MUST HAVE (FREE) MARKET RESEARCH TOOLS FOR SMALL BUSINESSES!!

Collecting data is the cornerstone of market research, allowing you to gather information about and understanding the opinions, feelings and behaviours of target markets and consumers, so you need to ensure you are going about it the right way…

A good market research tool can provide you with the means to collect, analyse and implement data so you can improve and build your business going forward.

Market research can be costly depending on the size of the project – but, the insights you discover will prove to be invaluable for your business!

However, for smaller pieces of work, and using the following tools, you can conduct market research on a small scale for free!

And when you understand how it can help you discover who your customers are, and how you can influence them successfully through your marketing channels, you can ask a specialist for more help!

1. Qualtrics

• Surveys accessible on mobile devices, apps, websites, chatbots and many more just through clicking a link

• Create and test surveys in real time and collaborate effortlessly

• Drag-and-drop software interface for easy creation, launch and analysis

• Uncover new insights with predictive intelligence and powerful statistical analysis built-in

• Improve survey quality with ExpertReview

• Integrate your surveys into existing systems such as Adobe among others

2. SurveyMonkey

• Easily create surveys, quizzes, and polls for any audience

• Gather feedback via weblink, email, mobile chat, social media, and more

• Automatically analyse your results and get powerful analysis features

• Export your results or integrate your data with your favourite apps

• Use your insights to make better, data-driven decisions

3. Google Trends

• Shows how frequently your search term is entered into Google compared with the site’s total search volume over a specific period of time

• Provides keyword-related and geographic data about Google’s users

• Can be used for comparative keyword research and to uncover keyword spikes triggered by events

• Gives you a more comprehensive perspective on the news, opinions, posts and perceptions affecting your brand

• Tips for using Google Trends (https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/intl/en-gb/marketing-strategies/search/use-google-trends-discover-market-trends/)

4. Make My Persona (HubSpot)

• A buyer persona is a model of an ideal customer, created through market research and existing customer data.

• They help your business focus time and resources and inform product development and marketing.

• It helps you create these characters in seven simple steps that you fill in, including: demographics, Industry, job responsibilities, reports, goals or objectives, preferred method of communication, biggest challenges, anything else you want to include

• The tool then gives you a profile of your buyer persona that you can share with your whole organization to inform and inspire

5. Facebook Audience Insights

• The largest social media site in the world has a marketing software???

• Facebook Audience Insights gives you information about two groups: people connected to your Facebook page and people on Facebook generally

• This can help you create and target content and find more people to match your target audience through extracting: - demographic information, what people like and lifestyles

• Perfect for a business with an already established Facebook page

There you go - do give them a try!

Blog created by Harry Lipski – April 2021