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The 8 free market research tools and resources you need to know.

With over 400,000 new businesses opening in the United States each month, the need for individual companies to conduct their own market research has never been more urgent.  However, conducting market research isn’t an easy task — it presents challenges to businesses of all shapes and sizes.

With that being said, those with large budgets do enjoy certain advantages. When you have access to an endless array of top-tier tools and resources, you can uncover strategy-changing insights with relative ease.

Does that mean businesses with small (or non-existent) budgets are out of luck? Absolutely not.

Nowadays, free market research tools and resources are abundant — and you’ll be familiar with eight of our favorites by the time you’re done reading this blog post.

But first, some housekeeping:

What is market research?

Market research is the process of gathering and analyzing information about your customers — both current and prospective — with the intent of optimizing your business strategy.

Customer-related information that you may want to gather includes (but is not limited to):

• The goals they want to achieve
• The pain points they want to alleviate
• The income or budget that constrains them
• The products and/or services they use (a.k.a. your competitors)
• The strengths and weaknesses of the products and/or services they use

Why is market research important?

Market research is important because — if you’re thorough and open-minded — it dramatically improves your chances of long-term success. Only through market research can you uncover the insights you need to develop a product or service that (1) satisfies the demands of your prospects and (2) stands out from the competition.

For a complete overview of how conducting market research can benefit your business, here’s Market Research Defined and How to Get Started .

Cool? Cool. Let’s dive into the good stuff.

Top 4 Free Market Research Tools

For clarity, we will define a free market research tool as any tool that:

• Costs nothing, and
• Helps with the collection and/or analysis of customer-related information

Keep in mind that “customer-related information” encompasses everything from a pain point to a weakness of one of your competitors’ products.

1. Google Trends

If you want to get a sense of the level of interest in a particular product or service — as well as how that interest fluctuates over time and across regions — Google Trends is an excellent tool.

All you need to do is enter a search query and toggle with the filters. As an example, take a look at the level of interest in “office supplies'' in the U.S. over the past five years. Perhaps unsurprisingly, interest peaked in February 2020 — at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic:

Plus, you can explore variations in interest across the 50 states, as well as related topics and queries that are surging in popularity:

The “interest by subregion” data is powerful. In Wyoming, searches for “office supplies” account for a greater percentage of all search queries than in any other state. Your average resident of Wyoming, in other words, is more interested in searching for office supplies than is your average resident of, say, Louisiana — a valuable insight for anyone who sells office supplies online.

Equally valuable is the insight that searches for “where to buy office supplies in bulk” are on the rise — potentially indicative of an emerging pain point.

2. SurveyMonkey

As some of you already know, one of the best ways to conduct market research is to ask your customers a handful of open-ended questions. You can do this for free with SurveyMonkey .

Specifically, with a free SurveyMonkey account, you can ask up to 10 questions and field up to 40 responses with each of your surveys.

Open-ended questions you may ask your customers include (but are not limited to):

• Why did you buy our product?
• What has our product helped you accomplish?
• How does our product compare to others that you’ve used in the past?

With just three questions — well under the limit of a free survey — you can learn quite a bit about your target market. If, for example, the majority of respondents say they bought your product because they were struggling to do their jobs in a cost-effective manner, that gives you a clearer picture of your prospects’ pain points and your competitors’ weaknesses .

3. Make My Persona

As you collect and analyze customer-related information, it’s a good idea to create or tweak your buyer personas : detailed profiles of the semi-fictional people for whom your product or service is designed. In the context of market research, personas are useful because they help you synthesize and comprehend the information you’re gathering.

Thanks to our friends at HubSpot, you can use a wonderful free tool called Make My Persona .

Intuitive and fun, Make My Persona is a seven-step process that walks you through the essential components of your target customer: demographic information, firmographic information, job title, pain points, and so on. And if you want to go beyond the bare essentials, you can add as many extra sections of information as you like.

