How to use online market research tools, including search techniques, tips, and tools for using the Internet for researching your competition and market.

Your may already be conducting online market research for your business—but you may not know it. Some of the easiest to use and most common tools are located right at your fingertips. Web searches, online questionnaires, customer feedback forms—they all help you gather information about your market, your customers, and your future business prospects.

The advent of the Internet has presented small businesses with a wealth of additional resources to use in conducting free or low-cost market research. The following pages will describe the different types of tools to conduct online market research, go over the general categories of market research, and advise you how to create the best online questionnaires.

Online Market Research Tools

The following techniques can be used to gather market information with the help of a few mouse clicks and keystrokes:

• Keyword Search. You know how to do a simple Web search using search engines such as Google and Yahoo. Take that a step farther by searching for "keywords" that people would use to find your type of products or services on the Internet. See how much interest there is in these keywords -- and how many competitors you have in this market. Keyword searches can also help remind you of product niches that you might not have considered. There are other reasons to conduct keyword searches. 'First, you're going to be reminded of product niches that you might not of thought of.' says Jennifer Laycock, editor-in-chief of Search Engine Guide, an online guide to search engines, portals and directories. 'Second, these services will also give you a guesstimate of how many existing sites already use that phrase,' Laycock continues. 'How many existing sites already offer that product.'WordTracker and Trellian's Keyword Discovery are popular keyword search engines.
• Competitor Links. A traditional search engine can also help you check out your competitors, their prices, and their offerings. Try typing 'link:www.[competitor's name].com' into Google to find out how many other sites link to your competitor's website. 'It is a great way to see a competitor's link development and PR campaigns,' says Shari Thurow, Web expert and author of the upcoming book Search Engine Visibility. 'Is the competitor promoting a product or service similar to your own? Maybe you can get publicity because you have a new or better product.'
• Read Blogs. Blogs are updated much more regularly than traditional websites and, therefore, they can be another gauge of public opinion. Search blogs by using blog-specific search engines, such as Technorati or Nielsen BuzzMetrics' Blogpulse. 'Blogs tend to move at a faster pace and be more informal in tone, so you're more likely to pick up conversation about a new product type or need on a blog than on a standard web site,' Laycock says.
• Conduct Online Surveys. Another way to gauge public opinion is through online surveys. While not as scientific as in-person or phone surveys that use a random sampling of the population, online surveys are a low-cost way to do market research about whether an idea or a product will be appealing to consumers. Now many companies offer to conduct online research for you or give your company the tools to carry out your own surveying. Some online survey companies include EZquestionnaire, KeySurvey, and WebSurveyor.

Research Tools and Techniques

There are a variety of types of market research tools -- both offline and online -- that are used by many large businesses and can be available to small and mid-sized businesses. When these techniques involve people, researchers use questionnaires administered in written form or person-to-person, either by personal or telephone interview, or increasingly online. Questionnaires may be closed-end or open-ended. The first type provides users choices to a question ("excellent," "good," "fair") whereas open-ended surveys solicit spontaneous reactions and capture these as given. Focus groups are a kind of opinion-solicitation but without a questionnaire; people interact with products, messages, or images and discuss them. Observers evaluate what they hear.

Major categories are as follows:

1. Audience Research. Audience research is aimed at discovering who is listening, watching, or reading radio, TV, and print media respectively. Such studies in part profile the audience and in part determine the popularity of the medium or portions of it.
2. Product Research. Product tests, of course, directly relate to use of the product. Good examples are tasting tests used to pick the most popular flavors—and consumer tests of vehicle or device prototypes to uncover problematical features or designs.
3. Brand Analysis. Brand research has similar profiling features ("Who uses this brand?") and also aims at identifying the reasons for brand loyalty or fickleness.
4. Psychological Profiling. Psychological profiling aims at construction profiles of customers by temperament, lifestyle, income, and other factors and tying such types to consumption patterns and media patronage.
5. Scanner Research. Scanner research uses checkout counter scans of transactions to develop patterns for all manner of end uses, including stocking, of course. From a marketing point of view, scans can also help users track the success of coupons and to establish linkages between products.
6. Database Research. Also known as database "mining," this form of research attempts to exploit all kinds of data on hand on customers—which frequently have other revealing aspects. Purchase records, for example, can reveal the buying habits of different income groups—the income classification of accounts taking place by census tract matching. Data on average income by census tract can be obtained from the Bureau of the Census.
7. Post-sale or Consumer Satisfaction Research. Post-consumer surveys are familiar to many consumers from telephone calls that follow having a car serviced or calling help-lines for computer- or Internet-related problems. In part such surveys are intended to determine if the customer was satisfied. In part this additional attention is intended also to build good will and word-of-mouth advertising for the service provider.

