Do you have a new business idea? Think it might work great as a startup? Then you probably know that conducting market research is one of the most important things that you can do to see what you will be up against in your chosen industry.
Whilst you may want to leap straight into it, you need to dial it back first and think about the important steps you have to take so it can work.
This means going through the market research process and creating a business strategy from that so you can reach your target audience and potential customers.
In today’s blog, we will go through how to do market research for a startup, and what types of market research are out there, e.g. primary research and secondary research, so you can pick the market research method that is most viable for your startup.
What is Market Research?
If you plan to conduct market research but don’t really know what the basis of it is and how it works, then you have come to the right place. Market research is all about analysing the particular market you are about to enter with your new business idea.
What You Will Be Doing
You will look intently into market trends, industry trends, your target market, and market dynamics. It will include competitor analysis to see what other businesses are doing and how they are doing it.
What Are Market Research Methods?
To find your target market and help move your startup idea forward, you will need to think of the different methods that will help you achieve the correct data collection and market analysis.
These Are –
- Surveys
- Focus Groups
- Interviews
- Customer Observation
What Will The Results Be?
With thorough market research, you will be able to learn about what course would be best to take, and how you can use your market research findings to make informed and proactive decisions that can get your foot in the door.
Why is Startup Market Research Important?
As a small business just getting started, you will use small business market research to find what you need. It can help you learn about your industry as well as what your competitors are doing, so you can gain solid market research that will help you find data that can put you ahead.
It will inform you on how to best reach out to potential customers and engage with them. From this gathering of data, you can establish a framework that will help with profitability.
Having this in front of you will drive your choices forward so that when it comes to decision-making, you are able to go in the right direction.
Identifying the right market involves delving into the demographics, understanding consumer behaviors, and assessing the competitive landscape. When starting a new business, location can be a game-changer. Consider factors such as foot traffic, accessibility, and local economic trends.
For instance, if you’re venturing into the beauty and wellness sector and seeking the perfect location, conducting market research tailored to your niche is crucial. Look for areas where there is a demand for beauty services and explore the potential for growth. Explore the different options available, such as salon suites for rent in Manhattan (or elsewhere), to kickstart your business journey in a locale that aligns seamlessly with your entrepreneurial vision.
How Can Market Research For Startups Help Your Business Strategies?
When you are thinking about what primary market research and secondary market research you want to do, you need to factor in how this can support your business strategy for the best possible outcome.
Help You Identify Your Market
You can see how well your brand does on the market compared with your competitors, and see if you need to tweak anything to make things better.
Can Help You Find Your Target Audience
Finding out which customers will need you and how they will come to you can influence how you conduct your business.
Find The Latest Processes To Make Your Product Better
Let’s say you’re trying to start a cannabis lab. A little market research would allow you to know things like full-melt hash melts without leaving any plant residue and that the resultant product would be of the highest quality. This is to illustrate that appropriate research can enable you to make the best product in the market, edging out the competition.
Assess How A New Product With Be Received
You can see what reaction other similar products have had and how that may affect you. You can see if it draws people in and what method of marketing would be best to get people excited.
Decide On Product Packaging
You want people to like your packaging and be happy with having it in their ‘basket’, so aesthetics are an important part of this. If you’re going to pack the product in a box, use a service that can get you Custom Boxes Design so that it stands out from the competition.
There Is A Lot Of Competition
It is going to be competitive out there, so you need to make sure that you are doing as much research as possible to make your mark and stand out above the rest.
How to do Market Research For a Startup
Back to that all-important question, where do you even go about beginning your market research? Well, the smart way is to work with market research consultants or professionals of similar repute and come up with a comprehensive strategy. These will be different for each startup, but they may have a few things in common. Let’s take a look at some of them.
Create Your Goal
Think about what you need to search for, you have a goal in mind and you need to put that into your market research.
“What are you looking for?” “What will you do with the results?” “Will you do this in-house or contract it out?”
All of these questions are important, so setting up your goal and doing what needs to be done will help you out if you start to veer off.
Keeping to a set course will provide you with the results you actually need, so you don’t have to wade through tons of unnecessary research.
Primary And Secondary Research
You need to choose which research approach you would like to use when starting your market research. There are two common ones that we will go into now.
Primary Research
This type of research is all about collecting net-new data and answering questions that have not previously been asked.
Primary research can be quite time-consuming and in some cases it is expensive, so it is only really needed when there are gaps in secondary research that is already out there.
Primary research comes after secondary research, as secondary research will be able to show what data has already been collected, so you can then fill those gaps with primary research if it is definitely required.
Secondary Research
This research already has answers to the questions you are looking for through books, news sources, and journals, all of which can be found online.
It can take a while to go through it to find the most relevant data that will help you with getting your answers, so be aware that this may take you some time, but it is necessary for your startup.
As you sift through the research you must narrow it down bit by bit to find just what you are ultimately looking for as it will help you uncover the insights you need.
Do Data Collection on Your Target Audience
You need to understand who your target audience is and how it can help you with the research that you conduct.
You also need to know the ins and outs of your target market and what they are drawn towards.
You will have to use relevant market data, stay updated with market trends, as well as speak to industry professionals that can assist you.
Define Your Research Questions
The questions that you ask are important, they will help you make your research and add to your strategy so you can figure out what to do.
Ask yourself some of these questions to better understand how you can approach your research –
- Who is your competition, and which one would you say is the main competitor?
- What makes you stand out from the rest?
- What do you envision for your product or service?
- What is your target audience looking for?
- What current market trends will work for you?
Once you know the answer to these questions, you can collect what is required from your research.
Analyze Your Data
Once you have everything you need from your research methods, it is time to put them to use and help you with your business insights.
You can find data collection tools and analysis tools online to help filter this through, however, you still need to put the work in to provide you with what you are looking for.
There is a manual process to it where you will have to go through all the data that you have and take notes, go through survey responses, and read into what focus groups are saying so that you have everything you are looking for to note common themes and trends.
Put Everything into Action
Create a report on everything that you have found through your market research, and pass it on to your other team members, so they can use these findings to steer the company in the right direction and make well-thought-through decisions.
Conclusion
After reading through this post, hopefully, you are able to understand what goes into market research and how it is used once gathered.
As a startup, it is important that you get your head into it and work your way through as hard as possible, as this will help you and your business when you decide to put it out there.