Planning to launch a new product as a first-time entrepreneur? Or chalking out a plan to bring your startup to life but don’t know the strategy? In both scenarios, market research is your passcode to unlock the coffer of opportunities and growth. But how to conduct market research as a startup?

Product feedback isn’t possible as you don’t have anything introduced already. Consumer strategic research is your best option. Find out what customers in your target market think and expect from the products. And market research isn’t only helpful to improve and mold your product. But it also decides your marketing plans, finances, and recruitment plans.

Let’s tell you briefly how you should go about market research as a startup.

How to Conduct Market Research for a Startup?

    1. Narrow and Prioritize Your Focus

Knowing what’s happening in your industry is crucial for a business. That might mean you want to know the needed finances and investment options, product development process, employee recruitment, customers’ opinions, your competitors, and marketing strategy. Sales could be another sore point. Or work premises?

Don’t get entangled in solving all of them together. Target one at a time.

Narrow down and prioritize your market research to a single topic. Perhaps, some of them don’t even need an in-depth study.

If you want to woo investors, you need to know why your product will be saleable in the market. Highlight the gaps in the existing products. How your product fulfills your customers’ expectations is your agenda to attract investors.

    2. Find the Right Research Method

When you go about research, 2 methods exist.

Primary

Either research on your own or hire one of the best paid online surveys in India. Engaging with a third party needs you to invest money. But then you can focus on what you do the best, like product development and management. In the other route, you invest in building a team and spend more time.

Primary research is useful when:

     (i) Your product or offering is unique,

     (ii) The audience isn’t aware of your product or brand at all,

     (iii) You need to figure out potential areas of improvement,

     (iv) When you’ve specific questions about your offering,

     (v) If you need to assess your target market on finer levels.

Secondary

You use an existing study related to your company or product. Such researches are available in the public domain, specifically if conducted by the government. You can also source studies by market research giants and universities involved in research. This is an effective method when you’re starving for finances and time. This method also solves some basic questions that aren’t brand or product related.

Using secondary research can help you when you aim to:

     (i) Understand the overall market and customers,

     (ii) Trends in technology and market for your industry,

     (iii) Growth plans and the market mood.

    3. Identify Target Market

Assuming you’re using primary research methods, you now need to figure out who your audience is. By profiling your ideal audience, you can understand their mindsets and habits in the later phases. This helps you to weed out obstacles and plan your time and budget more effectively.

To identify your ideal users, work out:

Demographic Data

Narrow down on age, gender, location, professional criteria, and education level. This data should go deeper based on your requirement. Imagine selling diapers and nappies to students. Won’t work, right?

Challenges

Know what challenges your target audience faces. If not all—because it’s a part of your research, isn’t it?—you would know some existing problems your audience goes through. For instance, nappy rashes are common. Biodegradable material is in demand, too. You don’t need to do elaborate research for these.

Motivation

Why would anyone think about your product? Or any similar product? Know what motivates your users to invest in your industry. Sometimes, your product could be indispensable, like food. Or it could be a status symbol, like Ferrari. Knowing why your users need the product decides pricing and features.

Competition

Knowledge about your competitors equals understanding the market, your barriers, challenges, and benchmarks well. Hence, keep an eye on a few close competitors.

    4. Design the Research

You need to create research that gets your responses. How you seek answers to the questions depends on your research method. Some of the main methods are:

     (i) Online surveys,

     (ii) Focus groups,

     (iii) Interviews.

Your questions should be as clear and crisp as possible to not confuse the users. As mentioned earlier, write questions based on your criterion of the study. If you’re assessing your new product’s pricing viability, asking brand-related questions might not help.

We’re sharing a list of questions you should ask your users. These are not specific to any topic but are common questions. This is just a guideline, and you would notice how double-barreled and leading questions are avoided here.

    5. Build Participants’ Panel

Afterward, build a panel of participants—users willing to invest time in your survey. You can use these methods:

Social Media

If you’ve a good following on social channels, roll out a call for users ready to fill out your surveys. Offer them rewards like various best paid online surveys in India and the US.

Existing Customers

Reach out to your existing customers via emails, SMS, or other ways and seek their permission to include them in surveys. Once agreed, you can share your survey details and onboard them.

Adverts

Send out survey calls through word of mouth via employees and partners. Use marketing campaigns—if the budget permits. Your employees, social media followers, and associated individuals can prove to be a great help as participants.

Third-Party

There are ample paid survey sites in India and other countries which run market surveys. They already have an existing panel of users, and one of them might suit your survey well. However, such options might be pocket friendly for a startup in an advanced stage.

    6. Analyze Data

you need to analyze your survey outputs. For this, don’t run after expensive and sophisticated tools. Quite a good analysis can be done on spreadsheets. Just use the collated data to observe trends, anomalies, and patterns. Make apt assumptions and figure out what users are saying about your product, gaps in their expectations, and your peers. Look for data related to:

     (i) Your product, its flaws and benefits,

     (ii) Peers and their offerings,

     (iii) Customer insights and trends,

     (iv) Pricing related data,

     (v) Market size, trends, and anomalies.

Final Words…

If you’re a startup minding your budget while finding a way to get your market data, we are here to help. Opinionest, one of the best online survey sites in India and the US, works with multiple industries. We cater to businesses of all scales with the best research mechanisms under budget. Should you plan to partner with a panel company, contact us here.