Writing Online Questionnaires

When it comes to using Web-based surveys, small businesses should stick to a few simple but important rules:

• The Shorter the Better. Don't alienate survey takers with long questionnaires. Limit yourself to 25 questions, which should take people five to seven minutes to finish, says Mary Malaszek, owner of Market Directions, a Boston market-research firm that works with businesses of all sizes. If surveys are much longer, people will abandon them 'and then you can't use them, and the next time you send them a survey they won't even open it,' she says. Other methods for keeping surveys short, according to a SensorPro white paper on online survey guidelines: make the first page simple, present answer options in multiple columns or a drop-down box, and put a status bar at the top of each question page so respondents know how close they are to being finished.
• Avoid Open-Ended Questions. Since people want to zip through a survey, don't include a lot of open-ended questions where they have to type out the answers. Close-ended questions they can click on a button to answer—Yes, No, Maybe, Never, Often—work much better, Malaszek says. Companies can use close-ended questions to get the same kind of in-depth analysis open-ended questions provide by using rankings scales, which ask a respondent to rate something on some type of scale, 1 to 5, or 1 to 10, she says.
• Be Persistent. If you're asking customers or vendors to take a survey, it's okay to send more than one invitation, especially to people who've previously indicated they would be willing to participate. Just make sure you've got people's permission, so they don't think you're spamming them, the survey experts say.
• Be Patient. Businesses decide they want to do a survey then get impatient when they can't get the results right away, Malaszek says. Even though online surveys reduce some of the work, they take time to design and administer, and when the results are in, more time to interpret. It's a good idea to pick one person to shepherd the process, she says.

Source : http://www.inc.com/guides/biz_online/online-market-research.html

As a brand or business, it’s not enough for you to intimately know your products and services. You also have to know your industry and customers inside and out if you want to achieve the highest level of success. To help you gain these insights, there are sites for market research that can offer a deeper look at your business and uncover ways to win over your audience.

What Is Market Research and Why Does It Matter?

Market research is the act of gathering and analyzing data about the position of a product or service in a market. It looks at information regarding current customer interest and potential growth.

The market analysis also gathers information about the people who are and might be interested in a product or service. It interprets data as they relate to customer spending habits, geographic locations, industry competitors, and economic conditions.

These insights help you find out:

• How many people are likely to become your customers
• Who your customers are
• Why they buy
• How they buy
• How much they buy
• Why they buy from you
• Why they buy from a competitor
• Where there might be opportunities for niche marketing

To find answers to these questions, there are many sites for market research that can help you uncover insights about your customers and industry.

The Best Sites for Market Research

Some of the best sites for market research include the following tools, platforms, and research methods. Use these free marketing research websites to gain insights into your industry, customer base, and potential for growth.

U.S. Census Data Tools

A vital part of marketing research is determining your market size or the potential reach of your products or service. Research to see how many people you could reasonably expect to become your customers. For this type of research, there are U.S. Census data tools. The site has more than a dozen online market research tools and free industry research reports that help you gain insight into demographics and geographic locations of populations who might be interested in your offerings.

SBA’s Office of Entrepreneurship Education Resources

Another one of the best sites for market research as it relates to customer demographics and economic statistics is the U.S. Small Business Administration website. Their Office of Entrepreneurship Education has a variety of market research analysis tools, resources, and reports that provide information useful for learning about customer statistics, product production, economic factors, and data you can use for your marketing intelligence.

Pew Research Center

For more reports and datasets to use in your market research, search the Pew Research Center. The company conducts “public opinion polling, demographic research, content analysis, and other data-driven social science research,” all of which offer insights into social, industry, and media trends. The varied and in-depth reports help businesses get a data-focused perspective on the topics shaping industries and geographic areas.

