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Research Your Market
by Scott F. Geld
Like traditional forms of marketing, to market your
online business, you need to assess its potential. It
doesn't have to cost a lot, nor does it have to be a
complex process. It might be using a focus group, which is
simply getting a survey of opinions about your product or
service offerings from a cross section of your consumers.
You can conduct such a survey either by mail or by
telephone.
Using the telephone can be more challenging because some
people feel that this is an intrusion on their privacy and
they may not be willing to respond. By mail, the recipient
can choose to answer your survey questions at their
convenience. Providing a prepaid postage envelope further
encourages the respondent to mail in their survey. Some
savvy marketers offer an incentive of some kind for
returning the survey.
Other techniques include analyzing demographics, such as
age, sex, income level, educational level, population
growth and so on. You can get groups of people together
and use brainstorming techniques to determine market
potential, or you can conduct one-to-one interviews with
qualified prospects in your market.
No matter what methods you use, your purpose should be to
gather enough data to determine who your customers are.
You need to be able to identify their needs and
expectation. Then you can decide if there is a demand for
your product or service. If you are satisfied that a
demand exists, you will want to find out what competition
you have out there. Market research should provide answers
to the following questions:
Who are your potential customers?
Why do they need your product or service?
Where are they located...city or country?
Do your target customers have the buying power to purchase
your product or service?
How much are people willing to pay for your products?
Can you offer competitive pricing?
What about quality? Is your quality as good as or better
than the competition?
Yes, market research can be costly and time consuming.
Your questions can build in bias that may distort your
results. However, the advantages outweigh the
disadvantages. If you aren't getting the results you
expect or want, then perhaps you must consider that your
business idea is off base. Perhaps there isn't a market
for your product or service. But, don't be discouraged. Go
back and modify your original plan.
The benefits of market research include:
Determining who you customers are
Finding out what they want
Determining how to reach your potential customers
Determining which is the best way to communicate with your
potential customers
Assessing different marketing strategies
Using market research strategies is a means to finding out
how viable your business idea is and if there is a market
for it. It focuses and organizes marketing information so
that you can reduce your business risks and identify
opportunities for profit making. With good market research
data you are in a better position to make sound business
decisions.
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Scott F. Geld is the Director of Marketing for
MarketingBlaster.com, a company providing targeted traffic
and direct links starting at just $5. For more info:
http://www.MarketingBlaster.com
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