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Market Research Software Buyer's Guide
Table of Contents
- What is Market Research Software?
- How does Market Research Software work?
- Is it worth investing money in Market Research Software?
- What are the features of Market Research Software?
- What are the benefits of the Market Research Software?
- Before choosing the Market Research Software
- How to choose best Market Research Software?
- Questions to ask a vendor when buying best Market Research Software
- How much does Market Research Software cost?
- Conclusion
When you are launching a new product, there is always a 50-50 chance of its survival post penetrating the market. If it gets released at the right time with the potential to address the changing needs of customers beautifully, it can even replace an existing monopoly easily. On the other hand, if the same product is launched without bringing crucial factors such as the current market economy, taste of buyers, and competitor strategies into consideration, it is bound to stumble and tumble. With that being said, it has now become imperative to have detailed market research in order to take calculated risks. That’s possible when you have the right kind of market research software by your side to do the needful.
What is Market Research Software?
Market analysis software works as a data collector tool that flawlessly executes market analysis prior to your product launch to enable you for taking actionable measures. Market research survey software targets the right kind of audience, ask them the right kind of question and gather crucial insights by various market analysis tools that help you come up with an ideal product for the market. It not only helps you identify new customers for your product but also helps to understand the existing ones better. The raw data collected by market research platform are transformed into refined data that can be used by you to steer your marketing strategies better.
How does Market Research Software work?
As it major works revolves around collecting insightful market data, it offers smart pre-designed customizable survey formats that can be used by your marketing team at any moment. Conditional based questionnaires ask only what’s relevant based on past responses. In order to make the participants feel special, it creates personalized surveys instead of following the ‘one-size-fits-all’ strategy. It sets to date, time and frequency to channelize the surveys and set email reminders to urge people for taking down the survey.
Is it worth investing money in Market Research Software?
As of now, you must have realized that it does a number of manual tasks by its own through market research tools. That simply states that it can replace two-three people from your office that too for a reasonable subscription fee. Its work simply does not end at displaying survey forms to the audience; through various online market research tools, it constantly follows them via Email, embedded feedback widgets, and mobile texts to grab their attention until they take down the survey. Imagine the kind of consequences you need to face when your product will fail to impress customers owing to poor market research. Can you afford the same? If the answer is a no, then give the best market research software a try without giving any second thought.
What are the features of Market Research Software?
The task of researching profitable opportunities for the business is indeed a tough nut to crack for the marketers. Moreover, they also have to ensure that they don’t repeat their past mistakes. In such cases using the market research software is indeed the best option. The software helps the marketers gain a deeper insight into the market conditions. For better understanding, let’s study the numerous features of the software which makes the task possible.
› RESEARCHING TOOLS
The market research software leverages various tools and both fundamental as well as applied research to detect the market conditions. These data are then uploaded and stored in the company server automatically without any user interference. Moreover, by using this software one can also detect the various underlying issues of the company and resolve them in real-time.
› STATISTICAL TOOLS
If you are trying to get a tentative figure of the pertaining market conditions, then the analytical tools of the software can come to your help. The market research software uses tools like percentages, ratios, averages, z-test, t-test, etc., to provide with the current data. Furthermore, the data collected gives an in-depth analysis of the software users.
› CO-OPERATIVE TOOLS
Imagine if all the approved members of your team could see and get notified in case any changes are made to the data, it will surely be an add-on to the work efficiency. It is possible by using the market research tools as they enable the users to edit, comment, or share the files without any issues. Through this, the software also reduces the risk of loss or unauthorized mutilation to the information.
› MANAGING OF SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS
The online market research tools are also capable of gathering data from social media platforms like Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Reddit, or more. Using the acquired information, the users can find out the efficiency of the platforms. Similarly, it also helps the users to understand how the customers behave on their media platforms and how it can be transformed to have more maximized profits.
› REPORT TRACKING
Apart from the features mentioned above, the market research tools also provide reporting and analytics tools which can be used by the companies to understand the alignment of the customers. This data is collected by tracking the online behaviour of users which provides useful insights on various points, such as pain points, factors to improve existing marketing conditions, and many more.
› CENTRALIZED STORAGE
As discussed in the above points the primary motive of the online market research tools is to gather, record, and store data in a single storage. When stored centrally, it facilitates the users to retrieve the files when needed quickly. Moreover, it also helps in providing a secure atmosphere for the gathered data to be kept.
What are the benefits of the Market Research Software?
In earlier times, the companies and businesses had to go through a lot of turmoil if they wanted to research the existing market conditions. It was because the traditional methods used to take much time and were also prone to various risks. However, nowadays the benefits of using the market research software out pars the conventional processes. So, let’s start by looking deep into the numerous benefits of the software.
› PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
If your company is facing some issues in regards to the customer’s viewpoints, then taking the help of the market analysis software can be of use. Using the insight on the pertaining conditions the companies can invest more in creating consumer-centric approaches. It will help in creating a steady increase in traffic inflow for the business.
› EXPANDING BUSINESS HORIZONS
Imagine if you can gain a wider audience by increasing your brand value, won’t that be an exciting add-on to your achievements? In such cases, the market analysis software can come in handy. It is possible to cater to a global audience using the software, as it consists of many facilities and tools which helps in doing so. Similarly, this also helps in the pro-active gathering of members, partners or stakeholders for the company.
