Writing a market research report is a tough skill to master. Read our 5 top tips to get you started for writing a successful market research report. Show
While data collection and results analysis can be highly in-depth and time-consuming processes to complete, they still only mark the beginning of your market research project. The next step is writing a market research report, which is a tough skill to master. The report must effectively communicate your research findings such as consumer trends, market trends, and competitor behaviour surrounding your target audience. A market research report is a summary of research findings and insights uncovered during the data collection and analysis processes. Research reports usually contain information about a company’s competition, industry trends/opportunities, and recommendations for next steps based on the research questions being addressed. A good research report helps guide decision-making and highlight market opportunities. You should be clear and concise but also detailed and comprehensive, keeping in mind that stakeholders must be able to interpret your findings with ease. This is no easy task, which is why we have listed our 5 top tips to get you started for writing a successful market research report. Use language stakeholders can understandYour market research report will be presented to many stakeholders, not all of which will have a strong understanding of market research terms, so it is important that you write in clear, simple language. Do not assume stakeholders will understand without explanation, for example, all diagrams should be clearly labelled and accurately describe what they are displaying. It is helpful to imagine you are writing the research report for a reader who has no prior knowledge on the topic to ensure you are explaining your findings comprehensively. Report on insights through storytellingWriting a seamless research report is not only easier to read but also ensures you have covered all necessary elements. Work chronologically to unpack your research — What is it about? What did you discover? What should you do next? Your research report should build upon your “story” the further it reads and further support your final recommendations. Share insights through visual reportingVisual elements such as diagrams and charts deliver numerical information more clearly than writing. They also help to break up text and keep the reader engaged with the research report and can be easily referenced during presentations. Similarly, images and icons can be used to draw attention to certain findings and make formatting more presentable. Turn data into actionable insightsData is meaningless to stakeholders unless it is interpreted and presented with a set of actions or “next steps”. Your goal is to explain how the data you have collected can drive smart business decisions and why these decisions are the best course of action. Outline step-by-step connections to ensure all readers can clearly understand the relationship between data and action. Avoid vague reportingIt is important to keep your research report brief, including only the most substantial points you want to communicate. All reporting must be supplemented with firm evidence and written in an assertive tone to convey certainty of your findings. Keep recommendations clear and concise, without straying too far from your main points — writing that goes off on tangents can distract from your main points. There is nothing more embarrassing for a marketer than to hear a client say “…this doesn’t quite address the business questions that we need to answer.” And unfortunately, this is a rather common occurrence in market research reporting that most marketers would care to admit. So, why do most market research reports fail to meet client expectations? Well, in most cases, because there is more emphasis on methodology and analytic techniques used to craft the report rather than relying on data visualization, creative story-telling, and outlining actionable direction/steps. Now, our next big question is, how do you avoid your client’s dreaded deer-in-the-headlights reaction when presenting such a report? This blog post will answer this and much more, as we go through the following: What Is a Market Research Report?The purpose of creating a market research report is to make calculated decisions about business ideas. Market research is done to evaluate the feasibility of a new product or service, through research conducted with potential consumers. The information obtained from conducting market research is then documented in a formal report that should contain the following details:
Why is Market Research Important?Every business aims to provide the best possible product or service at the lowest cost possible. Simply said, market research is important because it helps you understand your customers and determine whether the product or service that you are about to launch is worth the effort. Here is an example of a customer complaint that may result in more detailed market research: Suppose you sell widgets, and you want your widget business to succeed over the long term. Over the years, you have developed many different ways of making widgets. But a couple of years ago, a customer complained that your widgets were made of a cheap kind of foam that fell apart after six months. You didn’t think at the time that this was a major problem, but now you know it. The customer is someone you really want to keep. So, you decide to research this complaint. You set up a focus group of people who use widgets and ask them what they think about the specific problem. After the conducted survey you’ll get a better picture of customer opinions, so you can either decide to make the changes regarding widget design or just let it go. PRO TIP: How Well Are Your Marketing KPIs Performing?Like most marketers and marketing managers, you want to know how well your efforts are translating into results each month. How much traffic and new contact conversions do you get? How many new contacts do you get from organic sessions? How are your email campaigns performing? How well are your landing pages converting? You might have to scramble to put all of this together in a single report, but now you can have it all at your fingertips in a single Databox dashboard. Our Marketing Overview Dashboard includes data from Google Analytics and HubSpot Marketing with key performance metrics like:
