What’s the Importance of Market Research?

Marketing / 26 Oct 2021

You’ve constructed your ideal client avatar, you know your USP, and you’ve written your marketing plan. Now it’s time to enlist professional copywriting services to craft those all-important words that turn prospects into paying clients, right? 

Not quite. So many businesses miss a crucial step in their marketing strategy.

Their ideal buyers are fictional or an amalgamation of existing clients. Their USP is based on their best guess, and the activities of their competitors heavily influence their plan. Their resulting marketing strategy is built on creative writing at one moment in time.

Not yours, because we’ve got your back.

Read any book or take any course on digital marketing. We guarantee that the first lesson will involve identifying your audience and understanding their unique needs.

The only truly effective way to do this is by talking to your clients directly. An approach based on facts, not fiction, is the smart move to retain your agency’s competitive edge and keep your finger firmly on the pulse.

Why Market Research Matters

Only once you understand your audience, market, and ideal customer can you write in a way that speaks to them clearly.

A successful conversion from prospect to client requires copywriting that effectively speaks to your ideal client’s values, needs, and wants. To do their best work, provide outstanding copywriting services, and deliver killer results, copywriters need cold, hard facts.

Involving your clients as willing market research participants is a no-brainer. They’re the best people to ask because they’ve already converted from prospect to client – a word of caution. Don’t just ask any Tom, Dick, or Harry. Ensure the clients you involve match your ideal client criteria.

For the best results, ask them about:

•     Their motivations for choosing your business and service(s) over your competitors
•     How they use your services now
•     What associated services they’d be interested in
•     Current business and industry challenges
•     Future plans for their business, and
•     Likely future developments in their industry.

Research Means You’re Able To:

1. Understand Your Market Better

Market research identifies key traits, preferences, similarities, and differences between existing clients, of which you were previously unaware.

Specificity is key.

Unforeseen similarities and differences help you to identify new clients, as well as subsets in your existing pool. Your new information may lead to a revision of your existing ideal client avatar or the creation of a new one to target.

2. Service Your Existing Clients Better

Continuously learning about your client’s pain points and how they morph over time enables you to improve existing services in response to demand and brainstorm new services to develop.

The better you understand how problems change, the more quickly you can predict client needs for add-on services ahead of the curve. Identifying new problems to solve and new services to sell gives you the opportunity to upsell on a silver platter.

3. Make Informed Decisions Based on Data

Entrepreneurial success comes down to your ability to gather intelligence, make sound decisions based on data, and strategise accordingly.

Market research is that data. Used well, it will inform your marketing strategy, your service offering, and your business direction.

Market Research is an Ongoing Process

Your sales increase when you understand your clients well enough to speak directly to their most significant pain points and offer a cohesive, convenient solution.

Conversion-worthy copywriting that stands the test of time requires factual, up-to-date information because clients’ needs and wants evolve as their businesses mature.

Market research must be a systematic process, not a one-off activity. It’s your responsibility as an agency to adapt to the times and identify new needs ahead of your ideal client.

Regular research and routinely revisiting your copywriting ensures that it continues to speak to the right people, about the right things, in a way that matters to them.

Research Your Way to Success

Does your agency need help to construct or conduct market research? Does your business need support to strategise in response to changing client needs? Or maybe you’d like some SEO or white label copywriting services?

Give us a call today.