Statista

For researching data and stats, Statista is another one of the best sites for market research. The site includes datasets on topics in over 600 industries. In addition to providing hard data, Statista also provides many supporting charts and infographics that make the data easy to consume, understand, and use in your market analysis.

Google Surveys

One of the most powerful ways to learn about your target market is to ask questions. Creating surveys and distributing them to people who match the characteristics of your ideal audience allows you to get direct insight into the minds of your target customers. One of the best sites for market research like this is Google Surveys. You create a survey, describe who you want to take the survey, and Google pools people who match your criteria, and provides you with the results.

SurveyMonkey

Getting information from people who match the criteria of your ideal customer is useful and so is gathering data from the people who actually do business with you. A part of your market research should include surveying your current customers to gain insight into their buying decision process and information that can help you create buyer personas. To perform this type of research, use SurveyMonkey to create surveys that you can distribute to your list of current customers.

Alexa Tools

Researching your audience is a powerful way to gain insights to use in your marketing intelligence, which is why Alexa is one of the best sites for market research. Using Alexa, you can uncover a variety of details about your audience’s demographics, interests, and habits.

Audience Overlap Tool

The Audience Overlap Tool allows you to enter your website or up to 10 competitors to see a list of other websites that the audience regularly frequents.

This helps you get to know what other interests your audience has as you can see what other types of websites they use. Demo the tool for free and find similar sites now.

Competitive Keyword Matrix

Using Alexa to create a competitive website analysis is another way to conduct market research. One such tool for performing this analysis is the Competitive Keyword Matrix tool. The Competitive Keyword Matrix helps you get a look at the terms your ideal audience is using in search to find your website and your competitors’ websites. You can use this report to see which terms are leading your target audience to competitors and create a plan to target those similar keywords.

Site Overview

The Site Overview Tool allows you to enter a website and receive a report on the website’s top keywords, traffic sources, audience geography, and other sites with an overlapping audience.

City Town Info

To get more detailed demographic information as it relates to careers and geographic areas, use City Town Info. The site allows you to search by region and explore details about what types of jobs and college experience residents of those areas have. The data helps businesses get to know the people living in specific areas around the U.S. and gather insights into what they do, how much they earn, how much education they have, and more.

Google Trends

Google offers another one of the best sites for market research with Google Trends. It allows you to get insight into the minds of consumers and audiences. The tool helps you see what topics and stories are popular by displaying reports on the top, most searched for terms. You can use filter functions to see trending stories based on region and category to gain more insight into the areas that are most relevant to your audience and industry.

Social Mention

Another tool that helps you get a radar on industry trends and hot topics is Social Mention. The tool curates social posts that mention a target search term. It also provides details about the search term such as audience sentiment (how users feel about the term) and reaches (how much influence the term has). To gain insight into your business or industry, you can search both your brand name and related terms to get an idea of how audiences feel about the topic.

Start Your Market Research Today

When it comes to understanding and winning over more customers, don’t rely on guesses, estimates, or feelings. Get the facts. Do a detailed competitive analysis of your industry using these sites for market research and discover new growth potential for your business and the path you need to take to get there.

To get help with your market research, sign up for a free trial of Alexa’s Advanced Plan. It includes the Audience Overlap, Site Overview, and Competitive Keyword Matrix Tools mentioned in this post along with dozens of other tools that help you learn about your customers, competitors, and industry.

Big Data & Business Analytics Market Research Report by Analytics Tools (Dashboard & Data Visualization, Data Mining & Warehousing, Reporting, and Self-Service Tools), by Component (Services and Solutions), by Deployment Mode, by Application, by End User - Global Forecast to 2025 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19

The Global Big Data & Business Analytics Market is expected to grow from USD 192.24 Billion in 2019 to USD 446.42 Billion by the end of 2025 at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 15.07%.

Market Segmentation & Coverage:
This research report categorizes the Big Data & Business Analytics to forecast the revenues and analyze the trends in each of the following sub-markets:

Based on Analytics Tools, the Big Data & Business Analytics Market studied across Dashboard & Data Visualization, Data Mining & Warehousing, Reporting, and Self-Service Tools.

