Market research strategies provide professionals access to the big data necessary to make analytic-driven business decisions. Historically, these strategies have evolved and shifted naturally with the changing needs and behaviors of a business’s client base. Throughout the pandemic, however, customer needs and demands shifted drastically and quickly, leaving many brands struggling to realign their marketing strategies. Brands that have successfully navigated the post-COVID economy were forced to become especially fluid and responsive in their approach to gathering data at all phases in their marketing strategy, but especially in their efforts to conduct market research.
At UpCity, we wanted to better understand how successful businesses are conducting market research now versus pre-COVID, so we tapped into our partnership with Pollfish to survey 600 small businesses in the United States. This survey focused primarily on methods, goals, and challenges in carrying out effective market research campaigns, and we divided our analysis of the data accordingly:
- Market Research Strategies Pre-COVID-19
- Market Research Strategies in 2022
We also gathered anecdotal feedback from small business owners operating in both the B2B and B2C spheres in order to add context to the statistical findings of the Pollfish survey. Experts from around the globe provided insight into how their brands adapted and shifted market research tactics in order to best gather the data necessary to make informed business decisions in the evolving post-COVID economic landscape.
Market Research Strategies Pre-COVID-19
77% of B2B and B2C small businesses conducted market research to improve their business pre-COVID-19
The economic landscape leading up to 2020 was becoming increasingly competitive and crowded, making market research a standard component in almost every brand’s ongoing marketing strategy. Market research helps to identify the right target audience and segment your marketing efforts in order to reach ideal candidates for each product and service you sell. Market research performed through surveys, interviews, social media, and other channels were some of the most effective methods pre-COVID to assess demand and gather data that would help improve and expand your business. While some of our respondents might have been in unique niches or confident in their products prior to the pandemic, the total disruption of the entire economy post-COVID, including supply chain interruptions and product shortages, has forced many business owners to reconsider their stance on leveraging market research in order to pivot and survive.
77% – We conducted market research prior to COVID-19
24% – We didn’t start conducting market research until after COVID-19
40% of small businesses conducted market research in-house pre-COVID
While at first glance it seems a majority of our respondents were handling market research in-house prior to COVID-19, the fact is that the total number of respondents utilizing either a third-party agency or a consultant and/or freelancer in the pre-COVID economy exceeded the use of in-house resources by 20 percent.
It speaks to the growing trend in small-to medium-sized businesses over the last decade of keeping their teams lean and focused on the business processes that generate the most revenue and are within the expertise of the product or services they offer while depending on third-party agencies or service providers for tasks that are resource-intensive and require not only specialized expertise but are also comprised of repetitive administrative tasks.
40% – In-house market research team
29% – Third-party market research agency
30% – Market research consultant and/or freelancer
1% – Other
26% of B2B businesses prioritized market research for social media listening and analyzing sales data pre-COVID
Business-to-business service providers are in an interesting position of having to sell to other businesses, and therefore having to rely on research methods that capture data where businesses are more apt to generate it. Social listening and sale data analysis in combination with one another provides powerful insight for B2B services. Social listening can provide insight into the needs of staff for target businesses and help identify pain points those businesses might be experiencing while analyzing historical sales data in that niche can help to define sales goals and targets, while also helping to identify opportunities.
Every method in the list below has its pros and cons, and it’s in the need to eliminate blind spots in the data generated by the analysis and social listening that other research methods become useful. For example, while the results from survey research and focus groups might be more subjective, the personal insights from respondents provide a powerful context for more objective data found elsewhere, allowing your team to create a more balanced and nuanced customer experience.
Competitive analysis is an important tactic to leverage, as it shows you what others in your service niche are doing, and whether their efforts are effective and should be emulated, or ineffective and should be avoided in your own business practices.
12% – Survey research
11% – Focus groups
13% – Customer observation
11% – Interviews
13% – Social media listening
10% – Field experiments
10% – Competitive analysis
13% – Analyze sales data
7% – Purchase research reports
Exploring pre-COVID research methods of a wider cohort of small business owners who were focused on B2B services was necessary to give context to the data of the Pollfish survey. In our own survey of US-based companies, we found that many respondents preferred surveys and interviews as a direct method used by owners to explore market trends.
