Doing market research on a budget
What makes your customers tick? Find out and you could increase footfall, discover new audiences, build loyalty and increase basket size. Market research is the key to getting to know your customers better and it doesn’t have to cost the earth with these smart tips.
Asking face-to-face questions is one of the simplest and most effective ways to find out what your customers think. This can be done through in-person interviews, surveys, or focus groups. To save time and money, consider asking your customers for their opinions during transactions or through follow-up emails or phone calls. This way, you can get real-time feedback and you can rapidly implement small improvements. Be sure to avoid the common mistake of only asking friends, staff and family what they think. You need unbiased data for it to be valuable. Remember, doing market research shouldn’t be a once off. The cost-of-living, seasonality, trends and your own operations are constantly changing over time and this can quickly render old research obsolete.
Using free research tools like Google Trends will allow you to see how frequently a particular search term is entered into Google. This can give you valuable insights into consumer behaviour, preferred payment options, trends and pain points. For example, if you are a small business owner in the fashion industry, you can use Google Trends to see which styles or colours are popular in your target market. This information can then be used to inform your product offerings and marketing strategies. Remember, the more research you do and the more different sorts of data you can gather, the more powerful your research will be.
Save valuable time with questionnaire tools like Survey Monkey or Google Surveys. These sorts of platforms allow you to create and distribute surveys to your target audience. You can also source online panels and conduct concept testing through these services. If you’re nervous about using a new platform, access their support. There’s often training available, making it easy to gauge customer satisfaction and gather feedback on your products and services. All this information can be used to inform future changes to your operations, including UX, product mix and payment options. You can also use the insights you gain through your questionnaires to make your marketing activities more targeted, engaging and relevant. Take the time to ensure you are asking the right questions. Interrogate product, payment and shipping preferences as well as probing shopping habits. Also ask some more open-ended questions and include space on any forms for respondents to offer up opinions and general feedback. Try asking how likely they are to recommend you to a friend to get a valuable gauge on how well you’re really doing. Information about customer demographics (age, location, home language etc.) is crucial and can mitigate against basic errors in your marketing emails or product mix. You might also learn a thing or two about your competitors.
Use social media listening and easily access what millions of current and potential customers are saying about your brand. There are numerous free listening tools out there. Typically, they monitor and analyse conversations based on relevant keywords. Thinking carefully about the keywords you choose to will help you find useful insights. This information can help you strategize new ways to expand a loyal customer base. You can use listening in other ways too, for example to get on top of trends. Listening is a powerful business tool and can be just as important for your business as putting your own message out there.
Track your own data from email, website, and media channels and use it to make informed decisions about your business. Understanding your consumer, and their behaviour, can help you predict what they might need or buy next. You probably already have more information than you realise. Taking the time to investigate metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, and conversions will help you get to grips with what’s working and what’s not. This process can also highlight issues with your online user experience. Looking out for issues that might be causing abandoned baskets or uncompleted payments can help you reduce friction for online customers. You might also be able to see what upselling and cross-selling tactics are most effective.
It’s clear, market research doesn’t have to be costly. Even if you’re a relatively small business, you can use market research to grow your sales and profits. It might take up valuable hours but, optimising your marketing strategies and improving your margins is time well spent.
TOP TIP
Personal data might be hot property, but if you do choose to do market research, make sure you don’t fall foul of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, or your own country’s GDPR regulations. You need to be very clear with any research participants about exactly how their data will be used and you must be able to prove that anyone involved gave clear consent. It’s up to you to ensure you are compliant, no matter how small your business is. You also need to be prepared to take responsibility for where your market research data is stored.
