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How To Conduct Market Research On A Tight Budget

If you’re a small business owner you’re probably wondering how soon you should start conducting market research — or if you even need to do it at all.

The answer is a resounding yes, but only if you can find ways to do it affordably — otherwise, you probably won’t get a high enough return. Yet most experts agree that the sooner you start market research, the more money you will save in the long run by preventing poor business decisions.

Key Market Research Questions To Ask Your Customers

The whole reason for conducting market research is to find out what your prospects are thinking, feeling and needing – – and then use that data to meet their desires and needs. The questions you ask and the format you use will impact the usability and quality of the data you receive. From in-person offline surveys to on-site kiosks and online surveys, you can gain valuable insight into your customer’s feelings and motivations, if you ask the right questions.

How can you be sure you are asking the right questions? Including these queries as a baseline is a great place to start.

10 Questions to Ask Your Target Audience Before Starting a Business

Gathering information about your target prospect can help you build an accurate buyer persona and ensure that you are spending your marketing budget in the right way. Basic demographics matter, but your market research won’t be complete until you have the answers to these critical questions as well.

10 Ways to Find New Customers and Increase Sales in 2017

As 2016 draws to a close, it’s easy to get wrapped up in the rush of holiday sales – and forget about the pending new year. Taking some steps now can help revitalize your marketing plan in 2017 and make it your best year ever. We’ve gathered some of the best ideas out there for increasing sales and reaching new clients in 2017 – one or more of these methods should help you get results in the new year.

Are You Making These 5 Common Survey Mistakes?

Whether you are collecting survey data from customers, employees or the public, there are a few common survey mistakes that companies make over and over again.

When designing surveys, you’ll find it’s the small nuances that make a big difference in how questions are answered. Complex choices, ambiguous terms, and vague wording are all problematic because they allow respondents to interpret the meaning of the question however they like.

While not totally inclusive, these five tips are common offenders in building quality surveys.

The Perks of Listening Research For Small Businesses

Surveys are excellent at gathering data, but there are pitfalls that can lead to bad information. One of the best types of research you can do as a small business owner is listening.

Listen to your clerks and customers interact with one another. Listen in on phone calls if you can. Read comments left on Facebook, Twitter or your website. Listen to customers talk to each other or even to themselves on the next aisle over. It seems simple, but really that’s all a survey does, except in a standardized format.

Creative Ways To Identify New Market Segments

Regardless of your company size it’s important to constantly evaluate your market segments in relation to your competitors.

Identifying segments that either your competitors have missed or are untapped opportunities for you is challenging and requires a wholistic approach that uses both right-brain and left-brain thinking.

To do this, it’s best to gather a team of employees who work in different departments with different expertise and conduct a few exercises. Below are three team exercises that might help your business identify new market segments

Guest Post: Small Business Marketing On A Shoestring Budget

Small business owners understand how important marketing is to grow a business. But the cost of promoting your company when you are just starting out can be frightening. What can you do if you don’t have a big advertising budget?

The good news is you can use a shoestring budget because marketing is not all about spending money on fancy campaigns or pay per click programs. Creative ideas and a “can-do” attitude can go a long way in promoting your business without spending a truckload of cash.

Here are four things that have helped me while running my small business.

3 Tips For Building A Representative Research Sample

Building a representative research sample for your business is more important than you probably think.

If you are like many companies, you are conducting market research among those you hope reflect your customer base, or those you wish will one day become customers. Either way, sample bias has the potential to drastically undercut the value of your data collection methods.

Assuming you understand the importance of a representative research sample, here are three common ways to achieve one.

Sean Copeland Q&A: Market Researchers Much More Than Survey Experts

Sean Copeland is the director of research at Student Life Network & Parent Life Network. He brings a wealth of knowledge related to market research having formerly worked for Ipsos Reid, Environics and Loyalty One. A collaborative leader, retail and technology enthusiast, and certified marketing research professional, Copeland is known for identifying opportunities through data and delivering measurable results.

We’re excited to have had the opportunity to sit down with Copeland to get his perspective on the market research field — and surveys in particular. His insights are refreshing and opinions direct. We hope they help you discover, plan and execute the best market research strategy for your business.

How To Do Mentor Research At Small Businesses

Mentor research involves gathering the insights of other business owners and using their experiences to help shape your decisions. It can be extremely helpful for small businesses, especially if you’re going to open a new business or add a product line.

Even if you’ve been around for 20 years, creating a network of contacts will almost certain yield valuable information. Talking to others in that line of business can be extremely helpful. You might want to look outside your area, so they know you don’t pose a threat, but most people are fairly open and happy to discuss their experiences. The more people you can find to interview, the better off you’ll be. If you get conflicting advice, you’ll have to decide whose advice to use

Guest Post: The Case For Museum Audience Research

Why do museums offer programs like tours, workshops and talks?

Programs offer visitors the opportunity to engage with art, history or science, and ideally they deepen the relationship to existing audiences, as well as attract new ones. Museums want visitors to hear directly from experts, to discover and discuss new ideas, to find inspiration for their creative endeavors, and even simply to spend an hour with friends and family.

3 Market Research Flaws That Frustrate Your Survey Respondents

Let’s face it – when it comes to getting accurate data, there are few things as frustrating as not getting the right insights because your survey respondents are confused about what you’re asking. Whether it’s not being able to be as detailed as they’d like or poorly worded questions that can be confusing, watching out for these three market research flaws can help ensure you’ll get the data you need.

5 Things You Need to Know About Your Survey Respondents Before You Conduct Market Research

A lot has been said about good survey design, however, designing a survey or questionnaire involves much more than just choosing what questions to ask. It also pays to focus on the respondents in order to get the best possible results from your survey.

5 Incredibly Useful Market Research Tools

One of the major challenges with modern day market research has to do with just how frequently situations can change. Your “market” is constantly changing and the tools you use to gain a deeper understanding must change along with them. If you’re trying to get a better understanding of audiences on social media, you would naturally use different tools than the ones you would use to try to measure the loyalty of your existing customers or even to understand your competitors. To that end, there are five incredibly useful market research tools that are absolutely worth exploring.

Research Data Collection Methods: Paper vs. Tablets

Deciding between paper or tablet data collection for your next research project?

A new study by The Nature Conservancy shows tablet data collection to be a clear winner. Since research data collection methods can be complex, the organization decided to study the costs and time associated with both paper and tablet data collection.

Read below for more details on the findings of this study.

3 Reasons to Use a Survey App For Market Research

Identifying trends and market information in a timely manner is the core of what market research represents. Yet surprisingly, paper-based data collection is still a commonly used method for conducting research. Mobile data collection saves time and money and can improve the accuracy of your results. Here are 3 reasons to switch to a tablet survey app for market research.

IMPL Project On A Mission To Change International Aid

If you ask Justin Richmond why he got into the international development industry, he’ll tell you about how large western aid agencies have dropped the ball and how he feels compelled to pick up the slack.

“Aid in America is fundamentally broken,” he says.

In 2015, Richmond launched his tiny international development agency, IMPL Project, after stints as a special operations team leader with the U.S. Army and an engineer in the technology industry with Palantir Technologies.

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