Now you can benefit from the experience of our Google Analytics and HubSpot Marketing experts, who have put together a plug-and-play Databox template that contains all the essential metrics for monitoring your leads. It’s simple to implement and start using as a standalone dashboard or in marketing reports, and best of all, it’s free! You can easily set it up in just a few clicks – no coding required. To set up the dashboard, follow these 3 simple steps: Step 1: Get the template Step 2: Connect your HubSpot and Google Analytics accounts with Databox. Step 3: Watch your dashboard populate in seconds. Differences Between Primary and Secondary Market ResearchMarketing research requires both primary and secondary market research. But what does that mean and what are the main differences? Primary market research takes in information directly from customers, usually as participants in surveys. Usually, it is consisted of:
Secondary market research collects information from other sources such as databases, trend reports, market or government statistics, industry content, etc. We can divide secondary market research into 3 categories:
In general, primary research is more reliable than secondary research, because researchers have to interview people directly. But primary research is expensive and time-consuming. Secondary research can be quicker and less expensive. Types of Market ResearchThere are plenty of ways to conduct marketing research reports. Mostly, the type of research done will depend on your goals. Here are some types of market research often conducted by marketers. InterviewsAn interview is an interactive process of asking and answering questions and observing your respondent’s responses. Interviews are one of the most commonly used tools in market research. An interview allows an organization to observe, in detail, how its consumers interact with its products and services. It also allows an organization to address specific questions. Focus GroupsA focus group is a group of people who get together to discuss a particular topic. A moderator leads the discussion and takes notes. The main benefit of focus groups is that they are quick and easy to conduct. You can gather a group of carefully-selected people, give them a product to try out, and get their feedback within a few hours/days. Product/Service Use ResearchProduct or service use research helps you obtain useful information about your product or service such as:
Observation-Based ResearchObservation-based research helps you to observe your target audience interacting with your product or service. You will see the interactions and which aspects work well and which could be improved. The main point is to directly experience the feedback from your target audience’s point of view. Buyer Persona ResearchPersonas are an essential sales tool. By knowing your buyers’ pain points and the challenges they face, you can create better content, target messaging, and campaigns for them. Buyer persona research is based on market research, and it’s built around data that describes your customers’ demographics, behaviors, motivations, and concerns. Market Segmentation ResearchMarket segmentation research is carried out to better understand existing and potential market segments. The objective is to determine how to target different market segments and how they differ from each other. The three most important steps in writing a market segmentation research report are:
Related: 9 Customer Segmentation Tips to Personalize Ecommerce Marketing and Drive More Sales Pricing ResearchA price that is too high, or too low, can kill a business. And without good market research, you don’t really know what is a good price for your product. Pricing research helps you define your pricing strategy. Competitive Analysis ResearchIn a competitive analysis, you define your “competition” as any other entity that competes with you in your market, whether you’re selling a widget or a piece of real estate. With competitive analysis research, you can find out things like:
Related: How to Do an SEO Competitive Analysis: A Step-by-Step Guide Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty ResearchIn today’s marketplace, companies are increasingly focused on customer loyalty. What your customers want is your product, but, more importantly, they want it delivered with a service that exceeds their expectations. Successful companies listen to their customers and respond accordingly. That’s why customer satisfaction and loyalty research is a critical component of that basic equation. Related: 11 Tactics for Effectively Measuring Your Customer Service ROI Brand Awareness ResearchWho you are, what you stand for, what you offer, what you believe in, and what your audience thinks of you is all wrapped up in brand. Brand awareness research tells what your target audience knows about your brand and what’s their experience like. Campaign ResearchA campaign research report is a detailed account of how your marketing campaign performed. It includes all the elements that went into creating the campaign: planning, implementation, and measurement. Market Research Reports Advantages and DisadvantagesHere are some of the top advantages and disadvantages of doing market research and crafting market research reports. Advantages
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How to Do Market ResearchHere are the essential steps you need to take when doing market research: Define your buyer personaThe job of a marketing persona is to describe your ideal customer and to tell you what they want, what motivates them, what frustrates them, and what limits them. Finding out these things means you have a better chance of designing your products, services, marketing messages, and brand around real customers. There is no one right way to create a buyer persona, though. For example, if you’re in an industry focused on education, you could include things like:
It’s recommended that you create 3-5 buyer personas for your products, based on your ideal customer. Identify a persona group to engageThis should be a representative sample of your target customers so you can better understand their behavior. You want to find people who fit both your target personas and who represent the broader demographic of your market. People who recently made a purchase or purposefully decided not to make one are a good sample to start with. Prepare research questions for your market research participantsThe questions you use determine the quality of your results. Of course, the quality of your results also depends on the quality of your participants. Don’t ask questions that imply a yes or no answer. Instead, use open questions. For example, if you are researching customers about yogurt products, you could ask them: „What have you heard about yogurt?” or “What do you think of yogurt?