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What are your Favorite Market research tools and techniques?

by chewie49
12 replies
Hello Guys!

i am making a list of tools and techniques for Market Research to determine profitable niches for ecommerce websites mainly, but i t could apply to any kind of business.

What do you recommend?

cheers!
#favorite #market #research #techniques #tools
  • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
    For most niches, my favorite tool is my public library card.

    You can get a decent grounding in almost any mainstream topic with a few hours in the stacks and periodicals. You can get research materials from pretty much any library in the country (in the US, anyway) through inter-library loan.

    Many US libraries also maintain subscriptions to some pretty expensive databases, which you can access using your card number.
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    • Profile picture of the author malfumos
      I recommend you to use both Internet Library Resources and in Public Library because you can get more knowledge by using those two.
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  • Profile picture of the author Spinethetic
    If you have a College campus near you, some of them offer library cards to the public for around $50 a year.
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  • Profile picture of the author chewie49
    come on guys,...on a public library you can«t know: Consumer behavior on a particular niche, Latest trends, Competition performance, price fluctuation, etc.

    At least here in spain you can't find that on public libraries....
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  • Profile picture of the author Odhinn
    I go to niche specific forums. People will tell you what they don't know in their posts, and they serve as a fantastic resource for doing research, finding keywords, and eventually, getting backlinks.
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  • Profile picture of the author MeTellYou
    Forums seem to be the way to go. Great for research and marketing.
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  • Profile picture of the author TKChung
    Yahoo answers is my favorite. It covers almost everything/market. It's definitely a good place to do market research

    Good Luck!
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    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      Originally Posted by chewie49 View Post

      come on guys,...on a public library you can«t know: Consumer behavior on a particular niche, Latest trends, Competition performance, price fluctuation, etc.

      At least here in spain you can't find that on public libraries....
      You asked for my favorite tool. You got it. I never said it was my only tool...

      Depending on the niche, I'd add forums (as has been mentioned), trade group and association websites (great for trends and demographics), news archives (some of which I access online via my library membership) and more.

      One of my favorites for niche behavior is the magazine stacks. A couple of years worth of a niche magazine and a few hours will give you a great feel for the trends in the niche, an idea where it might be heading, and what ads and approaches seem to work.

      [If a particular ad runs without change for a long period, it's working. Photocopy it for study.]

      Depending again on the niche, the archives of graduate research theses at a college library can give you insights you won't find in the mainstream media, either offline or online. But that's getting pretty hard core for most.
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      • Profile picture of the author jjpmarketing
        Market Samurai is great... but you just can't beat the simplicity Google's suite of tools. CPA Networks are also good research tool. There is also Amazon.com as recommended by another Warrior on another thread based on sales numbers and performance.

        While Public Libraries and other similar establishments may not indicate current trends, they can be an excellent resource for accurate information about niches you know diddley squat about.

        They are also good sources to find works that may be in the Public Domain if you are into using that info. An old niche can be made new again. Did you know that there are topics that you and I might find boring or uninteresting but thousands of other people are trying to find a good resource on. A good example is there are people who are into the old commercials (3 out of 4 docs say lucky strikes are good for you) or radio shows (think superman, batman, etc.). And that is just one example. You can find all you need to know about stuff like that by just browsing through the library.
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  • Profile picture of the author PaulGee
    Chewie
    Micro Niche Finder has everything you need to find/assess any niche. Google it and watch the videos.

    Wishing you well in your projects.
    Paul
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  • Profile picture of the author welland
    backlinks ....keywords and forums
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  • Profile picture of the author JustinDupre
    Specific forum is good.. I also use quancast and compete for my marketing research.
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