How to Conduct Market Research for Your Small Business

Guest post by Alex Schnee

If you have been thinking about how you want to reach the right clients for your business, then you should consider how you are going to gain the information necessary to make that happen. One of the best ways to do this is through a survey report, which allows you to see where your customers are struggling and how you can help them with a new product or service.

Here’s how you can gain more information in order to help your small business grow.

Do some research into your industry

Before you start to do any sort of surveying or reaching out to clients, you’re going to want to look into what your competitors are doing and decide whether or not you want to compete in the same way. You’re going to want to look into how those are performing and if there is a way that you can do it better. However, it might not be worth your time and effort depending on the cost and what product you would have to develop.

Look into customers’ pain points

Another way to determine how you should go about helping your clients is finding out where their pain points are. You can get a good idea of what these might be by going onto forums related to your industry or checking out Facebook groups where you can see questions that people are asking when it comes to problems your business solves. This can give you some great insight into where there is a gap in the market and how you might be able to fill it in the future.

Run several surveys

Surveys are a great way to get an idea of what exactly people are looking for when it comes to your business and how you can make a solution that works for both them and you. You might want to do over a period of time in order to determine what kind of product or solution might be best for you. You might want to put this out over your email list, on social media, and more in order to get enough data from your audience in order to see what they are looking for and how you can find a solution for them.

Interview potential customers

At the end of the day, it’s also worth it to sit down with some of your best customers and see where you have succeeded in the past and how you can encourage them to continue to remain loyal. You might also want to consider looking into interviewing customers who have not been happy with your efforts in the past to see where you can improve in the future.

In summary

Market research can be one of the best things you can do in order to make sure you are on the right track when it comes to developing products or services for your small business. Between interviews and surveys, you’re more likely to end up with a solution that works.