Use FREE Online Marketing Research Tools to Give Real Power
To Your Business

Online marketing research has opened up a whole world for us MLMers (and indeed anyone who is selling anything).

Remember, secondary research is research that already exists, and all we have to do is find it.

The good news is that most of it is online now...and free if you know where to look, so you don't even have to leave your front door (or get out your credit card)!

In the old days when I was an Account Executive (that's actually the lowest position!) and Account Manager (the next position up) in the sunny world of advertising agencies, one of my jobs was to go through all the printed research directories and pull out all the useful information relating to the client's product or market area. I then had to write it, by hand, before taking it away to be typed up and knocked in to shape to be able to write a brief for the creative team. Photocopying was not allowed. No online marketing research for me! It was laborious work, but nonetheless very interesting!

Now, all you have to do is know where to go online and hit the print button!

Now, before we go any further, let me explain that marketing research is a highly profitable world. Companies pay huge amounts of money for information on who their customer is. These companies know how important and valuable this information is. And so should you. But I'm going to show you a few secrets of how to get it for FREE.

Free Information Sources

Mintel (mintel.com) is an industry leader in global consumer information and their reports make fascinating reading. Unfortunately you can't access their reports online, (unless you pay...if you have the money, I'd go for it!) but they are available to look through at the City Business Library in London. OK, OK, I know this isn't the internet, but if you're within easy travelling distance to London it's a place worth going to. Put “City Business library" into Google and you’ll find it straight away; it's in Brewers Hall Garden.

If you live elsewhere in the world, then I'd suggest trying your local Business Library for your local country versions.

If you want to do this – get there early, take loads of paper and pens with you, and be prepared to take lots of notes. You can’t photocopy or borrow the reports, but they’re all there for the reading. Grab all the ones that you think are relevant to you (index is in all of them) and keep them with you until you’ve finished with them.

Back to online marketing research...

Go to this page within the Mintel website and register for free reports on your industry/ies of choice. If you go to Browse Reports (in the Oxygen section) you may get lucky with the odd bit of information in their summary paragraph, but all the really useful stuff now seems to be in their “must pay for” category.

NPD.com is a US based market research group which publishes its press releases online. I’ve had loads of good information and statistics from this site, which are mostly relevant to the UK as well.

Keynote.co.uk - Click on visitors, and scroll down the little bit of text on the left hand side – click on “report gallery” for stacks of free marketing research information (basically all the executive summaries). These are another major player in the UK research field.

MarketResearch.com is quite useful too. You’ll need to register to get access to the free info, but you’ll pick up lots of useful stuff. Have a look at the demographics section under “Marketing” to find out about different demographics of customer.

Scavenger.net have lots of very cheap business reports and market reports aimed squarely at the small business market. They're UK based, but a lot of the information will be valid in the US too.

Euromonitor.com is another leading global marketing research company. Their reports are cheaper than Mintel's, so if you do have the money, it'll be worth investing in one. However, for the free stuff, go to "Articles Archive". At first glance you won't find anything obviously to do with your industry (unless you get lucky!), but you will gave reports on general consumer issues. For instance, at the time of writing, there are reports on "The Green Consumer", "The Top 10 Consumer Trends in Russia" amongst lots of other diverse articles.

These may not seem particularly relevant, but if you're in a natural health MLM, The Green Consumer might well be relevant to you building a picture of your typical target consumer. If you're expanding your business into Russia (I spoke to someone recently who was in an MLM and was doing just that) then the second report would give good information. Think laterally and have a look...you just never know what you'll find!

Be prepared to spend some time hunting online. A great way that I've found is to put "[your industry area] industry research" into Google. For example, "beauty industry research" or "financial industry research".

Using online marketing research can uncover all sorts of snippets of useful information. Often all it takes is a line of information to make all the difference.

How to Find Out Where Your Customers (and Business Prospects) Are.....

Go to UpMyStreet.com and click on Neighbourhood profile. Put in your postcode or a town name and you'll get the type of person that lives in that area! (Bet you can't resist looking at your own postcode!). It will also tell you of other towns with similar profiles.

The way I use this is by drawing a circle around where I live of about an hour's driving distance. This is how far I'm prepared to travel to deliver products. (I'll go further for business prospects or use the phone!). I then profile each town within that circle. That soon tells me which town matches my profile of customer. I then know which towns to concentrate my marketing efforts in. Simple!


So, for a few evenings in front of the internet, you can use online marketing research to great use, and to get you excellent information. Information is key in marketing - the more we know about our likely customers (and prospects) and what their needs, wants and desires are, the stronger - and more effective - our marketing communications will be.

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