The biggest mistake most entrepreneurs make when starting a business
There is a laundry list of things you need to do and remember when starting your business:
Name your business
Register your business
Open a bank account
Get an EIN
Develop your product or services
Create a logo and a website
And the list goes on.
It is so easy to get laser focused on all these little details and making sure your product or service is absolutely perfect that you forget (or just don’t know) you need to look at the bigger picture.
Before you start any of the branding for your new business, you need to do some market research and analysis. Market research and analysis is going to help not only vet your business idea but it is also going to help you understand how to properly position yourself, develop your key messaging, and overall how to effectively market yourself. This is the foundation everything should be built on.
What is market research and analysis?
Market research and analysis helps you understand if your business idea is viable. It allows you to gather information about potential customers and competitors already operating in your market.
Market research and analysis lets you mitigate risks prior while your business is still in development, thus saving you a lot of time and money in the long run.
What’s included in market research and analysis?
Primary research: This is often what most people think of as market research — focus groups and/or surveys with your potential customers. As a small business owner and startup, a survey is going to likely be the most cost effective way to perform this piece of market research. Along with typical multiple choice answers, I’d also recommend having some open-ended ones as well. This allows you to hear from your target market in their own words, which you can then use in your copy to make sure you’re speaking directly to them. (Read more about this here.)
SWOT Analysis: Your SWOT analysis helps you get a big picture look at your business and the market you’re entering. SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. By doing this analysis, you know your strengths so you can play to them, your weaknesses so you can outsource or improve upon them, opportunities in the market so you can capitalize on them, and threats in the market so you can protect yourself from them.
Competitive analysis + landscape: This is researching your competition and understanding the overall competitive landscape. This is more than just comparing your pricing and offerings. That is a part of it, yes, but it’s also looking at their overall presence, messaging, etc. This gives you a clear idea on where you fall among your competition so you can then develop your brand and messaging to stand out.
Market positioning: Knowing where you falling among your competition can help you determine the best market positioning for your brand. This is the ability to influence your target market’s perception of your brand relative to your competitors. If there’s a gap in the competitive landscape, you may want to fill that gap so you’ll need to make sure you position yourself properly to fit where you want to fit within the competitive landscape.
Unique Value Proposition: This is what makes you unique from your competition. It’s how you provide value to customers with your distinct selling points. This is often the intersection of your skills, your brand values, and your brand personality.
Target market development + mapping the buyer’s journey: Not everyone would include this in market research but I think it falls under here because if you don’t know who your target market is then you can’t map the buyer’s journey (aka the decision making process they go through from the moment they realize they have a need until they make a purchase), and if you don’t know either of those, it’s a lot hard to market and position yourself as the best option.
How can market research and analysis benefit your business?
You only get one chance to make a first impression and when you’re a brand new business, this is truly important. Market research can help you make the best first impression there is.
Not only does it help you make a strong first impression, it also helps you make the best decisions possible on where to put your money and efforts… and that is invaluable when you’re first getting your business up and running!
Helps you understand how to brand your business + position yourself properly: Combining your knowledge of your competitors as well as your market position and understanding of your target market allows you to identify how to brand yourself to stand out from the competition and connect with your target market.
If you have identified your brand positioning as high-end, then you need to invest in creating a high-end brand with not just your logo and website but also packaging and customer experience. Every piece of your marketing needs to reflect a high-end feel.
Think about how Ferrari is positioned compared to Toyota. The branding and marketing efforts are totally different because their positioning in the market is totally different.
Develop key messaging to differentiate you from competition: Along the same lines of developing a brand and positioning yourself properly within the market, market research also helps you develop your key messaging to speak directly to your target market. If your target market values transparency, then you want to make sure that is infused into your messaging and brand.
This is also where you can highlight your unique value proposition to differentiate you from your competition. What makes you unique? What makes you the best choice?
Where to place your marketing efforts: Understanding your buyer’s journey in the context of the competitive landscape allows you to best identify the various touchpoints you could have with your target market (aka where you may cross paths with them) so you know exactly where to put your marketing efforts.
Don’t fall into the trap of putting the cart before the horse with your business. Make sure you spend time on your market research so you set yourself up for success from the very beginning.
Want even more help with your marketing?
My Strategy Intensives provide you with a complete brand and marketing strategy based on market research and analysis and your own business metrics.
My 60-minute sessions are great if you need help brainstorming or working through a specific challenge.
Not sure what you need but know you could use some support? Reach out and I’ll help guide you in the right direction (whether that’s working with me or not!)
