{"id":12343,"date":"2015-06-11T06:00:37","date_gmt":"2015-06-11T13:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/?p=12343"},"modified":"2025-08-20T00:31:24","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T07:31:24","slug":"online-market-research-tips-for-beginners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/online-market-research-tips-for-beginners\/","title":{"rendered":"Online Market Research Tips for Beginners"},"content":{"rendered":"

Online Market Research<\/h2>\n

\"OnlineFor those of us that can still remember\u00a0market research in the “good<\/del> old days”, the ability to gather insane amounts of intelligence from your kitchen, desk or poolside never gets old. \u00a0But the biggest problem with having so much information at your fingertips has to be overwhelming. \u00a0I mean, where do you begin? And how do you choose the most important bits of data or information that will help you not only cut costs on market research but get decision-making insights as well.<\/p>\n

If you’re new to the world of small business market research, here’s a quick how-to guide on leveraging the mountains of market research that you can collect online.<\/p>\n

Rather than follow the rigid path of secondary and primary processes, I’ve decided to give you the right-brained version of how online market research happens in real life, for small business owners and non-research professionals. \u00a0This means that there is a lot of brainstorming, back and forth, trial-and-error and general messy inelegance in the process. \u00a0That’s because you are feeling your way through. \u00a0Without the benefit of having a professional market research department, you’re going to be trading your time and effort for the money you can’t afford to pay. \u00a0Them’s just the ropes.<\/p>\n

I apologize in advance for any hard and fast market research rules I’m breaking here.<\/p>\n

Set clear goals – and free yourself to recalculate<\/h2>\n

This step never changes. \u00a0If you were to search on the phrase “tips online market research” or some derivative of that, almost every article will start with setting goals. \u00a0What I think that we forget, however, is that not all goals are so clearly defined at the start of any market research project.<\/p>\n

You might start with a larger, broader goal such as “Sell more widgets” and after bouncing around the rest of these steps, you will find yourself crafting and refining this goal to something more specific such as “Sell more widgets to IT companies.”<\/p>\n

I bring this up because so many experts say “set goals” as if these goals were self-evident and a lot of times they simply aren’t. \u00a0I like to think of setting goals for a market research project a lot like driving to a destination in a city I’ve never been to. \u00a0I have a goal (the address) and I have directions, but I’m bound to make a few wrong turns along the way. \u00a0I don’t berate myself, instead, my GPS simply “recalculates” the route until I reach my goal.<\/p>\n

Start with the broadest goal, then work your way down to specifics. \u00a0I always ask myself “Under what circumstances would you move forward with this project?” \u00a0This gets my brain generating decision-making criteria such as “If 300 people said they would pay $50 for this.” \u00a0Notice that simply stating some kind of result, I can begin generating goals or criteria for my online research.<\/p>\n

Identify your target audience<\/h2>\n

“You can’t sell anything to everyone.” \u00a0This is one of those laws of marketing that you can’t ignore. \u00a0Part of your research has to include brainstorming the ideal customer for your product,<\/p>\n