Introduction

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The current competitive market has increased the importance for market research. Market research is the foundation for creating or marketing any product. Hence, before we learn about reasons for market research and reasons for it, let us first understand the meaning of market research. 

What is market research?

Market research is a necessary process that involves the collection and analysis of data. Normally, the digital marketing team of the company does a research of the competitor’s products, the target audience, market trends etc. The competitors  research helps companies to stay one step ahead of their competitors. This aspect shows the importance of market research. Primary research and secondary research are the two main market research methods. Primary research involves directly finding new information about consumer choices and competitors’ products. Such consumer research and competitor research helps companies develop their product better. Secondary research involves using the research already done by someone else.

Top 22 benefits of market research

1) Market research helps to understand the target audience better

Market research determines various characteristics of the target audience such as age, location, income, occupation, buying choices etc. One can also analyze which social media platform users use more. This information helps to create an effective marketing strategy.

2) Market research helps to identify new opportunities 

Market research is important to realize the potential of a product that other competitors have yet to realize. For example- identifying another method to use a product innovatively. The market research also helps to identify opportunities for a tie-up with other organizations and influencers.

3) Market research helps to identify challenges

Market research makes it possible to pinpoint the challenges that can arise while marketing or creating a product. Technical requirements, advertising are some examples of challenges. If a product is not getting a good response, market research helps to analyze the reasons. This fact shows the importance of market research.

4) Market research helps to improve existing products and services

Analyzing the competitors’ products and customer feedback helps to understand how to make product features better.

5) Market research helps to set realistic goals

Market research helps to determine which goals are possible to achieve in a specific timeframe. For example- launching a new feature within a particular timeframe could be one goal. 

6) Market research helps to determine suitable marketing techniques

Analyzing the marketing methods of competitors helps to decide which method will be appropriate for marketing your product. For example- analysis of the competitors’ content can help to create a content strategy for your product.

7) Market research helps to assess the resources required for your product

By analyzing the competitors’ products, it is possible to assess which resources your product will require. For example- market research helps to determine the human resources, technical requirements and financial resources for the product.

8) Market research helps to analyze the possibility for expansion

Based on the response to products and the financial resources available, one can determine if there is a possibility to expand. The market research also helps to determine at which location is expansion feasible and profitable. 

9) Market research helps to understand how to set prices for the product

By analyzing the price for the competitors’ products, one can get an idea of the price range for one’s product. This aspect helps to create an effective price strategy for one’s product. 

10) Market research helps to determine if there is a demand for your product

Market research determines if your product is needed or if there are similar products in the market. This information helps to predict the response to the product. 

11) Market research helps to determine which products to discontinue if required

Market research helps to analyze which products are getting good response and which products are not getting a good response and causing losses. Such research makes it easy to decide which products to discontinue.

12) Market research helps to predict future trends and take decisions accordingly

Market research helps predict future trends based on recent news and statistics and take decisions about product development. 

13) Market research helps to make decisions about launching new features

The customer feedback helps to determine if the new feature is needed or not. Also, by analyzing customer feedback about the new features, one can incorporate various customer suggestions.

14) Market research helps to decide how to allocate the budget for various aspects

Market research makes it possible to determine a realistic budget for advertising, technical requirements etc. 

15) Market research helps to understand the risks one can take

Market research helps to analyze which calculated risks one can take while marketing a product, launching new products or adding features to the existing product. 

16) Market research helps to improve customer interaction

Market research includes analysis of how competitors are interacting and reaching out to customers. Such competitor research improves customer interaction for one’s product development. 

17) Market research helps plan according to changing trends

Market research helps to plan for sudden shifts in economic trends, government policy or global trends.

18) Market research simplifies the decision-making process

The conclusions drawn from market research data helps to ease the decision-making process. For example- it becomes easier to allocate the budget, decide the marketing technique etc.

19) Market research helps to develop a message for customers to focus on

Market research helps companies to develop a specific message about why customers should buy their product. 

20) Market research helps to prioritize tasks

Market research helps decide which tasks need to do first and which tasks to do later. For example- After analyzing customer response, one can decide whether to improve existing features first or add new features. 

21) Market research helps to find new tools for products or services

While analyzing market trends, one may discover new tools for content promotion or content creation that can help the product succeed. 

22) Market research helps to identify the main competitors for the product

Market research helps to identify the main competitors for that product from many other competitors. This information helps to create a well-defined strategy for product development. 

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Top 7 Market research tools

Considering the importance of market research, it is essential to use various market research tools to generate accurate market research reports. Following are the top 7 market research tools:

1) Semrush- Semrush is mainly used to improve SEO rankings. This tool helps analyze keywords, perform technical audits, analyze your website’s backlinks and create PPC campaigns. It also provides recommendations to improve the search rankings of the website. Semrush also helps to schedule the content on social media platforms and make reports for the website. 

2) GrowthBar

This tool analyzes any site’s keywords and the site’s backlinks. It provides various metrics like the Keyword Search Volume, Keywords Competition, Keyword CPCs, Organic Keywords, Traffic Value etc. It is also possible to view the Facebook Ads of competitors using Growthbar. To find complete information about your competitor’s website or a keyword, you have to type the website URL or keyword. 

3) Statista

Statista is a tool that gathers data from many industries across many countries. It provides valuable data about consumer behavior, market trends etc. It also allows users to download information and statistics in various formats. To use Statista, you have to type the keywords related to the required industry. Then, you can view the industry’s data. 

4) Google Trends

This is a free tool you can use to find out which topics are trending currently. You can select the location where you want to find out if the keyword is trending or not. You can also use this tool to compare two or more keywords and find out which keyword is trending more. 

5)) Google Keywords tool

This is a free tool. To use this tool, you have to create a free AdWords account. This tool will help you find out the search volume for keywords. You can also choose a particular geographical area for searching your keywords. 

6) Social Mention

This tool scans various sites for mentions about your brand or any keyword. Then, it compiles all statistics and sends a report for the same. The report mentions the number of times the keywords appear on social media, the response to the keywords and how many users have mentioned your keywords. 

7) Typeform-

This tool helps to create survey forms of a conversational nature so that users enjoy filling the form. It puts forth one question at a time so that users give more thoughtful responses. It also has a variety of layouts and themes to choose. The form can also include images, GIFs or videos. Typeform has “Thank You screens.” It also has a feature called Question groups”, which gives the option to add questions in sections or have sub-questions. Another feature, “Logic jump which determines the questions the user can view based on their selection of earlier questions. 

Conclusion

One can see the importance of market research from the benefits of market research. Hence, it is essential to do a market research using appropriate market research methods. This helps to create an accurate production and promotion strategy. Using market research tools helps generate accurate market research reports.