Market Research

By Pat Smith

Market research is one of the most essential elements for operating a business. In addition to analyzing product performance, market research also supplies invaluable information regarding how people search for products online; keywords used by competitors; and current trends within the marketplace.

Numerous market research tools are available. The kind of tools required depend on what you're wanting to research. For example are you trying to find out what kind of audience is attracted to your products or services? Or, do you want to figure out how well a new product would perform in the marketplace?

Perhaps you want to learn more about the psychological profiles of customers. Or, you might want to know how well customers are satisfied with your product or service. You might also want to conduct research about your competitors and the type of websites that link to them.

Search marketing is one of the more popular ways to conduct market research. There are several ways perform this task. It could be as simple as entering a specific keyword at your favorite search engine or by making use of keyword research tools such as Google AdSense or WordTracker.

If you want to find out if a new product or service will be well received within the marketplace, you could set up online surveys. These surveys could be provided on websites, blogs, or through social media marketing venues like Facebook.

Product research can be conducted by setting up consumer focus groups. This technique involves bringing together a diverse group of consumers and asking specific questions about the product.

Product research is also helpful for developing psychological profiling of your demographic market. Learning about the lifestyle, income, marital status, and buying habits of the target market helps companies better understand which products and services are best received in the marketplace.

Conducting focus groups is better left to marketing agencies that specialize in this niche. These kinds of agencies have extensive databases of prescreened members and can organize a group of people that will provide quality feedback.

One area that business owners often overlook is performing market research with employees. Any time products and services are added it is imperative to conduct a focus group to obtain employee feedback and address questions and concerns.

Talking with personnel is the best method for preventing miscommunication. Openly discussing concerns will help reveal ways to overcome challenges and provide a better understanding of the tools and marketing materials that employees will need to sell the product or service effectively.

Any person that is starting a business should perform market research to analyze competition and determine the best approaches for advertising. It can be helpful to acquire competitive analysis reports to review what competitors are doing and how and where they advertise.

Companies that operate an Internet business need to learn about search marketing and ways to track return on investment. Although there are tools and software that can be used to track click through rates and site impressions, the process can be cumbersome.

A lot of Internet marketing companies hire marketing technologists to implement a variety of strategies and automate market research programs.

Working together with marketing technologists and market research agencies can help anyone that is starting a business, expanding a business, or wants to establish a business plan or strategic marketing management system.

Online Marketing DNA specializes in creating customized marketing packages to suit the needs of individual clients. We work with clients to obtain and analyze market research data to determine which online marketing strategies will provide the most benefit.

What is unique about OMDNA is that we work side-by-side with each client to ensure they reach their online marketing goals. For this reason, we limit the number of clients so we can provide them with the best services available.

We invite you to take a look at our services and marketing packages. We also invite you to peruse our online marketing blog to learn more about online marketing strategies and the benefits of conducting market research.

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Published on February 12, 2012

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