[Source: This article was published in prnewswire.com - Uploaded by the Association Member: Joshua Simon]

Reports published in Market Research Inc for the Mobile Analytics Software and Tools market are spread out over several pages and provide the latest industry data, market future trends, enabling products and end users to drive revenue growth and profitability. Industry reports list and study key competitors and provide strategic industry analysis of key factors affecting market dynamics. This report begins with an overview of the Mobile Analytics Software and Tools market and is available throughout development. It provides a comprehensive analysis of all regional and major player segments that provide insight into current market conditions and future market opportunities along with drivers, trend segments, consumer behavior, price factors and market performance and estimates over the forecast period.

Request a pdf copy of this report at
https://www.marketresearchinc.com/request-sample.php?id=30725

 Key Strategic Manufacturers 

:
Adobe Analytics, Pendo, Amplitude Analytics, CleverTap, AppsFlyer, Branch, Heap, Mixpanel, Smartlook, Crashlytics, Instabug, Sentry, Raygun, Bugsee, QuincyKit

The report gives a complete insight of this industry consisting the qualitative and quantitative analysis provided for this market industry along with prime development trends, competitive analysis, and vital factors that are predominant in the Mobile Analytics Software and Tools Market.

The report also targets local markets and key players who have adopted important strategies for business development. The data in the report is presented in statistical form to help you understand the mechanics. The Mobile Analytics Software and Tools market report gathers thorough information from proven research methodologies and dedicated sources in many industries.

Avail 40% Discount on this report at
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Key Objectives of Mobile Analytics Software and Tools Market Report:
– Study of the annual revenues and market developments of the major players that supply Mobile Analytics Software and Tools
– Analysis of the demand for Mobile Analytics Software and Tools by component
– Assessment of future trends and growth of architecture in the Mobile Analytics Software and Tools market
– Assessment of the Mobile Analytics Software and Tools market with respect to the type of application
– Study of the market trends in various regions and countries, by component, of the Mobile Analytics Software and Tools market
– Study of contracts and developments related to the Mobile Analytics Software and Tools market by key players across different regions
– Finalization of overall market sizes by triangulating the supply-side data, which includes product developments, supply chain, and annual revenues of companies supplying Mobile Analytics Software and Tools across the globe.

Furthermore, the years considered for the study are as follows:

Historical year – 2015-2019

Base year – 2019

Forecast period – 2020 to 2026

Table of Content: 

Mobile Analytics Software and Tools Market Research Report
Chapter 1: Industry Overview
Chapter 2: Analysis of Revenue by Classifications
Chapter 3: Analysis of Revenue by Regions and Applications
Chapter 6: Analysis of Market Revenue Market Status.
Chapter 4: Analysis of Industry Key Manufacturers
Chapter 5: Marketing Trader or Distributor Analysis of Market.
Chapter 6: Development Trend of Mobile Analytics Software and Tools market

Continue for TOC………

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 About Us

Market Research Inc is farsighted in its view and covers massive ground in global research. Local or global, we keep a close check on both markets. Trends and concurrent assessments sometimes overlap and influence the other.  When we say market intelligence, we mean a deep and well-informed insight into your products, market, marketing, competitors, and customers. Market research companies are leading the way in nurturing global thought leadership. We help your product/service become the best they can with our informed approach.

[Source: This article was published in coleofduty.com By - Uploaded by the Association Member: Anthony Frank]

NEW YORK, March 24, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The global natural language processing (NLP) market was valued at USD 10.93 billion in 2019, and it is expected to be worth USD 34.80 billion by 2025, registering a CAGR of 21.5% during 2020-2025. Over the past few years, deep learning architectures and algorithms have made impressive advances in the fields of text analytics. Most of the marketing agencies are adopting text analytics solutions to enhance their marketing programs. The growing trend for mobile marketing is developing space for the studied segment to expand over the forecast period. Product innovation is still a significant trend in the text analytics market, which is mainly helping the market vendors to expand the customer base. For instance, Rosoka Software launched the analyst's notebook, Rosoka Text Analytics, which can be used to analyze unstructured documents in over 200 languages. This is expected to boost the company's audience reach, thereby fueling the financials.