“Before the pandemic, I preferred online surveys because I could get data in real-time and build rapport with respondents and collect detailed, in-depth information. I could also collect specific information that applied to my research goals.”
—Omer Usanmaz, Co-Founder & CEO, Qooper Mentoring & Learning Software
“Pre-Covid we were focused on market research methods like focus groups and interviews, as these were, and remain, powerful methods to gain access to customers and potential leads.”
—Carter Crowley, Co-Owner & Senior Acquisition Manager, CB Home Solutions
“Customer surveys have been my go-to market research method, both before and after COVID. Using customer surveys provides me with the insights necessary to improve my marketing strategies and streamline them according to market trends.”
—Shannon Steinberg, SEO Manager, Allied Van Lines
A majority of B2B small businesses main market research objectives were avoiding potential business failures, securing funding from investors, and making more informed business decision pre-COVID
Whether we’re discussing pre- or post-COVID goals of conducting research marketing, no business owner should be shocked that avoiding failures and running successful marketing campaigns is a primary goal to any strategic marketing initiative. Prior to the pandemic though, many respondents were also focused on securing funding and gathering data to make more informed decisions. Many respondents were riding the positive wave of success in the pre-COVID market and looking to grow and expand their footprint into new regions geographically. Less of a priority but still in the backs of many business owners’ minds, research was being used to expand the customer base, as exceedingly crowded market niches necessitated branching out into new products and services.
(On a scale of 1–8, 1 being the most important)
Avoid potential business failures
Secure funding from investors
Make more informed business decisions
Target new geographic regions
Identify new customer segments
Expand existing customer base
Identify new business opportunities
Other
It’s necessary to have a clear understanding of the goals in the months leading up to COVID-19 for small B2B business owners so that we can later in this discussion explore how those goals have changed. While our respondents seemed focused mostly on preventing business failure by ensuring they were making informed business decisions, we had a variety of answers from the larger community of US-based B2B operators that generally boiled down to the same core goal of running a business effectively.
“Prior to COVID-19, our research efforts were focused on ensuring we were targeting the right customers for our brand by focusing our market research on defining buyer personas, assessing the buyer behavior of those personas, and subsequently evaluating the demand of products in our niche.”
—David Lee, Digital Marketing Manager, Neutypechic
“Our biggest market research goal pre-COVID was determining new business opportunities. We studied and identified marketing trends and ideal consumers, allowing us to create targeted marketing campaigns.”
—Janet Patterson, Loan & Finance Expert, Highway Title Loans
“Our biggest marketing goals have always remained consistent, be it pre-COVID or post. Our goals are to make effective business decisions, identify new business opportunities, and to know our buyers.”
—Aima Irfan, Editor in Chief & Marketing Manager, Inside TechWorld
B2B respondents also mainly noted that their biggest pre-COVID market research challenge was having too many unexpected changes in project scopes
As we pointed out at the head of the article, small businesses and startups are prone to keeping extremely lean staff focused largely on only a few of the necessary business processes, and many members wear multiple hats for roles in which they might not be experts. This can lead to a number of issues in the planning and execution of market research initiatives. Customers introduce a bevy of unknowns into any business process, and without professional marketers, researchers, or data analysts on the team, the scope of a project can be hard to pin down.
Some small businesses and startups know what they need in order to improve but lack the budget or resources to execute the plan, making it difficult to get the necessary data to properly make informed business decisions and guide the company toward success. Red tape and administrative roadblocks in businesses where decision-makers might not give their team the agility to make necessary decisions can also slow down the research process, as market research must be performed in a timely manner to take advantage of trends in the market and any delays to initiating a research project can be costly.
In the same vein, these projects do take time to collect and analyze the data in order to reveal the most impactful path forward for your brand. Leadership can often negate the benefits a research project could bring to the table simply by setting too short of a timeline to gather and analyze data. Your marketing team, in-house or third-party, must have the flexibility and room to properly execute these initiatives to generate the most useful results.
