Market research is an essential function for modern businesses. When it’s performed effectively, it can help you discover who your customers are, where to find them, and the best ways to reach them. How much do you really know about your target audience?
Existing vs. prospective clients
For most companies, it’s fairly easy to carry out market research through existing customers. After all, you’ve already established a dialogue with them. Your mailing lists, website visitors, and on-site surveys can provide some solid information that will help you plan smart marketing campaigns.
However, if you want your business to grow, you can’t limit yourself to the customers who already purchase from you—particularly if you plan to expand into new areas, products, or services. Most people, when asked what they want, will opt for the same thing, only better. Henry Ford, the inventor of the automobile, pinpointed this mindset when he said, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”
Your market research should also include prospective customers, so you can determine the potential for expansion.
Testing the waters
When launching a new product or service, there are many benefits to performing market testing before rolling out your latest offering. Pre-launch testing will help you determine whether there’s a large enough market for the product or service to be profitable, and can also pinpoint any improvements or changes you should make.
It’s a fairly straightforward matter to perform market testing with your existing customer base. However, in order to gain the best advantages in testing prospective customers, you need access to a large sample pool, in a short amount of time.
Our consumer and business opt-in databases will help you improve your market research, garnering feedback from prospective customers both in and out of your target markets. Contact Informatix today to find out how we can improve the success of your product or service launch.