There’s no doubt that you require lots of research before you go and develop your app. One type of research many tend to overlook is marketing research. Market research and analysis give a lot of insight into your app and the people it’s made for. So how much market research and analysis do you need to do before building your app and what type of research should you do? Well, keep on reading and I’ll tell you all you need to know!
The Importance of Market Research and Analysis
Although it doesn’t appear as important, market research has a big impact on your success. If you don’t promote your products, no one will know it exists and it won’t succeed. It’s also best to get your marketing research done ahead of time. This way you can prepare to advertise it before it launches and be all set to go once it’s live. Not only is it great for advertising, but also, the more you know about your target, the better it is to tackle the final details in development. You’ll be able to better cater to your intended audience.
What is Market Research?
Before we get into the different ways to gather market research, it might be helpful to actually know what it is. Marketing research is the process of gathering information to understand the customer you’re choosing to target. Your goal is to figure out how the customer thinks, what decisions they make and why, and any more information about them that you can gather. This helps you get in their headspace and find clever ways to persuade them to buy what you’re selling.
Understand the Different Research Methods
There are a few types of research methods that’s good to keep in mind. Conducting each type of research will help make your research more thorough and give you all the details you need.
First off is qualitative vs. quantitative research. Quantitative research is gathering data that revolves around statistics. This can be conducted using surveys and questionnaires for a number of people. Meanwhile, qualitative research is data collected by in-depth interviews and observations. It’s good to have a balance between statistics and in-depth responses to provide a good balance for your insights.
Besides qualitative and quantitative research, there’s also primary and secondary research. Primary research is data collected by you specifically. It’s your own discoveries. On the other hand, secondary research is information you gathered from another source. That source is the one that found the original findings. Secondary research is great for your findings but if you’re looking for something more specific, it’s best to conduct your own primary research.
So What Are the Different Aspects of Market Research?
There are a few different areas to explore while developing your insights. This includes analyzing your target, the competition, and your company.
1. Target Audience
There is a lot of useful information you can gain from researching your target. First, you’ll want to specifically decide who they are. For example, it’s not enough to just say that they’re men. Older veterans? College men? Men who love going to the gym? Get as specific as you can. After specifying this, you’ll want to do as much research as you can on their psychology. Besides how they think, how do they live their everyday lives? What are their habits?
2. Analyzing the Competitors
After you figure out what market you fall in, check out other people who are selling the same type of service. See what they’re doing, how they’re marketing, and to whom. This can help you plan out where you want to stand in the market compared to them.
3. SWOT Analysis
A SWOT analysis is a 4-part chart where each section focuses on either your business’ strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. A SWOT analysis is a great tool to see your business’ strengths and weaknesses internally as well as compared to competition. When everything is displayed in front of you, try and find solutions for any weaknesses and ways to avoid the threats. It’s good to get those out of the way before you start developing your app.
Develop Your Insights
You thought the job was done? Think again. Now that you’ve done your market research and analysis, it’s time to form your insights. Research is just a bunch of facts. But It doesn’t mean much to your business. Take what you’ve learned and figure out how it connects to your business. You can find ways to use the information to improve your business activities and have it benefit your business plan.
For example, Huggies found out that it’s crucial to have skin-to-skin contact between a mother and father and their baby. So Huggies developed a campaign revolving around the power of hugs. This campaign successfully fits the brand (especially considering the same of the brand) and it also targets the right crowd.
Create a Pre-launch Campaign
The research is officially done. Go ahead and create your marketing campaign. Use this campaign to promote your app before it’s released. This will help bring lots of attention beforehand which will make the launch that much more successful. Make sure to schedule everything accordingly to properly line up with the launch.
And there you have it! All the research elements to get done before getting started on your app. Although marketing seems like the final step, the research can benefit your app and clean up anything you missed. Knowing what your audience wants is so important and allows you to cater your app to the right people. So go ahead and get researching!
Is this too much for you? Not to worry! Here at Siva, we’re pros at marketing. Reach out and we’ll get started!