- The shifting trend from product-centric to customer-centric experience drives the market. The usage of the internet and an ever-expanding means of communication, consumption, and interaction has empowered consumers. Companies have been forced to rethink their branding and business models.

Key Market Trends

- Speech analytics solutions are gaining popularity among enterprises across the world since the conventional text-based analytics solutions adopted by enterprises is no longer enough to handle complex business issues. Many organizations are deploying speech analytics through a combination of internally recorded data, social media data, and external syndicated data, mainly to have a better understanding of their customer requirements.

Asia-Pacific to Witness the Highest Market Growth

- The Asia-Pacific region is one of the most potential markets for the NLP industry. The region is also witnessing an increasing rate of adoption of the AI and ML technologies, especially among SMEs in the region. The voice assistance market is also booming in Asia, and the region is home to many consumer electronics manufacturers, including smart speakers and smartphones.

Competitive Landscape

Reasons to Purchase this report:
- The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format
- 3 months of analyst support

[Source: This article was published in oleantimesherald.com By Reportlinker - Uploaded by the Association Member: Edna Thomas]

What people search for on Google often aligns with what they search for and post about on social media. It seems obvious, but how often are social media marketers really thinking about this? With 75,000 Google queries per second according to 99firms, there’s bound to be keyword search data that can boost social media engagement. That's a lot to consider.

For this reason, using data from Google — and Google Trends in particular — could be a game-changer for social media marketers looking for an edge over their competition. To get a better idea of how to best use this data, we’ve asked experienced marketers how they’re using Google Trends for their social campaigns.

What Is Google Trends?

David Greenberg, SVP of marketing at Act-On likens Google Trends to Twitter’s Trending section, for those marketers familiar with that platform. “The difference,” he explained, “is that the website gathers, and makes public, more in-depth information about what search engine users are ‘Googling’ and when.” He says the data includes things like the search engine volume index of a keyword and the geographical locations of the users that searched for it.

“Google Trends helps marketers understand what the most popular current search queries are around the world,” added Marlee Stein, social media specialist at seoplus+. That means it’s a crucial tool for keyword research.  For instance, “if you want to talk about a certain subject, simply type in a keyword that revolves around that topic.” That way, you’ll see what regions around the world have the most Google searches for that word, and can better tailor your marketing efforts for that demographic.

Google Trends for Social Media Marketing

There are two key areas where the experts believe Google Trends can help marketers with social media marketing:

Planning Campaigns

Google Trends is often a great starting point when putting together a social media campaign. “If you understand who the top demographics are that you want to target, but you don't know where to find them,” explained Stein, “Google Trends can be your solution.” Using the tool, marketers can understand what people are talking about and where they are. These insights can drive your social media strategy planning. “If you feel as though you have a strong campaign in place, but aren't getting the results you thought you would,” continued Stein, “you might just be targeting the wrong location, or just not being specific enough with your audience.”

Google Trends, therefore, is also critical for course-correcting if your campaigns are underperforming. Stein believes a social media campaign is successful when your audience begins to spread your message as well. “If you find an audience that's already speaking about your campaign's subject,” she said, “the likelihood of your message spreading will spike.”

Choosing Hashtags

“When it comes to social media marketing,” Greenberg said, “you can use Google Trends to create more relevant hashtags.” He believes that although hashtags have been around for a while, marketers still don’t use them correctly. With Google Trends, you can find keywords that are popular in a region or demographic you want to reach, and weave them into your social media posts as hashtags. “Having three or four optimized and targeted hashtags,” he explained, “is much better than listing every single one that comes to mind.”

But marketers do still need to find a happy medium. “It’s important not to go overboard here and start keyword stuffing,” Greenberg warned, “or placing as many optimized keywords into your content as humanly possible.” Too many hashtags in social media posts can hinder readability, even if they are relevant to your target audience. “This is not only frowned upon, but it’s also very transparent to your audience.” 