Important note: Your personas should be dynamic. As you conduct further market research and learn more about your target customers, your personas should evolve accordingly.

4. WordSift

Make My Persona is appealing, in part, because it enables you to make sense of raw data — to separate the signal from the noise. The same can be said about WordSift , the final free tool we’ll be discussing today.

Built to help teachers with the instruction of vocabulary and reading comprehension, WordSift allows you to generate word clouds: images that represent the frequency with which certain words are used in a given body of text. Look what happens when I copy the introduction to this blog post and paste it into WordSift:

Instantaneously — and unsurprisingly — I can conclude that “business,” “market,” and “research” are among the most frequently used words in the introduction to this post.

What does this have to do with market research? Well, let’s say you’ve been using SurveyMonkey to ask your customers about their reasons for buying your product. One by one, if you were to copy their responses and paste them into WordSift, you’d be able to see which words your customers use most often. That’s a market research gold mine!

Top 4 Free Market Research Resources

Again, for clarity, we will define a free market research resource as any resource that:

• Helps with the collection of customer-related information

The scope of “customer-related information" remains the same  —  encompassing everything from a pain point to a weakness of one of your competitors’ products.

5. Bureau of Labor Statistics

A government organization that “measures labor market activity, working conditions, price changes, and productivity in the U.S. economy to support public and private decision-making,” the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is a wealth of information.

Because this is a blog post about market research — not an economics class — we’ll focus on BLS’ industry- and region-specific information. If you’re on the homepage and you hover over the Data Tools drop-down menu, you’ll see a hyperlink to something titled “Industry at a Glance.” Click on that, find your industry of interest, and explore the dozens of statistics that BLS has aggregated.

If, for example, you’re interested in the apparel manufacturing industry — either because you’re in the industry or you sell into it — you can see how earnings, prices, and productivity figures are changing over time.

Head back to the homepage, hover over the Subjects drop-down menu, and you’ll see a section labeled Geographic Information:

Select your region of interest, filter by state or metropolitan area (if necessary), and take a tour of BLS’ enormous library of area-specific data.

6. U.S. Census Bureau

On a mission to “serve as the [United States’] leading provider of quality data about its people and economy,” the U.S. Census Bureau is another terrific resource that costs nothing to use.

Just as we did with the BLS, we’ll focus on industry- and region-specific information. Admittedly, using the Census website to find industry-specific information is slightly more complicated than it is when using the BLS website. If you’re on the homepage and you hover over the Explore Data drop-down menu, you’ll see a hyperlink titled “Explore Data Main.”

Click on that, and you’ll be brought to the Census’ search engine. Then, click inside the search bar and select “Advanced Search.”

Underneath “Find A Filter,” type in the name of the industry you’re interested in researching. Once the search suggestions load, simply check the appropriate box and click “Search.”

From there, you’ll be able to explore thousands of data tables, maps, and whitepapers — many of them chock-full of industry-specific information that you can use to your advantage.

Finding region-specific information is a bit more straightforward. Head back to the Advanced Search engine, select “Geography” from underneath Browse Filters, and go from there:

7. Pew Research Center

A nonprofit dedicated to “inform[ing] the public about the issues, attitudes, and trends shaping the world,” the Pew Research Center is one of the most authoritative sources of information for anyone striving to make better business decisions.

Whereas the BLS and the Census are (among other things) aggregators of economic data, the Pew Research Center is a “fact tank” — an organization focused on public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis, and other forms of social science inquiry. 

So, although you can’t necessarily use Pew to uncover hyper-specific insights related to your industry or region, you can use it to learn more about your target audience. The best way to do this is through the Topics section of the Pew website.

Clicking that hyperlink brings you to an index of dozens of topics, ranging from Online Video to Homeownership to Democracy. Selecting any of these topics will bring you to a list of relevant content — reports, fact tanks, transcripts, and other forms of media that can date back as far as the early 1980s.

