FREE, Unlimited Information....
With Just a Bit of Marketing Research

So, you've heard about this "marketing research" stuff...but you probably have this image that it's about people with clipboards that you cross to the other side of the street to avoid.

Shame on you!

OK, so that is one way of collecting the information that makes up our research, but as home business owners and network marketers the good news is that we don't have to do any of that.

Well, not with the clipboards anyway (not unless you want to, and you have nothing to do on a damp, chilly Saturday morning).

BUT - we DO, absolutely HAVE to do, some marketing research if we want our business built on solid ground.

Why?

Glad you asked.

The Importance of Marketing Research

Well, research is a tool. It's a tool used by marketers to enable them to make decisions. And those would be decisions based on fact, not supposition.

For instance, you may think that your target customer is female, aged 35, reads Good Housekeeping magazine etc etc...that's supposition. But the only way that you are ever going to know that for a fact is through carrying out some marketing research.

When you start delving into the world of research you uncover all sorts of fascinating information.

I've mentioned elsewhere on this site that through doing some marketing research on a new product that my company had launched, I uncovered a whole new potential customer base. And a customer base that wants to spend money on my product. The research also told me why!

For instance, here's an example for those of you that sell cosmtics: did you know that Hispanic women are the biggest daily users of lipstick, and that African American and Asian women are more likely than Caucasians to use lipstick every day? And did you know that Caucasian women are more likely to wear foundation, mascara and blusher every day than African American and Asian women?

Now if you do sell cosmetics (and that's BIG business) - wouldn't that information be interesting to know? So, if you're demonstrating make-up to a group of - largely - Hispanic women...what would you focus on? And if you were selling to a group of English women, you'd change your emphasis to the foundations, blushers and mascaras (to put some colour on their face!). If you had a table at a women's evening - a simple change to what you feature according to the group of women there, can make all the difference.

I could carry on...but needless to say, marketing research will give you lots of good, solid information about who is buying your product or service.

Do you remember in step 3 , I said that your target market for your product was people who are already buying it? Well, marketing research will tell you precisely who that is.

It will also give you tons of little golden nuggets that you can use to enhance your business (those subtle changes that make all the difference, like the example above).

Types of Marketing Research

1. Primary Research
2. Secondary - or Desk - Research Click on either of these to find out more information about how they can help you.

Your Focus is on Secondary Research

I wouldn't discount doing some Primary research amongst your customers, but it's fairly time consuming so we'll leave that for now.

Go here now to find out how to do secondary research (and it's not as hard as you think!).

You can carry out secondary research to find out information on:

• Your customers
  
• Your business prospects
  
• Your industry
  
• Industry trends
  
• Your competitors
  
• General demographic trends
  
• And so on.
  

So get stuck in. Click here for your online research resources on your customers, your industry, industry trends, demographics etc. Resources for your business prospects coming soon...watch this space!

Exercise 5 - Researching Your Target Markets
(Even though this goes hand-in-hand with Step 4!)

Spend a few days researching, and collecting reports, on your customers, industry, type of products etc. If your company offers a wide range, you may just like to focus in on one particular group of products eg cosmetics, anti-oxidant drinks, diet products and so on.

Do the same for your business prospects.

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