Market research software helps businesses understand market trends and customer behavior. It’s a data collection tool companies use to identify their target audiences, assess competition, gauge demand for their products or services, and take feedback from prospects.

If you’re looking to purchase market research software, this guide is your one-stop solution. It explains software features and benefits as well as the various factors you must consider to make a smart purchase.

Here’s what we’ll cover:

What is market research software?
Common features of market research software
What type of buyer are you?
Benefits and potential issues
Market trends to understand

What is market research software?

Market research software is a data collection tool that lets businesses check if the product or service they’re planning to launch will be received well by customers. It helps manage the various steps of the market research process, from setting the research panel and identifying the target audience to collecting data and reporting on the collected data. The software also allows companies to identify what is or isn’t working well for their existing products and make changes accordingly.

Common features of market research software

Most market research software tools offer the following features:

Multichannel distribution	Collect metrics such as product viability data, product usage data, and customer behavior data from multiple channels, including email, web, and social media.
Reporting	Use visualization to organize the collected research data and identify relevant data points related to market trends, business opportunities, customer choices, and more.
Survey builder	Create and run surveys to collect feedback from target audiences and analyze their responses. You can customize the question types, images, branding, and more.
Benchmarking	Use the collected data to compare your business processes against those of prominent industry players, identify gaps, and plan growth or improvement tactics.
Panel management	Conduct and manage panel discussions with relevant, qualified target market research groups. Recruit, segment, and maintain research panels to gain insights into products, services, or market trends.
Statistical analysis	Apply statistical models to the data collected from research studies to summarize, analyze, and draw inferences from it.

What type of buyer are you?

You should choose a market research tool that aligns with your industry of operation and intended application. That said, most buyers can be divided into the following broad categories:

Retail businesses: Retail companies conduct market research regularly to keep track of changing customer preferences and market or competitor trends. They should opt for market research software that provides real-time reporting to measure audiences’ responses to products or services and to assess the impact of marketing decisions. Survey builder, multichannel data collection, and benchmarking are some features that would suit the needs of these buyers.

Professional services firms: Professional services firms such as advertising and accounting agencies use market research software to formulate branding or marketing strategies, understand target market trends, and more. These buyers should look for a market research tool that can build customized surveys based on data objectives such as client satisfaction and opportunities for new service offerings. Panel management, multichannel data collection, benchmarking, and statistical analysis are the top features these buyers should choose.

Nonprofit organizations: Nonprofit organizations conduct market research to gather information about their supporters’ or donors’ preferences, motivations, and behavior. These firms should consider investing in a market research solution that offers multichannel distribution, reporting, and statistical analysis to identify patterns in donors’ behavior and payment trends for maximizing fundraising abilities.

Benefits and potential issues

Here are some of the key benefits market research software can offer to your business.

High data quality: Market research software collects data based on the parameters and quality standards defined by you. It uses the defined standards to identify which data to keep, discard, or correct. Its survey sample management feature also helps you ensure the collected data is consistent, correct, and of high quality.
Better audience targeting: Using the multichannel distribution feature of market research software, you can reach out to your target audiences across channels, including emails, social media, and web. Thus, you’ll be able to capture responses from various prospects, and the data you collected will provide a well-rounded opinion of customers’ preferences.
Enhanced customer service: Market research software lets you measure how satisfied customers are with your products or services. Comprehensive data reports generated by the software help you identify your customers’ likes, preferences, and wants, so you’re able to serve them better.
Lower risks: The software helps you understand market demand and viability for new products or services before launching them in the market. It also assists in identifying improvement areas for your existing offerings. You can add new features or make improvements to existing features to ensure your product or service fits the needs of the target audience. This reduces the chances of customer rejection or disinterest and lowers market risks for your business.

Market trends to understand

Here are some recent trends related to market research software that you should be aware of:

Data visualization tools helping companies better understand research results: Businesses are increasingly using data visualization tools to easily identify trends or patterns from research data. Data visualizations such as charts, graphs, and images help simplify complex datasets so that companies can spend their time and resources more efficiently.

Artificial intelligence (AI) improving market research and data analysis: AI-equipped market research tools can filter large volumes of collected data using text analysis to identify relevant trends and customer behavior. They improve data accuracy by reducing the chances of human error or bias. Market research software driven by AI also helps save time on report generation and secondary research.

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