Step 1: Identify the problem
The first and main period of marketing research is defining the problem. Before starting work, it is necessary to understand why it is being done, what information needs to be acquired as a result. For example, the company's problem is that sales are not increasing in volume, marketing research of the market will allow you to determine the reasons for this.
Step 2: Define your audience
Determining a representative fusion database sample is a mandatory step that must be taken before starting a marketing research. That is, it is necessary to identify a small number of participants in the process whose characteristics are as similar as possible to the characteristics of the target audience.
Stages of Marketing Research
Representative sampling is divided into the following types:
Probabilistic. The specialist defines the selection system and its criteria. The selection of participants is carried out on the basis of this data. This way, you can get information about what qualities the products should have for real buyers, not random people.
Non-probability. Here, participants are selected randomly, which means that the data obtained will be inaccurate.
The sample size depends on the problem being studied. The more participants it includes, the higher the probability that the right people will be among them.
Step 3: Develop a plan
Without a project, it is impossible to outline the structure of the study. It must include qualitative indicators of the target audience, selection criteria, methods planned for use, and the amount of budget that can be spent.
Step 4: Gather information
It is not difficult to prepare quantitative indicators. This action is relevant if the budget allocated for marketing research is limited. We have already discussed the high cost of focus groups. If it is possible to perform qualitative analysis, data is collected from any available sources.
A/B testing on the site will allow you to find out how the consumer will react to a change in the call to action.
Here's an example. Unbounce ran this analysis on one of their landing pages that advertised a promo access. The only change they made was to replace the word "your" with "my" in the phrase "Get your 30-day demo access." The results showed a more than 90% increase in link click-through rate.
This method will work for testing absolutely any portal elements – headings, product cards, photographs, product prices, etc.
Gathering information for market research
Step 5: Interpret the results obtained
Then the experts analyze the available data. They need to get answers to the following questions:
What impact do the identified trends have on the development of the organization?
What is their significance?
Is there a chance that they will not have influence in decision making?
Is it possible to correlate the information obtained with other information that specialists have?
What other research needs to be done? What information will be needed for this?
What conclusions do the results of the study lead to?
Does the company have insights that could lead to major changes in the business?
It is important to understand that the analysis cannot be intuitive. Everything must be objectiv