Blog Category: market research

How to Use WHOIS to Learn about Your Competition

11 April 2012

As you will learn when building and promoting a website, the internet is extremely competitive. In fact, the World Wide Web is probably the most competitive industry in the history of mankind. And it’s not because big companies spend big money; to the contrary, it’s more the fact that anyone can start up a website with little capital and use common sense methods to market within their respective niche.

This means that the internet is also a cutthroat place, where some pry, lie, steal and cheat in order to get ahead. At the very least, you will have to put on your detective hat to do a lot of research on the competition if you hope to succeed in your chosen marketplace.

To research your competitors out there, WHOIS is undoubtedly the strongest resource you have at your disposal. WHOIS is a free-to-use database that catalogs every single legally registered domain in the world. By searching for a domain via this directory, you can learn a lot of details about the site. Needless to say, this information can be vital to your own campaign; learning details about your competition can help you propel past them

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How to Find a Niche

26 October 2011

Marketing is a rather difficult thing if you go about it in the wrong way. If done correctly, however, it can not only be easy but also bring you incredible results for your business. Marketing done incorrectly, on the other hand, like marketing too broadly, will waste time, money and quickly drive your business into the ground.

Finding a niche market for your business's product and/or service is the best way to go about searching for, communicating with and driving traffic to your business. A niche is already more likely to be interested in what you're selling, and it requires no magic, if you will, to communicate with them.

You will only have to stand above competition within that niche and not the entire market in general.

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Niche Marketing Pros and Cons

12 October 2011

Although there are many ways to describe it as well as various terms given for it, niche marketing is one of the simpler approaches to marketing that there is in terms of understanding the concept. A niche is simply a segment of another market, its own little world within a larger marketplace, and it acts, by and large, with predictability.

Anyone thinking about getting into a web business has probably heard of niche marketing if they haven't seriously entertained starting a campaign. However, it is remiss to think that everything's positive with this marketing method.

Like everything in life, there are downsides to niche marketing. Sure, its one of the most successful ways to market online but its not successful for everyone, and it certainly has the potential for failure.

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How many keywords to use?

11 May 2011

If you want to optimize your website or articles for the search engines you must know how many keywords to use on a page.

Knowing the appropriate use of keywords is very important when you write for the internet, be it an article, website content or blog. Two questions often come up. The first is, how many keywords you should use, and the second is, how often you should use them.

First, let us consider how often you should use your keywords. There is no straightforward answer to this question and the answer keeps changing, since the search engines update their algorithm often.

For example, during 2003-2004, Google preferred a keyword density as high as ten percent, and even higher. This is no longer valid, because, after 2005, Google has modified the number. Now, the optimal keyword density is 2 to 3 percent.

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Going into Business for Yourself, the Ultimate Business Oxymoron

06 May 2011

Going into business for yourself is strange terminology. Going into business for yourself can mean that a person is indeed working for themselves but they are providing a service or offering a product that meets the needs of others. Therefore, the saying should actually read going into business for others. This makes going into business for yourself the ultimate classic business oxymoron.

Going into business for yourself always sounds so good and in most cases it is great. No more answering to the boss, taking orders from others and having to work a nine to five job. But is it all it is cracked out to be? The answer is quite simply yes it is.

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Creating Services and Products that are Packaged for Easy Decision Making

15 December 2010

In business, your product or service might truly be beneficial to a customer, but that doesn't necessarily mean your product or service will be selected by customers. If you haven't learned already, markets are fickle and customers are hard to pick up their decisions need to be made easy and, in order to succeed in business, you'll have to help them in the process.

If you've ever heard the saying, You eat with your eyes, then you already have an idea about what goes through a customers head when they're viewing your product/service. They're checking out the packaging.

In this instance, were not only speaking about product packaging, like the colorful box you see on store shelves, but more about the all-around packaging of your product/service; i.e. how its being marketed and viewed by potential customers.

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Design Your Business as a System

08 December 2010

Ask any amateur start-up entrepreneur what the purpose of their business is, and they'll probably give you a very short answer: to make money. Ask any successful businessperson the same question, however, and you'll be ready to stop listening long before the persons done talking.

Sure, the bottom line the profit margin is the reason most people get into business, but that's not the actual purpose of your business. Or at least it shouldn't be the sole purpose of your business.

Your business needs to operate as a system. Its designed to do quite a few things. Yes, they're all working together to inevitably make a profit. There's no getting around that. However, the business is also working to forge lasting and fruitful relationships, to up the value and recognition of your brand, and to carve out a permanent niche in the marketplace.

To correctly fire on all cylinders here, your business needs to operate like a step-by-step system before you even decide to put your first plans into action. Only the well-oiled machines do well in the long term in business, and the people trying to fly by the seat of their pants end up bankrupt and as someone else's customers.

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Attracting Loyal, Profitable Clients

24 November 2010

No matter what type of business you're planning on running, customers are going to be the most important part of the operation. Even if you do everything right, follow the correct steps, invest your money wisely and offer a good product or service, the business is still going to go belly up unless clients step in and start purchasing from you. Its just a simple fact of business.

Obviously, you're going to work extremely hard to keep your customers happy. You'll make sure that your product is good so they're satisfied. You'll cater especially to your prospective clients to get them to your business and to get them to ultimately purchase your product or service.

