5 Vital Reasons Why You Should Conduct Your Own Market Research

Market research is a critical tool that helps you keep up with the changing marketing trends. It allows you to stay competitive and relevant in a dynamic market. Whether you are a startup or are interested in expanding your business, market research can prove to be your secret weapon.

5 Reasons to Conduct your Own Market Research

1. Helps You Identify New customers and Business Opportunities

Market research helps you get a clear idea of your target customers and how you can reach them through different marketing channels. Using market research software you can segment your target customers and marketing mediums which will help you identify new and potential clients and spot business opportunities. 

For instance:

• Market research can help you form partnerships with other businesses. When you learn more about your customers like their demographics, you can find other small businesses that cater to them. You can approach such businesses and tie-up with them to jointly serve the target customers. 
• You can expand beyond your current geography and find a new location where you can sell your services or products. Market research will help you identify different locations that your target customers live in. Therefore, you can make targeted campaigns that align with the needs and culture of that geographical location.
• A customer survey will help you understand which products and services your customers mostly buy. You can use this knowledge to create add-ons, upsells or product bundles to increase the average value of each order.

2. Better Understand of Existing Customers

Market research can be really useful to map out a clear profile of your ideal customer. By understanding your customers well you can determine the market size and their preferences. 

The more questions you ask using the survey tools, the better understanding you will get of your customers. You can get answers to questions like:

• Who will buy your product?
• How often will they buy?
• What influences their buying decisions? 
• What do they expect from your products?
• How do your products solve a problem?

Market research helps you gain insights into your customers like their age, gender, location, and income. You can use that information to improve your products and come up with effective marketing campaigns. 

3. Helps You Realistic Business Goals

As a business owner, you will set certain goals for the business to grow. In most cases, these goals are meant to increase sales or customer base. However, you need market research to determine if your goals are achievable or not. It will also give you a clear idea of how to achieve your goals.

If you want to double the sales, you need to know the size of the target market. If you don’t, you would be setting arbitrary and unrealistic goals that you may never achieve. Market research helps you answer critical questions, which in turn will help you set realistic business goals. 

4. Understand the Competitors 

You need to keep one eye on your customers and the other eye on your competition. When you are armed with market research, you can identify your competitors. You can also use market research to assess their weaknesses and strengths. 

By finding their weaknesses, you can create a marketing strategy that will help you close the gaps and gain more customers. You can also identify their strengths and use that information to think creatively and create better campaigns. 

You can outsell your competitors using market research. For example: 

• You can target dissatisfied customers by asking your target market about which competitor displeases them. You can also read their reviews of your competitors’ products and use that information to better your own products. You can then market them to potential customers who are ready to switch brands.
• The market research can expose a market segment that your competitors have not served yet. You can target that segment and gain a new customer base. 

5. Enables Better Decision Making 

The market research process can lead to the growth of your business. You can refer to your research report to help you make tough business decisions. The research will help you find out the demands of your customers, map out better marketing campaigns, detect business opportunities and minimize losses. All these will help in growing the business and increasing the profits. 

Businesses of every size can greatly benefit from market research. One of the main goals of conducting your own market research is to gain valuable customer information. When you are armed with that information, you can make better decisions, grow and innovate.