Research Your Market
by Scott F. Geld
Like traditional forms of marketing, to market your online
business, you need to assess its potential. It doesn't have to
cost a lot, nor does it have to be a complex process. It might be
using a focus group, which is simply getting a survey of opinions
about your product or service offerings from a cross section of
your consumers. You can conduct such a survey either by mail or by
telephone.
Using the telephone can be more challenging because some people
feel that this is an intrusion on their privacy and they may not
be willing to respond. By mail, the recipient can choose to answer
your survey questions at their convenience. Providing a prepaid
postage envelope further encourages the respondent to mail in
their survey. Some savvy marketers offer an incentive of some kind
for returning the survey.
Other techniques include analyzing demographics, such as age, sex,
income level, educational level, population growth and so on. You
can get groups of people together and use brainstorming techniques
to determine market potential, or you can conduct one-to-one
interviews with qualified prospects in your market.
No matter what methods you use, your purpose should be to gather
enough data to determine who your customers are. You need to be
able to identify their needs and expectation. Then you can decide
if there is a demand for your product or service. If you are
satisfied that a demand exists, you will want to find out what
competition you have out there. Market research should provide
answers to the following questions:
- Who are your potential customers?
- Why do they need your product or service?
- Where are they located...city or country?
- Do your target customers have the buying power to purchase
your product or service?
- How much are people willing to pay for your products?
- Can you offer competitive pricing?
- What about quality? Is your quality as good as or better
than the competition?
Yes, market research can be costly and time consuming. Your
questions can build in bias that may distort your results.
However, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. If you aren't
getting the results you expect or want, then perhaps you must
consider that your business idea is off base. Perhaps there isn't
a market for your product or service. But, don't be discouraged.
Go back and modify your original plan.
The benefits of market research include:
- Determining who you customers are
- Finding out what they want
- Determining how to reach your potential customers
- Determining which is the best way to communicate with your
potential customers
- Assessing different marketing strategies
Using market research strategies is a means to finding out how
viable your business idea is and if there is a market for it. It
focuses and organizes marketing information so that you can reduce
your business risks and identify opportunities for profit making.
With good market research data you are in a better position to
make sound business decisions.
Scott F. Geld is the Director of Marketing for
MarketingBlaster.com, a company providing targeted traffic and
direct links starting at just $5. For more info:
http://www.MarketingBlaster.com
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