Market research may sound like a term used by the Fortune 1000 corporate types who spend gobs and gobs of money spying on their competition and greasing the palms of financial and market analysts to tell them what they want to hear (a very incestous relationship by the way – at least partially responsible for the DOT COM bomb in the late 90’s, early 2000)
Don’t let that fool you, your biggest advantage as an individual entrepreneur is your ability to discover pockets of red-hot demand and turn those opportunities into wealth generating businesses.
For me, market research is the "crown jewels" of my business – it’s what I find during market research that allows me to discover opportunities in seemingly swamped markets full of competitors. Many people get scared off by highly competition markets – for me, by stealthy market research techniques, I know I can find sub-niche opportunities I can turn into highly profitable information products – ebooks, reports, courses, etc…
We teach many of these "stealthy market research" techniques over at InfoMarketer’s Zone – tapping into Answers sites, top information discussion forums, leading research sites online, top keyword research sites, buying behavior and ratings sites, and that’s just the beginning.
Not only does market research lead to new markets, gaps/opportunities, trends allowing you to jump into seemingly busy markets, but it also allows you to understand the underlying motivations, emotional drivers and language you need to use when designing your marketing messages.
I one had one of my coaching clients ask me if they should outsource their market research – NO WAY! I would outsource everything else in my business first and focus as much time as I could on market research.
You can get experts to handle your administration, web page and graphic design, customer support, product development – but learning to perform stealthy market research is your biggest asset – especially if you will be doing any kind of niche marketing or niche infoproduct development.
Jeff
