Boost your market performance with Marketing Research

Marketing Research is often neglected by many industrial companies.

Do you know everything there is to know about your customers, prospects, and the industries they serve? Really? No Way!

After conducting many types of market research studies for our clients, we have uncovered 5 ways marketing research can boost your market performance – these include:

1 – Marketing Research can help you understand where your brand is positioned today and how it could be strengthened moving forward.

As markets evolve and customer requirements become more complex, industrial brands often lose to low cost and overseas competitors. Whatever your competitor may be offering, you first need to understand why your customer is considering alternatives, how they make their purchase decisions, and why.

Some key research questions to consider:

• What are your customer’s key challenges?
• What are they excited about and how can you help?
• What is working and what is losing relevance in their business?
• Are your offerings hitting the mark?
• Where could your business improve?
• How would they rate your business, compared to others? Why?

2 – Marketing Research can unlock your brand promise.

Markets become commoditised because we allow them to. If customer value is not delivered, you become irrelevant, and the lowest price dictates.

Unlocking customer value in a commodity market can be achieved by using sales and marketing creativity. It is about unlocking your brand promise. Communicating what matters to your customer in their language.

3 – Marketing Research can help you refine your customer value proposition.

Your value proposition is a simple statement about your brand, benefits, and customer value you aim to deliver. Allow your customers to develop this with you. Find out why they deal with you and what matters to their business.

Then you can craft your value proposition in your customers’ language – not yours. This will ensure relevance and impact.

4 – Marketing Research can support you with your content and what marketing channels you should use.

Find out where your customers hang out? What do they listen to, read, and watch and why?

Then be there and communicate in a pain-free, low-cost, and memorable way. Make your marketing content count and deliver a strong message.

5 – Marketing Research can assist you with business strategy execution.

If your marketing research efforts aren’t linked to your business strategy you aren’t working towards a set of measurable objectives. Your marketing research must support your growth plans and financial goals.

Marketing research will allow you to do this in a tactical manner by working on the things that matter to your customers first to then deliver the financial results.

Marketing Research Can Boost Market Performance

Your brand is your identity. Your presence and your reputation. Winning brands have strong customer relationships. Struggling brands lose sight of their customer’s challenges and needs.

Marketing Research will help you identify your customer’s greatest challenges and deepest requirements.

The stronger the connection your brand has to your customer the more effective the marketing work you execute will become.

Great marketing research will help you to create and deliver benefit-led messaging. Conducted via qualitative (interviews/focus groups) and/or quantitative (online surveys/pulse studies) methods – the findings and insights delivered can prove to be the key to your market success.

If you’d like some help with your approach to industrial marketing, let’s chat.

Download: Industrial Marketing Research Guide

Other Reading: In market research, use numbers with caution

INDUSTRIAL MARKETING
RESEARCH GUIDE

Learn how to uncover key insights to assist with your marketing strategy, planning, and campaign execution. We’ll help you lay the foundation to develop an effective research strategy by selecting the appropriate approach.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Peter Zafiris is an industrial marketer and founder of Industrial Ideas. Having built his experience in B2B marketing from the ground up, Peter understands what it takes to succeed with your marketing strategy. All client projects are personally managed by Peter to help industrials like you get the return on investment you deserve. Peter and team, work hard to become an extension of your business, to help you get the most out of your marketing efforts. Get your free 30 minute marketing consultation to learn more.