› MULTIPLE TARGET PLATFORMS
No matter what type of marketing processes your company follows, the market analysis software can help you achieve profitable results. Supporting both b2b and b2c operations the software offers even the slightest bit of marketing insights to its users.
› PANEL MANAGEMENT
As the software is entirely focused on reporting the customer approach to the company, it does so by automatically recruiting panel members. Similarly, to ensure efficient panel management the users can also add rewards to their panel list. Generally, the prizes are offered to the users during specific achievements in the polls and surveys.
› TRACKING REAL-TIME PRICE CHANGES
Product-based companies can take the help of the market research analysis tools to detect real-time price changes of their competitors. The software offers accurate real-time data by comparing it with several companies. Afterward, this information can then be used to set a clear pricing strategy while providing top-notch products. Similarly, when compared to the conventional methods, the benefit of the software weighs out more.
Before choosing the Market Research Software
The drive towards hiring the market research analysis tools has been picking up acceleration since the launch of the software. However, before subscribing to the software one must decide if the software will accelerate the market research process or will delay it. For finding the conclusion, one should follow the below-mentioned steps to ensure that they are treading on the right path.
› ACQUIRING THE RIGHT KNOWLEDGE REQUIRED TO TARGET MARKET
In such cases, the first and foremost step will be to find and understand the needs of the customers. Until and unless the marketers correctly understand it, developing service will merely be a waste of resources. Hence, one must first research their audience’s needs, rather than investing in the market research survey software.
› SEGMENTING THE MARKET
It is not always possible to serve the whole market with your product, hence segmenting them to a smaller one can fix the issue. Thus, it is still advisable to extract one’s target market by studying the various aspects of the customer. The characters include social, cultural, personal, and psychological needs of the customers. Afterward, the company can focus on manufacturing, pricing, and distributing the product to its target audience.
› FORMULATING 4PS MARKETING STRATEGY
Every marketing company’s primary mission is to achieve the 4Ps- Production, Pricing, Promotion, and Place. Before you hire the software to complete your daily chores, it is essential to prepare a plan on how to formulate the 4Ps for better results. This can be done by holding a meeting and discussing the plan’s strengths and weaknesses.
› RUNNING CALCULATIONS TO ARRIVE AT THE RIGHT FIGURE
No company or business can ignore the importance of a well-maintained budget. Hence, one must be careful enough to decide the amount the company can afford behind the market research survey software beforehand. It will help in cutting down the worries; thus, the company will not have to restrict the budget for other company affairs.
How to choose best Market Research Software?
Every software developing company preaches its software to be the best market research software available in the market. But going through shallow claims and no definite proof can increase the chances of being tricked. Hence, on this list, we have put together several points which will help you to make the wise decision for your company.
› ADVANCED ANALYSIS TOOLS
If you are going to invest in the best market research software, then choose the one which will provide advanced analysis tools. The tools include predictive modeling, perceptual mapping, segmentation, machine learning, visualization, amongst others. Hence, no matter what type of analysis the company makes, the software will be able to provide its expertise.
› INTEGRATION WITH MULTIPLE PLATFORMS
Although CRM plays a very crucial role in the dashboard and online reporting, many companies also use MS Office and Displayr. Thus, the market research platform must have in-built compatibility with multiple platforms to streamline the reporting process. Moreover, it also helps in automating most of the repetitive tasks without user interference.
› CROSSTABS BUILDER
Another important feature which should not be ignored while looking for the best market research software is the ability to generate crosstabs. Generally, marketers store customer information in large reports for easier retrieval. Similarly, the software should also be able to create the crosstabs within no time as speed and efficiency are also required for the execution of the tasks.
Questions to ask a vendor when buying best Market Research Software
- Will your market research software help identify the target audience?
- Does the system include the creation of questionnaires for market research? Will it be an easy process?
- How does the sharing of market research questionnaires work?
- In what ways does this solution gather data?
- Can the system transform the collected data into useful information?
- Does the solution include benchmarking capabilities?
- Is there a way to manage compensation?
- Will the software include panel management functions?
- Can the system simplify the management of paper-based market research?
- Does this solution support phone-based research?
- How does the system’s statistical analysis feature work?
- Is there a survey builder to get a kickstart to the procedure?
- Will the software allow me to conduct A/B testing?
- How does the process of managing survey samples work?
- Is it possible to define user roles to restrict access to specific data?
- What kind of analytics and reports will this market research software generate?
- Is switching between different tasks within the software simple enough for everyone?
- Can I integrate this system with other third-party tools?
- What kind of security standards do you employ to ensure data safety and privacy?
- What will be the training period?
- What is the process of software implementation?
- Which support services are I entitled to receive after the purchase?
- What are the available channels to contact your support team?
- Are there any hidden costs?
- Is the software easily scalable to meet the increasing future demands?
How much does Market Research Software cost?
The pricing structure is one of the significant aspects of the market analysis tools which makes it different from one another. Depending upon various facilities, one can find the lowest software plan to be $7/month which can also reach up to $199/month based on the facilities and tools availed. However, no matter what is the pricing plan of the software, the most important thing is that one should always initially subscribe to the free basic version of the software. It will help in gaining a complete understanding of the working of the market research platform. Afterward, if interested, then you can go with the premium plans as desired.
Conclusion
Having market research analysis tools by your side assures you of taking calculated risks which saves your money from getting wasted on failed experiments. However, it is also essential to choose the best market research tools available in the market; otherwise, the loss figure will include software subscription fees in it towards the end.