How to survey a market at low cost?

[Nick Brighton]

Ok, so I need to find out some simple answers to a few questions
for a particular market. I want to do this online of course.

Does anybody know of an effective way to survey the market
without spending thousands of pounds in the process?

One obvious way is posting in related forums with a poll
option enabled, but my only concern is that people will either
think "He's just doing market research and isn't even a valued
member!" or something along those lines.

Any ideas on how I get around this? Or other methods I can
try to get some basic answers to basic questions

(such as "Why did you get into "x" business", etc)

Thanks all!

[getsmartt]

Originally Posted by Nick Brighton

One obvious way is posting in related forums with a poll
option enabled, but my only concern is that people will either
think "He's just doing market research and isn't even a valued
member!" or something along those lines.

And they would be right.... So why not be honest, I would post a couple of warm up posts, explaining why you came to the forum (authority, best etc), telling them who you are and mentioning that you are going to post a poll in the next couple of days to conduct some research for an upcoming project.

Might fair a little better than just hopping into a new forum and posting a poll.

[Danielle_B]

As a frequent forum user/poster, I have to agree with Mr. Big Black Hat above me. As long as you come into the arena with an open & honest approach, I think you'll be just fine.

Make the forum users feel like they're part of your work and that their insight is invaluable to bringing THEM a quality product. You'll have people on board right away.

I've used similar techniques in some of my own forums while I was researching my blog project.

Good luck!

~D.

[DougBarger]

Hey Nick you can set up a free survey with up to 10 questions with SurveyMonkey in just minutes and customize the options, questions, answers and basically tailor it the way that fits best for your purpose.

The paid upgrade option lets you put your logo and other features.

[Oracle_320th]

to determine the size of the niche I love Google Keywords External.

to determine the profitability you can write press release, sell a simple PLR complete package (ebook, sales letter, mini site, 7 mini course) you can buy this package for around $29 and assess the profit potential of the niche. I like to see 1 buy from 100 unique visitors.

also you can run a contest, many marketers measure SWOT analysis by running $50 contest and instant publication in their blog or website.

Just my thought

[AndrewStark]

I've just found a site called askdatabase, and it's $1 to try it for 21 days - more than enought time to find the answer to your question.

I would agree that just jumping in without posting an introduction won't work, but it really depends on the niche. Some of the non IM niches don't understand the thinking behind market research, and some forums won't even let you post links in your sig file.

But I wish you luck with your project

[Lance K]

Nick, as far as survey's go, you'll get the most useful responsed from a survey of past customers.

Anyway, you could set up an "ask campaign" (www.askdatabase.com) and drive traffic to it through Adwords.

The fact that someone would even click your ad when searching your keywords is a good first indicator. Then offer something of value for submitting a question. The most asked questions will give you a pretty good idea what solutions (if any) your market would be willing to pay for.

If you get $0.25 clicks and 500 people click your ad, you'll spend $125 bucks. You should get more than enough people to complete the question form.

[Lance K]

Originally Posted by AndrewStark

I've just found a site called askdatabase, and it's $1 to try it for 21 days - more than enought time to find the answer to your question.

Glad you found it, Andrew. It's a great tool!

[Sandor Verebi]

Hi Nick,

I feel you got many useful tips. I liked what James, Danielle and Andrew proposed. If you want to be accepted then you need act carefully, do not rush in.

Many sucesses.

Andrew I thank you for the link you presented.

Cheers,

Sandor

[David_Thompson]

Originally Posted by Nick Brighton

Ok, so I need to find out some simple answers to a few questions
for a particular market. I want to do this online of course.

Does anybody know of an effective way to survey the market
without spending thousands of pounds in the process?

One obvious way is posting in related forums with a poll
option enabled, but my only concern is that people will either
think "He's just doing market research and isn't even a valued
member!" or something along those lines.

Any ideas on how I get around this? Or other methods I can
try to get some basic answers to basic questions

(such as "Why did you get into "x" business", etc)

Thanks all!

Nick, I've just created a video on how anyone running a blog can do survey
of there visitors with a simple plugin and the best part is it won't cost you
a dime to do and it is simple to setup.

Using Wordpress To Do Survey Video Tutorial

Take my survey or leave a comment...

--David

[Terry Brazil]

Do you already have a site pertaining to the niche audience you want to survey? There are a couple of different survey scripts out there. Simply have an exit popup on the site that asks them to take a quick survey, maybe even bribe them with a freebie. I have done this in a past and I not only learned alot about my market but also used the info to boost my conversions and get ideas for new products.

[Nick Brighton]

Hi all, thanks for the great ideas. I do not have a site set up yet to take the poll, but that's not a problem really. I guess it's just a case of getting traffic to the poll in any kind of volume. Hmmm, where's my thinking cap!