As an example, let’s say you’re developing a product or service that targets new homeowners. If you were to click on the Homeownership topic, you’d land on a list of reports like this one:

If I were you, that’s not a report I’d want to overlook!

We’ll wrap up today’s guide with a free resource specifically for those of you in the software world. Designed to help buyers determine which products are best suited to their needs, G2 is the leading source of validated, unbiased software reviews.

G2 is, in other words, an excellent way to find out what your target customers are saying about your competitors’ products. Do a quick search for the type of software you’re developing and you’re in business.

If you were developing a sales compensation software product and you searched this keyword, you’d be brought to the page you see below. To learn more about Spiff — one of your top-rated industry competitors — all you’d need to do is click “Read Spiff Reviews.”

If you want to get granular, you can filter reviews in a number of different ways. As an example, let’s say you’re developing a sales compensation software product specifically for small businesses. G2 has the filter you’re looking for:

And just like that, you’ve got access to dozens of valuable insights like this one:

Start using market research tools today!

If you try to bring a product or service to market without an understanding of your target customers, your chances of success are slim. According to the most recent State of Competitive Intelligence Report , 84% of businesses say their industry has gotten more competitive in the last three years. With the range of choices at your prospects’ fingertips growing by the day, the need for a thorough market research strategy only intensifies.

We hope you find these free market research tools and resources useful. And if you decide to make the leap to a paid solution, make sure to request a demo of Crayon — the competitive intelligence platform that enables you to track, analyze, and act on everything happening outside your businesses’ four walls.

See why Gong, Mastercard, and ZoomInfo trust Crayon to help them win more competitive deals.

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• Market Research

How to get free market research reports 

• May 29, 2023

Market research reports give you a perspective on your target customer’s mind and help you move on the right path. But most market research platforms and reports are costly. So, how to get free market research reports to get first-hand insights? 

This article will share valuable sources, and places to access free market research reports for your business. But before we begin, let us quickly refresh the basics. 

What are market research reports?

Market research reports offer insights, data, and information about a particular market, region, industry, or demography. Research firms prepare these reports by conducting market research surveys , interviews, statistical analysis, and compiling data from different resources. 

These reports contain information about market size, growth trends, consumer behavior patterns, interests, competitive landscape, target market, and more. 

A business can derive meaningful insights from a market research report to make data-driven marketing, positioning, pricing, or product development decisions. Market research reports can particularly help in the following: 

• Gaining a deep understanding of the target audience’s needs, preferences, and behaviors; 
• Make customer-centric product decisions to achieve product-market fit faster; 
• Standing out in a competitive market by beating the competition; 
• Pivot or adapt to changing customer demands and usage patterns; 
• Discover market opportunities and patterns to expand a business. 

Read More: Why market research is important

Reliable market research sources (with free access).   

Market research is traditionally seen as an expensive process. Fundamentally because there is a lot of legwork and effort involved in doing one-on-one interviews, creating focus groups, deriving data insights, and more. 

Remote work culture, artificial intelligence, and technology have made things more accessible (and affordable). However, sometimes, a business owner still lacks access (or resources) to conduct primary market research. In that case, here are four sources to access reliable market research reports for free: 

Government sources. 

The government collects data from different industries, businesses, and markets annually. Many agencies, like the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the U.S. Census, regularly publish data pertaining to consumer spending, economic trends, demographics, and more. You can use their official portals to access these reports, like:

• U.S. Census Bureau: https://www.census.gov/library/publications.html  
• U.S. Small Business Administration: https://www.sba.gov/
• National Bureau of Economic Research: https://www.nber.org/papers
• Bureau of Economic Analysis: https://www.bea.gov
• National Science Foundation: https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/reports.cfm
• U.S. Energy Information Administration: https://www.eia.gov/reports/
• National Agricultural Statistics Service: https://www.nass.usda.gov/Publications/
• National Center for Health Statistics: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/index.htm
• National Center for Education Statistics: https://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/index.asp
• Federal Reserve Board: https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres.htm
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration: https://www.noaa.gov/science-data/reports
• U.S. International Trade Commission: https://www.usitc.gov/research_and_analysis.htm
• National Renewable Energy Laboratory: https://www.nrel.gov/analysis/publications.html

Academic institutions. 

