One of the most underrated skills you can have as a marketer is marketing research — which is great news for this unapologetic cyber sleuth.
One of the most underrated skills you can have as a marketer is marketing research — which is great news for this unapologetic cyber sleuth.
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From brand design and product development to buyer personas and competitive analysis, I’ve researched a number of initiatives in my decade-long marketing career.
And let me tell you: having the right marketing research methods in your toolbox is a must.
Market research is the secret to crafting a strategy that will truly help you accomplish your goals. The good news is there is no shortage of options.
How to Choose a Marketing Research Method
Thanks to the Internet, we have more marketing research (or market research) methods at our fingertips than ever, but they’re not all created equal. Let’s quickly go over how to choose the right one.
1. Identify your objective.
What are you researching? Do you need to understand your audience better? How about your competition? Or maybe you want to know more about your customer’s feelings about a specific product.
Before starting your research, take some time to identify precisely what you’re looking for. This could be a goal you want to reach, a problem you need to solve, or a question you need to answer.
For example, an objective may be as foundational as understanding your ideal customer better to create new buyer personas for your marketing agency (pause for flashbacks to my former life).
Or if you’re an organic sode company, it could be trying to learn what flavors people are craving.
2. Determine what type of data and research you need.
Next, determine what data type will best answer the problems or questions you identified. There are primarily two types: qualitative and quantitative. (Sound familiar, right?)
- Qualitative Data is non-numerical information, like subjective characteristics, opinions, and feelings. It’s pretty open to interpretation and descriptive, but it’s also harder to measure. This type of data can be collected through interviews, observations, and open-ended questions.
- Quantitative Data, on the other hand, is numerical information, such as quantities, sizes, amounts, or percentages. It’s measurable and usually pretty hard to argue with, coming from a reputable source. It can be derived through surveys, experiments, or statistical analysis.
Understanding the differences between qualitative and quantitative data will help you pinpoint which research methods will yield the desired results.
For instance, thinking of our earlier examples, qualitative data would usually be best suited for buyer personas, while quantitative data is more useful for the soda flavors.
However, truth be told, the two really work together.
Qualitative conclusions are usually drawn from quantitative, numerical data. So, you’ll likely need both to get the complete picture of your subject.
For example, if your quantitative data says 70% of people are Team Black and only 30% are Team Green — Shout out to my fellow House of the Dragon fans — your qualitative data will say people support Black more than Green.
(As they should.)
Primary Research vs Secondary Research
You’ll also want to understand the difference between primary and secondary research.
Primary research involves collecting new, original data directly from the source (say, your target market). In other words, it’s information gathered first-hand that wasn’t found elsewhere.
Some examples include conducting experiments, surveys, interviews, observations, or focus groups.
Meanwhile, secondary research is the analysis and interpretation of existing data collected from others. Think of this like what we used to do for school projects: We would read a book, scour the internet, or pull insights from others to work from.
So, which is better?
Personally, I say any research is good research, but if you have the time and resources, primary research is hard to top. With it, you don’t have to worry about your source’s credibility or how relevant it is to your specific objective.
You are in full control and best equipped to get the reliable information you need.
3. Put it all together.
Once you know your objective and what kind of data you want, you’re ready to select your marketing research method.
For instance, let’s say you’re a restaurant trying to see how attendees felt about the Speed Dating event you hosted last week.
You shouldn’t run a field experiment or download a third-party report on speed dating events; those would be useless to you. You need to conduct a survey that allows you to ask pointed questions about the event.
This would yield both qualitative and quantitative data you can use to improve and bring together more love birds next time around.
Best Market Research Methods for 2024
Now that you know what you’re looking for in a marketing research method, let’s dive into the best options.
Note: According to HubSpot’s 2024 State of Marketing report, understanding customers and their needs is one of the biggest challenges facing marketers today. The options we discuss are great consumer research methodologies, but they can also be used for other areas.
Primary Research
1. Interviews
Interviews are a form of primary research where you ask people specific questions about a topic or theme. They typically deliver qualitative information.
