Market research can be a great way of improving your company. Unfortunately, a lot of companies make mistakes that can lead to weak results. Here are a few mistakes to try and avoid when conducting market research so that you get the best research possible.
Offering no incentives to participants
The hardest part of market research can often be getting people to participate. As these survey response rates statistics show, most people are unwilling to take time out of their day for a survey without some kind of incentive. Paying participants to take part in surveys can be one way of doing this – this is a popular way of getting people to complete online surveys and attend focus groups. You can also use free gifts as an incentive as well as entering people into competitions to win large gifts as an exchange for completing your survey.
Asking the wrong questions
A popular mistake when conducting market research is asking the wrong questions. Many people forget to ask questions about their participants – it can often be useful to know the age, gender and nationality of the people you’re surveying. It’s also important to carefully consider the wording of questions so that you’re getting the best answers. Try to keep questions simple – if you’re trying to find out the answer to something complex, try dividing it up into smaller questions.
Targeting the wrong people/places
If your product is targeted at a niche market, there’s no use in taking your research to the general public as most of these people won’t understand your niche enough. Try to aim your research at the right people so that you’re getting useful data. For example, if you’re gathering market research for your upcoming vegan food product, consider approaching vegan university societies or try attending vegan festivals and fairs where you’re likely to find people interested in your product.
Only using your own research
Doing your own research is important – but you shouldn’t neglect existing secondary research. You may be able to find studies conducted by other people online and in books that help provide you with information. Always make sure that these studies are from genuine sources and that you’re not trusting a percentage found on a blog post without any links to back it up. You may even be able to find research done by competitors that has been shared online.
Not doing enough of it
Quite possibly the biggest market research mistake is not having the patience to do enough of it. You can’t accurately rely on data gathered from a group of seven people – to be thorough, you need to be surveying hundreds of people. If you can’t find the time to survey this many people, you can always hire a company to do market research for you. There’s no point in rushing market research as you won’t be getting anything positive out of it.
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