Universities, colleges, and academic departments often conduct research as a part of their regular programs and initiatives. 

They are known to publish these research findings in the form of market research reports. Usually, these reports are free for any business owner or individual. 

You can search for business schools like Harvard to access free market research reports by the institution. Here are some more academic sources for free market research reports: 

• Harvard Business School Working Knowledge  
• Wharton Research Data Services
• Stanford Graduate School of Business
• Columbia Business School
• London School of Economics and Political Science
• University of California, Berkeley
• University of Michigan Ross School of Business
• University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business
• New York University Stern School of Business

Industry associations. 

Industry associations are one of the best free sources for market research reports. These associations have real-world industry data, including trends, purchasing behaviors, spending patterns, and more, which can be a goldmine for business owners. 

If you are a part of any industry association, there is a high possibility that you will get access to detailed market research reports as a perk. Even if you are not, almost all associations periodically publish free market research reports. You can check their websites to find a relevant report. Here are some prominent industry associations and research data links: 

• National Restaurant Association
• National Retail Federation
• National Association of Home Builders
• National Association of Convenience Stores
• National Automobile Dealers Association
• National Sporting Goods Association
• American Bankers Association
• National Coffee Association
• National Association of Realtors
• National Beer Wholesalers Association

Market research firms. 

These firms specialize in conducting market research and mostly publish paid reports/ conduct research on demand. But many firms upload insightful market research reports and trend patterns periodically as a lead-generation tactic. 

You can access these free market research reports by visiting their website. Google the names of market research firms and check their download sections for the latest reports on various industries and market segments. Some major market research firms which publish free reports include: 

• Euromonitor International
• McKinsey & Company
• Forrester Research
• Frost & Sullivan  

More sources to get free market research reports. 

Here are some final resources for finding free market research reports:

• Online Database and Platforms: Lots of online platforms and websites offer free reports that can be used for market research. Some of the most credible ones include Statista, Pew Research, ProQuest, etc. You can also use Google Trends to extract trends and insights around any topic. 
• Public Libraries: If you have access to any public library in your town or community, search for market research reports in the business sections. Libraries have active subscriptions to trade publications that regularly publish many market reports. Most libraries can access the Business and Company Resource (BCRC) database with several market research reports. 
• Trade Shows and Conferences: Trade shows, exhibitions, and conferences are a great source of real-time market research reports. Most exhibitors and publishers offer free access to reports, whitepapers, and case studies that can serve as a foundation for your market research initiatives. 

Top up market research reports with real-time insights using GapScout. 

Market research reports are a good starting point for conducting market research. However, use the data within free reports cautiously, as it can be obsolete.

Gapscout can help you vet your market research assumptions and data by scanning online reviews in real-time and offer actual consumer insights. So, why not upgrade your research game by harnessing the power of AI using GapScout ?

• How to use AI for market research?
• 5 examples of market research branding done right

Ready to Automate Your Market Research? Get exclusive access to GapScout prior to release!

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The 10 Best Places for (Free!) Market Research

If you’re launching a new product, revamping your recruitment process, or planning a new ad campaign, any good agency will tell you: first, do your research.

Launching a new strategy without doing your research is like setting sail in new waters without a map–costly, lengthy, and probably pointless. You may discover some new areas along the way, but most likely you’ll end up frustrated and far from your goal. However, research can be expensive in both cost and time. How can you get the insights you need without breaking your budget? 

The information you seek is potentially out there–and it may also be free. There are lots of data and reports available, you just have to dig. Here are 10 credible, valuable sites to get you started. Many of these are free resources or offer a no-cost abridged version of more detailed reports that you have to pay for. 

The U.S. Census data is readily available, giving you demographic and economic information that can help you better understand your market. The data breakdown tools on the site are easy to use.