I’ve conducted many interviews for marketing purposes, but I’ve also done many for journalistic purposes, like this profile on comedian Zarna Garg. There’s no better way to gather candid, open-ended insights in my book, but that doesn’t mean they’re a cure-all.
What I like: Real-time conversations allow you to ask different questions if you’re not getting the information you need. They also push interviewees to respond quickly, which can result in more authentic answers.
What I dislike: They can be time-consuming and harder to measure (read: get quantitative data) unless you ask pointed yes or no questions.
Best for: Creating buyer personas or getting feedback on customer experience, a product, or content.
2. Focus Groups
Focus groups are similar to conducting interviews but on a larger scale.
In marketing and business, this typically means getting a small group together in a room (or Zoom), asking them questions about various topics you are researching. You record and/or observe their responses to then take action.
They are ideal for collecting long-form, open-ended feedback, and subjective opinions.
One well-known focus group you may remember was run by Domino’s Pizza in 2009.
After poor ratings and dropping over $100 million in revenue, the brand conducted focus groups with real customers to learn where they could have done better.
It was met with comments like “worst excuse for pizza I’ve ever had” and “the crust tastes like cardboard.” But rather than running from the tough love, it took the hit and completely overhauled its recipes.
The team admitted their missteps and returned to the market with better food and a campaign detailing their “Pizza Turn Around.”
The result? The brand won a ton of praise for its willingness to take feedback, efforts to do right by its consumers, and clever campaign. But, most importantly, revenue for Domino’s rose by 14.3% over the previous year.
The brand continues to conduct focus groups and share real footage from them in its promotion:
What I like: Similar to interviewing, you can dig deeper and pivot as needed due to the real-time nature. They’re personal and detailed.
What I dislike: Once again, they can be time-consuming and make it difficult to get quantitative data. There is also a chance some participants may overshadow others.
Best for: Product research or development
Pro tip: Need help planning your focus group? Our free Market Research Kit includes a handy template to start organizing your thoughts in addition to a SWOT Analysis Template, Survey Template, Focus Group Template, Presentation Template, Five Forces Industry Analysis Template, and an instructional guide for all of them. Download yours here now.
3. Surveys or Polls
Surveys are a form of primary research where individuals are asked a collection of questions. It can take many different forms.
They could be in person, over the phone or video call, by email, via an online form, or even on social media. Questions can be also open-ended or closed to deliver qualitative or quantitative information.
A great example of a close-ended survey is HubSpot’s annual State of Marketing.
In the State of Marketing, HubSpot asks marketing professionals from around the world a series of multiple-choice questions to gather data on the state of the marketing industry and to identify trends.
The survey covers various topics related to marketing strategies, tactics, tools, and challenges that marketers face. It aims to provide benchmarks to help you make informed decisions about your marketing.
It also helps us understand where our customers’ heads are so we can better evolve our products to meet their needs.
Apple is no stranger to surveys, either.
In 2011, the tech giant launched Apple Customer Pulse, which it described as “an online community of Apple product users who provide input on a variety of subjects and issues concerning Apple.”
Apple invited a select group of individuals to participate. It reportedly shared two monthly surveys that included open-ended questions about customers’ experiences. Then, Apple used the feedback to iterate on its products.
But you don’t have to be HubSpot or Apple to run a successful survey. Tools like SurveyMonkey, TypeForm, and Google Forms (my usual go-to) make creating digital surveys easy and affordable.
You can also run smaller-scale surveys in your Instagram Stories via the Poll and Questions Stickers.
What I like: They are fairly easy to create and distribute, and can gather both quantitative and qualitative data.
What I dislike: It can be challenging to garner participation as it puts most of the work on the participant.
Best for: Evaluating experiences with a product or service
Pro tip: To boost survey participation, consider offering an incentive or gift. Many loyal customers and fans will want to participate. However, offering something small in exchange for the time and thought will undoubtedly win over others.
Independent makeup brand LiveTinted did a commendable job with this recently. They offered all survey responders 10 reward points in their loyalty program and a chance to win one of three $100 gift certificates.
You may also want to consider using running a “tracker.”
