The decision to start your own company is one of the most important decisions you will ever make. You need to figure out what type of company you'll run, where to invest, and how to market it. One of the first steps in this research is conducting market research by studying your community. This will give you insight into the products and services that people want in your area, as well as what other businesses are doing well.
Market research is an important step in marketing for small businesses. Conducting market research helps the organization understand their consumers, competition, and branding. Conducting market research can be done through surveys, focus groups, or by gathering feedback online. The business will then use this information to create a strategy that will increase customer satisfaction and drive growth.
Many small businesses in your communities are not aware of the importance of carrying out market research before launching their product or service. It is important to conduct market research because it will allow you to gather information on demand, measure how competitive your business is, answer questions about your marketing strategy, and more. By conducting market research, you will be able to make informed decisions that can help your business grow without taking too many risks.
The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how to do market research for your company in the greater Toronto region. I'll demonstrate using the Google keyword tool, which is a free tool that can be found by searching for “Google keyword tool” on the internet.
When doing market and keyword research, it is preferable to seek for specialized and focused niche keywords that your prospective clients are looking for, rather than choosing generic terms that are widely used.
A generic keyword would be, for example, dentists, but a specialized niche keyword would be a term that contains a geographic area, for as: dentists in New York City, or dentists in Chicago.
Why should you hunt for specific keywords rather to utilizing generic keywords such as dentists or doctors?
Why? Because even if generic keywords get more searches, this does not always indicate that the individuals searching for dentists are seeking for one in particular; they might just be looking for general information on dentists. Furthermore, ranking your dental company website on search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing (MSN) would be almost difficult due to the overwhelming amount of worldwide competition for the phrase dentist.
But if you are a dentist in Milton Ontario and you study keywords for Milton dentists and develop an Internet marketing plan that is particularly geared to be found by people in Milton Ontario, you can be certain that you will be discovered by your target client.
You can also be certain that when someone searches for the keyword “Milton dentists” on Google, they are seeking for a dentist with whom they can schedule an appointment and eventually become your clients. When doing your research, make certain that the findings are tailored especially to your market. For example, if you want to advertise only to individuals in Canada or the United Kingdom, make certain that the results are tailored directly to your market.
You must go to the advanced settings in the Google keyword tool and pick the country and language in which you want your results to be shown in order for them to be accurate. If you wish to sell your products or services internationally, you should be aware that competition in most areas is severe.
Other recommendations will be provided by the keyword tool, which you may further refine to be more particular to what you were searching for using the filtering options. What search volume you evaluate is entirely dependent on how you want to advertise your small company and how far your items or services are likely to reach.
To put it another way, you need to decide if you will promote worldwide or locally. Look at the “Worldwide monthly searches” if you want to do Internet marketing for your company on a global scale, and the “Local monthly searches” if you want to do local business marketing on the Internet. You will also be able to get “estimated PPC costs” for each of the keywords that have been recommended. In general, the more expensive the term per click, the greater the amount of competition and the greater the potential profit.
When you have determined which keywords are the most targeted and get the greatest number of searches, it is important to investigate the competition and determine whether there is money to be earned in your small company sector. To accomplish this, enter each of your keywords into Google and search for them.
The amount of competition may be determined by looking at the number of search results…that is, the number of sites that include the keyword in question. If the search results are limited to 500,000 pages or fewer, you can be certain that your small business will be able to rank on the first page of the search results if you implement the proper Internet marketing plan for your company.
To determine whether a given niche is lucrative, look at the sponsored links that appear in the search results. If there are at least one or two pay-per-click advertisements, it indicates that there is money to be earned on the site. This is due to the fact that these business owners are prepared to pay per click; keep in mind that they will be paid whether they get a lead for their company. PPC advertisements indicate that there is money to be made.
Now that you have completed your market research and know how much money your competitors are spending on pay-per-click advertising as well as the keywords that prospective buyers are using to locate your products or services…
You may begin developing a realistic marketing budget as well as Internet marketing methods to attract new customers to your company. You can optimize your website and content, regardless of whether you plan to utilize pay per click marketing or organic and social media marketing, to ensure that you spend less for your PPC advertisements and that you also appear in the organic search results… where more of your consumers are clicking.
Not only that, but developing an effective Internet marketing plan for your small business can position you as a leader and authority in your industry, as well as generate social media buzz about your company in your specialty.