The U.S. Bureau Of Labor Statistics has lots of information on employment, productivity, pay, workplace injuries–really any stats the government collects on labor are available to the public, with handy data tools and reports to help you break it down.

Glassdoor is an excellent resource for competitor information, employee feedback, industry salaries, and more. They also produce reports and studies .

Statista offers reports on just about anything business for purchase, but also provides useful “highlights” for free. 

Pew Research is a nonpartisan think tank that has hundreds of topics with thorough, timely, and digestible studies and reports. 

RAND Corporation , like Pew, is a nonpartisan resource that offers thousands of reports on hundreds of topics. 

Gartner is a personal favorite. Specifically for business and economics studies, Gartner's industry and sales reports are particularly useful for planning. 

McKinsey is another great resource for industry reports. 

Gallup offers insights on workplace and education–particularly useful for higher education and recruitment studies.

Google Trends can run reports on search terms and topics to gauge interest and popularity. You’ll also find topical reports, like “Holiday Shopping Trends 2021."  

As someone who has sifted through site after site, I can tell you that the answers to many of your questions are out there–but we understand even secondary research can be time-consuming. If you are looking for someone to take the reins, LMD can help.

Other Good Reads

Expertise from LMD communications gurus to help you market smarter.

• LMD Awarded Top Positions on FY2023 GL100 List of Federal Marketing Communications Leaders
• Market Research: A Catalyst for AI Innovation
• A Woman Who Made History: Dr. Ida S. Owens
• Team LMD Wins Five Awards at 2024 AAF Baltimore ADDY Awards
• We’ve Come a Long Way, Baby: The Evolution of Woman-owned Small Businesses
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The free industry market research reports are utilized for a range of strategic purposes, including benchmarking, due diligence, cost cutting, planning, evaluating opportunities, forecasting, streamlining, and gap analysis.

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Complete List of Free Market Research Tools & Resources

Looking for a comprehensive list of free market research tools and resources? You’ve come to the right place! To help you improve your market research process, we've provided a handy list featuring some of the free public sites that our  smart technology  uses to curate gold nuggets of intelligence on your market and competitors.

Don't have time to scour all of these resources daily to uncover key competitor insights? Click here  to learn more about how we use these and thousands of other online sources to curate actionable intelligence briefings for companies just like yours every single day. 

American FactFinder

Cori Contract Library

CORI is a digital library of contract information that contains over 690,000 contract items. Their results contain both executed contracts and contract forms for specific industries. Registration is required, but the service is free.

Free Patents Online (FPO)

Google Trends

Compare search volume patterns for various keywords and filter results by date, categories, and regions to view trending data. Google Trends also displays key headlines as points of reference on the trending graph.

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Pew Research Center

The Pew Research Center has several free resources with advanced search filters that market researchers can use to better understand target markets. They provide invaluable consumer insights on everything from political sentiments and economics, to social media trends and more. 

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A statistics website that offers free and paid access to more than 60k topics from 21 market segments. Statista provides insights on business, media, financials, consumer behavior and more. 

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Database of industrial manufacturers, distributors, and service providers. View product catalogs, related white papers, and recent web results for product/service categories. ThomasNet also provides free RFP and Contract Manager tools.

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Trend reports on emerging consumer trends occurring around the globe. Releases monthly briefings based on data collected by a global network of hundreds of individual spotters for accurate trend forecasting. Paid subscriptions available.

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Search copyright documents pertaining to books, music, art, periodicals, and any other works published since 1978. Tools are available to determine the copyright status of existing works and obtain copies of copyright documents. Copyright data regarding works published prior to 1978 are also available through this office, but not online.

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WayBack Machine allows you to view the changes made to a website over time. Its archive contains 150 billion webpages that date back to 1996. Helps identify trends and patterns evidenced by the evolution of your competitor's websites.

