started.