(On a scale of 1–6, 1 being the most important)
Too many unexpected changes in project scopes
Difficult gathering enough data to make informed decisions
Slow internal approval process for vendors
Limited research budget and/or resources
Unrealistic timelines
Other
It’s hard to consider market conditions being challenging prior to the pandemic on the same scale as they were in the months following the outbreak of COVID-19 in the first quarter of 2020. However, marketing didn’t become a challenging undertaking overnight, and it’s helpful to show the frustrations of business owners that drove respondents to answer our survey the way that they did.
“Prior to COVID-19, our marketing research was being executed by an in-house team, and we found that we were casting too wide of a net and talking to too many people that weren’t serious buyers. Often, the customers we focused on didn’t have a clear understanding of how to properly use our products and what to expect from the results. Our targeting was too broad and we found that we weren’t getting the value we expected for the investment we’d made.”
—Sidharth Kumar, Director of Product Marketing, Exoprise Systems
“Deadlines have been difficult to keep up with both before and since the pandemic hit, as the market evolves and changes so rapidly. This is made harder by having to perform complex research with a very limited amount of resources.”
—CJ Xia, VP of Marketing & Sales, Boster Biological Technology
“Our biggest challenge used to be securing more budget. Funds for research are always limited, and it isn’t easy to get the buy-in for new methods and ideas.”
—Ryan Cassidy, Web Developer & Real Estate Broker, Triangle House Hunter
Meanwhile, 27% of B2C businesses focused on customer observation and analyzing sales data
There are interesting differences between business-to-business and business-to-consumer that are mostly tied into the sales cycle. Ultimately, both service segments are focused on determining the purchasing habits and trends of a target customer, be it a business entity or individual. However, because of the broader customer base that B2C often has to manage, it makes more sense that B2C focuses more on identifying trends and behaviors through observing purchasing behaviors and trends in sales data. Survey research also provides powerful insights into retail customer behaviors. On the other end of the business spectrum, B2C often leverages competitive analysis research because it’s important to understand what it is your competitors might be doing that you’re not in order to pivot to grow or recover lost market share.
13% – Survey research
10% – Focus groups
14% – Customer observation
9% – Interviews
12% – Social media listening
9% – Field experiments
12% – Competitive analysis
13% – Analyze sales data
8% – Purchase research reports
The business-to-consumer sphere approaches marketing in fundamentally different ways from business-to-business service providers, especially when it comes to marketing. In order to maintain parity in the discussion, we also gathered commentary from specialists in B2C on their pre-COVID research methods of choice.
However this type of market research was all aimed at established customers, we had never tried directing market research to potential customers just browsing our site. The results we got from broader online surveys from the general public or through social media channels were also often non-specific to our product and therefore not really reliable.”
—Evan McCarthy, CEO, SportingSmiles LLC
“As a marketer, I was always a big fan of qualitative research. Prior to COVID-19, I was much more interested in understanding people’s motivations and behaviors than I was in knowing their demographics. In the past, we would conduct as much qualitative research as possible before rolling out any new product.”
—Soheil Khaledi, Founder, 100 Tattoos
Most B2C small businesses noted that they were prioritizing market research to identify new business opportunities and expand their existing customer base
Whereas B2B service providers rely less on brick-and-mortar retail space to sell to their clients, B2C services often depend upon market expansion and the expansion of goods and services on offer to grow their brand and build revenue streams. In the months leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic, B2C was riding the positive economic trends to expand into new markets and capture new customers. Many retail brands started out as very focused providers of a specific service or product, but the most successful B2C brands tend to operate on either end of this spectrum—offering either a single channel of goods or services or constantly expanding and adding new product lines and services in order to outperform the competition.
(On a scale of 1–8, 1 being the most important)
Expand existing customer base
Identify new business opportunities
Make more informed business decisions
Identify new customer segments
Avoid potential business failures
Target new geographic regions
Secure funding from investors
Other
Pre-COVID goals were often aligned with the types of research methods being leveraged, so we wanted to explore more in-depth what B2C owners were trying to accomplish with their marketing research efforts.
“Prior to the pandemic, we aimed to have a clearer picture of what B2C audiences like about gamified language learning apps, so that we could translate our findings into ways of improving our own app’s features.”
