5 Ways Market Research Can Improve Your Digital Marketing

5 Ways Market Research Can Improve Your Digital Marketing

Digital marketing channels and tools are growing by leaps and bounds (based on their share of the typical brand marketing budget). A recent IAB research on Advertising Spend and Revenue shows that in the United States alone, over three-quarters of current media budgets will be in digital media. eMarketer Insider Intelligence projects digital advertising spending more than double, from $152 billion in 2020 to over $315 billion in 2025.

The Value of Marketing Research

But to get the most out of it, market research goes hand-in-hand with digital marketing. Doing market research as a first step before a new campaign or marketing strategy can pay huge dividends in avoiding miss-steps and maximizing your ROI. Gathering consumer preferences and current market trends before promoting a brand, product, or service can help an organization target the right audience, with compelling messages, through the optimal media.

Here are 5 questions that marketing research can answer to improve your digital marketing programs – and their effectiveness:

1. Who is the right consumer for my product?

Through market research, you can identify your target market, narrowing it down through a range of details, including demographic information, preferences, purchase history, expectations, and wants. Then you can segment your audience based on different variables to highlight the differences between various groups and rank the segments based on their value to your brand.

Some of the specific questions that market research can answer about your consumers are:

• What do consumers value about my product?
• How do consumers perceive my product to be different from my competitors?
• Why do customers choose my product?
• What factors are most important in purchasing my product?
• What would it take to get customers to purchase more or more often?

2. What content and information do my customers want?

Digital marketing intends to push users to your website. You want visitors to go to your website to gather additional information, answer their questions, and ultimately purchase your product. Conducting market research helps you understand exactly what customers want and need to see, read, and experience on your website. You can create highly targeted messages based on your audience’s wants and needs based on the information you collected.

Further, using market research, tactical strategies can be designed specifically to target messages to different target segments. For example, you may choose to use message B to target audience D or message C to target audience A to maximize the effectiveness of the marketing.

Connecting with the audience is essential in digital marketing. The way to do that is by knowing your customers intimately and delivering precisely the information and experience they want and need. By garnering trust, you will increase your digital marketing effectiveness.

3. What channels will work the best?

Market research enables marketers to determine the optimal media mix. You want to spend your marketing budget where your customers spend their time. Not every social media platform is suitable for all brands, and it is essential to note which sites are relevant or have more engagement to avoid unnecessary resource-spending. Another question is whether your brand’s image fits with that channel. You can also conduct surveys to determine which places or websites the consumers have seen or heard about the brand. Digital marketers can then focus on these channels and spend their marketing budget productively.

4. How are my customers changing?

Consumer preferences change from time to time, so the insights you gathered previously may no longer be relevant or correct. Therefore, it is important to monitor consumers’ behaviors to ensure that your digital marketing will remain effective. Again, market research makes this process easier by monitoring and listening to the consumer leading to a better understanding of current trends and topics.

5. How do I rate against my competitors?

Your competitors are investing in digital marketing. So, you must meet them in the digital marketplace if you are going to stay in business. However, marketing research can help you keep tabs on what your competitors are doing and how consumers are reacting. Then, marketing research can help you design the strategies you will need to meet your competitors and develop a competitive advantage over them.

Summary

Digital marketing plays an integral part in business as it offers a more efficient marketing method than traditional methods. With the right digital marketing plan, an organization can get ahead of the competition and increase the number of consumers they reach online. However, it’s unlikely your digital marketing strategy will reach its potential without market research. Conduct market research to help your organization formulate an effective digital marketing plan and strengthen your virtual presence.

Is your digital strategy as effective as it can be? Or are you leaving money on the table?

Contact OvationMR for market research to optimize your digital results?