How to Jumpstart Your Market Research–For Pennies, or For Nothing
Here are some quick and easy no-cost ways to begin market research, beginning with your own customers–which I would certainly do before bringing in a firm for more professional results. That way, if you need outside help, the firm will have more guidance about where to start and what to look at, and you’ll benefit both from having the original results immediately and second by getting a deeper level of consulting later:
different department numbers or PO boxes on direct-mail offers to measure
responses to many promotions
business, ask how the customer learned about you, and why s/he chose to do
business with you
focus group (the title of my sixth book and the content of my seventh were heavily influenced by no-cost online focus grouping, and both products are stronger as a result).
Next month: How to put this information into practice.