However, all of these steps are sometimes only good in the short term. Far too often, customers pull a drive-by on your business, purchasing products or services and leave never to be heard of again. This isn't good for a long-term businessperson. You want to make sure you attract loyal customers meaning that they'll return to do business with you regularly.

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Where is the Value in Your Business Service or Product?

22 November 2010

On the road to creating a business, you'll ask yourself a lot of questions about exactly what you're providing to potential customers and why they will hopefully spend time and money to do business with you. You'll question your business idea. You'll question your marketing approach. More than anything, however, you'll question your product/service.

Whether you're providing web design services or a standalone product that designs Web Pages, for example, you'll inevitably struggle in finding the true value of this merchandise. Why? It all has to do with where the actual value of any product or service lies: with the customers.

Think about the best idea you've ever entertained and imagine it on the market. You know it works; you know it will help people. You know exactly how you want to market it and exactly how you want it perceived. What you can't know, however, what you'll never know, is how valuable customers find this item.

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Effective Online Customer Acquisition Strategies through Competitive Intelligence

09 August 2010

Many strategies have been forged in the business world in order to help companies gather intelligence about their competition and to acquire and retain customers. Theres never a sole method to use; youll always be able to find competing strategies for your online business. Looking at the competitive intelligence method, well cover a bit about customer acquisition strategies.

Competitive intelligence - or competitor analysis - is a system made up of fundamental principles that allow you, the business owner, to gauge your competition. This sounds vague, to be sure; and truthfully thats due to what the intelligence process encompasses.

There are various sub strategies within the framework of competitive intelligence. Think of it like spying, if you will (only not sinister by any stretch). Youre basically trying to find out how your competitor thinks, what his/her strengths and weaknesses are, how to plan a course of attack and carry it out, and what the risks are to you and your business by doing so.

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What kind of market analysis do you do to determine a viable niche market?

05 January 2010

Like it or not, there are only a few iron-clad ways in which you can start and operate a successful online business. Sure, there are literally countless ways you can go about it; but we’re talking about working formulas here.

Most businesses fail because people neglect to follow the necessary steps or to take the time needed to build up their respective business. One of the most important aspects of any Internet business is the niche market.

Niche markets are cost-effective and will always improve your conversion rates. You’ll receive more traffic from your specified market, and thus more visitors are more likely to purchase your products. But you still need to know if your market is viable.

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How to Research Markets for Business Startups: Part 3

22 January 2009

Taking Care of Your Primary Research

After the initial research is over, i.e. library, internet, books, etc, you can begin to research through more specific avenues. This will be your original research, conducted to see where your products stack up against others the market is offering, and, more importantly, to see how your customers may take to your business idea. You can gather this information by putting together focus groups and/or conducting surveys to see what “average” individuals feel about your ideas.

While you’re working to plan this primary research, here are a few questions that you need to ask yourself before moving forward:

How will I indentify and target a small group for selection?

What is the absolute best way I can get opinions out of the selected group?

How do I go about choosing the members of the group and phrasing the questions to be asked?

How do I analyze and interpret the results from these surveys and focus groups?

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How to Research Markets for Business Startups: Part 2

05 January 2009

Vital Information about Customers

Customers supply the revenue that enables your business to thrive. Without them, you’re looking at immediate failure. As such, it’s always vitally essential that you work to research everything there is to know about your customers before you take the plunge into business. You need to precisely target your audience. Ask yourself the following questions:

What are the reasons my targeted group (niche) will purchase products/services from my business?

What are the characteristics of my targeted niche, i.e. gender, status, employment, location, habits, ethnicity, background, age, etc?

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How to Research Markets for Business Startups Part 1

23 December 2008

Introduction to Market Research
In the world of business, it’s an ever-changing atmosphere that runs constantly hot and cold, habitually black and white, and never completely the same way twice. Today’s business is so far removed from the business of a few years ago that most attempts to start a business with a 2002 formula - for example - unequivocally and utterly fail in the 2008 climate. For this reason, market research is vital if one would hope to find out the crucial aspects of the marketplace that will help a business succeed in the long-term.

It’s essential that a person starting up a business knows if there will be enough demand for their products and/or services in the marketplace. In order to gain the biggest advantage for sustainable success, businesses need to flourish within their first year of operation. Most businesses are failing simply due to a lack of basic market research. It’s this caution-to-the-wind, head-first dive into business that will ensure nothing but failure.

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Why you Need Feasibility Studies

07 November 2008

In the realm of business, countless measures are taken to ensure success. From risk assessment to feasibility studies, people work tirelessly to implement various strategies that give any particular venture the best odds for survival. If you’re asking yourself what a feasibility study is, it’s very easily defined.

Simply put, feasibility studies are groundwork investigations into the prospective benefits correlated with undertaking a particular activity or project. A feasibility study’s main goal is to take into account all conceivable factors associated with a task, and then determine if the time and other resources invested will return a wanted result. Most feasibility studies are highly detailed and fully examine every plausible angle.

For these reasons alone, conducting a feasibility study is undoubtedly in your best interest. However, the decision to carry out a study is one that should never be taken lightly. You will have to invest a lot of time and a lot of money into your study.

Conversely, not implementing a feasibility study can prove to be infinitely more damaging due to expenses and time lost recouping a loss. It’s always in your best interest to make the best possible use of a feasibility study. You’re going to need a clearly defined course of action consisting of multiple business models or scenarios that you want to explore.

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