—Simon Bacher, Co-Founder, Simya Solutions
“Before COVID, our main goal was to increase brand awareness and find the best ways to penetrate the market. We didn’t have a large customer base, so we chose methodologies such as competitor research, performance benchmarking, and campaign A/B testing because they were the quickest ways to gather data and implement solutions.
—Milo Cruz, Chief Marketing Officer, FreelanceWritingJobs.com
“The biggest market research goals of our company pre-Covid were to first understand the problem that co-creation was trying to solve, and then determine what features users of the product think are missing or make the product harder to use. We would then use that research to come up with solutions for these problems in order to make the product more user-friendly. Once improved, we used our research tools to determine a way to promote the product in order to reach more people.”
—Haris Bacic, Co-Founder & CEO, PriceListo
A majority of B2C respondents stated that having a limited research budget and/or resources was their largest market research challenge pre-COVID
In the B2C space, controllable costs are often the first cut line items in any budget, and depending on how the B2C brand is structured, this can often mean that market research takes a backseat to more direct marketing and advertising strategies, with leadership relying on ad performance metrics rather than real feedback from customers.
(On a scale of 1–6, 1 being the most important)
Limited research budget and/or resources
Slow internal approval process for vendors
Difficult gathering enough data to make informed decisions
Too many unexpected changes in project scopes
Unrealistic timelines
Other
Business-to-Consumer service providers faced their own challenges in the uneven market conditions leading up to the pandemic due to the complexities of marketing strategies and client behaviors. We queried B2C leaders to learn more about the challenges they faced leading up to 2020 in conducting market research.
“My biggest market research challenge was finding ways to reach my target audience. Traditional methods such as focus groups and surveys can be costly and time-consuming.”
—Joshua Haley, Founder, Moving Astute
“The lack of information available for public display was our biggest challenge when conducting market research. This is because competitors have been confidential in disclosing their portfolios, which is completely understandable. The lack of crucial information on the internet made us establish imperative connections so that we can collaborate with one another and, in turn, create market metrics that will help us identify our current dos and don’ts.”
—Sam Browne, Founder & CEO, HARO SEO
Market Research Strategies in 2022
60% of small businesses are currently conducting market research in-house in 2022
The shutdowns and quarantines necessitated by the pandemic forced many brands to restructure their teams around the business processes that would be necessary for future success and streamlined operations. However, this also meant that many teams had time to diversify their skill sets through education and training. Other brands were forced to rebuild their teams due to the Great Resignation, and have focused on internalizing marketing tasks as they have emerged as crucial business processes regardless of the brand’s product or service niche.
Because market research is vital to core business needs, it makes sense that budget-conscious organizations are leveraging online tools in order to manage and conduct their own research in-house to more effectively control budgets and align their efforts with evolving business needs.
60% – We conduct market research in-house
40% – We outsource our market research efforts
26% of B2B small businesses are now leveraging market research to focus most heavily on social listening, survey research, and customer observation
While social listening remains important in the B2B space, brands servicing other businesses have dialed in on their clients’ purchasing behaviors and started conducting direct survey research rather than relying on sales data analysis in order to establish customer needs. The disruption of the last two years has made it difficult to rely on data alone. Business clients have experienced the same level of disruption and themselves have had to pivot and adapt to meet their own client needs. Some of their methods for coping have been to expand into the eCommerce arena to capitalize on rising consumer reliance upon online ordering and shopping.
So while data analytics still play a role, B2B brands are collating analytics with direct inquiries to gauge the changes in customer intent, customer needs, and overall product demand. Using the confluence of this information, B2B service providers can better align their services and products with the shift in other businesses’ needs and purchasing behaviors.
13% – Survey research
9% – Focus groups
13% – Customer observation
10% – Interviews
13% – Social media listening
10% – Field experiments
11% – Competitive analysis
12% – Analyze sales data
9% – Purchase research reports
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses have had to shift the focus of their market research in response to changing consumer behaviors and shifting business requirements. We didn’t feel the data was enough to get a full picture of this shift so we reached out to owners directly in order to gain insight into how owners shifted market research focus in the last two years.
