Many new Internet entrepreneurs deny the question about what is the importance of market research. They make the mistake of skipping the whole market research phase when building their first venture.
In fact, the research phase is the most crucial, and skipping it can result in huge losses. Why spend the time and energy doing any of this basic research?
The last thing you want to do is put time and money into an online business that nobody cares about. In fact, the worst thing you can do as an online entrepreneur is building a site or product then looking for a market to promote to.
Many marketers made this mistake before, so the point of this article is to help you avoid the frustration involved with that sort of mistake. All business ventures start with a simple idea. Maybe there’s a specific problem you want to solve or a topic you have a real passion for. You may have found a way to earn money.
The real question: What is the importance of market research
Here’s a good rule of thumb I got from a Stephen Pierce book: Cash flows to those who are able to solve people’s pressing problems. You should be aware that one of the best ways to make money is to offer solutions. People are always willing to shell out cash to have their problems solved.
At the same time, I never put effort into a project unless I have a strong interest in the topic. Personally, I don’t care how hungry a market is if I don’t feel excited about the subject matter
Interest Vs Demand
When choosing a niche for your business, you’ll have to decide what matters more for you:
1- The consumers’ demands: this means what the people need in their life.
2- Your personal interest: this means what you like to do in life.
I recommend an honest balance. If you are passionate about an idea that nobody else cares about I don’t recommend moving forward because it won’t give you any profits.
If there is an enormous demand for a particular solution, but you have no interest at all in the niche, I also don’t recommend moving forward.
Ideally, you’ll find something you care about and then determine with a little basic research that a good number of other people also care about this topic, and have the money to purchase quality products within this arena.
And be aware that people spend a lot of money not only on solutions for their problems, but also on entertainment and hobbies.
Some marketers will tell you this technically falls under the umbrella of problem-solving; this is probably true but I wanted to draw a distinction for the purposes of this article.
Entertainment niche
If you can find a strong consumer interest in a product or service that is strictly entertainment-based you should move forward! The civilized world dumps billions of dollars every year into having fun and enjoying ourselves and wouldn’t it be great to cash in on something you really enjoy? An entertainment blog can be exciting.
The Market Research Plan Outline
You want to start your business, but you are stuck with certain details like the niche, platform to use, marketing strategies, etc… Okay! don’t panic.
The answer for many is to ask the public. That’s right. Ask the public. After all, any business can succeed only if it is accepted by the public, solving their problems or giving them. something they need.
Here is the best plan to follow to build your market research plan outline successfully:
Set Goals
Before you do anything, you should start with setting the goals or at least a direction of the decisions you wanna take after this plan. Let your goal be for example “A SaaS business”, “a website promoting product”, ” a big social media account to sell shout outs”, etc…
Keep it simple and allow yourself for some flexibility related to the information and feedback which you will collect in your research.
Set objectives
Objectives differ from goals. Every research project has certain objectives
The objectives are the decisions you wanna take to reach your goal. How you will reach your goal. What are the paths to follow?
Lay out your collection channels. The collection channels are the channels you will use to collect feedback and information from your target audience. How will you get the answers from them? Such channels include online surveys, MicroPoll, social media polls, mobile device surveys, etc… You can choose whatever suits your goal and your audience.
Brainstorm a list of questions.
Brainstorming is the first step of telling the story. You have to start brainstorming questions which you are seeking for answering them. Focus and start listing all the questions that can help make decisions. Write everything that comes to your mind. Don’t worry, you can edit later.
Use Keywords
There are a number of keyword research tools that will help you find out if a product idea has potential. And of course, if you can find plenty of existing action via Google or the search bar at Amazon.com, this indicates a steady existing market.
If your idea has an existing interest, but the Web is not totally saturated with millions of other sites selling products like the one you want to create, you probably have a real winner on your hands.
Ask general questions to the collection channels.
Start asking some general questions to know more about your audience. Do they like to do surveys or pulls? Make some conversations to see how they think, what they love to do, what topics they are interested in.
Just know them and interact with them, so they are open to help you later in your research.
Start putting your online surveys together
When you start putting your survey, keep in mind that no one would like to complete a survey for more than 5 minutes. Just like videos, people would be interested and engaged in the first 3 minutes, so try to finish it all in 3 minutes. to have their total attention. Try to delete any question which may make your survey taller than it must.
Use MicroPoll to supplement your online survey
Besides surveys, people like microPolls because they are short and easy. Moreover, they help them tell everything they wanna say in a couple of clicks. Therefore, whenever you find that your survey is tall, put a poll instead of a few questions. You can also use polls to get fast answers.
More answers mean more information to help you reach your goal. So if you can connect your survey to viral news, it will go viral and reach a larger audience.
This may not work all the time, but you can try. Especially if you are opening an event.
Last Minute Tips about what is the importance of market research.
1- Keep your plan short and simple, so you can track the progress. Don’t go above 5 pages.
2- Try to use the free and low-cost tools for less expenses.
3- Brainstorm direct questions to get direct answers.
4- Don’t overspend time on your research. Get your answers, put your milestones and start applying.
Before starting your online business get inspired with this research about How to Make Money Online as a Beginner?
