Blood, sweat, and tears go into building your own business. Well, maybe not blood, but lots of sleepless nights, and at times, the feeling that you need to give up because it’s too much to do on your own. We, at Ad Creations Marketing, understand that the struggle to build your small business is real. I’m here to tell you that nothing is impossible with a little bit of elbow grease and the right tools. Let the power of market research be your fuel for a successful small business. The essentials of market research don’t need to involve huge sums of money or analytical prowess. It starts and ends with who you serve. 

Start With Who You Serve- Effective Connections With Your Audience

Knowing who your customers are and what they need can make a difference in how they respond to you. Meet your customers where they are. Your customers are your focus, so revolve your research and business around them. Understand the demographics of your potential customer base. Are they on social media or roaming the web? Are they part of the local community or watching prime-time television? Knowing where and how your target audience spends most of their time, primes you for successful marketing strategies.  Gone are the days of a one size fits all approach to reaching your target audience.

 If you find your target audience on social media, find groups for your product and service. Join those groups to get a read on what the members need and want. Provide relevant and helpful information around their questions for free. Get recognized for your helpfulness and knowledge. When you are ready to market that audience for your business outside the group, you will already be a recognized name and an authority having answers to their solutions.  You’ve built a positive space in their subconscious as an informative active member in the groups, so connecting with them outside the group becomes easier.  You have so many channels at your fingertips, so get creative when making connections. Don’t rely on one channel to reach your potential customers. Find the most effective ones. Once you find those channels, you will find that your advertising and marketing efforts are more impactful and efficient. 

Really Know Your Audience-Tap Into Their Emotions

But knowing where and how your audience spends their time is just not enough. Tapping into their needs, desires, fears, longings, pains lets you see what your audience really wants. They want a fast solution, feel better about themselves, look good,  have more time for themselves, and the list goes on. Know that you’ve hit the jackpot when you know exactly what and why they want what you are selling. Read reviews from Amazon or other places where customers leave reviews for products and services. Let those reviews do the marketing work for you.  Take note of the words and phrases those customers use. Many times, you’ll see their emotions and desires written out.  Use those reviews to your advantage to drive your marketing campaigns and pitches. Make them feel like you’re inside their head and feeling those same emotions to their problem. Make that emotional  connection real, because they will gravitate towards that connection. 

Stay On Top of Your Game-Know Your Competition

Get a jump start on market research by tapping into your competition. Where is the competition finding customers? Find ways to understand what is and isn’t working for them. Finding those gaps in their service or product gives you the edge in meeting the needs of customers and addressing their pain points. Get to know your competition, their website, and blogs. Don’t forget to join their email lists to get the inside scoop on how they market to their audience.  Find out if they attend events around your area and visit them. Search out the underserved customer base of your competition and reach them. Plan and drive your marketing strategies with the knowledge you acquire from the research. Strategize like a master on ways to stand out from your competition with your unique services and products.  Lure those dissatisfied customers to your side with your brand and services that address their needs.  Gain recognition for that uniqueness; and earn a solid loyal customer base.

Stay On Top of Trends-Reduce Risks

Market research is your road map to help you avoid ditches, traffic jams, and plan for detours. Avoid costly mistakes and achieve success by conducting thorough market research. Through the research, learn how much customers are willing to spend, so you can set yourself up for earning and not losing. Stay on top of trends so you can take detours and change direction with changing times to stay relevant. As you grow, use market research to test new ideas with a small group before launching a campaign to ensure success, and save money and resources. Stay ahead of your competition to understand how customers connect with the brand. Reduce risk by avoiding what isn’t working for the competition. As a bonus, find solutions to those pain points, and connect with your target audience through creative marketing strategies that come from that research. 

Improve Customer Satisfaction-Gain A Loyal Customer Base

You’ve figured out who and where your customers are through market research. How do you keep them coming back? Keep your customers happy with ongoing market research. Reviews and sales analysis provides essential insight into your customer satisfaction rates. If sales are low, evaluate the sales of your service and product over time to determine the reason for those dips. Make adjustments and improvements to your products and services based on reviews and suggestions to enhance customer satisfaction and build positive relationships with your customer. When customers feel heard, they reciprocate and return. Use market research as your secret power towards building loyal customers and a recognized brand. Be seen for listening to customers and addressing their pain points. Use it to your full advantage when marketing and advertising. You’ve earned it, so shout it from the rooftops. But don’t forget to keep it up with continued market research. 

Make Informed Decisions-Plan For the Future

Plan your future goals and make better decisions for your small business with the data you collect through market research. Set clear, attainable goals for the future growth of your business, whether it’s gaining new customers, introducing a new service or product, or opening up a new location for your business. With strong data, you can budget to spend money towards the growth of your business where it counts the most. Maybe you need help with a rock-solid marketing campaign. Let Ad Creations help you devise a killer marketing strategy to drive the most growth and empower you to exceed your goals. Data-based decisions lead to meaningful and productive marketing decisions, but so does emotionally connecting with your audience. Whatever you envision for your small business to make it shine, strong data-driven market research is your road map to it. When you’ve done the research, decisions are made easier.

You already know that you provide so much value with your services. With a few steps that begin with understanding your audience by meeting them where they are, providing them relevant answers to their problems, keeping a close  eye out on your competition, planning for risk reduction, and building a solid loyal customer base, you too can set yourself up as an entrepreneurial rock star. Through solid market research, take the first step in building your small business that stands the test of time.

Sounds like too much work? Don’t let the angst of time and energy needed for research stop you from taking steps toward building your dream business. At Ad Creations, we pride ourselves on working closely with you to bring innovation, creativity, and imagination to custom-build your brand. We take data to heart and know the importance of market research. Each campaign is focused on research and your goals in mind. We are here to empower you to reach your goals for your small business so book a free consultation and find out how we can help you with your market research and advertising needs.