Market research software is used to make better business decisions and analyses based on data. The tool plays an important role in providing a distinct direction by maximizing the two main components of the business: time and money.
To survive in today’s market, what matters is knowing your customers, otherwise, you will not be able to formulate a strategy as an immediate action when sales trends fall, hence the importance of conducting market research.
Let’s get to know a little more about this tool!
What is Market Research Software?
Market research software is a data collection and analysis tool that records objective information about customers, competitors, and the state of the market.
This software often combines survey tools with analysis and reporting capabilities, allowing users to conduct a study, collect results, and turn data into insights, all on a single platform.
Companies use market research software to determine if their products or services meet different types of customer needs.
By leveraging effective market research software, it’s easy to gain actionable insights into market trends, customer spending patterns, competitor performance, and the economic climate.
7 Characteristics of a Market Research Software
Some basic features that a good market research software should provide you with are:
1. Attractive Questionnaires
Market research software should allow you to create custom surveys with your brand colors, fonts, logos, and images that help you engage your audience and adapt to their needs.
2. Online and Offline Access
Market research software allows you to share your surveys on different channels, both online and offline, to increase your visibility.
In this way, respondents can choose the channel that is most comfortable for them, be it email, social networks, web links, or SMS, among others.
They can also count on an offline survey application to collect data even at times and places where there is no Internet.
3. Collection of Valuable Data
Good market research software helps you turn raw collected data into quality information.
This is essential for gathering feedback, which is the whole purpose of market research. Software that includes a robust investigative reporting system and analyzes data at a granular level should be high on your priority list.
4. Easy-to-Use Survey Builder
Ideally, the market research software survey builder should have a simple drag-and-drop interface with an editor so that anyone in the organization can write and update the questions and options.
The best market research tools will have predefined question types so that people with no research experience can choose the ones that work best for them.
More sophisticated platforms also offer features like advanced routing, customizable survey flows, and embedded data, among other options.
5. Distribution of the Survey
The best market research software will give you the flexibility to distribute the same survey to a number of different channels.
There are many ways to distribute the survey and it is advisable for companies to use a mix of channels to reach a broader demographic.
6. Sample of Respondents
Market research software may be able to find your target audience, which is a win-win.
Such market research software provides you with an online panel or mixed methods access to the right audience that would respond to the questionnaire you send them.
7. Instant Access to Respondents
The latest market research software offers instant access to respondents directly on the platform.
Whether you need responses from a sample of the general population or you need to survey a very specific demographic, you can access a panel of respondents on the same platform where you create your survey.
4 Best Market Research Software
There are multiple types of market research software that you can take advantage of at every stage of your project, from desktop research to primary source gathering, analysis, and presentation of results.
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Now let’s introduce you to some of the most accessible, easy, and convenient market research software to use:
1. Google Trends
Google Trends is a good software to know the search trends made by all users on the Internet.
When you enter a term in Google Trends, it shows you how that term has evolved over time and assigns it a score out of 100. You can refine it by the place that interests you the most or by the whole world.
You can also compare different terms to see how they have evolved, as well as compare different terms to see how they behave against each other.
2. Social Mention
Social Mention is a social listening tool that shows real-time data from the main social media platforms.
Whether it’s blogs, videos, or Reddit posts, this handy social media scanner works like a search engine, displaying examples of what you’re looking for on the social network.
Social Mention also offers sentiment analysis and estimates of mentions per minute. This market research tool is a quick and easy way to check what’s happening on social media.
3. Think with Google
Think with Google is a digital research toolset that collects resources from a huge data set from across the web and presents them as insights not typically available elsewhere.
It’s a unique way to see trends, insights, and statistical data. The data is not provided in real-time, but as a library of figures and facts in the form of articles, videos, interviews, case studies, and much more.
4. Statista
Statista is a market research tool specialized in data visualization. It takes care of collecting data from authoritative reports that are present all over the Internet and makes it easy for researchers and other users to understand and digest.
In Statista you can find the specific data related to your sector and create a statistical report on it, which will be much easier to understand.
5 reasons to Use Market Research Software
Conducting know-your-customer studies is necessary for all organizations and using market research software is essential to understand the position or need for a specific product and its value, or to understand the reasons why a specific product dominates the market .
Here are some of the reasons why you should use market research software:
1. Understand Market Segmentation:
Market segmentation helps researchers better understand their target audience. It takes into account some criteria such as demographics, requirements, priorities, common interests of consumers, etc. In addition, psychological and consumer behavior are also important components of this process.
Researchers try to analyze the likelihood of how a respondent responds to a selected market segment. In addition, they analyze what type of desired behavior the respondent demonstrates.
Most often, researchers use a predictive model to group respondents based on their responses to market research survey questions.
2. Improve Product Development
New product development research is a concept used to test and define a business idea to transform a raw product design into a successful product that consumers need and expect.
Conducting a survey using market research software helps researchers understand the basic needs and exploration needs of consumers.
By knowing the pulse of the competition and the environment in which a product must be launched, you can make informed decisions and ensure their success throughout the entire product life cycle.
3. Conduct Competitive Benchmarking
Competitive benchmarking is a process of putting everything in perspective by comparing your business against a set of competitors using a well-designed survey questionnaire.
With survey results, researchers can understand how a business is performing in the real world compared to the competition.
A competitive benchmarking survey needs specialized skills, as researchers must first decide on the KPIs they want to test a specific business against. Most often, this type of market research survey has a targeted audience. These audiences are promoters or representatives of brands.
Real-time data collected through an online survey offers great insight into how a brand is performing against the competition in satisfying consumers. The data collected serves as an inspiration to understand the areas that need improvement and take advantage of the subtle opportunities before the competition.
4. Know Consumer Habits
It is important for any business to understand why consumers are buying their product.
A compelling survey to measure the reasons that influence the purchase decision process of a particular product is a great insight to understand buying behavior.
The behavior gives you an idea of how consumers or organizations perceive and buy a product or service and how they consume it. This relates to the psychology, motivation, and behavior of consumers.
Creating a buying behavior survey is a complicated task, so market research software makes survey creation easy by providing the right templates to track how consumers think and feel about different alternatives.
5. Be Aware of Market Trends
For any company to be successful, it is very important to keep track of where the industry is headed. Analyzing or monitoring industry trends should be a priority.
Market trend analysis is not as scary as it sounds. Researchers do it to understand consumer priorities, how the market reacts, and what strategies should be implemented.
Most researchers prefer online surveys conducted on a regular basis to understand where the market is headed. Market trends, consumer behavior, and competitor benchmarking survey data help a company to predict the future market trend.
The five reasons mentioned above provide good insight for companies that want to know how market research software drives organizational growth.
