Like traditional forms of marketing, to market your online business, you need to assess its potential. It doesn't have to cost a lot, nor does it have to be a complex process. It might be using a focus group, which is simply getting a survey of opinions about your product or service offerings from a cross section of your consumers. You can conduct such a survey either by mail or by telephone.



Using the telephone can be more challenging because some people feel that this is an intrusion on their privacy and they may not be willing to respond. By mail, the recipient can choose to answer your survey questions at their convenience. Providing a prepaid postage envelope further encourages the respondent to mail in their survey. Some savvy marketers offer an incentive of some kind for returning the survey.

Other techniques include analyzing demographics, such as age, sex, income level, educational level, population growth and so on. You can get groups of people together and use brainstorming techniques to determine market potential, or you can conduct one-to-one interviews with qualified prospects in your market.

No matter what methods you use, your purpose should be to gather enough data to determine who your customers are. You need to be able to identify their needs and expectation. Then you can decide if there is a demand for your product or service. If you are satisfied that a demand exists, you will want to find out what competition you have out there. Market research should provide answers to the following questions:

Who are your potential customers?

Why do they need your product or service?

Where are they located...city or country?

Do your target customers have the buying power to purchase your product or service?

How much are people willing to pay for your products?

Can you offer competitive pricing?

What about quality? Is your quality as good as or better than the competition?

Yes, market research can be costly and time consuming. Your questions can build in bias that may distort your results. However, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. If you aren't getting the results you expect or want, then perhaps you must consider that your business idea is off base. Perhaps there isn't a market for your product or service. But, don't be discouraged. Go back and modify your original plan.

The benefits of market research include:

Determining who you customers are

Finding out what they want

Determining how to reach your potential customers

Determining which is the best way to communicate with your potential customers

Assessing different marketing strategies

Using market research strategies is a means to finding out how viable your business idea is and if there is a market for it. It focuses and organizes marketing information so that you can reduce your business risks and identify opportunities for profit making. With good market research data you are in a better position to make sound business decisions.