Market Surveys: Speaking to Consumers

In order to fain an understand of what people want or how they feel about certain product and ideas, companies use market surveys to gather data. This data can then be used on advertisements strategies, product development, or establishing a market. While market surveys are helpful, it is unlikely that your small business will be able to afford on of the big marketing firms. For this reason, I have gathered and thought of some ways to do your own market survey:

Email: Probably the easiest and most convenient for both parties, emails can be the "fire and forget" method. Asking customers to leave their email in exchange for small discounts can be a great way to 1) build up your database of potential survey-takers and 2) build customer loyalty. I recommend the email method most. Think about it: how many companies currently have your email?

Telephone: phone numbers are easy to get but more labor intensive. Instead of sending a mass email, business will have to call each number on their list, which takes time. Also, many people forward numbers they do not recognize. Numbers can be effective to gather market information, but it is a longer, more difficult process.

Mail: Probably the slowest method, mail can be used to conduct the same surveys. However, companies must rely on customer to their mail the surveys back or bring them to a physical location. For this method, it is highly recommended to give customers an incentive to do so. Mail can be easy to manage and it relatively easy to send off. The return is largely uncertain.

In-store Survey: a great way to gauge how your customers feel is to simply ask them. Having paper surveys in your store can be a quick and easy way for your customers to give feedback. Unfortunately, the delivery of this is fairly limited. You can only reach the people in the store.

Most important for collecting this data is be openly grateful for what consumers give you. If offering incentives is possible, do it. Keep in mind, only the willing will be giving you information. Sometimes purchasing data or doing independent research will be necessary.