The Importance of Market Research

by James Anderson

Market research is an important tool for any new company seeking a commercial opportunity, particularly for small firms looking to grow their business. There are many people who start a business to sell products online without ever thinking about why someone would buy it from them. If you are going to be selling products to customers, at the very minimum you will need a marketing plan. Without a marketing plan, you could end up making some costly mistakes. The only sure way to find out what product to sell is to perform a through market research. Ask yourself the following questions: What product to sell? At what price? Who will be the customers? The answer comes from doing some basic market research.

Some companies use a popular method to undertake market research that conducts a survey on the Internet. You can come up with as many ideas as possible and then run an Internet search on the ideas to get more information and help determine the best idea. Once you have decided on the best idea, think of some key words and see how many hits you reach by using those key words on a search engine. Next, you need to decide on what goods or services you can provide online and also find where you’re going to obtain them.

The Internet is a personal, highly interactive medium. Be as specific as possible with what business you plan to do online. Don’t try to do everything at once; the medium favors businesses that do one thing well. The more specific your business, the more personal the level of service you can provide to your customers. The continuing growth in computer and network technology has had a positive impact on market research, offering people a fast and cost effective method to perform online research and reach their target audiences. If you are not sure on how to conduct a market research you can hire a market research firm to help evaluate the business opportunity for your product or find alternative solutions to help you get started running your on-line business. Business is all about identifying customers’ needs and figuring out exactly what goods or services you’re going to offer to meet those needs.

Before you invest a lot of time and money into selling your product, you need to do some basic research to find information on your potential market and make sure you will be targeting the right buyers and offering products they want they want to buy. Start by conducting an online survey and asking your potential customers to answer a questionnaire. Of course you would have to offer some incentive for people to take the trouble to answer a questionnaire. Many people skip this step as it takes extra work, or the work might not seem worth the time. Do not skip this step! Although it might not seem important at first, it will pay off in the long run. To get specific answers to your new business, you can ask your potential customers these simple questions:

· What type of products do they buy online?
· How often do they buy? Once a month?
· What is the most important factor in their buying decision?
· What makes them want to buy online?

The best way to conduct a survey is to commission a market research firm to perform the survey. There are a number of benefits to using a market research firm including:

· A large numbers of respondents can be surveyed at one time.
· The Internet provides the ability to perform a worldwide survey.
· It can be a very cost effective way to conduct large surveys.
· The research can generate fast results received within a few days.

Despite its convenience, electronic research should not be undertaken lightly, nor should it be regarded as a substitute for traditional research methods. Online research has limitations, which need to be considered from the outset. It may be that, in some instances, these outweigh the benefits. These include:

· Do It Yourself surveys compromise objectivity of questioning and impartial interpretation.

· Research conducted via Internet surveys can only target Internet users who are prepared to answer on-line questionnaires.

These considerations are not intended to denigrate the valuable role electronic research has to play in today’s fast-paced business environment. If a business decides to perform an online survey then the research should be undertaken with the same degree of responsibility that would accompany a more traditional method of market research. The importance of conducting a detailed market research for the new business owner is to help develop a good business plan. The market research is critical for your product to be a success. Here are some basic steps to follow to help you develop your product marketing plan:

1. Get some demographic data on your potential customers. Ask yourself the following questions:
· What is their age, gender and marital status?
· What are their buying and eating habits?
· What sort of products do they use similar to yours?

2. Meet with potential customers. Find out what they like and don't like about products like the one you will be producing.

3. Conduct a Market survey. Hire a market research firm or conduct the research yourself. Devise a simple survey and give people a reason to fill it out. Find out what similar products they buy and what products they would like to see from you.

4. Find out about your competition.
· What will you offer that they don't?
· How is your product better or cheaper then theirs?
· What makes your business unique?

5. Analyze the data.

At first glance, some of these questions might seem very basic and simple. If you start thinking about answering them in detail, you will soon find yourself thinking about your business approach from a different perspective. Remember some of your future customers will be asking you these same questions so you better have a good answer.

Once you are convinced that you have a viable product, the final step before an all-out rollout of your product is to do some test marketing. Take your product to your local merchant and ask if they will allow you to test run your product in their store. Try different prices and displays to see what works best. Also, ask your friends and family members if they would buy such a product and how much they would pay for it. After a successful test market run, then you will know it is time to launch your product to the mass market.

How To Increase Your Online Business

By Gigabyte

Before starting your own website, you can start by listing merchandise to sell with some online auctions like eBay. This requires nothing more than a computer, an Internet connection and a means of producing digital images. This will also give you some good data on how well your product will sell on the Internet. Don’t go overboard in stocking inventory, especially on a limited budget, but make sure your inventory is sufficient. Keep a modest surplus on hand in case of success. You can always give extra products away as promotions. Alternatively, you can use Drop Shipping, which allows an Internet merchant to accept orders for products and then pay a manufacturer or distributor to ship the product to the customer. You'll need to find a good market niche, a reliable drop-shipper and a way to drive traffic to your site.

When you are ready to promote your website, you can sign up with the Google's AdSense program which allows Web sites to display relevant ads on their website. If a website visitor "clicks" on an ad, the Web publisher will earn a percentage of any ad revenue generated. To take advantage of this, build content Web sites that attract visitors and hope they click frequently on the ads. You might think of your Web site as the place where people come to shop, but e-mail is the way you keep your business humming. Answering an email in good time is vital to communicate with your customers. However, you don’t need to be sitting in front of your computer all day waiting for emails otherwise you will not get anything else done. Sign up with a Web hosting service that provides you with autoresponders.

You have heard of the old phrase 'Quick is good; instant is better.' Many things on the Internet happen more quickly than they do in the real world. In particular, this applies to the Internet shopper’s time frame for making a decision. You have only a short time to grab somebody’s attention and get their business. Online shoppers like to get instant gratification and be able to quickly purchase their item. To attract visitors to your site you need to provide free information to make it a useful resource that people will want to visit again and again.

When you start a new business choosing the right product to sell is certainly important. But what really matters is your frame of mind going into your online business project. The economy is something you can’t control and sometimes your sales will slow down. There are plenty of people who will be happy to spread gloom and doom. But if you plan to be successful, you will be successful. You can supplement your product sales by generating income through banner advertising or through the Google's AdSense program.

Whatever you decide to sell you must know your product or the service that you are going to provide and promote it energetically. Remember if you don’t believe in your own product it will be hard to convince other people to buy it. Come up with a catchy slogan and put them on your website. Your own enthusiasm will radiate to prospective customers. Plan for success by paying a little extra up front for a top of the line computer and a good Web hosting service with the most features.

The following links may be helpful:

1. Drop ship Directory http://www.sandanco.com/dropship.html

2. Cheap Web Hosting - http://www.myhostgenie.com

3. Dell Computers http://www.dell.com (for PC)

4. Apple - http://www.apple.com (for Mac)