Low Cost Market Research

Video Transcript:

Low cost market research. To run a successful business, you must know your market thoroughly. Strong market research can provide you with a range of information about your customers, your industry, and your competitors. The challenge for many small business owners is to do your research on a tight budget. Here are five cost effective methods you can try.

Speak directly to customers and prospects. While direct mail questionnaires, in-depth telemarketing campaigns, focus groups and other techniques are effective methods of surveying your customers and prospects, they can also be quite costly. Instead, you might want to try some informal versions of these methods. Two. Take advantage of your library.

Reference librarians are one of the great untapped resources for small business owners. Your public library has a wealth of facts and figures available through various industry directories, government abstracts, and other reference guides. Visit the reference section and speak with a librarian. Explain as precisely as possible what you're looking for, and this person will be able to direct you to the appropriate resources. Three.

Call your trade association. Trade associations regularly gather information about their respective industries and make it available to association members. These surveys often cover issues like company operating costs, industry growth trends, new market opportunities, etc. And finally, read trade publications. Reading trade journals, magazines, newspapers and industry newsletters is an excellent way to learn about trends in your industry and keep ahead of the curve.

They often report on industry trends and other key issues before they are picked up by the general press. You also will find a wide array of information about your competitors. In addition, trade publications also commonly write articles about recent research data, forget and trend figures, or may even conduct proprietary market research.