Photo (CC) Justin Grimes, on Flickr

Read anything offering marketing tips and you will be encouraged to learn who your customers are. You want to understand the demographic make-up as well as their likes and dislikes and, of course, what they buy.

Yet, so often that is the end of the effort.

Getting the data can be done with registration information, sales receipts, and even contest applications. You can also ask simple questions, “how can I help you?” or “did you find what you wanted?” It may also come from asking what they like about shopping in your store. And then there are short surveys, a comment box, online engagement polls, etc.

So getting the data is not usually the problem.

Yet, how often do we take the time to dig into the data and look for clues to help us run our business. Do you analyze what it means and then make changes on what you found. And do you remember to thank the customer and tell them what has been done because of their help. (I must take a moment of self-confession. I don’t do any of this as much as I should. Time to up my game.)

In my case, doing this blog allows a number of data points to be collected. One such effort is just looking at the number of people who engage with a blog post.

So I decided to look back on my 2016 blog posts for Small Business Survival. For this first effort, I simply wanted to find my top two posts based on the number of people who commented on them. Engagement could have also been likes but I felt people who commented where especially interested in the topic.

The results were:

1. Your Small Business Needs a Sign – https://smallbizsurvival.com/2016/07/your-small-business-needs-a-sign.html
2. Information Helps Your Small Business Succeed – https://smallbizsurvival.com/2016/06/information-helps-your-small-business-startup-succeed.html

This simple look at the data reinforces survey information that I first gathered in 1996 and at several other points in time. At a broad-brush level, marketing and startup information seem to be of greater interest.

If you look at the second article though, maybe the issue is more of a time management question. It’s important to go deeper than what a quick overview might suggest. This might be a time where additional information is needed – Is it time management that is the issue or do you have some specific startup questions or is it both?

Bottom line, data can move your business forward if (1) you take the time to analyze it; and (2) you act on what you heard.

Thanks for your blog comments, likes, and interactions. They help us focus on what you need. Keep them coming.

Photo (CC) Justin Grimes, on Flickr

A lot has been written about how market research will help you achieve business success, and many of these claims are true.

That connection, however, is not a simple, direct link. Collecting information about your potential market is useful only if you take the next step of analyzing the data.

Data analysis yields clues about who your customers are, what they are buying and problems they face. It provides you with an insight of the benefits they are seeking.

Data analysis begins before you even start collecting the information. Thinking about the questions you want answered. This guides the data you need to collect. Remember to start with data you already may have:

• Customer lists – Do the lists answer how much customers spend, when they buy and what they buy?
• Effectiveness of your marketing – Are your customers responding to your marketing and advertising efforts? If so, what efforts are working best?

Your local chamber of commerce or economic development office will also have information about the trade area and the people who live there.

You also can get information from third-party sources. Trade journals, news magazines and papers, plus writers you find online or in books, often share information about your target market.

Finally, vast amounts of data are available for free from the state and federal government. Here in North Dakota, you might check out ND Compass and the U.S. Census Bureau. Both of these are adding tools to make data analysis easier for anyone.

After having examine the information available, then look for the gaps. Make plans to fill those gaps.

Tools to help collect such information include surveys (paper, oral or electronic); contests structured to provide feedback information; checkout data, such as asking a question or two as a person is checking out; and customer feedback. Data also can come from observation, interviews or simple testing. Data collection can be done one-on-one, in a group or through the mail.

But to this point, your data is just numbers and words. The return for your effort comes from making sense of the information. You can use in-depth statistical packages or textual analysis software. Many business owners start by putting numbers into a spreadsheet and looking at frequencies, charts and graphs. The idea is to see if any trends emerge. The same goes for textual information.

Having others look at your initial findings is helpful. This is a good time to have your mentors and advisers review the information and have some frank conversations about what everyone is seeing. Different interpretations will emerge, giving you greater insight. If you can supplement the numbers with customer conversations, then your analysis will yield even more.

It sounds complicated, but it’s really not. Start simple and build your skills and your database. You don’t have to collect everything at once.

When doing market research, balance what you need with the cost and time required to get it. Don’t forget to take into account your customers’ perspective, how much time are they willing to give and what information might they want to keep private.

Building your business means knowing your customers. Good market research can help you know your customers, so start your effort today.