Starting Market Research Project: Rookie Mistakes To Avoid

Market research is an important part of any business strategy, whether that business is B2B or B2C. The data gathered about target demographics, and consumers will lead you in the right direction – growth, and success.

You can make optimum use of business resources. Market research will help you generate lots of engagement and boost your sales by providing invaluable information. Today’s consumers have a lot of power. Do your best to understand their problems, pain points, and desired solutions.

Unless market research is methodical, organized, and fair, mistakes can arise. One wrong move can drive a good market research project into the ground. Market research can turn out to be a challenge if you don’t know what you’re doing. These are the pitfalls encountered by other businesses. Make sure you don’t make the same mistakes they did.

1. Underspending Or Overspending on Market Research

The cost of market research varies based on several factors, including what you want to accomplish, who’ll be involved, the time it takes to collect data, and, last but not least, the methodology implemented in the process. Underspending or overspending on market research is a big mistake.

If you’re hiring an outside firm, shop until you find the best deal. You put a lot of effort into securing funds, so the last thing you want is underspending or overspending.

Set an overall project budget and allocate an appropriate percentage of that budget to market research. It should be a reasonable portion of the overall budget. The net return on the invested research pound is very sizeable. More exactly, you’re well-advised to make the investment. If you really want the perfect firm for your needs, look for a market research company in Singapore.

Have an outsourced team conduct your market research. A company like Savanta can help you out. Savanta market research is typically available immediately. You’ll get new data on your customers’ behaviors and perceptions.

2. Asking The Wrong People

Accurate market research includes data that reflects your customers. Don’t recruit too narrow or too broad of an audience. Target the people who are most likely to impact your sales. Otherwise, you risk getting irrelevant data. Depending on your goals, you might have to survey customers, as well as prospective customers.

Also, you might need to focus your attention on former employees, distributors, vendors, and so on. Their feedback can increase profitability over the long term.

Before you invest time, effort, and resources into market research, find your target audience. Pin down who would benefit the most from what you’re offering and build your audience persona. For example if you are looking for expert advice for a market entry China, don’t ask someone who has never expanded in the country.

In B2B and B2C marketing alike, you have to get a firm grasp of who you’re talking to. You can’t sell to everyone. If you ask the wrong people, you’ll sabotage your chances. Once you’ve defined the right target market, write a market research plan.

3. Not Knowing What You’re Looking For

Doing market research and hoping you’ll find something useful is plain useless. Know what information you need before you even begin. Some of the goals that market research can help your organisation accomplish are determining new business opportunities, securing funding and investments, and avoiding business failure.

Having a lack of purpose can hurt your business. Be very clear about the goal of the market research. You and your team should know exactly what you’re working towards.

When creating a market research goal, take into account the current issues in the company. You can obtain the necessary information to solve those problems. Setting too many goals isn’t recommended. After all, you have a limited amount of time and energy. If you focus on too many things, you won’t give them the attention they deserve.

Clearly define your objective and the outcome you hope for. It’ll help you get the information you need without having to stretch your market research budget or waste your time.

4. Discarding Market Research Results

The success of your market research project depends on the results. You have information, and you can do something with it. Even the results that don’t surprise you are valuable to the organization. The data shows if your strategy, operational procedures, and initiatives stick with the intended audience.

You shouldn’t discard the results just because you don’t understand them. Present the findings to other people in the company and come up with an action plan. The worst thing you can do is to spend all your money on market research and not use it.

Results, whether negative or positive, should be disseminated as their reality. Your work shouldn’t go to waste. Even if you’re frustrated in the beginning, rectify the situation.

You can make long-lasting changes based on your findings. Recommendations should be actionable. The good news is that the findings are evidence-based and sufficiently robust to support business decisions. Successful entrepreneurs use market research to maintain their company’s competitive edge. Don’t ignore concrete data, even if the results aren’t what you hoped for.

5. Never Following Up 

There’s no point in doing market research if you don’t follow up. At times, people are nervous, and their anxiety gets the best of them. Follow-up can be conducted during the actual market research.

Its purpose is to enhance the overall effectiveness of the research effort. Alternatively, follow-up can be carried out following the original research. If you ask the right questions, you’ll get the right feedback. People will be honest and let you know what they think.

Ensure successful follow-up when you conduct market research. Don’t leave anything up to chance. Set and communicate clear expectations. The outsourced market research team will appreciate the fact that you’re serious.

A follow-up schedule can extend all the way up to 12 months. The frequency of communications depends exclusively on the level of interest manifested by the prospect. There’s no way around this. If you need to do market research, you have to follow up.

In the end, competing in today’s marketplace means being smarter than in the past. You need to think miles ahead of others and find solutions where others can’t. Market research can help your business in a number of ways. Doing this correctly takes patience.

Additionals:

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• 5 Ways Entrepreneurs Can Achieve A Healthy Work-Life Balance
• Managing Business Operations: The Need To Know For Start-Ups
• Why Sleep is Good for Business: How Getting Enough Rest Can Help Your Career