The majority of Quirk’s subscribers are client-side researchers, many of whom lead research departments in large, siloed organizations. It’s a common theme among our authors – and among presenters at trade shows we attend – to share tips on “how to gain buy-in,” “how to earn research a seat at the table,” “how to do a lot with a little” and “how to win the MR budget battle” (just published this one yesterday!).
And there’s a lot of great advice out there! But one niche that’s rarely addressed is the no-budget situation that many small businesses face. There’s a big difference between vying for a bigger piece of General Mills’ or Microsoft’s ample financial pie and trying to scrape together enough shekels to conduct even a few focus groups.
Emma Sledge’s January 12 article for CBS San Francisco, titled “Tips For Conducting Market Research (Without Spending A Fortune),” addresses this conundrum. Sledge’s advice is as follows:
Put your tax dollars to work. The Department of Small Business Administration (SBA) was established with the small business owner in mind. It makes it easy to conduct your initial market research by providing free and current information about consumer statistics, demographics, economic indicators and much more. You can find this and other information for free at SBA.gov.
When in doubt, ask. The cheapest, easiest and most direct way to conduct market research is to ask your customers or clients the questions that matter to the health of your business. Survey platforms like Google Drive and Survey Monkey are available at a relatively low cost. But even without one of these platforms, you should consider asking for feedback yourself. Turn to social media as a platform to post polls, questionnaires and to monitor feedback. Asking the questions yourself minimizes cost and allows you total control over what information you gather.
Become an analyst. With the meteoric rise of analytic tools, it is now easier than ever for a business owner to collect data about the market. Using free, easy-to-use tools like Google Analytics, it is possible to measure Web traffic, including demographic information, on a daily basis. If you are not already using Google Analytics in your market research plan, give it a try. You may find that it quickly becomes indispensable.
Know that there is not one solution to conducting effective market research. Chances are good that no matter what your industry or client base, you will have to use a combination of marketing tools, such as the ones listed above, to get a truly holistic picture of your market. To be successful, you should continuously utilize multiple tools to collect market data, taking care to focus in on the information that most directly affects your bottom line.
Researchers, what do you think of Sledge’s tips? They seem like sound, common-sense advice to me and surely, doing something is better than doing nothing. But how far will an approach like this take you? Can research exist without a budget? Can research exist without researchers being involved? Would you consider these endeavors to be true research? Research-adjacent? What other research methods can be carried out without much money? Are any tried-and-true research solutions accessible for very small businesses?