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Home Market Research

A complete guide to free market research

Wouldn’t it be nice to know what the majority of your customers are thinking exactly? And what if you get it all free? You’d know what features to add to your next product or service and how much to charge. While there’s no way to know the thoughts of every customer or potential customer, you can use free market research to help you discover what the majority are thinking. 

This guide will walk you through the market research definition, research survey setup, and how to do free market research and analyze the data.

LEARN ABOUT:  Market research industry

Read on to get the information you need for a successful research survey.  

An overview of market research

Before you can conduct a survey or collect responses from your target audience, you should understand the purpose of your research. In general, research is the process of studying a particular problem or concern using scientific methods.  

What is market research?

The market research definition goes beyond general research to specifically study problems or concerns around a brand’s market . It includes analyzing the reputation of competitors, previewing new products with customers, and learning more about the spending habits of customers.

Market exploration includes two types of data :

• Primary information: Data that you collect directly through a market research survey .
• Secondary information: This is data collected by third-parties, including trade groups and reports from government organizations.

Your primary information will either be exploratory or specific, depending on the goals of your study. Exploratory research asks open-ended questions to a small group of respondents to get a general idea of potential problems you need to address. Secondary research seeks to find solutions to individual issues that have already been identified, often from primary market research.

LEARN ABOUT:   Action Research

Why should you do market research?

Understanding the needs of your customers is the best way to increase your sales. If you can create a service or product they need, at a price they’re happy to spend, you set your brand apart from competitors.    

Market research allows you to reach out to customers and discover their needs directly from the source. Use research to help your business:

• Understand gaps in the market to help you develop new products to meet an unfulfilled need.
• Get a better idea of what features and upgrades customers want on your current product offering.
• Estimate the inventory needs of a particular demographic in your market. With accurate demand forecast methods in place, you won’t overproduce or underproduce a product.

LEARN ABOUT:  Test Market Demand

• Learn how your customers feel about your competitors – and how you can use these opinions to tweak your strategy and stay ahead of the competition.  

Create a free account

Types of market research

Your business can collect primary information in a variety of ways using surveys and questionnaires. You may need to use several research methods to get all of the information you need for actionable insights into your brand’s market.

These methods could include focus groups to interview small groups of customers, one-on-one depth interviews with customers, or online surveys to question a broader audience.

No matter what particular method you use for your research, there are two types of research questions:

• Qualitative research: Qualitative research aims to get an idea of the general opinions of your audience. It seeks to understand how someone feels and why they feel that way. Most qualitative research involves open-ended questions and smaller sample sizes to get a basic understanding of customer opinion.
• Quantitative research: Quantitative research focuses on the collection of structured data. It’s more scientific than qualitative research and uses numerical or statistical facts to conclude. The data from quantitative research can be easily analyzed and developed into actions to improve your business.

LEARN ABOUT: Qualitative Research Questions and Questionnaires

A good research study uses both qualitative and quantitative research to determine the overall feel of customers and gain statistics on how those feelings shape their purchases.  

Setting up a successful research

To get the most out of your free market research study, you need to plan ahead of time. By taking the time to set up your research correctly, you’ll get higher response rates and accurate insights that allow you to take your business to the next level.  

Planning for market research  

Before you send your first free survey or gather your first focus group, you should prepare the most important aspects of your research. Known as a market research plan in simple terms, this is your overall guide to defining the purpose and steps of your research.

A good market research plan helps you and other stakeholders in your business stay focused on the goals and objectives of your current research efforts. To create your research plan, follow these steps:

• Set goals for the research. In this planning stage, the goals can be vague so that they’re flexible. For example, “increase product sales” instead of “sell 500 more units.”
• Create objectives for your research. Similar to your goals, your objectives can be vague as you plan for research. For the example above, you could use “find out who our ideal customer is” or “define the largest and smallest customer demographic groups.”
• Determine every way you can distribute your research survey , such as email surveys or sharing on social media .
• Start thinking of potential questions. In the planning phase, just brainstorm as many questions as you can that could potentially help reach your goal and objectives. You’ll narrow down to specific questions when you create your survey.
• Categorize questions by distribution channel. For example, you might have questions that make more sense for an audience on social media rather than an SMS survey .

