The past year has been tough for businesses. Faced with uncertainty and a fight to survive, looking for new ways to thrive and to diversify has been top of the agenda for many business owners.
While it has been a challenging time, the move to working from home and changes to output and flow have provided businesses with an opportunity to turn the uncertainty into a positive situation.
I recently spoke with Ronda Jackson about businesses who have taken this position during the pandemic, and in particular, focused on conducting market research to help future-proof their position. Market research has never been more important, particularly as the retail landscape has changed due to the pandemic and different buying habits.
At Marketing Maven, we have been helping companies to pivot and change their priorities, specifically using market research to assist them in this mission.
One pathway has been to look at emerging markets. Businesses need to know their numbers and where people are looking for products and services. This can be done by ‘deep-dive’ web crawls for relevant conversations, trends, and specific areas. This can also be drilled down even more, by geographical regions, time frames and key search terms.
This pivoting can then provide an in-depth look and strategy where messaging should be taken, including to different platforms.
One angle we look at is the measurement of sentiment and voice. This provides an indication of where people are getting their information. It could perhaps be on social media, or on a blog, a forum or through 24-hour news. By measuring this access to information, we can see where our clients can better target their customers, providing them with advice on where their wisest investment should be.
This in turn can revolutionize a brand’s marketing strategy, and alongside smarter research into customer interests, will help them to craft the message that reaches them in the best way and at the best venue.
One top tip that I offer as advice to brands who want to start the process but perhaps are a little cautious in their approach is to set up Google alerts for their company name, industry and perhaps their individual name too. This will provide an insight into the search terms associated with their brand, what their customers are searching for and importantly, what they see when they search for them. Starting here can be the first important step to a new approach in marketing.
As we head away from the restrictions of the pandemic, and look to return to a sense of normality, now is the time for businesses and brands to up their marketing game – market research is one way that will truly help them understand the new retail landscape, and how best to capitalize on the future opportunities it brings.