“Since 2022, we observed that apart from purchasing, people are finding ways to get rebates from their purchases which is why we considered referral marketing as well. Small business owners should direct their focus to their core customers so they can establish revenue sources. Apart from advertising your brand, you can make the most out of the customers you already have by implementing a referral system or customer loyalty program or even taking the time to understand which marketing strategies work best for your business based on previous purchasing behaviors. This allows your business to grow through your customers, giving it the edge in the competition, no matter how small your business may be.”
—Shaun Martin, Owner & CEO, We Pay Cash for Houses
“We’ve shifted tactics since COVID-19. This year, I’m much more interested in what my target audience has to say. Hence, I prefer conducting social media listening, as this tactic has given me insights that no other method has provided so far.”
—Zach Tetley, Co-Founder, NexusHomeBuyers
“We still conduct surveys to collect data, but we had to let go of focus groups. That’s because focus groups required a certain number of people to be present in a closed room. Since COVID is especially contagious within small spaces, using this strategy was a big no.”
—Ava Martin, Founder, Quality Water Lab
B2B respondents noted that their top 2022 market research goal is to identify new customer segments
Because the business landscape has changed so drastically, and so many brands have been forced to pivot and add products or services, it makes sense that B2B respondents are exploring the new customer landscape and looking for potential clients who might now need their services who weren’t even on the radar less than a year ago. This idea is supported by the prevalence of other respondents prioritizing the expansion of the existing customer base and discovering new business opportunities.
You’ll note too that as we recover from the pandemic, fewer respondents, in general, are concerned with expansion into new regions or raising capital and funding from investors. Businesses accept that they will need to rely upon internal means to recover and adapt and reinvent themselves according to client needs and that local focus and efforts will provide the most impact on the community and attract more local repeat business.
(On a scale of 1–8, 1 being the most important)
Identify new customer segments
Expand existing customer base
Avoid potential business failures
Identify new business opportunities
Make more informed business decisions
Target new geographic regions
Secure funding from investors
Other
The changes business owners in the B2B space made to their market research tactics were driven largely by a shift in goals caused by changing market demands and consumer needs.
“In 2022, we are still using many of the same methods that were in use prior to 2022, but there have been a few changes in our focus. For example, we’ve started to leverage online polling more because it’s easy to do and doesn’t require people to leave their homes. Additionally, we’re using social media more to gather data about consumer behavior. We’ve also considered following the growing trend of using chatbots to conduct surveys and get feedback from customers. The bottom line is that market research is still necessary for today’s economy, and businesses need to find creative ways to conduct it remotely to stay competitive.”
—Mo Mulla, Founder, Parental Questions
“Our primary goal in market research is to learn what our targeted consumer audience wants from our organization, which is why we focus on smaller groups. While the results from focus groups and personal interviews might not be as statistically reliable, focus groups and interviews do provide valuable insights into customer attitudes and are excellent ways for us to uncover issues related to the development of new products or services.”
—James Anderson, CEO, Veritas Buyers
“In 2022, our goals are still to understand customer needs and wants, to track customer satisfaction, and measure brand awareness. However, we’ve started focusing more on understanding customer behavior across online channels and using that data to make more informed business decisions.”
—Robert Leonard, Marketing Director & CEO, Aimvein
However, their biggest challenge is now dealing with unrealistic timelines for market research projects
While funding and project scope continue to vex B2B marketing teams, the pace at which brands are having to capture and adapt to data has resulted in leadership setting extremely unrealistic timelines for market research projects. And with so many brands now leveraging surveys and research across multiple channels, these shortened timelines can be even more troublesome as brands struggle to gather a sufficient amount of feedback necessary to ensure the research findings are meaningful.
In order to combat this and maintain retention in their client base, it’s crucial for brands to now leverage strong relationships with their existing customers and with visitors to their Facebook and LinkedIn pages as well as other social media platforms and other online websites. They must also utilize email marketing, newsletters, and other methods of outreach to remain top of mind with existing and potential customers and therefore have more responsiveness to their efforts to collect feedback.
