How Market Research Can Work For You

Rey Palmares
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August 23, 2018
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Knowledge is power. Economic power to be exact. There is an entire field of study dedicated to understanding and hopefully predicting the market in the 21st century. While larger companies invest in research teams who study trends and plot possibilities before any big step, one or two business virtual assistants for small to medium business will do. Regardless of the size of their business, entrepreneurs need information to stand a chance in the free market. Time has shown that the most resilient companies are the ones who invest much in research.

How important is market research in today’s market and how does it impact your business?

Knowing the Market

Understanding the economic environment is basic advice when starting a business. You learn later on that this is the end-all, be-all of marketing research. Knowing the market means understanding your clientele, understanding the industry, and understanding your competitors.

Worldwide, we pour in billions of dollars each year for research alone to answer some of the market’s most burning questions: What do your customers usually prefer? What items in your inventory serve as dead weight? How are your competitors fairing in different parts of the state? Would it be more feasible to move into these locations?

All this data feeds decision making and content creation in many platforms and smaller or medium-sized businesses may find it difficult to keep tabs. It helps if you have a research team or business virtual assistant. From the ideal location for your business to the optimal price range, market research goes a long way.

It’s Ever Growing

Market research doesn’t happen once and end altogether. Similar to how the market itself is never actually stagnant, market research data must be reviewed and renewed whenever possible. With the new data, you come up with a marketing plan, implement it, and conduct more research to see where it went wrong, where it went right, and how it can be further improved.

A business virtual assistant can be delegated tasks in reviewing research information. A variety of programs and applications are already in the market but nothing beats old-fashioned statistical research and correlation.

Be Fresh, Be Specific

Marketing research data is only valuable if it’s new and if it directly relates to or answers your business’s concerns. It’s important to be able to narrow down the facts and correctly apply the proper research method within an allowable span of time. Otherwise, you’ll be basing your decisions on obsolete data which may otherwise be foreign to your interests altogether. As the market constantly evolves, so do demographics and trends. Delays in gathering data can lead to missed opportunities and losses for your company.

Entrepreneurship demands time and energy. There are a multitude of factors to take into account and most starters and novices get so swamped that they leave market research for last. A business virtual assistant can help with market research so that the next business decision you make is based on fresh facts and relevant data.

Bio

Writing should be one part informative and one part entertaining. It's what differentiates a generic piece of text from a well-written article. Rey Palmares dedicates much of his time to fine-tune that craft, juggling the joys and frustrations of writing with those of his law school life outside of the office. He's making it work so far.