Market research for small businesses is an essential aspect for a business to have seamless operations, But it is a challenging task at the same time. It helps a business to flourish, succeed and achieve its goals. Before the blog gives you insights on this, firstly, let’s talk a bit about market research.
Market research is the process of collecting data and conducting analyses on your target consumers, and competitors in the industry. As a result, market research helps small business owners develop accurate and
well-planned market strategies.
"The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well, the product or service sells itself."
- Peter Drucker
Small businesses face a few challenges in conducting market research. They are:
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Unaware of consumer trends, likes, and dislikes
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Lack of marketing strategy and objectives
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Unaware of the target market
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Expensive research processes
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An improper competitor's analysis
Knowing your customers inside out is crucial to making your brand successful. And this is possible by implementing market research tools for startups and established organizations. For this, you can opt for both, free market research tools and paid market research tools under your budget.
Let’s learn about the top market reach tools to make it easy to gather information about them.
Top Market Research Tools:
Google Trends
The Google trend is one of the most popular free market research tools. It displays popular topics and keywords when searched on the Google search engine. As it shows optimum results, it enables you to make comparisons with other regions of the world. Google Trends provides an in-depth analysis of the most popular search terms.
In addition, Google Trends provides the following features:
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Keyword research in comparison
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It identifies industry trends
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Coverage of a variety of search networks and sorts of searches, including image search, YouTube search, and Google Shopping
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Segmentation of data according to temporal and geographic characteristics
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Analyzation of competitors
Google Trends is highly used software for marketing research by businesses.
Survey Monkey
Survey Monkey is one of the most influential and popular market research online tools. It is used to collect first-hand data on products, services, and customer demands. Additionally, it is a technique for doing free-market research. This is also an audience research tool.
The application enables you to run a short survey about your product or service using online opinion polls or questionnaires gather results. Additionally, the responses gathered might help you make an informed conclusion about whether your product or service should be created and deployed in the target market or not.
Think With Google
Think with Google is another popular free market research tool. Additionally, it is a collection of several
marketing tools that assist you in conducting thorough research. Think with Google assists you with understanding your market, gives high-level market information, and enables you to follow new and persistent consumer trends.
You may sort your data country-wise and examine it weekly, monthly, or annually. As a result of this, you can facilitate your market research for small businesses.
Facebook Audience Insights
Facebook has emerged as a new medium for company development. Facebook audience insights provide data on three categories of people: those linked to your page, those on Facebook, and those in custom audiences you've previously built.
"Facebook enabled us to successfully launch our next-generation device by helping us define our target market and tell our story with useful tools, such as video and carousel ads."
- Juan Jaramillo, VP of Marketing, Skulpt
Facebook audience insights enable you to have a better understanding of your audience, demographics, buying behavior and lives. In addition, businesses can use this data to adapt their products and services based on the information gathered.
The tool enables you to better understand your present or prospective clients through Facebook.
How Do These Tools Help in Digital Marketing for Small Businesses?
With the appropriate market research tool, you can simplify your entire marketing effort. You may create a robust
digital marketing stack by combining the various market research tools mentioned above. These tools enable you to better understand your market and audience.
Market research for small businesses is vital for a firm to stand out in the competitive business world. Additionally, the emergence of market research technologies has simplified obtaining meaningful insights. Finally, these technologies have enabled small company owners to revolutionize the digital marketing world by putting a wealth of precise information at their fingertips.
Bottom Line:
Market research for small businesses is a decisive prerequisite to reducing the risk of failure or shutdowns. Market research tools make market research much more manageable. In addition, market research provides reliable information about your potential clients, which assists you to avoid doing the wrong marketing and advertising activities that do not reach the proper individuals.
The market research tools described above are the most often employed by firms. Therefore, market research should be a critical component of your business strategy and plan.
FAQ:
What tools can be used for market research?
A few effective market research tools that every business should have as a part of their business strategy are:
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Google keywords tool
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Google analytics
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Google trends
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Soovle
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Facebook audience insights
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TypeForm
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IBISWorld
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Pew research center
Why is market research essential?
Market research helps you learn about your customers, the market, and ways to successfully reach your customers. It helps to identify the problems, redefine your marketing strategy, and plan accordingly.
Which market research tool would be best for a small business to use?
Small companies should use Facebook audience information and Google trends. Google Trends gives business owners and content producers real-time data on popular topics, keywords, industries, and geographic locations. It also allows you to target your Facebook ads more accurately thanks to Facebook Audience Insights.