5 Ways to Conduct Market Research (Without Breaking the Bank!)

Karleia Steiner

January 23, 2014

	Not rated
	Rate:

Market research is a crucial part of figuring out how your company can make the most revenue; if you can determine what goods and services people want the most, you can cater your business to match the demand. However, it can often be far too expensive to really help you gain any ground. Below are five tactics that you can consider to do this research without breaking the bank.

1. Ask people to fill out surveys for free.

Car companies do this all of the time, simply sending an email (or two) to people who have made recent purchases. They offer nothing in return. You would think people would ignore the emails, but thousands of people who love or hate their new cars will take a few minutes to fill them out. They are emotionally invested in either direction, and they want to share.

2. Use reviews gathered from customers.

If you look at reviews, you want to know that they are genuine, so you need a company that verifies that the people have made purchases and then gets reviews from them. Getting access to these bulk reviews, rather than trying to gather each one yourself, saves you time and money. For more information, visit a site like www.OpenTell.com.

3. Offer discounts in exchange for information.

This is a great tactic because the customer saves money but you do not lose anything. For instance, if you are selling a car for $30,000 and you offer the buyer $100 off to take a survey, the buyer will love it and be glad to do it. The $100, however, is not going to take you below the point where you're making a profit. You may not earn as much, but you're still earning money and getting the survey at the same time.

4. Take a look at similar research.

Do not forget that there is a lot of free information out there that other companies have gathered. A quick search of market trends for an product - from a television to a new house - will give you plenty of financial data. Why not let someone else do the work of gathering it?

5. Offer free products in exchange for reviews.

For small products that do not cost much, consider giving out free products if people agree to do a survey or give you an honest review. This works well for food products and things of this nature. The small losses can come from your research budget.