Maybe you own a business and your staff consists of yourself and a few employees – or maybe, your business has grown and you’re proud to say you’ve got over 50 people working hard to provide a quality product or service. The goal is to grow, right? When it comes to advertising your business, it doesn’t matter how big or small you might be – every dime you spend on that marketing budget is important and needs to go as far as possible. Maybe you have a social media presence, or maybe you’ve been relying on direct marketing avenues to reach your target audience. As a business owner you’re starting to think outside the box; Let’s grow… let’s reach more people! You know you need more, but where…and how? How do you know who to target? Do you pay for PPC (pay per click) advertising? Should you get an email subscription going? New website? Sometimes it feels like a shot in the dark, but it doesn’t have to! This is where the foundation of all Capacity Marketing advertising efforts comes in – market research. Let’s talk about the importance of market research in today’s blog.
Market research should drive every advertising decision a business makes. From who to promote to, what platforms, even what colors your business may want to use, the variables and services you as a business owner invest in should all be driven by recommendations made based on market research.
The Importance of Market Research – Driving Success
In the advertising and marketing industries, market research covers a variety of sleuthing and legwork done by anyone looking to get the very best ROI on their advertising investments. Here at Capacity, we go to every corner of the marketing spectrum to gather as much data, information, and insight as we possibly can about any client we’re working with. With any business, understanding the terrain helps us better direct our marketing budget, and in the long run, it’ll help elevate a business’s products and services above its competitors.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates market research roles will increase by 23% by 2026. – AdWeekly
So how does extensive market research really help? Below, we’ve broken out just a few of the pieces we look at when putting together the very best strategy for our clients, and how these factors are important to any marketing strategy.
- Market Demographics and Consumer Behavior – What kind of people are engaging with brands similar to yours? Where do they live and what are their spending habits? Do they like to engage with your competitors on social media? Do they like a high-tech website? When doing demographic research, it’s important to identify the people who are going to want or need what your business has to offer. The goal here is to identify where your budget will be best spent.
- Market Trends, Needs, and Growth – If you’re doing all of your own advertising in house, in conjunction with running the operations side of your business, it’s easy to miss changes and trends in your industry. Adapting and adjusting is the norm in marketing, and it can be difficult to keep up. If you’ve signed on with a marketing agency, they should be keeping an eye on these trends to ensure your strategy can pivot at the drop of a hat. That being said, doing thorough market research upfront can help you anticipate some of these trends as you take a look at patterns throughout the last several years. The importance of market research in this capacity takes into account data from the past, and can help your business look for areas of opportunity to reach a missed audience.
- Competitor Research – This category of market research examines what your competitors are doing, and takes into consideration whether or not they’re getting better results than you may be. From their behaviors on social media to the type of pages they have on their website, analyzing their activity can be an invaluable resource. By pinpointing what’s working for their consumers, you can save time and money by cutting out things you’ve observed as simply not working. Don’t ignore this type of data, they’re doing some of the work for you!
So What Does Your Business Do With All That Data?
Goals. The short answer to “What does my business do with all this data?!” is to create goals! All of this information should come together, and you’ll decide what areas of opportunity make the most sense for your business. It might even surprise business owners to know that industry and market research doesn’t just impact content delivery (like blogs, social media posts, direct mail fliers, etc), but it also brings your information in the form of brand voice, imagery, and what type of content your business should employ.
New research by Forrester Consulting, commissioned by FocusVision, found that how a customer thinks and feels about a brand are statistically significant drivers of their loyalty, advocacy and purchasing decisions. Further, a customer’s emotional connection with a brand has a 50% greater impact on driving positive business outcomes than what they think. – AdWeekly
Why is market research important? It doesn’t matter what size your company is, understanding marketing terrain can help your business no matter what. Even if you’re doing it all in house, make sure you’re diving as deep as possible to gather as much relevant information you can.
For a business’s marketing strategy, market research is imperative to drive consumers into your funnel and keep them engaged. Below are just a few of the ways you can put your quality market research to use:
- Web Design – From colors to engagement options, the above-mentioned research can help you identify what your consumers and your competitor’s customers are looking for. Contact forms, blog sections, reviews, maps – these are all website components that may or may not work for your industry.
- Channels of Distribution – Your (or ours!) research will help you identify how you want your product or service delivered to your target audience. From mailers to radio ads, paid advertising, social media, and even tv ads, you’ll learn how your industry’s consumers like to interact with your type of business.
- Brand Voice – The consumer market preferences shift constantly, and that requires businesses to follow suit. The median age of the U.S. population is 38.4, but Gen Z is on the rise. They interact with brands very differently than their millennial counterparts. Don’t miss out on the next big opportunity in consumer spending by ignoring how they want their brands to represent themselves!
- Product offerings – Like a restaurant with too many options on the menu, sometimes a business simply has too much to offer. In some cases, what they have to offer simply hasn’t been laid out and organized for efficiency.
The importance of market research goes far beyond what we’ve laid out here, but hopefully, this is a great place for your business to start. As always, if you think you might need some help really diving into market data, Capacity Marketing is always here to help. Give us a call at 845-430-5277 or check out our website to fill out a contact form. We’re here to elevate your business for greater success!