(On a scale of 1–6, 1 being the most important)
Unrealistic timelines
Limited research budget and/or resources
Too many unexpected changes in project scopes
Difficult gathering enough data to make informed decisions
Slow internal approval process for vendors
Other
The post-COVID consumer behavior shifts that led to changes in tactics and purpose also brought on a different array of challenges. The data from our respondents shows many organizations are dealing with poor research management and limited resources, but insight from owners speaks to an array of other challenges that have emerged in the past year following the economic collapse in 2020 and the recovery period that begin in 2021.
“Thankfully, the pandemic has made people more willing to participate in market research. People are generally more interested in sharing their experiences and opinions right now, which has made our job easier. That said, we’re still facing some challenges. With more people working from home and spending less time out in the world, it can be difficult to reach them. Additionally, Zoom fatigue is real and people are often tired of being on video calls all day. So we’ve had to get creative with our outreach and make sure we’re not overloading people with too many requests.”
—Wolfe Bowart, CEO, Vivipins
“Trying to develop new opportunities in the current environment is our main concern. In a short amount of time, we have effectively changed direction. Our company will need to change its marketing message to seize the opportunity, whether we opt for a different business model or reevaluate our buyer profiles.”
—Caitlyn Parish, Founder & CEO, Cicinia
52% of B2C respondents are focusing their 2022 market research efforts on survey research, customer observation, social media listening, and analyzing sales data
While many of our B2C respondents continue to prioritize data analytics and customer observation, the field of companies weighing in on the Pollfish survey have diversified their market research efforts in 2022. Direct observation of customers and more focus on social listening and less focus on what competitors are doing shows that B2C services understand that client behaviors can better be gauged through their behaviors online and their direct feedback.
13% – Survey research
9% – Focus groups
13% – Customer observation
9% – Interviews
13% – Social media listening
9% – Field experiments
10% – Competitive analysis
13% – Analyze sales data
9% – Purchase research reports
The pandemic left no corner of the economy untouched, so it should be no surprise that B2C marketing teams had to shift the market research tactics just as drastically as B2B operators. Despite a customer base with differing needs and demands from B2B service providers, the research methods B2C operators have shifted to are largely similar.
“Since the average American’s financial situation was flipped on its head during COVID, we’re looking to new public data to help us to redesign our service offerings to meet their needs better. We do perform some primary research, but we always use this secondary research to supplement our findings and shape our strategy.”
—John Li, Co-Founder & CTO, Fig Loans
“If anything, we’re leaning into social listening even harder than we were pre-pandemic. Lockdowns and social distancing brought even more people to social sites, and we’re seeing them continue to use it as a primary outlet. The data that they are generating across social sites as a result of the increased activity is invaluable to us.”
—Fernando Lopez, Marketing Director, Circuit
“Online Survey is an essential tool for gathering audience input and is a fantastic approach to quickly gather the data you require from respondents in 2022. It can even be used to analyze your market and find fresh business development prospects. Online surveys offer a quick and convenient approach to getting input and discovering more about your audience while utilizing fewer resources. Additionally, since these polls are typically anonymous, there is no risk of offending anyone while gathering information. And since everything is online now, you’ll get more participation using this channel.”
—Nick Bolshaw, Founder, Inyouths LED Mirrors
Most B2C small businesses said that expanding their existing customer base in 2022 is most important to them
Despite shifts in strategy, the overall goals of B2C services have remained largely unimpacted at the top end of the spectrum, with the majority of respondents still focused on expanding their customer base and identifying new business opportunities. There was movement further down the priority list, however, with more respondents concerned with avoiding potential business failures and using data to make more informed decisions. In essence, B2C service providers have become more cautious overall and purposeful in their market research to ensure their brands are aligned with the realities of the market.
(On a scale of 1–8, 1 being the most important)
Expand existing customer base
Identify new business opportunities
Avoid potential business failures
Make more informed business decisions
Identify new customer segments
Target new geographic regions
Secure funding from investors
Other
With new approaches to market research in the wake of COVID-19 came new goals for B2C service providers as they strove to meet the needs of consumers with drastically different needs in 2022.
“After COVID, the family travel industry was in a tailspin. Families were taking fewer vacations and spending more time at home. So in 2022, Family Destination Guide’s biggest market research goals have shifted to a focus on finding out what kind of vacation would entice families back into the travel industry.”
