| The 2nd Step in Marketing: Marketing Research

The 2nd Step in Marketing: Marketing Research

The 2nd Step in Marketing: Marketing Research

By: Julie Goode

Now that you’ve completed the first step in your marketing plan (ideation and brainstorming), it’s time to focus on marketing research.

Lucky for you, this blog post will summarize the steps and ideas to incorporate into this phase!

If you need a refresher on the first step of marketing, check out our latest blog summarizing Ideation and Brainstorming. 

Research Relevant Hashtags:

Before starting any marketing campaign, we recommend you research all relevant hashtags!!

Hashtags show what is popular and give an idea of what people want to see. It’s also important to know what hashtags are relevant so you know to include them to potentially expand your audience.

Bonus: check for banned hashtags too! Search the hashtag you want to use then see if it’s listed in the search results.

 

Check out your demographics using Facebook and Instagram:

You should get in the habit of regularly checking your Facebook or Instagram accounts analytics page in general. It is important to do so, so you can analyze your demographics to get a better idea of who you are marketing to use that data to develop your campaign around who is following your page.

Here is how you can find this data:

Facebook:

  1. Go to Meta Business Suite
  2. Click ‘Insights’
  3. Lastly, click ‘Audience’

Here you can scroll and find where your followers are from, their ages, and their gender.

Instagram:

  1. Go to the Instagram app
  2. Click on your ‘Professional Dashboard’
  3. Choose ‘See All’
  4. Lastly, click ‘Total Followers’

Here you can also find where your followers are from, their ages, and their gender. What’s also nice about this page is that you can also find what days your followers are most active on your account and also what time of the day your page is most active.

Check out a video from our Facebook for a visual explanation of where to find this here.

Company Mission:

What is your company mission?

This can feel like a difficult question because a company mission can feel like a boilerplate/vanilla response.

However, it is critical to understand your company’s mission and to discuss it during the marketing research phase so you don’t stray too far from it.

This will help you get back to the basics and foundation of what your marketing plan is trying to accomplish!

Researching trends:

Do you ever feel stuck on what you should post for your social media marketing? Researching popular trends uncovers insights into what your audience likes to see on social media and can inspire you with ideas for what you can post.

Here are some great places you can find popular trends:

  • Influencers-  These are great people to utilize for examination purposes. They are the “trend starters” of social media. If they are not starting the trends, they are definitely following them.
  • Pinterest- This platform is great for research and inspiration. What’s great about Pinterest is that it provides you with keywords of what is popular right now.
  • TikTok- Although we do not always recommend using TikTok for your social media marketing, this platform initiates many of the popular trends and is a significant place to get some research into what is popular right now.
  • Similar accounts- allow you to see what trends are popular in your industry.

Hosting a focus group:

Hosting a focus group allows you to gather real results in real-time, which is why it’s one of our recommendations under the Marketing & Research phase.

Post a request for participants to join your Facebook or LinkedIn group. You can also send an email out to email subscribers and ask if they’d be interested.

In your group, ask for and be open to feedback. Allow that feedback to marinate as it could help uncover further needs in your marketing campaign.

Remember: This is not the time to push your product or services! Listen, listen, listen. And thank them for their time with a handwritten note, a donation to a nonprofit in their name, or a gift card to a coffee shop of their choice.

Understanding your target audience’s interest:

In order to grasp the attention of your target audience, you are going to want to consider their interests. Do they garden? Are they into fashion? Do they like to fish? From there you can develop your strategy on how you can use this information to market, based on your demographics.

Asking for media kits:

Asking for media kits can be incredibly beneficial in the marketing research phase as it allows you to:

1. Establish relationships with media representatives.
2. Have a clear understanding of which media company can help you with your target market.
3. Allows you to develop an initial idea of costs associated with a print, tv, radio, or outdoor run.

Most digital platforms will provide you with data that you can easily download, check out Spotify’s: https://howtoadvertiseonspotify.com/ 

 

Market research is so important and crucial in developing your marketing campaign. Look out for our next blog where we explain the next step in marketing, developing your marketing budget.

If you have any questions, email us at info@germono.com, follow us on social media as well! We post in-depth videos and explain how to use social media platforms to grow your business.

 

 

Germono Advertising Company Team
info@Germono.com