Make Google Trends Part of Your Marketing Arsenal

Google Trends can be an excellent tool for marketing teams to use not just for social media marketing, but for a wide range of activities. For example, Greenberg said, “Marketers can leverage the trending topics and terms they pull from Google Trends for search engine optimization (SEO) improvements, reduced cost-per-click (CPC) and increased relevancy (and Google Quality Scores) for search engine marketing (SEM).” The tool is often underestimated, but it can be crucial for creating the right content and publishing it at the right time.

“Marketers should never rely on Google Trends as their only source of information,” Stein warned, “but it can be an excellent tool to find a topic to write about or check the relevancy of a current news story.” Google Trends, therefore, can guide all of your marketing efforts if you use it wisely.

[Source: This article was published in cmswire.com By Kaya Ismail - Uploaded by the Association Member: Wushe Zhiyang]

Online research involves collecting information from the internet. It saves cost, is impactful and it offers ease of access. Online research is valuable for gathering information. Tools such as questionnaires, online surveys, polls and focus groups aid market research. You can conduct market research with little or no investment for e-commerce development.

Search Engine Optimization makes sure that your research is discoverable. If your research is highly ranked more people will find, read and cite your research.

Steps to improve the visibility of your research include:

1. The title gives the reader a clear idea of what the research is about. The title is the first thing a reader sees. Make your research title relevant and consistent. Use a search engine friendly title. Make sure your title provides a solution.
2. Keywords are key concepts in your research output. They index your article and make sure your research is found quickly. Use keywords that are relevant and common to your research field. Places to use relevant keywords include title, heading, description tags, abstract, graphics, main body text and file name of the document.
3. Abstract convince readers to read an article. It aids return in a search.
4. When others cite your research your visibility and reputation will increase. Citing your earlier works will also improve how search engines rank your research.
5. External links from your research to blogs, personal webpage, and social networking sites will make your research more visible.
6. The type of graphics you use affects your ranking. Use vectors such as .svg, .eps, .as and .ps. Vectors improve your research optimization.
7. Make sure you are consistent with your name across all publications. Be distinguishable from others.
8. Use social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to publicize your research. Inform everyone. Share your links everywhere.
9. Make sure your research is on a platform indexed properly by search engines.

Online research is developing and can take place in email, chat rooms, instant messaging and web pages.  Online research is done for customer satisfaction, product testing, audience targeting and database mining.

Ethical dilemmas in online research include:

1. How to get informed consent from the participants being researched?
2. What constitutes privacy in online research?
3. How can researchers prove the real identity of participants?
4. When is covert observation justifiable?

Knowing how to choose resources when doing online research can help you avoid wasted time.

WAYS TO MAKE ONLINE RESEARCH EASY AND EFFECTIVE

1. Ask: Know the resources recommended for your research from knowledgeable people. You can get information on valuable online journals or websites from an expert or knowledgeable people.
2. Fact from fiction: Know the sites that are the best for your research topic. Make sure the websites you have chosen are valuable and up to date. Sites with .edu and .gov are usually safe. If you use a .org website make sure it is proper, reliable and credible. If you use a .com site; check if the site advertises, bias is a possibility.

Social media sites, blogs, and personal websites will give you personal opinions and not facts.

3. Search Smartly: Use established search engines. Use specific terms. Try alternative searches. Use search operators or advanced search. Know the best sites.
4. Focus: Do not be distracted when conducting an online research. Stay focused and away from social media sites.
5. Cite Properly: Cite the source properly. Do not just copy and paste for plagiarism can affect your work.

When conducting research use legitimate and trustworthy resources. sites to help you find articles and journals that are reliable include:

1. BioMedCentral
2. Artcyclopedia
3. FindArticles.com
4. Digital History
5. Infomine
6. Internet Public Library
7. Internet History Sourcebooks
8. Librarians Internet Index
9. Intute
10. Library of Congress
11. Project Gutenberg
12. Perseus Digital Library
13. Research Guide for Students.

No matter what you are researching the internet is a valuable tool. Use sites wisely and you will get all the information you need.

