As we continue to see overreaching, excessive marketing strategies fly off the shelves, people are starting to question whether or not research is truly an integral part of marketing.

After all, marketers these days seem to be conducting more targeted studies with smaller samples sizes almost exclusively. They also use statistical methods that may or may not generalize their findings.

In fact, some experts even go as far to say that research has become obsolete!

But what if I told you that there’s no such thing as “bad” research? And what if I further explained how you can do your own research for free?

I would argue that it’s one of the most important things you can add to your repertoire as a marketer.

And while targeted small scale surveys have their place, modern day researchers don’t completely eschew using larger datasets or having longer conversations with their participants either.

In this article, I will talk about some ways that you can conduct meaningful research in-house without too much cost or time.

Introduction: How to Do Your Own In-House Market Surveys

So let's dive into some tips on how to perform your own internal market research!

If you're looking to test the effectiveness of different advertising campaigns, determine the levels and positions of advertisements, or find out which products and brands appeal to your audience, then creating your own survey is the way to go.

Online research

A few years ago, doing online surveys would require you to use expensive software or tools to facilitate this process. But now, there are plenty of free survey apps and websites that make it easy to conduct quick surveys and gather valuable data.

There are several reasons why it is worth it to do some research via web-based means instead of taking more traditional routes.

First, most people have access to a smartphone with internet connectivity these days. You can easily pick up your phone and find a survey app or website in less than one minute! This is important because even if you don’t have much time, you should at least be able to look for something simple to take part in within that timeframe.

Second, many people feel uncomfortable answering personal questions under the threat of being exposed through social media or other sources. With the help of survey sites, you can avoid this by responding anonymously unless you want others to know more about you.

Online surveys

Recent developments in marketing research include using online tools to ask your questions and gathering information through social media sites. These are sometimes referred to as chat-based survey methods or interactive questionnaires.

Traditional face-to-face interviews still remain, of course, but relying more heavily on digital means is becoming the norm. Technology has made it possible to easily create questionnaire apps and programs that can be accessed from anywhere!

This article will discuss some types of online surveys and how you can use them for market research purposes.

Phone calls

A few years ago, making phone calls would be considered old school marketing. Before smart phones were ubiquitous, calling people was one of the best ways to reach out to potential customers or recruits. Now, with every person having their own phone it is easy to skip this step.

With the explosion in technology and the rise in use of social media, why still make telephone calls? Because they work!

Phone calls remain an effective way to connect with individuals and get quality conversations. They can also gather important information such as numbers and contacts for future meetings.

When used correctly, no matter what industry you are in, phone calls are a valuable tool for marketers.

Face-to-face interviews

Recent developments in marketing research include shift away from longer, face-to-face interviews with respondents to surveys that use digital technology and applications (known as online interviewing). This is because not only are there cost limitations using this method, people can easily ignore or avoid questions when answering survey queries via computer!

When you ask someone how they feel about something through a questionnaire, it’s often difficult to get quality answers due to lack of sincerity in their responses. Some respondents may even be dishonestly trying to seem more intelligent by giving what seems like a clever answer instead of saying how they truly felt.

This effect is known as response bias and can seriously skew data gathered during market research projects. Because of this, conclusions drawn from survey results cannot be considered completely accurate.

Focus groups

As mentioned before, focus group discussions are one of the most common types of marketing research. They’re also one of the priciest! This is because you have to pay for the participant fees, as well as to hire someone to facilitate the discussion for you.

However, even with these additional costs, focus groups can be very expensive. This is due to the fact that you will probably need a lot of participants to get good data. More people means higher cost per person.

With this in mind, there are some ways to lower the price of focus group meetings while still getting quality information. Two of the best ones are using pre-existing themes or topics and having more than one conversation within a given group.

This article will discuss how both of these work and what benefits each has.

Event sourcing

A growing trend in marketing is event-based research. This technique uses events to gather data about your company, products, or website. Then, these events are saved for later use!

Mostly, companies will create an event called “Product launch” when they officially announce their new product. After the launch, you can check if it was organized by looking at the event list for Product launches. If there isn't one within the past six months, then no, it wasn't.

But what happens after the launch? You may want to know more about the product, so you can continue to promote it or make sure it does well. Or maybe you wanted to start selling like crazy, but were outmatched with supply and resources. Either way, event sourcing comes into play.

By adding extra metadata to each event, you can now analyze the effect of the launch much better. For example, you could count how many times the product's page was viewed per day right after the launch, which helps determine how successful it was.

Product testing

One of the most important parts of marketing is test buying! Companies spend money to make their products seem better than they are, so why not find out if those claims hold true for your product?

Testing new materials, designs or features is an excellent way to determine how well your product functions and looks. Or maybe you have a product that seems to be beloved by many, but you want to know whether it’s really worth the price.

Whatever kind of testing you do, there is no wrong time to do it! Whether you are trying to decide if a pair of shoes is worthy of purchase or if one brand is more trustworthy than another, experimenting with products is always worthwhile.

It will give you valuable information about what works and what doesn’t, as well as which brands stand behind their products.

Market research

A few years ago, there was an argument to be made that marketing was dead. With the rise of the internet and social media, people claimed that marketers were wasting their time since you can’t reach as many people as you could back in the era of television and print ads.

But what if I told you that this “dead” theory is totally wrong? That today’s marketers are just not doing enough market research?

What is market research?

Market research is the process of gathering information about your target audience and business so that you know who they are and what they want. You use this data to determine whether or not your product or service fits their needs, and then you test it out by putting it into action!

Most big businesses have large teams of marketers that work together to ensure that the company is running at its best possible efficiency. Unfortunately, though, not all departments agree on the best ways to run things.

Producers sometimes feel like no one is listening to their ideas and vice versa with executives. It may also be because some people don’t trust each other’s recommendations.

This lack of cooperation within groups of professionals can easily lead to underproduction and wasted resources. Luckily, modern technology makes it easy to do formal group surveys, track productivity, and gather feedback via chat apps and forums.