“. Avoid questions that use numbers, such as “How many times a week do you eat yogurt?” Avoid questions that suggest a set of mutually exclusive answers, such as “Do you like yogurt for breakfast, lunch, or dinner?” Avoid questions that imply a scale, such as “Do you like chocolate-flavored yogurt?” List your primary competitorsMarket researchers sometimes call one company the top competitor, another middle competitor, and the third one small competitor. However you classify them, you want to identify at least three companies in each category. Now, for each business on your list, list its key characteristics. For example, if your business sells running shoes, a key characteristic might be the product’s quality. Next, make a list of your small business’s competitive advantages. These include the unique qualities or features of your business that make it the best choice of customers for the products or services it offers. Make a list of these competitive advantages and list them next to the key characteristics you listed for your business. Summarize your findingsYou have just finished writing your marketing research report. Everything is out there quantified or qualified. You just have to sum it up and focus on the most important details that are going to make a big impact on your decisions. Clear summary leads to a winning strategy! Related: How to Prepare a Complete Marketing Report: The KPIs, Analysis, & Action Plan You Need How to Prepare a Market Research Report: 5 StepsHere’s how to prepare a market research report in 5 simple steps: Step 1: Cluster the dataYour first step is to cluster all the available information into a manageable set. Clustering is the process of grouping information together in a way that emphasizes commonalities and minimizes differences. So, in market research, this will help to organize all the information you have about a product, service, or target market and identify your focus areas. Step 2: Prepare an outlineA marketing research report should be written so that other people can understand it:
Step 3: Mention the research methodsThe market research methodology section includes details on the type of research, sample size, any limitations of the studies, research design, sample selection, data collection procedures, and statistical analyses used. Step 4: Include visuals with narrative explanationsVisuals are an essential part of the presentation. Even the best-written text can be difficult to understand. Charts and graphs are easier to understand than text alone, and they help the reader see how the numbers fit the bigger picture. But visuals are not the whole story. They are only one part of the presentation. Visuals are a cue for the reader. The narrative gives the story, not just the numbers. Step 5: Conclude the report with recommendationsRecommendations tend to follow logically from conclusions and are a response to a certain problem. The recommendation should always be relevant to the research rationale, that is, the recommendation should be based on the results of the research reported in the body of the report. Marketing Research Report TemplatesNow, let’s take a look at some dashboard reporting templates you could use to enhance your market research: Semrush (Position Tracking) Report TemplateThis free SEMRush dashboard template will help you monitor how your website’s search visibility on search engines evolves on a monthly basis. This dashboard contains all of the information you need to make changes and improve the ranking results of your business in Google Search. Brand Awareness ReportThis Brand Awareness Report will help you to get a sense of your brand awareness performance in Google Analytics, Google Organic Search, and Facebook. Use this dashboard to track brand awareness the same way you track other marketing campaigns. Sales Pipeline Performance ReportAre your sales and marketing funnel healthy and growing? How is your sales and marketing funnel performing? What are the key conversion rates between your lifecycle stages? With a pipeline performance dashboard, you’ll get all of the answers quickly. Customer Success Overview ReportThis Customer Success Overview Dashboard allows you to analyze how your customer service team’s responsiveness impacts your business. Use this dashboard to assess the correlation between your customer service performance and churn rate. Stripe (MRR & Churn) ReportThis Stripe dashboard tracks your churn rate and MRR growth in real-time and shows you which customers (and how many of them) you have at any given point in time. All you have to do to get started is to connect your Stripe account. Marketing Research Reports Best PracticesAs we said earlier, there are no strict rules when it comes to writing marketing research reports. On the other hand, you must find your focus if you want to write a report that will make a difference. Here are some best practices you should keep in mind when writing a research report.
Bring Your Market Research Reports a Step Further with DataboxMarket research reports are all about presenting your data in an easy-to-understand way and making calculated decisions about business ideas. But this is something easier said than done. When busy stakeholders and executives grab a report, they need something that will give them an idea of the results – the big picture that addresses company wide-business goals. Can a PowerPoint presentation or a PDF report meet those expectations? Most likely not. But a dashboard can. Keep in mind that even with the best market analysis in the world, your market research report won’t be actionable if you don’t present the data efficiently and in a way that everyone understands what the next steps are. Databox is your key ally in the matter. Databox dashboards are designed to help you present your market research data with clarity – from identifying what is influencing your business, and understanding where your brand is situated in the market, to gauging the temperature of your niche or industry before a new product/service launch. Present your research results with efficient, interactive dashboards now by signing up for a free trial. Why is the conclusion and recommendation important in the research?The function of your paper's conclusion is to restate the main argument. It reminds the reader of the strengths of your main argument(s) and reiterates the most important evidence supporting those argument(s).
What is conclusions and recommendations in research?The interpretations given by the researcher of the significance of the findings of a research project for the client's business, along with recommendations for action.
What should be included in a market research report?Your market research report should include all market data, that's relevant to your client. This could be trends, consumer behavior, and competitive analysis.
Why is a research recommendation important?Recommendations are arguably the most important part of the analysis phase—this is where you'll suggest specific interventions or strategies to address the issues and constraints identified in the assessment. Recommendations should directly respond to key findings arrived at through data collection and analysis.
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