How to Conduct Market Research

How to Conduct Market Research

Market research is extremely important, offering you insight into your customers’ thoughts and habits, and making sure your marketing strategy is effectively targeting your demographic. Of course, it is exceptionally easy to ask family and friends when designing promotional material rather than those people who you actually want to get through the door.

1. Take some time: The most important part of market research is making sure you know exactly you are targeting. Take some time – sit down away from any distractions, indulge in a glass of wine or two, and think about who you want to get through the door. If you are doing IPL it may be that you are targeting 18-24 year olds, or with a rosacea treatment you may want to attract clients of 60 years old and above. Either way it is a good idea to have a deep and thorough understanding of not only who your target audience is, but what that means.

2. You Gov Profiles: You Gov have an absolutely phenomenal resource called you gov profiles. Essentially, it breaks down the target demographic of every major retailer on the high street. All you have to do is search for the shop whose demographic most precisely matches your own. Including information such as demographics, lifestyles, monthly spare, and entertainment, it can be a really great way of accurately targeting your marketing.

3. Competitors: Take a look at what your direct competitors are doing, how they word themselves, and how they are trying to entice customers. We have even known of beauty therapists going into other salons as customers to try and understand their process and how they work. Obviously we could never condone this sort of behaviour, but knowledge is power and it is important you know what is out there.

4. Questionnaire: Questionnaires are an extremely helpful way of finding out what your ideal customer wants and needs. Try to avoid asking leading questions such as “do you want to have laser?” – chances are most respondents will reply yes – but rather pose a question like, “what is your main concern when thinking about laser?” These could provide really helpful answers that you could incorporate into your sales and marketing collateral.

5. Facebook groups: One of the easiest ways of publicising your questionnaire will, undoubtedly, be over Facebook and various other social media outlets. However, your Facebook friends, whilst happy to help, may not necessarily be your target audience. Try posting your questionnaire on relevant Facebook groups whose members most closely mirror your own demographic. You could even offer an incentive such as one lucky subscriber will win a free skin cleanse – this sort of advertising offers a relatively affordable and effective way of working out how to attract your ideal consumer.