You followed the 5-step market research process and now have a lot of consumer insights to get going. But seeing all that data makes you wonder — what to do after market research?

Should you use it for marketing straightaway, plan your pricing strategy, or do something else? Let’s look at the next steps after market research and help you move ahead in your launch and success journey. 

Market research involves analyzing your audience’s interests, competition, industry trends, and market opportunities by collecting information about your potential customers. Here are the steps to follow after completing market research: 

• Identify patterns and trends 
• Segment the target market 
• Evaluate customer needs and preferences 
• Assess the competitive landscape 
• Refine your value proposition 
• Develop marketing strategies  
• Test and refine 
• Incorporate research into business decisions 

Let’s look at each of these steps one by one. 

Step 1: Identify patterns and trends. 

Once you have gathered all market research insights, analyze the data for common themes, patterns, and trends. Categorize data based on your goals and metrics. Then segment it to unearth market trends, consumer preferences and competitive landscape. This will help you identify opportunities and potential areas for improvement.

Let’s assume you have conducted market research for a clothing retailer. You discovered a growing demand for sustainable and eco-friendly fashion among the target market. 

This trend can help retailers incorporate sustainable practices in manufacturing, source materials from ethical suppliers, and promote eco-friendly initiatives. This will attract environmentally conscious customers, differentiate the brand, increase sales and boost customer loyalty.

Step 2: Segment your target market. 

Next, divide the market into meaningful segments based on demographic, psychographic, or behavioral factors. This will enable you to tailor your marketing strategies and offerings to specific customer groups with distinct needs and preferences.

For example, market research for a software company revealed distinct customer segments like startups, mid-market firms, and enterprises with different needs. Segmenting the market based on the company size and use cases will help the software company to create custom solutions for each segment and develop relevant marketing campaigns. 

A targeted approach will increase the chances of attracting and converting potential customers, resulting in higher sales and market share.

Step 3: Evaluate customer needs and preferences. 

Once you’ve segmented your market, it is time to analyze specific customer feedback and survey responses to gain insights into what customers value most, their pain points, and what influences their purchasing decisions. This helps refine product/service offerings, positioning, and marketing communication.

Suppose your market research revealed that your customers are increasingly seeking healthy and convenient meal options as a food delivery business. 

So you can revamp the menu to include nutritious and ready-to-eat meals, create partnerships with health-conscious restaurants, and highlight nutritional information in the menu and marketing material. 

This customer-centric approach helps attract health-conscious individuals, drive repeat orders, and improve customer satisfaction.

Read More: How to analyze customer feedback for business growth

Step 4: Assess the competitive landscape.

Ideally, your next step should be to analyze the competition by conducting a SWOT analysis. Identify areas where you can differentiate your business to gain a competitive advantage. This may involve analyzing competitors’ products, pricing strategies, marketing approaches, and competitor reviews. 

For example, market research for a smartphone manufacturer revealed a few competitors that offer more affordable mid-range devices with advanced camera features. 

By evaluating the landscape, smartphone manufacturer can adjust their product strategy to offer similar features at a competitive price point or differentiate themselves by focusing on other unique selling points, such as durability or battery life. This will help maintain or gain market share, increase sales, and outperform competitors.

Step 5: Define or re-align your value proposition. 

Once you have analyzed your customers, competitors, and their feedback, it is time to refine your unique selling proposition (USP) and value proposition based on all the insights. 

Your offering should align with customer needs and expectations while differentiating your business from competitors. For example, market research helped a travel agency owner discover that customers are increasingly looking for personalized travel experiences rather than generic package tours. 

This helped them refine their value proposition and add customized itineraries, personalized recommendations, and exclusive experiences to their product offerings. This tailored approach will attract travelers seeking unique experiences, lead to positive word-of-mouth referrals, increase bookings and boost revenue.

Step 6: Build or refine your marketing strategies.

Creating targeted marketing strategies after you have improved your value proposition is the logical next step. Ideally, you should try to find out the most effective channels and tactics to reach your target audience based on their interests, habits, and preferences. Then tailor your messaging based on customer insights and your audience persona.

Let’s say market research for a fitness app reveals that the target audience spends a significant amount of time on Instagram. 

Based on this insight, the startup must develop an Instagram marketing strategy, including targeted advertisements, influencer partnerships, and engaging Reels that resonate with the audience’s fitness goals and aspirations. 

This targeted approach will increase app downloads and user engagement and potentially generate revenue through premium subscriptions or in-app purchases.

Step 7: Test and refine.

Once you have planned all strategies, it’s time to implement everything and start monitoring the results from changes done because of market research. 

A good practice is to refine your marketing, product, positioning, and pricing based on market research data, customer feedback, and underlying results. When testing everything, A/B testing and pilot projects will help you to assess the effectiveness of the new initiatives.

For example, market research for a new restaurant concept revealed demand for plant-based, vegan meat. To validate this opportunity, the restaurant could conduct a pilot project by offering a limited-time plant-based menu and collecting customer feedback. 

Based on the response and sales data, the restaurant should refine its menu, optimize pricing, and adjust its operational processes. This iterative approach will ensure that the restaurant meets customer expectations, improves customer satisfaction, and establishes a loyal customer base.

Step 8: Incorporate research into business decisions. 

Every insight from your market research and the above steps should be used to guide decision-making processes related to product development, marketing campaigns, pricing strategies, and overall business direction.

For example, if market research reveals the need for an enhanced user interface (UI) and seamless integration with existing software, the product development team should prioritize this by focusing on UI improvements and employing a team for users. This aligns the product with customer expectations, increases market competitiveness, and leads to higher adoption rates and sales.

Move over the conventional market research process using Gapscout. 

Market research does not just end with customer surveys and analyzing customer insights. It is a much deeper process that requires continuous tracking and monitoring of customer feedback. Regular updates and assessments are necessary to stay ahead of evolving market trends and consumer preferences.

You should ideally follow all the steps every time you gather new insights and improve your proposition to become a truly customer-centric company. 

GapScout helps you with all this by keeping an eye on customer reviews, automating market research, and analyzing customer sentiments. Use data insights from Gapscout to translate qualitative data into actionable activities and improve your bottom line. 

Also Read:

• 5 Market Research Tools to Help You Research Faster
• How to use customer experience insights
• How to create a competitive business plan