Here’s another truth, market research doesn’t have to be so hard. I remember explaining the concept of “crowdsourcing” to a room full of bankers and they looked at me as if I had two heads. The way they saw market research was spending millions on focus groups. The way I see market research is just using tools that are readily available to get to know your marker.
Here are some of the ways you can do consistent market research without wasting money. Money that, quite frankly, beginning business owners should probably be spending on other things.
Conduct a poll using Insta Stories.
Instagram did a recent update to their stories feature that has me jumping for joy. Marketers can now create a poll within a story to gauge their market. Here’s how you do it:
- When logged into Instagram, click on the camera in the top left-hand corner. This will open up Stories.
- Take a photo, make a video, do whatever you want for the story.
- Click on the Sticker option at the top right-hand side. (It looks like a smiley face.)
- Choose the “Poll” option.
- Ask your question and set the options.
Anyone who sees your story for the next 24 hours can vote in your poll. I’ve done a few of these just to know where my market is. For example, I asked about their top reason for wanting a business (more flexibility). I also asked if they thought Sundays were for relaxing or getting ahead on the work week.
From this point forward, I will be tweaking my marketing based on the answers they provided. Truth be told, this was a brilliant idea on Instagram’s part.
Conduct a poll in your Facebook group.
In addition to creating a poll on Insta stories, I also created one in my free Facebook group. I asked the same questions I asked my Instagram followers to see if their answers would be any different.
While there wasn’t a huge difference between the two audiences, there was a slight one. When I asked about the top reason for wanting to start a business, my Facebook group unanimously voted for more flexibility. Meanwhile, Instagram was split pretty evenly between more money and more flexibility.
This means I’ll be using flexibility in my marketing for the Facebook group more than I will be using it on Instagram. This market research allows me to customize the experience for different social media followers.
Conduct interviews.
The last way to do consistent market research is to conduct informal phone interviews. At this point, I get insight from people I meet at a bar or my coworking space. I also conduct the occasional phone interviews with my email subscribers.
I personally love interviews because I can get a better feel for people’s emotions. I can also pay attention the language they are using so that I can use that same language in my marketing.
Final Thoughts
If you want to have a successful marketing strategy, you need to conduct consistent marketing research. Fortunately, it doesn’t need to cost you an arm and a leg thanks to social media.