This plan will help you be in the right mindset when you’re ready to create your first survey and start gathering information from customers.  

Things to consider before starting your research

There are a few more things to consider after you create your free market research plan, and before you start surveying customers. To get reliable, actionable data from your respondents, remember to:

• Define what you hope to gain from the individual study.
• Learn about your target audience, so you’re connecting with the right customers.
• Know who’s not part of your target audience so you can avoid targeting them.
• Take a look at the competition to see what they do right and wrong, then compare it with your business.
• Get accurate and honest feedback from customers by asking questions that encourage them to tell you if they have an issue so you can fix it.      

How to do free market research using a survey

You’ve finally got the knowledge you need to understand market research and how to create a good questionnaire. It’s time to put your new skills to work and create your first survey.

These steps will help you learn how to do free market research.  

Define your objectives and audience

Before you input a single question, you need to know what you hope to discover from this free survey. Set your marketing research goal by defining a problem faced by you or your customers. The easiest way to determine your research objective is to ask, “Why are we doing this research?” “Who is our target market?”, etc

This question also helps you define the audience for your survey. If you’re hoping to learn about the movie-going habits of young adults, you shouldn’t survey the elderly.  

Determine sample size

The sample size of your survey allows you to get a more or less accurate idea of the opinions of your audience. The larger sample size is usually better for accuracy, so long as you’re surveying the right people. Asking 10,000 doctors questions about being lawyers probably won’t help you much.

On the other hand, you can still get accurate results with a smaller sample by narrowing down your audience to accurately reflect the population. For example, you might want to know more about the energy drinks your customers consume regularly but can only survey 100 people. Make sure each person on your list fits into your desired demographic to help get the most accurate results.  

Create your free survey

Use the skills you learned in designing an effective survey to create yours. You can use a powerful survey creation platform to help you conduct free market research. If you’re having a difficult time creating your questionnaire from scratch, consider using a market research survey template to get started.  

Distribute your survey

Go back to your market research plan and decide which channels make the most sense for your research. For example, assume you’re surveying people about their use of mobile phones. An SMS survey or offline survey using a mobile app might be the best channel.

You can use multiple distribution channels to reach more of your audience. It’s common for people to respond better to different options to take a survey. Even within a targeted audience, you might have someone who prefers an email survey or one who enjoys social media surveys.  

Increasing response rates

Consider offering incentives to increase your survey participation. You could offer an entry into a prize drawing or a discount coupon for those who complete the survey.

If you’re on a budget crunch, survey incentives can even include the results of the completed survey. You might be surprised to see how many people are genuinely curious about how their preferences stack up against those of their peers.

In addition to incentives, many people are more willing to answer a survey if they feel special. Make sure to let your respondents know how you will use the data to help them ultimately. If you’re surveying to improve your software offering, tell respondents you want to design the new products to meet their needs.  

Analyze your data

When you use a survey software platform, your market research results are sent directly to your dashboard. While it’s tempting to get started as soon as the first result of free research comes in, it’s best to wait to analyze the data until all responses are received.

Once you close the survey, you can take advantage of analytical reports on your data. Use your data analysis tools to get a better understanding of your responses. Many online survey platforms give you the tools you need to put together a robust report so you can make decisions based on your data.

Use the market research tools available to create reports with visual elements like graphs and charts. They make the data easier to read. Suppose you have a real estate company, then you are able to analyze your real estate market analysis through this process.  You should be able to export your report to share it with decision-makers and stakeholders in the company.

LEARN ABOUT: Real Estate Surveys

Take action to improve your business

The purpose of market research is to understand your customers’ needs so you can make changes to meet those needs. The final step to conduct free market research is to use your data and unit of analysis to create a plan of action to improve your business, products, and meet customer demands.  

