Market Research - 10 questions to ask
Lots of people don't like the thought of conducting market research - it sounds expensive, time-consuming and something only big corporates actually do. It conjures up mental images of call-centre workers interrupting dinner time to "ask you a few quick questions".
However, if you are considering starting a new business, or have an existing business you'd like to expand into a new market, you really need to look before you leap! Your idea may be amazing (to you) but if no-one is going to buy from you then your amazing idea will be a waste of time, effort and money.
The advantage of having the world at our fingertips is that we can research a huge amount of things without cost, or any invasion of anybody's time. So with some key questions in mind, we can 'stalk' prospective customers and competition, and research the answers we need to test our idea for a new product/service.
Research is more than asking friends + family
Finding out whether there is value in what you have to offer and whether there is a market is much more than asking friends and family their opinion. You need to test the demand for your offering. You need to find out whether someone you DON'T know will buy from you, at the price you have set.
10 ways to figure out whether you are onto a good thing
Start an internet search of keywords that relate to your product or service and the pain-points associated with it.
What do people really need help with? What frustrates them?
Join social media groups and online forums where your potential customers/clients hang out.
To figure out whether you're onto a good thing you need to find out:
What type of people make up the market that your product/service helps?
How badly do they need this product/service right now?
Are there lots of people actively buying things that you want to sell?
Is your offering a passing trend? Or can you tap into an upcoming trend?
What price is the market willing to pay for your product/service?
How unique is your offering? How are you different from the competition?
How quickly can you have your offering ready to sell, whilst maintaining quality?
What is the potential for repeat/returning customers? Are there related offers you can sell your purchasing customers?
How easy is it to get new customers? How much will it cost to generate leads and turn them into sales? How much will it cost to deliver your product or service? (Think: time - effort - money)
Once the initial product or service is developed, can it be sold over and over? How much work would need to go into continuing to sell?
Become a customer of the competition
A surefire way to test the effectiveness of your competition is to buy from them. Don't misunderstand - I'm not suggesting you steal any of their content at all. Plagiarism is not only uncool, it is outright theft.
What I am suggesting is that by becoming a customer you can find out how they deliver their product or service.
What would you do differently? How is your product or service different? What makes you stand out? What can you do better? Do they have really great customer service or after-sales care - what do they do that you hadn't thought of implementing into your value delivery?
What next?
Once you've collected as much information as you can about your market you should be able to gauge how promising your idea or concept will be.
Along the way, you might find there are other products or services you can provide that are more attractive, or perhaps find ways you can 'tweak' your idea to become more appealing to the market.
Better to look before you leap than wasting precious resources on an idea that will never really take off!