Small businesses can offer something multinationals do not have, such as a stronger relationship with customers, customized and unique services and products. The more time passes, the more people are looking for original, sustainable products and companies that are respectful of the environment. It is easier for small businesses to meet these criteria, so they have a better chance of reaching a specific target. To attract these people it is possible to carry out surveys, or web assisted interviews that can be used to understand what your audience likes.
Creating a survey is not difficult if you use the right tools, such as CAWI software, a survey module with which you can create customized questionnaires, select a theme and insert a particular logo or layout. Compared to free tools, professional software creates surveys for every type of device and platform, quickly and intuitively. Carrying out a market analysis with traditional methods can be very complex, especially since you need a lot of resources and a dedicated team. Thanks to online surveys, there is no need for all of this, because the data is easily extracted and can be used immediately. But how to effectively carry out market analysis for small businesses?
Define a target audience
Knowing which audience to address is essential for carrying out a market analysis. The needs of a teenager are different from those of an adult or an elderly person, so it is important to understand what the age of your customers is and what their needs are. Even if a company knows its target and the target market, it may not know exactly what its interests are, where it lives, what problems it may have or what its desires are. Every detail is important to define your target and be able to reach it. The goal is to dig deeper and understand what the needs of these people are, which can be identified as important for the company. This information can be obtained by processing the correct, precise and coherent questions to ask in the web assisted interview. Without a reference target, it is not possible to create an effective marketing strategy, because it would be completely confusing and it would not be easy even to carry out a precise data analysis. The more information you have, the easier it will be to conduct valuable business surveys.
Know your competitors
If you don’t know your market, you can’t position yourself. To understand which aspects need to be worked on and which are not important, it is essential to do research on competitors. Why should a customer choose one company and not another that offers the same products or services? What makes the difference? Communication. Values. Price. Professionalism. Customer service. These are just some of the aspects that can be decisive for bringing a company to success. In order to understand which strategy to implement, it is necessary to check what are the shortcomings of the competitors, in order to be able to act better than them. To do this research you can rely on user reviews, so as to understand if they are satisfied with the service of competitors, what they complain about and what they expect. Another thing that can be done is to analyze the competitor’s social profiles. Are they professional? Something is missing? Could they be better? The web is a vast and competitive world, so it is also important to check whether the competitor appears in the search engine and where it is positioned. Appearing in Google’s top results for a given keyword and beating competitors could bring many benefits.
How to reach new customers
To reach new customers you need to satisfy their needs: offer a new product, modify an old one, be more flexible on shipping costs, add more sizes in a store, keep social channels more active. There are many ways that can be useful to reach new customers, not all of them are immediate but over time it is possible to see satisfactory results. Usually the more elaborate the marketing strategy is, the more it can guarantee long-term results. Of course, you also need to consider where to show your marketing material. In the event that the activity is offline, flyers or posters can be hung in the places frequented by the target audience (for example, if the target is young you can go to gyms or schools), while for online marketing you can opt for social media or websites related to the target industry. However, choosing channels suitable for the target audience is mandatory: for example Facebook is used more by people aged 40-70, Instagram by Millennials and Tik Tok by Generation Z. These are all social media, but refer to a very different audience: this distinction is crucial in a marketing strategy. With a web assisted interview, instead you can reach baby-boomers and older people more easily.
