Good market research is at the core of most business strategies. There are various ways you can use your market research results to move your business forward, faster. One way is by sharing the results with your team.
Everyone from your leadership team to customer support reps can benefit from the insights that are gathered from a market research project. And the results can be used at multiple points in your business operations.
At my consulting agency Tote + Pears, we help businesses and brands create and market products to women by identifying areas where they can connect with them in a meaningful and authentic way. We do this by using market research results to identify where women's identities intersect, and then we create products, services and experiences they can relate to. Market research is at the core of everything we do; we always find ourselves going back to market research results for direction.
Here are a few of my favorite ways to use (and maximize) market research results.
1. Test hypotheses.
At Tote + Pears, we know that acting on every idea we have for connecting our clients to women isn't feasible, so we attach a hypothesis to each idea we have and store it away.
When we're ready to explore an idea, we'll do a preliminary test before we present it to our client. We pull out our market research results and run simulations, create would-be scenarios or identify beta testers. Then we'll let the results determine whether we move forward with the idea.
2. Validate business ideas.
A few years ago, I got the idea to launch a business designed to support working parents. To test out the idea, we started hosting family-friendly business events like conferences and happy hours.
We also considered opening a family-friendly co-working space. As part of the expansion, we went back to our market research from the first business idea to determine if opening a space of our own would be a good business decision. We were able to use the data we'd already collected to determine that there were not enough families in our target area to hit our goals, so we moved our search to another city.
3. Create (or refine) your business strategy.
People change, markets change and businesses have to change, too.
A good way to ensure your business is set up for success is to make sure it is nimble enough to change if needed, and your market research results are a great tool for ensuring you're ready for a change when the time comes.
By understanding the demands of your customers, their circumstances, needs, income ranges, ages and more, you can make decisions about what products and pricing structures you want to offer, along with other factors that will allow you to serve them better.
4. Create (or update) your customer personas.
Customer personas are stories that give your team insights into your target customers. And the best ones are designed around real market research results.
Personas can be used in a variety of ways and by a variety of team members. Sales teams can use them to create sales scripts, the marketing team can use them to create campaigns, the technology team can use them to create user stories and document system requirements.
5. Create meaningful marketing campaigns.
The more you know about your target customer, the more ways you can connect with them.
At T+P, we use market research to help guide our marketing strategies. For example, if we know our technology client's target audience is an African-American pregnant woman between the ages of 30 and 45, we use market research results to find unique ways that we can connect with her via a variety of mediums. We'll create customized content that speaks to the issues she's facing in motherhood and society, while designing a user interface that aligns with her mood.
Our market research results are a critical guide.
Your market research results carry powerful insights that go way beyond the initial project and the marketing team. These are just a few ways that you can use them to make your business stronger.
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