Market research sounds so formal. This need not be. It can be part of your daily marketing activity if you use one of the best and simplest techniques: just ask questions.
Asking market research questions can provide new insights to take your marketing to the next level. An example of market research is the gathering of competitive information to inform your new product and service development. Another example of market research is the creation of clear images of your ideal customers – so-called customer personalities – for precise alignment. Other market research examples include gathering feedback from existing customers to measure customer satisfaction.
However, the key to success is knowing what questions to ask. Below is a list of 75 market research questions that you can use as a template for your own questions. Use them to ask questions to your team internally or to ask prospective customers and customers directly.
Market research questions
A good way to start your market research is to assess and describe your target audience. Gather primary and secondary research to evaluate the following marketing parameters:
- How big is our target market? How many potential customers are there?
- Have we developed a good set of customer personalities to understand ideal target customers?
- Demographic questions: gender, age, ethnicity. Include annual income, education and marital status.
- Firmographic questions: size, industry. Take into account annual earnings and other relevant factors.
- Psychographic questions: habits, preferences, interests.
- What important consumer trends do we see?
- How do we identify new target segments? How are these new segments different from those we already have?
- Which neighborhoods and postcodes do we get from most of our customers today?
- Which geographic locations are growing? Does the demographics of growth markets match those in which we already operate? If not, what should we change?
- Is online trading or online service provision a growth opportunity? Do our competitors do online business?
- Can we find marketing partners to expand our reach?
Related topics: Conducting market research
Questions to customers
Use the following as survey questions, either after sales or as support surveys. Or use these market research questions to conduct a focus group, interview individual customers, or attract potential customers during the sales process. Make it your business to involve respondents who are less than enthusiastic about your customer service. You learn more than just talking to satisfied customers. Ask:
- How did you find out about us?
- Why did you choose us?
- Which functions do you like most about our product or service?
- Is our product or service easy, quick and easy to use?
- What do you wish our product or service that it doesn't do today?
- Are you aware that we offer _________?
- Were our employees polite in all matters?
- Have we answered all of your questions or resolved your support problem?
- Can we help you to use our product or service?
- Were you satisfied with our speed and speed?
- Would you be willing to tell friends, family or colleagues about us?
- How do you rate your experience with us?
- Would you buy from us again?
- Why did you choose to leave / not to renew us?
Related topics: Questions about customizing surveys for your industry and best practices for surveys
Pricing and Value
Below you will find questions about price research. Small business owners and marketers may want to hire someone to do a competitive analysis, such as: B. Collect data from competitor websites and include it in a table. You may also need to collect information internally for research. For example, meet with sales to discuss the feedback they receive from potential customers. You can also ask customer service to start tracking if customers indicate the price as the reason for the non-renewal. Here are examples of pricing research questions:
- Does our team have a compelling sales pitch that is based on value, not just price?
- How do we create more value to justify our prices?
- How can we position our product as a "premium"?
- What do our competitors demand? Are our prices higher, lower or approximately the same?
- Do our prices make enough profit to stay in business?
- How often do sales and support staff hear price complaints? And how often do you overcome them?
- Do we identify enough people who can afford our products and services or who want to pay what we ask for?
- Can we pinpoint the prospects by income, neighborhood, and other factors to isolate a target group that is sensitive to our price?
- In the case of B2B, do we target the right industries with needs and weaknesses that we can solve?
- Are we aiming for the right job title? Does the target group have sufficient budgetary powers?
- How can we compare our business model in our industry? Do we miss opportunities?
- What kind of advertising do our competitors do? Bulk purchases / annual subscriptions? Free gift when buying? Discounts? Sales events?
Product or service questions
Ask yourself or your team these market research questions about your products and services:
- Are our new products or services unique enough compared to the existing products?
- What exactly is our value proposition – the reason why customers should choose us? How can we best convey our advantages?
- How are customers currently solving the problem our product is dealing with?
- Which products do competitors offer? How does our target market see these competitive offers?
- How do competitors deliver services? Is your process different from our methods? Are there obvious advantages like saving costs or time when we adapt?
- Customers asked for a specific service – do others offer it on the market? What do they charge?
- What changes are customers likely to want in the future that the technology can offer?
- How do we get feedback about our product so that we know what we need to improve and what we need to highlight in sales and marketing messages?
- What technology is available on the market to improve operational productivity or reduce costs? What solutions do competitors or large companies use?
- Do we question customers when we think about developing new products to test their interest?
Related Topics: Minimizing Survey Fatigue
Questions about online visibility
Online traffic is essential for most small businesses, even local businesses, to drive store traffic. Market research questions can assess your company's online visibility. Get answers from your digital team:
- How much website traffic do we get compared to competitors? Check out free tools like Alexa and SimilarWeb – although they're not accurate, they can compare relative traffic.
- How prominently do we appear in search engines like Google and Bing?
- Do we appear in search engines for the questions our audience is looking for, with their words? Or do we have to invest in search engine optimization?
- What searches do website traffic actually send us? Check the Google Search Console or another SEO tool.
- How is our search visibility compared to competitors? A tool like SEMRush or Ahrefs can give this kind of advanced look.
- Did we do a gap analysis and determine which keywords our competitors rank for? Do we have a content marketing plan to attract more visitors?
- Did we claim business listings like Google My Business and Bing Places, and did we add engaging content like photos?
- How prominent do we appear in Google Maps, Apple Maps and Bing Maps?
- Let's give visitors something to do on our website to motivate them, e.g. For example, fill out a lead gene form, read the blog, or make an appointment?
Related topics: Interpretation of survey results
Reputation management
Customers today have the extraordinary power to talk about a brand and its products and services. Customers can choose dozens of social media websites or check websites like Yelp to share opinions. Much of today's market research is figuring out what customers think and say about your company (and also about your competitors). You would like answers to the following market research questions:
- Do we have negative reviews online?
- Do we have another type of reputation problem, such as: B. Bad word of mouth in our community?
- Are competitors spamming fake ratings?
- What can we learn from bad reviews?
- Do we thank those who give positive reviews and recommendations or do we ignore them?
- Do we respond to negative reviews or complaints by trying to make amends or correcting incorrect facts?
- Can we use an app like GatherUp.com to make it easier for customers to leave reviews?
- Does our website have convincing testimonials?
Messaging and Advertising
Rate your current marketing messages. Brands want to know that their messages support their marketing goals. Make sure you also rate advertising to ensure that it matches the goals and performs well:
- Have we identified the milestones in the customer journey and which customers are looking for at each milestone? Do we address the milestones?
- What emotions determine our customers' buying decisions? Anxiety? Desired claim? Does our messaging match these emotional needs?
- Which sources of information do interested parties rely on? TV, digital online, social media, radio, newspapers?
- Which marketing and advertising channels were our top performers?
- Have we developed high quality content to inform and convince potential customers?
- What are the best advertising methods and media to reach our prospects?
- Do we use our ad spend to target our desired buyer, or do we spray and pray?
- Where and how often do competitors advertise and what messages do they use?
- Do we have good resources such as display ads and landing pages to target potential customers? How do you compare yourself to your competitors' assets?
- Which social media channels does our target market use? Should we increase our presence on these channels?
- What topics do our target customers talk about on social media?
- Do we use heat maps, A / B tests, or other measurements to test content and calls for action?
Related topics: 9 strategies to get more customer feedback and when to use online surveys.
These 75 questions and examples from market research should give you a lot to discover. Always come back to the most important question of all: What can we do better? Answering this one question can put your brand on the path to long-term growth.
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