ONLINE RESEARCH METHODS

1. Online focus group: This is for business to business service research, consumer research and political research. Pre-selected participants who represent specific interest are invited as part of the focus group.
2. Online interview: This is done using computer-mediated communication (CMC) such as SMS or Email. Online interview is synchronous or asynchronous. In synchronous interviews, responses are received in real-time for example online chat interviews. In asynchronous interviews, responses are not in real-time such as email interviews. Online interviews use feedbacks about topics to get insight into the participants, attitudes, experiences or ideas.
3. Online qualitative research: This includes blogs, communities and mobile diaries. It saves cost, time and is convenient. Respondents for online qualitative research can be gotten from surveys, databases or panels.
4. Social network analysis: This has gained acceptance. With social network analysis researchers can measure the relationship between people, groups, organization, URLs and so on.

Other methods of online research include cyber-ethnography, online content analysis, and Web-based experiments.

TYPES OF ONLINE RESEARCH

1. Customer satisfaction research: This occurs through phone calls or emails. Customers are asked to give feedback on their experience with a product, service or an organization.
2. New product research: This is carried out by testing a new product with a group of selected individuals and immediately collecting feedback.
3. Brand loyalty: This research seeks to find out what attracts customers to a brand. The research is to maintain or improve a brand.
4. Employee satisfaction research: With this research, you can know what employees think about working for your organization. The moral of your organization can contribute to its productivity.

When conducting an online research give open-ended questions and show urgency but be tolerant.

Written by Junaid Ali Qureshi he is a digital marketing specialist who has helped several businesses gain traffic, outperform the competition and generate profitable leads. His current ventures include Progostech, Magentodevelopers.online.eLabelz, Smart Leads.ae, Progos Tech and eCig.

Source: This article was published entrepreneur.com By Neil Pate - Contributed by Member: David J. Redcliff

You probably use Google every day. But, are you using it right?

You may know how to use Google's basic search functions, but in this video, Entrepreneur Network partner Neil Patel wants to teach you some advanced tricks for market research. 

His first tip is to use an exclusion query. By excluding some criteria, you can find out which sites mention you or a keyword of your choice while filtering out unnecessary noise. For example, if you want to see which websites mention you, but have a bunch of mentions from sites or blogs you are associated with, you can use an exclusion query to find new potential partnerships.

Source: This article was thebalancesmb.com By LAURA LAKE - Contributed by Member: Corey Parker

Just contemplating the need to do market research for your business can feel overwhelming. However, you need to jump in because market research is key to the success of your business. First, you need to understand the difference between "market research" and "marketing research."

Market research is when you have narrowed down a specific "target, " and you are delving into the behavior of that target.

In other words, its research into a very narrow group of consumers.

Marketing research entails dealing with a broad range of consumers. Marketing research includes "market" research, but it also delves into more. The best way to differentiate the two is to understand that marketing research is essentially about researching the marketing "process" of a company—not just "who" they are targeting.

First, let's look at how to implement marketing research, which includes the following steps and the questions you should be asking yourself along the way:

1. Problem definition. The problem is the focus of your research. For example, "why are sales soaring in your Midwest territory, but dismal in other parts of the country?
2. Data collection method and needs. This is where you ask, "how will I collect the data I need to solve the problem? Do I use surveys, telephone calls or focus groups?
3. Determine sample method. Sampling represents those you will be collecting information from. You need to ask yourself, "what sampling method will I use? Will it be a random sampling, a sampling that contains a similar element, or a natural sampling?
4. Data analysis. You need to figure out how you will you analyze the data. Will you use software or do it by hand? Also, how accurately do the results need to be?
5. Determine budget and timeframe. You must determine how much you're willing to spend on the research and how soon it needs to be completed.
6. Data collection. Now it's time to collect all the data you have available after following steps one through five.
7. Analysis of the data. At this point, you conduct the analysis of the data that has been collected in the previous Steps.
8. Error check. Be sure to check for errors in the data you've collected and analyzed. Errors can occur in the sampling method and data collections.
9. Create your report. The final step of marketing research is to draft a report on your findings. Your report should contain tables, charts, and/or diagrams. It's important that your report clearly communicates the results that you found. Your findings should lead to a solution to the problem you identified in Step One.

3 Key Benefits of Market Research

Market research also provides many benefits. It takes the guesswork out of marketing and gives you data that you can use to drive your marketing strategy—and accomplish your objectives and goals. It's a systematic approach that can make your marketing not only easier but more effective. 

