How to Do Market Research (in 4 Steps)

With the rise of digital marketing, market research has become easier than ever.

You can gather info on your clients fast. You can do it for cheap. And the best part is, you can do it alone!

That last part is what we’ll look at today. We’ll give you a “DIY” guide into identifying your market.

So to start off…

#1 – Define Your Buyer’s Persona.

That’ll be a profile of the ideal customer.

Here, we’re not talking about personality. We’re looking at customer demographic, income bracket, interests, etc.

What to Look For.

The ideal persona includes the most likely customers to buy a product.

To build a profile, you’ll want to collect the following information…

• Sex.
• Age.
• Relationship/Marital Status/Family Size.
• Income bracket.
• Specific interests or hobbies (related to your industry).
• Address (or distance from your business’ location).

The ideal persona isn’t something you define on the fly. You’ll need to survey and collect information.

#2 – Design Polls for Customers.

Ask your buyers (and most dedicated followers) to contribute.

You want actual converts to answer your polls. You shouldn’t take replies from random visitors, as this may skew the results of your buyer persona.

How Do I Exclude Non-Buying Customers?

Design your sales funnel for a poll after purchase.

After a customer buys from you, send them a thank you email. Ask them to contribute to a poll, offer a reward in-exchange.

That reward may be anything from a free product, to a coupon, or even a newsletter membership!

Something else you can do is design a poll on social media.

While the results won’t be as accurate as email, you’ll get a good estimate on what your ideal buyer looks like!

#3 – Design Accurate Survey Questions.

You want questions that give you the values you need. But at the same time, the questions shouldn’t make data collection difficult.

Example.

Asking for a customer’s exact age can be troublesome.

You’d have to sift and organize each value to get your buyer’s age group. That’ll take too much time and effort.

Instead, design your poll where you list age groups as options – such as…

• 20-29.
• 30-39.
• 40-49.

And so on.

Use a Tool to Make Survey Design Quick.

One we recommend is Survey Monkey (source).

It’s used by the extreme majority of Fortune 500 companies. Also, it works for almost every industry!

#4 – Summarize into the Ideal Persona.

After releasing your poll (and getting a good amount of engagement), it’s time to build your buyer persona.

Average out the results. This should give you info as to what your target market looks like.

After summarizing the results, try to do further research. Inquire into the reasons why certain demographics buy from you.

Example.

Let’s say you sell used furniture, and your ideal customer happens to be in their 20s.

That may be for a few reasons. They may be college students recently moving out, while seeking cheap home setups.

Or, you might be in a low income area with a majority of youth.

Understanding your buyer’s mindset helps you target them better. It also helps you design advertising that speaks to their needs!