HubSpot Senior Product Marketing Manager Max Iskiev shares, “A tracker is a survey you run repeatedly over a certain time period. For example, we run the Consumer Trend Tracker twice a year, which captures data on the latest trends. I love being able to see key trends change over time and analyze them to make predictions about the future.”
4. Social Media Listening
In between the sea of travel photos, food, and current events chatter, people are talking about your brand. They may be journalists, competitors, or customers, happy and disgruntled — you just don’t always know it.
According to Mention, 31% of company mentions on X (formerly Twitter) don’t include a handle or tag. But social media listening can help you stay in the loop there and on other platforms.
In a nutshell, social media listening is the process of monitoring and analyzing social posts that mention:
- Relevant topics of interest (like your industry or type of product)
- Your brand name, tagline, or product name
- Your competitors
- Your branded hashtags
This gives you insight into conversations you may have never noticed otherwise.
You can see what the public thinks about your product or business, how they feel about their experiences with them, and get an overall pulse on your competitive landscape.
But how do you get started with social listening?
Many platforms have built-in tools like the ability to “follow” hashtags on Instagram or LinkedIn. But Swetha Amaresan, a Sr. Marketing Coordinator at Paramount, shares a more all-encompassing approach in this article: What Is Social Media Listening & Why Is It Important? [+Expert Tips].
HubSpot Academy also offers a free social media monitoring and listening course you can check out.
What I like: Social listening is a pretty low-maintenance form of market research. Of course, you need to dedicate time to reviewing and analyzing any activity, but it should be a fairly quick, routine task if you’re doing your due diligence.
What I dislike: There’s no guarantee of valuable insights here. It’s more of a “just in case.”
Best for: General market and competitive analysis
Pro tip: If you’re a Marketing Hub Professional or Enterprise User, use HubSpot Social Inbox. It’s our native social listening tool that allows you to create streams dedicated to your different channels and hashtags.
5. Observation
You can learn a lot when you just sit back and pay attention. That’s where the power observation lies.
Observational market research is a form of primary research where you monitor subjects in a natural or controlled environment and take note of their behaviors. But here’s what makes it special — there are both digital and real life approaches.
A real-life example of observational research is “secret shopping.” This is where people are hired to shop at particular retailers so they can evaluate their staff and customer service. Secret shopping can be done totally organically, or with controlled scenarios the teams must be put in (i.e., completing a return).
Digital observation can look like user testing of your website (controlled) or the review of website heatmap data (natural). And it’s much more common these days.
What I like: Conditions of the experiment typically allow subjects to act as naturally as possible, so results are pure and valuable. There are also both in-person and online alternatives.
What I dislike: This is another method that can be very time-consuming. Also, if your subjects know they are being observed, they could alter their behavior.
Best for: Evaluating and optimizing performance for a website or in-person service
Pro tip: UserTesting, HotJar, and LuckyOrange are three tools I’ve used in the past to learn about my clients website performance. They are all extremely helpful digital observation options that also offer quantitative data.
6. Internal Data Analysis
Analyzing internal data is one of the most effective ways to conduct market research because it’s not hypothetical.
This form of primary research is based on insights from your real life customers, and past performance and can be qualitative or quantitative.
What kind of data should you be analyzing, though? That will depend on the objective at hand, but some common areas include:
- Sales Numbers
- Website Statistics (i.e., page views, conversion rates, clicks)
- Customer Lifetime Value
- Product Ratings/Reviews
- Product Specific Statistics (i.e., usage rates)
Netflix is extremely vocal about its use of this marketing research method, publishing public reports like “What We Watched: A Netflix Engagement Report.”
They regularly look at data like this to personalize and curate content on the platform, improve its service, and even develop new original content.
Gathering data isn’t easy, but start where you can. Tools like Google Analytics are easy to set up and great for tracking website traffic performance, while Hotjar and LuckyOrange can capture and analyze user behavior.
HubSpot users can take advantage of our platform’s free marketing analytics and reporting. The tools unite all of these elements we mentioned as well as the performance of ads, social media engagement, and email. This gives you the most complete picture of your state.
