In simple terms, the objective for all Market Research is to drive positive change in your business.

The life of any research you undertake can be extended by consistently unlocking and maximising the value of your projects.

Here are the 5 steps for gaining the most out of your research.

1. Get up close and personal
Get to know your project and know it well.  How does it work? Who do we survey? What do we ask and how long does it take? This knowledge is crucial – after all it’s much harder to unlock hidden value if you don’t know what’s there.

2. Challenge the status quo
Ensure your research project addresses your business needs. Don’t just measure for measurements sake, it’s not always about the number or KPI. Don’t be afraid to challenge the questions that are included in your research project or the way it’s reported.

3. Think outside the box
Increasingly, research is used for more than just collecting data to answer business questions.  Perhaps there is an opportunity to augment the information you hold about your customers in your CRM resulting in better targeting of comms.  Your research programs can also be a touchpoint for your brand - what can you do to ensure its engaging, reflects your brand values or even ‘gives something back’ to participants?

4. Name drop
Talk it up.  Mention the project whenever you see an opportunity and keep doing this (without being annoying – there is a line!).  For example, you hear someone in the business asking a question that could easily be answered by one of your latest market research project – call it ‘Project X’.  Why not casually drop into the conversation “you know, we could see if we can answer that using Project X”?   Eventually your colleagues, managers and senior leadership will get the idea.

5. Agency partnership
The last is perhaps the most obvious (to us, at least) – engage agencies who work with you as true business partners.  From our “side” of the fence, we see that both our clients and our team members alike find this beneficial – a true understanding of your business and the openness to bringing suggestions to the table not only inspires us on the “agency” side but results in better solutions for you.

Nicole Grantham is an Account Director with the research team at Potentiate.  An accidental automotive expert, she has a (not so secret) passion for helping clients make better business decisions and improve their customer experience by leveraging their business and research data.

Contact us to find out how we can deliver market insights to you that will drive your business growth.