| Already started? Sign in
Secrets
Can you remember when you had to go and sit in the library, send off for papers and reports or sit on the telephone to find what you were looking for? Market research is a critical part of your marketing and should always formulate the basis of your marketing plan, so we’ve always used various methods to find what we want.
Online market research makes life not just easier but so much faster. We can now find out most things without leaving our seat at the computer. Here are a few tips on where you can find some excellent free information:
- Wikipedia and other Wikis – these by their nature are collaborative websites where the content is contributed to many users. The breadth of information on something like Wikipedia, which is constantly updated and added, too is incredibly useful. (Remember to check the facts though as there is room for user error).
- Social Networks – if you join LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook for example you can search for companies as we’ll as individuals and find out some really useful data.
- Blogs – searching for blogs by topic can throw up useful information and once you get to know who the good bloggers are you’re then tuned in to good future content
- Local Authority websites – these usually provide population statistics, demographic information and even names of businesses in an area.
- Search engines – you can now find good information as all of the search engines have improved their results so that they are more relevant to search criteria.
You can pay for market research online too of course and this particularly applies to lists and bespoke reports such as Mintel data. For more ideas on market research for your business, have a look at this Business Link page all about Market Research.
back to Marketing Secrets
