CrazyLeaf Editorial No one loves the market research process.
Everyone loves to hate market research. It’s understandable because you don’t feel like you’re generating business with it. It’s not as sexy as building your website or measuring the amount of traffic and sales.
Yet, without the solid foundation that market research provides, your website won’t be as successful as it could be.
Read on to learn why market research is a critical part of web design.
Data Science and the Market Research Process
The market research process has become problematic for many marketers. The reason is that there’s too much information available.
All you have to do is a Google search on a specific demographic and you’ll be able to discover a ton of information.
What data science does is filter all of the data available about your target market and make it easy to understand. Data scientists take all of the guesswork out of the market research process for you so you can make better decisions.
Here are nine reasons why the market research process is important to your site’s design.
1. Your Site’s Design Misses the Mark
Failure to do adequate market research can result in your site completely missing the mark with your audience.
For example, if you were designing a site targeted towards Millennials, you’d want to have the right color scheme on your site. The market research process would tell you that Millennials respond to bright optimistic colors, as opposed to neutral tones.
2. Creates Site Cohesion with the Brand
The market research process lets you know exactly what kind of experience your customers want and expect. Starting this process early enough can help you design not just your website, but with your logo and entire brand identity.
Your customers expect a consistent brand experience, whether it’s in your store or on your website. Providing a consistent brand experience leads to higher rates of customer loyalty and more revenue.
3. Your Customer Has a Journey to Take
Your website should be built to take the customer on a journey. Not a long journey, but you need to be clear about how they get from finding your website to the end result you want them to take.
The best way to map out a customer journey is to start with the end result. What do you want the customer to do? Sign up to a list, book a consult, or purchase a product are common actions.
Now work backward. Which pages will they visit and how many times will they visit the site before taking action? How will they get to your site to begin with, through social media, paid ads, or SEO?
Market research will answer all of these questions for you. You’ll understand your customer’s motivations and needs so you can guide them along each step of the journey.
4. Anticipate Customer Needs
How would you like to get into your customers’ heads and predict the future? You can do that with market research.
There’s a field within market research called predictive analytics. This takes data of past consumer behaviors and website visits and looks for patterns. Out of these patterns, assumptions are made about future behaviors.
You’d be wise to look at website usage analytics before designing your site, so you can anticipate what your customer will want not just now, but down the road.
5. Makes Testing Much Easier
Have you ever had to test a website design and have no idea which elements or messages you should test?
Market research will narrow down the possibilities. You know that your customers are going to respond to maybe 3-4 different types of messages. That allows you to work within those guidelines and laser target your testing.
6. The Market Research Process Informs the Marketing Plan
The best thing about the market research process is that if you do it once, you don’t need to do it again for a while.
That data will be relevant to every other aspect of your marketing plan. You’ll be able to know what social media channels they use, how often, and what search terms they use to find your product or service.
7. Stay Two Steps Ahead of Competition
Part of the market research process is about your competition. You need to know what your competitors are up to so you can find new market niches.
You can also understand your customers’ needs so you can serve them at a higher level than your competitors.
8. Make Better Decisions
Do you design sites for a variety of clients? Sometimes, you come across clients who think they know what they want. You know that what they want really isn’t in their best interest.
These are the clients that need to be saved from themselves. It could be a simple thing like not wanting to have a responsive site. You know that this will hurt both SEO and time on site.
That’s where the market research process can help. You’ll be able to show your clients that most of their traffic will come from mobile. You can show them that over 57% of internet traffic comes from mobile, so they’d be missing out on a large part of their audience.
9. Market Research Helps SEO
Doing market research lets you dig deeper into the needs and wants of your audience. That helps you in two ways.
You have a lower bounce rate because people will want to stay on your site. You’ll also have an idea as to how they search for products and services related to your site.
Both of those things will only work to help your SEO.
The Market Research Process Matters
When you start to design a website, it’s tempting to just install a WordPress theme that looks good and do a little customizing. Then, you call it a job well done.
By overlooking the market research process, you’re rolling the dice and hoping for success. Market research tells you everything that you
You’ll build a site that is built for conversions and for traffic. If you’re ready to take the next step in website design, read this guide to start an online boutique.
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