What I like: This method is less time-consuming than others. It must be completed on a consistent schedule, but doesn’t require regular action. It can also produce qualitative or quantitative data.
What I dislike: You need a healthy sample size to draw accurate results.
Best for: Conversion rate optimization and website optimization
7. Experiments and Field Trials
Field trials, similar to observation, occur in the subject’s natural environment. But like traditional experiments, they are controlled. In other words, you have a specific hypothesis you’re testing (your variable), and everything else is the same.
Sometimes, experiments and field trials can uncover preferences that individuals aren’t consciously aware of.
As my HubSpot teammate Pamela Bump explains, “ Sure, you can look at the data that already exists or survey your persona for baselines…But you won’t truly know how they’ll act until you test them in the moment on your own platform or channel.”
“For example, we did a large voluntary survey of email subscribers and top readers a few years back.”
While these readers gave us a long list of topics, formats, or content types they wanted to see, they sometimes engaged more with content types they didn’t select or favor as much on the surveys when we ran follow-up ‘in the wild’ tests, like A/B testing.”
Pepsi saw similar results when it ran its iconic field experiment, “The Pepsi Challenge” for the first time in 1975.
The beverage brand set up tables at malls, beaches, and other public locations and ran a blindfolded taste test. Shoppers were given two cups of soda, one containing Pepsi, the other Coca-Cola (Pepsi’s biggest competitor). They were then asked to taste both and report which they preferred.
People overwhelmingly preferred Pepsi, and the brand has repeated the experiment multiple times over the years to the same results.
What I like: It yields qualitative and quantitative data and can make for engaging marketing content, especially in the digital age.
What I dislike: It can be very time-consuming. And, if you’re not careful, there is a high risk for scientific error.
Best for: Product testing and competitive analysis
Pro tip: “Don’t make critical business decisions off of just one data set,” advises Pamela Bump. “Use the survey, competitive intelligence, external data, or even a focus group to give you one layer of ideas or a short-list for improvements or solutions to test. Then gather your own fresh data to test in an experiment or trial and better refine your data-backed strategy.”
Secondary Research
8. Public Domain or Third-Party Research
While original data is always a plus, there are plenty of external resources you can access online and even at a library when you’re limited on time or resources.
Some reputable resources you can use include:
- Pew Research Center
- McKinley Global Institute
- Nielsen
- Forrester
- Relevant Global or Government Organizations (i.e United Nations or NASA)
It’s also smart to turn to reputable organizations that are specific to your industry or field. For instance, if you’re a gardening or landscaping company, you may want to pull statistics from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
If you’re a digital marketing agency, you could look to Google Research or HubSpot Research. (Hey, I know them!)
What I like: You can save time on gathering data and spend more time on analyzing. You can also rest assured the data is from a source you trust.
What I dislike: You may not find data specific to your needs.
Best for: Companies under a time or resource crunch, adding factual support to content
Pro tip: Fellow HubSpotter Iskiev suggests using third-party data to inspire your original research. “Sometimes, I use public third-party data for ideas and inspiration. Once I have written my survey and gotten all my ideas out, I read similar reports from other sources and usually end up with useful additions for my own research.”
9. Buy Research
If the data you need isn’t available publicly and you can’t do your own market research, you can also buy some. There are many reputable analytics companies that offer subscriptions to access their data. Statista is one of my favorites, but there’s also Euromonitor, Mintel, and BCC Research.
What I like: Same as public domain research
What I dislike: You may not find data specific to your needs. It also adds to your expenses.
Best for: Companies under a time or resource crunch or adding factual support to content
Which marketing research method should you use?
You’re not going to like my answer, but “it depends.” The best marketing research method for you will depend on your objective and data needs, but also your budget and timeline.
My advice? Aim for a mix of quantitative and qualitative data. If you can do your own original research, awesome. But if not, don’t beat yourself up. Lean into free or low-cost tools. You could do primary research for qualitative data, then tap public sources for quantitative data. Or perhaps the reverse is best for you.
Whatever your marketing research method mix, take the time to think it through and ensure you’re left with information that will truly help you achieve your goals.