Market research includes the following benefits:

• Communication driver. It drives your communication not only with your current customer base but your target prospects as well. 
• Identifies opportunity. Market research shows you where the opportunities are and helps you identify not just high-level opportunities but assists in showing you the more immediate "low hanging fruit" opportunities. 
• Lowers risk. Detailed data keeps you focused on the real opportunities and helps you avoid unproductive areas. 

Source: This article was published bigdata-madesimple.com By Menaka George - Contributed by Member: Martin Grossner

Data collection for marketing research is a detailed process where a planned search for all relevant data is made by a researcher. The success of marketing research is contingent on the integrity and relevance of the data. And to a high degree, the quality of the data depends on the methods of data collection used. The selection and use of methods for conducting marketing research require a great deal of experience and expertise in order to correctly gage suitability.

These methods fall into two types of research categories, which are Qualitative Research and Quantitative Research. Qualitative Research is generally used to develop an initial understanding of the problem. It is non-statistical in nature and the answers are derived from the data itself. It is used in exploratory and descriptive research designs. Qualitative data can be procured through a variety of forms like interview transcripts; documents, diaries, and notes made while observing. Quantitative Research, on the other hand, quantifies the data and generalizes the results from the sample to the population.

There are two types of data:

1. Primary Data – Data that is collected first hand by the researcher. This data is specifically collected for the purpose of the study and addresses the current problem. This is original data that is collected by the researcher first hand.
2. Secondary Data – Data from other sources that has been already collected and is readily available. This data is less expensive and more quickly attainable from various published sources. Secondary data is extremely useful when primary data cannot be obtained at all.

The challenge lies in the case of method selection for collecting primary data. The method has to be relevant and appropriate. This will be the most important decision prior to beginning market research.

The market research process consists of 6 distinct steps:

• Step 1 - Determine the research problem and objectives
• Step 2 - Cultivate the overall research plan
• Step 3 – Collect the data
• Step 4 – Analyze the data
• Step 5 – Present or publish the findings
• Step 6 – Use the findings to make an informed decision

To further explore Step 3, here a few effective methods of data collection:

1. Telephone Interviews

The biggest advantage of telephone interviews is that is saves cost and time. Today, accessing people via telephone is so much easier because almost everyone has one. Another advantage is fewer interviewers are required in order to conduct telephone interviews than face-to-face interviews.

2. Online Surveys

Given the current myriad of technological developments, the use of online surveys has rapidly increased. It may well be the least expensive way to reach the greatest amount of people – all over the world. Once an online survey has been designed, it can be stored easily, revised and reused as needed from time to time. The key is in the design and layout of the survey so that respondents don’t overlook a survey in their crowded inboxes. The response time is quick so online surveys have become the preferred method of data collection for many consumer satisfaction surveys and product and service feedback. It is easy to track respondents, non-respondents and results through the data collection process. Electronic reminders can be sent easily at a very low cost. Respondents have the option to begin the survey, stop, save the responses at a later more convenient time. Research shows that respondents tend to answer questions more truthfully than when engaged through other methods.

3. Face to Face Interviews

This method is one of the most flexible ways to gather data and gain trust and cooperation from the respondents. Besides that, interviewing respondents in person means their non-verbal language can be observed as well. It is especially useful to detect discomfort when respondents are discussing sensitive issues. Respondents have more time to consider their answers and the interviewer can gain a deeper understanding of the validity of a response. It is also easier to maintain their interest and focus for a longer period. Focus Group Interviewsentail more respondents at one time.

Face to face interviews can also take place via Intercept Interviews as well. These interviews can take place on the spot at shopping malls, street corners or even at the threshold of people’s homes. It is understandable why these types of interviews must be brief, to the point and free of from distasteful questions as there is a strong risk of the potential respondent leaving. These face to face interactions can be time-consuming so enlist a trusted company like Dattel Asia to provide the data needed with unprecedented levels of transparency. Dattel Asia is ASEAN’s leading data collection company that utilizes tablets, digital tools, and artificial machine learning systems for data collection. A reliable face-to-face data collection service provider that has over 250 skilled Field Data Associates and more than 310,000 unique and verified respondents in their data repository.