Market research is by far one of the most important first steps to any online business. Im not talking about keyword research, that comes a little later. Market research methodologies are a combined effort to gather as much intelligence as possible about the market you choose.

What we are going to do in this post is attempt to explain how to perform market research to get the most from your market intelligence gathering. You should also understand what type of business model you will choose from. Whether you are an affiliate marketer or own your own product, Market research will tell you no lies.

You don’t want to start a project and invest time and money into something that isn’t selling. Once you know how to research a market it will become clearer and apparent of what sells and what does not. In this lesson we will dig deeper into the market we are researching to uncover hidden opportunities in “Nice to Have” or “Need to Have” markets.

You should also understand that you must be somewhat interested in what you base a online business around or it will become very hard to maintain your business when you start to lose interest. You may even stop what you started simply because you lost the drive needed to finish.

Here is an equation that I have learned in the past and it works very well:

Filling a need + Your Passion + specialized knowledge = Financial Success

The objective of this exercise of course is to find markets that have potential for profits. You would not want to jump into any category that does not have buyers. We want to be sure that there are buyers in the market and that your product, service will sell.

All of your SEO efforts would be in vain if you skip this important step researching your market. I have learned to not skip my market research efforts simply because I have lost a lot of time and resources jumping into a markets with a blindfold.

Most of what you are doing with market research is setting the stage for your whole business strategy and finding those hidden nuggets of gold buried deep within the caverns of the market.

How do we find markets that have potential for profits? Well we could do this by going to websites such as Pay Pal shops and clickbank. Both are great resources and you can find what people are searching for. We could also look in social communities and search upon the needs and desires of people searching the internet for products or services.

I have used the same example below in my book and other materials floating around on the internet and I will use them again here as this was a successful campaign for me in the past.

Finding a person’s pain and solving an issue for them even in nice to have markets can be very profitable. We can look at Golf for instance, yes Golf is a “Nice to have market” but there are enthusiasts who may want to improve their swing, they spend money on books, videos and equipment to help them better their sport.

This now becomes a “need to have” market!

Now knowing this as I understand how Golf can be addictive, I look through forums, Websites and search all of my competition online to see if I can spot any trends or products that may help those people improve their Golf swing.

I discovered by visiting related forums that a lot of Golfers have problems keeping their shoulders straight when hitting the golf ball which causes shanking.

I start looking for related terms that may help me uncover more opportunity by going to Google and typing in “Golf Swing” I then see that there is active advertisers under the “sponsored Links” area on the right hand side. Since we see that there are adwords people advertising, this is an indication that there is money to be made here.

I start searching for a product that matches the needs and desires of that market. Once I find a suitable product, then I begin to have a close look at my competitors and try to “back engineer” their methods by uncovering their selling methods and try to make mine better. I then create a swipe file of keyword terms being used in that market and create a spreadsheet with a list of possibilities on how I will sell my product.

As you can see there are many methods to market research. If you are new at internet marketing and feel “stuck” about what product or service to sell online, just start developing your own market research methodologies of researching your market first before you jump in. Once you start, you will start to find that you will develop your own market intuition.

Filed under: 7 Day Marketing

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!