Market research secrets, continued

Here, in Part 2 of a post about market research, are several suggestions for ways to employ market research to strengthen your marketing no matter how small your business:

Ask your clients how you are doing. Be prepared with 4 – 6 questions. Be succinct. Be respectful of their time. Email or online surveys are too easy to ignore. To get the most nuanced information, telephone them and ask them if they’d be willing to spend 10 minutes answering your questions. Suspect they have an issue and won’t talk with you directly about it? Ask someone you know with good listening or interview skills to conduct the interview on your behalf. If you uncover a problem, act quickly to address it. Gather testimonials from satisfied clients to use on your web site or brochure. Remember that most of us love to give our opinion.

Design your questions to get the information you want. Here are some general questions for finding out how your clients think your business is doing. I have used my own business as an example with a generic form in brackets. Plan for some people talking your ear off and others being monosyllabic.

1. Why did you select Blue Horse Marketing [ my business ] rather than one of the alternatives?

2. What are your primary concerns when you work with a marketing consultant or coach [ business like mine ]?

3. Is there something special or different that sets Blue Horse Marketing [ my business ] apart from other marketing companies [ businesses like mine ]?

4. What could Blue Horse Marketing [ my business ] do to improve its service to you?

Learn about your competition. Make a list of who you see as your competitors, then ask your clients or colleagues who they see as your competition. Look at their web sites. What are they saying about themselves? There are many qualified professionals out there. Who are they targeting as clients? What are they promising or selling? Do they seem to be succeeding?

Businesses in the same industry or niche can be surprisingly similar in their marketing. Learn about the competition to avoid sameness.

We typically think of our competition as other businesses that do what we do. A more useful way to define competition is anything that solves the same problem for our target audience that our business does. In an economy where money is tight, remember that doing nothing can be part of your competition. Many building professionals are facing this right now: they won the project, but their client doesn’t have enough funding and has decided to do nothing or to wait.

Keep up with industry and economic trends. Read annual forecasts and surveys. Find out what is happening upstream where your work originates. Talk to your colleagues (competitors and collaborators) and your network about what they are seeing.

In business-to-business marketing, professional organizations often provide forecasts for their members. In business to consumer marketing, learning about the demographics or interests of your ideal customer can yield new insights or confirm earlier decisions.

Many new businesses don’t fit established niches. These groundbreaking businesses are driven by their owners’ passion for their work, rather than an existing need in the market. Identifying common values that can be linked to identifiable demographics is the key to finding useful data.

Business librarians, and the Business Reference Desk at the public or university library near you are there to help you find the information you need. In the Seattle area, the Bellevue Regional Library has one of the best.

I did my research, now what? Chances are you began your research with some specific question in mind. It could have been as simple as wanting to learn about the environment in which you do business. Or it could be very targeted: to determine if anyone is doing anything similar to your great new idea.

As you begin developing your marketing message, knowing what your competitors are saying will help you to avoid sounding just like them. It will help you distinguish yourself in ways that are meaningful to your audience of prospects.

This is the creative time when you are digesting what you’ve learned and integrating it into what you say and how you market your business. Market research enables you to be more aware and informed in your marketing, and so more effective.

Don’t see the point of marketing research because it’s all naval gazing at the same old economy? Just as every cloud has a silver lining, there are opportunities out there, even now: an architecture firm helps its non-profit clients find funding for their building project, and stays busy enough to avoid laying off staff. Millions of people out of work are starting businesses, creating the need for all kinds of businesses serving them: graphic designers, web designers and developers, accountants and bookkeepers, attorneys, marketing and branding experts, social media consultants, and more.

Read an article by Barbara about market research for small businesses.