Ways to obtain free market research

One of my first activities when a client approaches me either with a new idea for a site, or a request to turn-around the fortunes of an existing site is to "check the market".  To my mind, without understanding whether there is a basic demand for ones intended services, everything else is guesswork. (And from a professional perspective, telling someone you can help them when there is nothing there to "help" is a big no-no which can destroy your reputation.)

As a web marketing professional I use a number of subscription-only tools to check the market, but I always end-up checking my results against as wide an information base as possible - and some of those tools are free. Here are some of them.

1) Google your intended proposition.  Use between 3 - 4 words trying to be as precise as possible about your offering. Notice not only your top 10 competitors in the search results but also the number of web pages possessing that particular term in the top right hand of the results.  This is a reasonable, free, indicator of the strength of your competition.

2) Look up the search popularity of your term (used above) using "Google Trends".  Google trends shows how popularly a term has been searched-for since their records began and it shows the results as a graph.  You can therefore determine increasing / decreasing popularity for a term as well as how "cyclical" a term may be searched-for during a year (very useful).

Note, that if you find a phrase that has few existing web pages (as in 1 above) and an increasing trends score (using 2 above), you could be onto something.

3) Set up a "Google Alert" using "Google Alerts".  This service sends you a daily update of what new content (pages, blogs, e-zines) is appearing with the words you specify.  You can therefore keep on top of other publishers' content while you're determining your own marketing strategy.  Equally you might want to join some of the forums & blogs to ask questions and establish yourself with their own readership as a source of information.

4) Do a search for your phrase on Yahoo answers.  Are people talking about your proposition in some other context?  Is there a question there you can answer by talking about your own proposition? (I have won business by doing exactly that.)

5) Use the tool I mentioned in last month's newsletter www.addictomatic.com - to give you real-time updates on the "buzz" going on in your particular topic area. (Beware - the LACK of buzz might suggest you either have a very niche product, or actually nobody is talking about it!)

6) Talk to people about your idea.  Get honest feedback and react to "silence" as much as to criticism (and praise!).

I can't stress enough to customers the importance of knowing what they are getting into, checking who their competition is and how well the market is already served for a particular idea.  All the questions you don't want to think about when you're fired-up with a great idea.  Some of the above tools can help give you just that first inkling of your market and the sort of hurdles you will have to clear to become a player.

Sites of interest this month

I have been involved with the following sites this month:

Holiday villas to rent in Greece

Well, this is the finished result of my website design for that beautiful villa I was talking about last month. I hope I have done it justice!  We'll watch and tune it over the coming months.  All other holiday villas to rent in Greece watch out!  You have a new competitor!  Have a look at the site by clicking on the hyperlink above.

Fred's Leads

"Fred's Leads" is now out of the blocks with his first marketing proposition for Company fleet hire in Sussex.  I have written the website and set up the advertising campaigns and we'll see what happens.  It is early days with the proposition and we will tune the proposition as we learn how it behaves (every website is different).  All comments and feedback much appreciated.  As Fred says himself - he now has something to show prospective clients.  Judge for yourself by clicking on the hyperlink in the text above.