Why market research is important to your business marketing plan

Many times business owners think that since they have a great product or service that they don't really need to market. They assume that everyone will want to come and buy their product. The reality is that having a great product or service is only one part of making your business succeed. You will need to make sure that are you able to market your product or service in the most effective way possible. This will entail doing market research.

Many business owners simply assume that market research is to expensive and to time consuming for them. The reality is that in order to be effective with your marketing you will need to do market research. Simply sending out your marketing message and hoping for the best will not get the same kind of results that basing your marketing plan on marketing research will. You will need to take the time and make the effort to gather all the information that you can about your target market. This will include: not only the demographics of who they are but also where they are and how they shop, and how long they will want your product or service. The bottom line is that while marketing research may cost you money in the short term it can save you a great deal of money in the long run. Here is why market research is important to your business marketing plan-
- You can find out who really wants to buy your product or service-The bottom line is that marketing is expensive and you don't want to market to anyone who wouldn't buy your product anyway. By doing effective market research you can find the people who are most likely to buy your product or service and target your marketing to them. Best of all, not only can you find who they are but market research will show you how they shop, what they are looking for, and how your business and what it offers can be the answer to their need or want. This will keep you from spending money on marketing that is never going to be effective and bring you the customers that you are looking for.
- You can find out the most effective ways to market your product or service-It won't be enough to just know who to market to. You will need to know what the best ways are to market your product or service. You want to use the marketing methods that will be the most effective for the least amount of money. Even if you know who your target market is you should not assume that you know how to market to them. Effective market research can show you that and save you from wasting lots of money on marketing methods that are not effective.
- You can find out how strong your business really is-You should never just assume that your business is strong or profitable. That can end up costing you a lot of money. You should instead focus on doing market research that can show you what type of market share you have and can have with your product or service. You can also see how your product or service is perceived by your customers and determine if you need to make changes through the use of effective market research. This can be valuable information especially right before a full product launch. When you are able to view your product or service in the context of your market you can avoid making costly mistakes withproduct or service changes that may be required. If you don't do this type of market research you may find your business has to spend big money in order to pull a product or service back and revamp it.