—Bonnie Whitfield, Human Resources Director, Family Destinations Guide
“Our goals have expanded to include understanding how we can reach our target market online and what types of messaging will resonate the most. Additionally, we are also focusing on making sure that our research is representative of the entire population.”
—Luke Lee, Fashion Designer & CEO, PalaLeather
“Before the pandemic, the goal of market research was to understand consumer needs and in order to deliver better results. Customers are now much more likely to shop online and the market research has shifted to reflect these changes. Now, businesses must understand how to reach their customers online more effectively.”
—Angel Martins, Managing Director, Finsbury Media
B2C businesses are currently struggling the most with having a limited budget and/or resources, as well as difficulty gathering enough data to make informed decisions
The pandemic has had a severe impact across industries, but few segments have been harder hit than retailers and B2C brands due to quarantines, social distancing, and closures at the start of the pandemic. Even with the economic recovery that we’ve experienced throughout 2022, B2C brands continue to struggle with limited budgets and resources, but for different reasons than prior to the pandemic.
In the post-pandemic economy, brands are continuing to operate with minimal staffing, but largely due to the Great Resignation than any intentional organizational decisions. Difficulty gathering enough data to make informed decisions stems largely from the sheer number of businesses flooding the market with surveys and requests for interviews and feedback. While data might be abundant, it’s still challenging to correlate data meaningfully with business goals. As a result, brands are having to increasingly rely upon experts and tools to extract relevant data to make informed business decisions.
(On a scale of 1–6, 1 being the most important)
Limited research budget and/or resources
Difficult gathering enough data to make informed decisions
Too many unexpected changes in project scopes
Slow internal approval process for vendors
Unrealistic timelines
Other
Just as with our B2B community, B2C service providers experienced a shift in the types of challenges facing them in properly executing market research campaigns.
“Pre-covid, lack of accurate data was a major challenge for us. We had the wealth of data but limited resources to manage it effectively. In the wake of the pandemic, we reanalyzed our strategies and invested in better research methods to utilize data better. Right now, the only visible challenge is a lack of awareness of new technologies. Well, we have training methods in place and with time, our experts can leverage them better.”
—Ian Kelly, CEO, NuLeaf Naturals
“Our biggest challenge in 2022 is that due to the large amount of data we collect there is a risk of error. We use technology to correct these errors as when data is poor quality, the insights we derive from it tend to be poor quality too.”
—Leanna Serras, Chief Customer Officer, FragranceX
The pandemic has rewired much of how businesses approach marketing and client engagement, and businesses operating in both the B2B and B2C spheres have had to adapt their market research strategies and goals accordingly. While new challenges have risen up, they largely can be reduced to limited resources and funds to properly execute the necessary data acquisition and analysis.
Small Businesses Must Learn To Leverage Market Research Strategies for 2023 and Beyond
The economy is rife with uncertainty at the tail end of 2022 as experts in financial services are releasing forecasts warning small business owners of a potential recession on the horizon. Americans are only now starting to regain a degree of normalcy in their consumption habits, but with flexible work arrangements and remote work still in play, B2B and B2C businesses will need to continue to evolve their business practices in order to not only recover from the pandemic but also survive the year ahead. In order to do this, market research will have to play a significant role in the strategizing and restructuring many brands will have to undergo in the months ahead.
Throughout the pandemic, small companies have had to rely upon short-term reactive strategies to continue to operate, but long-term adaptation will be the only way to survive in the post-pandemic economy. If you’re struggling to execute the necessary market research to help evolve your brand or lack the resources to do so, we hope that the strategies and guidance you’ve found in this survey will help you put your market research efforts back on track. For additional resources and guidance, reach out to a market research agency that can help you craft your strategy for the year to come.
UpCity’s Survey Method
UpCity used Pollfish to survey 600 small business owners and marketing professionals on their 2022 market research strategy in comparison to their efforts pre-COVID-19.
A majority of respondents own or work for a small business that has been operating for 3-5 years (38%). Thirty-seven percent of respondents reported annual revenue of less than $500,000.
Fifty-five percent of respondents are male and forty-five percent are female.