Marketing companies are constantly researching to find new trends, come up with better strategies, and create more consumers in order to keep up with the ever-evolving advertising industry. There is a ton of research that goes into effective marketing (more than most people may have thought was necessary), and it is all crucial in providing your client’s — as well as your agency — with the tools necessary to succeed and stand out from the competition.
Research is the key ingredient found in quality content, successful marketing strategies, and effective campaigns. Without it, you’re bound to create something that won’t resonate with consumers. Here is just how much research marketing companies have to do in order to stay at the top of their game.
Primary Research
This is one of the two main types of research that these marketing companies conduct. Primary research is firsthand information that reflects your customers and your market. Primary research can be conducted through organized events such as focus groups, online surveys and phone interviews. As a result, the newfound research provides fresh details on the challenges and interests that your buyers have.
Within primary research are two categories, exploratory and specific. These subcategories are extremely useful when your brand is segmenting your market and establishing your buyer personas. The two seperate types are defined below.
Exploratory Research: This type of primary research tends to focus more on potential problems that would be worth tackling as a tea, rather than focusing on measurable customer trends. This is usually the first step that marketing companies take before any specific research is conducted. It can involve open-ended interviews or small surveys.
Specific Research: This type of research follows exploratory research and is used by marketing companies to look into issues or opportunities that the company has already identified as important. Specific research helps businesses take smaller and more precise segments of their audience.
Secondary Research
Secondary research comes from data and public records that you have access to and use to draw conclusions. Trend reports, market statistics, industry content, and sales data are good examples of secondary research.
When it comes to analyzing your competitors, secondary research is the best form of research. There are three subcategories to secondary research that marketing companies utilize:
Public Sources: These are the first and most accessible form of material that marketing companies will look at when conducting secondary market research. Public sources of secondary information including facts and statistics from sites such as the U.S. Census Bureau¾ basically, any reputable site that can offer helpful and factual information.
Commercial Sources: These sources come in the form of market reports that consists of industry insight that is compiled by research agencies. This information is portable and distributable, but typically costs money to download and obtain.
Internal Sources: This form of research is something that you might already have in-house. Internal sources include the average revenue per sale, customer retention rates, and other historical data.
Marketing companies use these types of research to help clients succeed in competitive industries, and as you can see, it’s so much more than just googling your topic and reading an article about it. If you’re in need of a marketing agency to help your brand do extensive research to create an efficient marketing campaign, make sure to check us out here at Fusion 360 Studios.
