5 Ways to Conduct Market Research on a Shoestring Budget
Whether you are a big business or small business, market research is always important. Without it, all of your carefully made plans and hours spent creating your service or product will be wasted.
There’s no point in trying to sell a product that no one wants.
And honestly, you don’t need a huge budget to conduct market research. If you wanted to, you could purchase reports from market research agencies; they spend a lot of time and money creating reports that will tell you if it’s worth trying to sell your products in a certain market to a certain kind of person. If you can afford it, that’s great.
But for those of us who don’t have the start-up capital to pay out thousands of dollars to these firms, we have to conduct out own market research.
So here are 5 ways a small business can conduct market research on a budget:
We Should Always Market Like There's a Recession
The recession has had devastating effects on our families, friends, businesses and towns. Watching things unravel around us, we’re worried about taking risks and unwilling to spend money where we can’t measure the return on investment. I’ve reduced my own marketing budget and I’m constantly looking for creative methods of connecting with people.
Advertising is expensive and becoming less effective, so how do we create awareness when times are even more dire? We need to add low cost marketing strategies to our existing business plans and get back to the basics. Find ways to advertise and create conversations about our businesses without exceeding our budgets or putting our businesses in jeopardy.
Use Public Relations and Find Stories that Fit Your Business
Let’s get creative, throw out the old rules and start breaking some new ground. We’re most creative when the options that were readily available to us quickly disappear. That’s where PR comes in. When we can’t rely on the traditional advertising methods and techniques we need to expand our options and search for solutions that extend our reach and add credibility to our businesses. We can read the news, follow journalists and media outlets in our areas and find ways we can connect with issues and involve our businesses in the solutions.
Show Your Customers You’re Still There For Them
Add more Public Relations practices to your plan. I’m not talking about media relations, but “public” relations. Even if you have a small client base, reach out your previous and existing customers and give them a reason to talk about you and pass on your message. Offer some low-cost incentives for being loyal to your company. Consider customer appreciate days or contests that reward customers for their opinions and loyalty. We can’t be afraid to ask for opinions and feedback. Although we don’t like criticism, it can mean the difference between survival and bankruptcy.
Fill the Gaps Your Competitors are Leaving
We need to stay one step ahead of the competition. They’re being hit with the recession, too. While they’re pulling back, we can push our businesses forward with consistent positive communications. It’s not difficult to differentiate ourselves when we’re listening to your customer’s most immediate concerns. We need to ensure we know where people are talking about us and what they are saying. We can’t afford to miss an opportunity to create an open and positive conversation with our business community. We’re not the only ones looking for gaps and if we’re not paying attention, someone else will step in and take over the conversation.
Always Focus on Building Your Story
Businesses have survived recessions before and what we need to remember is people are still going to buy products and services and plan for the future. They’re just being cautious and becoming more educated about their purchases. When customers search for products to purchase they’re going to be looking for trustworthy companies that are generate positive buzz.
I believe that the recession is best time assess our marketing efforts and create a plan that focuses more on the benefits of our products and the relationships with our customers. Once we start using non-traditional marketing and stepping away from the expected methods of advertising, it’s easy to realize how disconnected from our customers we’ve become.
Public relations isn’t just about what media attention can do for us. It’s about being part of the story and giving people something to talk about. Read the newspaper and watch the news, the people who get the most exposure are the people who put their customers and communities first.
People are changing the way they live. We just have to figure out how we fit into the picture.
Know What Your Prospects Really Want
We can’t deny that we buy “things” that make us feel better.
We don’t buy products, we buy solutions. Even the things we “need”, whether they are brand name, bargain or environmentally-friendly, are purchased because on some subconscious level they make us feel good about our choice. In today’s market, we have a tremendous choice between products, but ultimately we buy the brand that makes us feel better about ourselves.
I can’t tell the difference between Coke and Pepsi, but I buy Coke because my Dad did when I was a little kid. Over time, I’ve associated buying this brand of pop with family memories and good experiences.
That’s why we buy expensive clothes, cars, shoes, and highlights for our hair. Our lives were bearable before we bought these products, but somewhere along the way, someone created a “want” that turned into a “need”. Suddenly, we thought that purchasing these things would make us feel better, they did and they became part of our everyday lives.
In his post Do Not Ever Promote Your Products or Services, Ritu Pant of Marketing Hackz says:
Your customers are interested in only two things while purchasing your product or services – Good feelings and solution to the problem. Everything else is secondary to these two elements that customers require.
What solutions are you selling your customers? How are you making them feel better about themselves?
Think of your own reasons for buying products and services. What motivates you to buy? Think of all the reasons that you feel better for purchasing those products. Now apply that to your own products to set yourself apart from other sellers.
Essentially, customers begin the buying process by looking for a solution to their problem, but their decision to buy will be based on their feelings about you, your sales approach and your company.
Whether you are selling products or education, if you’re not thinking about how it will make your customer feel better about themselves, you’re not selling it.
Pamela Weir is a Marketing Copywriter. If you are looking for a sales writer with experience creating website content, press releases, squeeze pages, and sales pages, please visit her Copywriting Services page for more information.
