Digital Market Research: The 9 Steps and 2 Benefits of Market Research

Do you know how to conduct digital market research for startups?

By the time you are done reading this post, you will have a 9-step action plan to aide you in your digital market research. You will also discover the benefits of digital market research for startups.

In addition, you will explore the difference between primary market research and secondary research.

Let’s get started learning the value of digital market research for startups.

The tailor measures several times before he cuts the cloth. This approach hasn’t accidentally landed in the treasury of folk wisdom.

Before you start a new undertaking, acquire a map of the “territory” where you’re planning to create something noticeable.

The practice-tested way to look before you leap is to organize market research for a startup. By clicking the link, you see the Purrweb Team filtered essential information in order to assist you quickly finding a favorable path for gathering meaningful data.

So, you can take their helping hand and find out what, when, and how to perform if you’re targeting to conduct fruitful market research for a startup.

The hidden value of market research for a startup

We bet you have heard a million times that only those things can be influenced which can be measured. Therefore, the preliminary part of such an approach is to gather all the necessary data in order to have “cloth” for measuring. 

To understand how profitable is the niche where you’re going to build a new business, who are your competitors and how you can win customers, and what pushes users to pay for that sort of goods or services, get the results of your digital market research.

In other words, digital market research can be defined as a valuable collection of data that drives you to navigate the market effectively and make foresight decisions related to your enterprise. 

Editor’s Note:

Let’s look at an example.

The contributing author explains the steps to conduct digital market research:

Step 1: Familiarize yourself with the territory.

Suppose I want to market my Blogging Academy.

I need to decide the territory where I will market my Acadamy.

Let’s assume I want to market on Instagram.

You might ask why I would choose Instagram. What am I basing that decision on?

Instagram has the hashtag #BloggersofInstagram on both Instagram and Twitter. At the time of this writing, there are 4,165,402 Instagram posts tagged with that hashtag. That is a sizeable target audience.

Step 2: Collect Data

Your Instagram analytics give you insightful data to help you make informed marketing decisions.

On your phone, click Profile, click the 3 lines in the upper right-hand corner of the screen, click Insights.

Instagram shows you the Top Cities, Countries, Age Ranges, and Genders that view your content.

Note: Instagram only shows you your insights if you have had more than 100 views on your content during the selected time period.

When it makes sense to do market research for startups

Regardless of the stage of development, a better understanding of your potential clients and rising trends in the industry is a joker in your sleeve that helps outrun the competition.

At later stages, it helps your team to fix errors and polish your service, add necessary features, and get rid of excess.

In the case of a new business, the preliminary probe of the market equips you with data for building a product exactly tailored to the needs and desires of the customers. You’ll avoid wandering in the dark when trying intuitively to discover what and how can provide the business to stand out from competitors.

Benefits of digital market research for startups

Investing in market research for a startup is like throwing a fishing rod to catch these benefits.

1. Digital market research can prevent you from wasting time and money since you know in advance what, why, and how your prospects will buy, and what your product will be. 
2. Digital market research for startups eases the task to convince investors to give you financial support if there are enough indicators showing your business should definitely take off. 

Which questions can digital market research for startups give answers to?

All the statistics and other data gathered as a result of digital market research for a startup are subdivided into two large groups: qualitative data and quantitative data.

The numbers demonstrate how profitable and saturated is the market you’re planning to enter, what’s the size of an Average Order Value, how many comparable solutions are there, and which is their share in the market etc.

You can dig not only in width but in depth: 

• what are the strengths your competitors can be proud of,
• where are their pain points,
• if the customers are satisfied with the service and why, 
• what features do they dream of?

So, the food for brainstorming is provided, and you can understand what you need to do and how the focus can be improved before you spend money on an inappropriate solution. 

How to organize digital market research for a startup

To pick the richest harvest, it makes sense to combine two types of market research for a startup. But if the budget is heavily limited, select one of these approaches. 

Primary market research facilitates your direct connection to customers in order to clear up any questions. Communication without intermediaries entails gathering full and unique information about your potential customers, their shopping habits, tastes, and preferences, and can inspire you to discover innovations where competitors don’t see the room.

Thanks to:

• Questionnaires in social media and on specific online platforms,
• Personal interviews,
• Observation and work in focus groups,

you can gather precious data for making decisions. 

Imagine you’re planning to open an online shop where the toys and clothes for exotic animals will be represented. Testing your idea in focus groups or interviewing people, you can discover the owners of exotic animals aren’t ready to buy toys and clothes, but they sharply need a delivery service with proper nutrition and medicines for their uncommon pets.

Therefore, the direction of your business thought will be adjusted in accordance with buyers’ interests, and you won’t be wasting efforts for obviously a failed business idea. 

The additional way is to rely upon the data gathered by the other experts. Surveys, reports, and overviews are the basics for secondary research. You can use their statistics and analytics in order to select the niche where you count to thrive.

But theoretical papers can’t provide you with qualitative answers to questions on the essential nuances. For example, why people don’t buy these sorts of goods online or why don’t they trust that payment system?

So, the wisest way is to join these two types of research and get proven and optimized data. 

Who can assist you to organize market research for a startup?

If you have sufficient expertise in marketing, you can manage the task on your own. But if you’re a newbie in business, find helpers before ski jumping into the business.

A qualified marketing agency has usually tested a set of skills and knowledge to achieve goals. Don’t underestimate the adequacy of the information at the start: it determines whether your business ship will arrive at the expected seaport. 

But in some cases to undertake market research for a startup via observation you need an MVP. The Purrweb experts accumulate essential experience helping entrepreneurs to check the feasibility of their ideas.

Digital Market Research: FAQ

What are the 2 types of market research?

The 2 types of market research are primary market research and secondary research.

Wrapping Up: Digital Market Research for Startups

By reading this post, you explored how to conduct digital market research for startups:

• Familiarize yourself with the niche
• Gather qualitative and quantitative data
• Learn about your target audience
• Address trends in your industry
• Hone in on your needs
• Analyze your competition
• Come up with and focus on an action plan
• Conduct primary market research
• Conduct secondary research

So, if you’ve gathered all the necessary preliminary information and have a moderate sum to risk with, you can catch the chance to jump into business with a working solution. Just wake up your courage and curiosity to make the first step!

Readers, please share so new business owners discover the importance of digital market research for startups.

I look forward to your views in the comments section. Can you suggest additional benefits or steps in digital market research for startups?

This post was contributed and made possible by the support of our readers.