Using surveys for free market research

Online surveys offer one of the most powerful and flexible options to conduct your market research. They’re readily available and cost-effective. Also, the online survey software allows you to reach your audience almost anywhere via text, email, websites, or social media.

In this section, we’ll take a look at how to create an effective survey using customized design and questions that encourage responses.  

Use effective survey design

Your survey needs to be easy to follow and complete. If the questionnaire is hard to read, too long, or confusing, your response rate will decrease. A good survey layout and design should include:

• Consistency and flow: Help guide your respondents through your survey naturally by using a consistent design and a question order that flows. Think of your survey as a conversation, with general questions at the beginning and diving deeper as you go on. The exception to this is personal demographic questions, such as household income, which can be off-putting at the beginning of a survey.
• Define terms: You should always try to avoid industry jargon in your questionnaire. If you do have to use an industry term, be sure to define it clearly at the beginning of the survey to make respondents feel more comfortable. Even without jargon, it’s often a good idea to explain what any terms mean. For example, you could say, “For this survey, the term ‘phone’ refers to any mobile or cellular telephone.”
• Start with industry before narrowing to brand: Ask questions about your industry in general before asking about your brand or how you compare to other brands.
• Consider avoiding branding: A customized survey is a great way to promote brand awareness when surveying customers. However, custom branded surveys don’t always make sense in market research. You want the honest, unbiased opinions of your potential customers, so it’s often better to avoid branding the survey.
• Keep it short: Or rather, keep it as short as possible. It’s easy to make free market research surveys too long. It’s tempting to ask a lot of questions when you have direct access to the thoughts of your customers. A questionnaire that’s too long, however, leaves respondents feeling drained and can lower your response rate as people drop out.  

Tips for writing effective questions

Your survey design is only one part of an effective survey. The questions are the most important aspect of your survey. If respondents have to spend too much time understanding them, they will quit your survey. Thus, all efforts will go in vain if they aren’t simple enough and easy to understand.

Increase your response rates by writing effective questions with these tips:

• Include everyone: Make sure your questions have options for people who don’t fit the specified range. For example, if you have a question about brands of coffee, include an option for those who don’t drink it.
• Randomize answers: The order of your answer options can influence responses. Randomize the display of answers to avoid order bias.
• Keep questions simple: Avoid compounded questions that ask multiple questions in one. Stick to one topic per question, and consider splitting more complex text into various parts.

Balance your range: Market research studies almost always feature questions with answers ranging from positive to negative. Make sure these questions have equal amounts of positive and negative options. For example, you ask the question, “How satisfied are you with the product?” Your answers should include very positive, positive, neutral, negative, and very negative response options.  

QuestionPro – The ideal choice for free market research

QuestionPro offers 88+ essential survey features for free – much more than any other survey software. Some of our exclusive free features are:

Free forever – no credit card required:

You do not need a credit card to use essential functionalities. Also, the basic features are free for a lifetime. Market researchers can use them to collect new ideas, test new concepts, and learn more about consumer choices. Students and academic institutions can use this wide range of features for free market research.

25+ question types:

QuestionPro offers more than 50 basic and advanced question types designed to meet the requirements of market researchers. They can be used to conduct all surveys aimed at collecting feedback, opinions, and experiences. Out of these, 25 question types are absolutely free, more than any other online survey software.

Google sheets integration:

This is the only survey platform to offer an integration with Google sheets for free. We know many students and professionals widely use Google sheets. QuestionPro assists such users with smooth integration of our survey software with Google sheets. It helps them to analyze the results of free market research across many other applications.

LEARN ABOUT: Market research vs marketing research

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If you need any help with surveys and free market research, get in touch with us. We’d be happy to help you.

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9 Excellent Free Market Research Tools

15 January 2015, Jonathan Saipe

There are now a plethora of online market research tools, many of which are free, or offer free and paid-for access. Whilst this isn’t an exhaustive list, we’ve suggested 9 great tools that publish market data, insight and intelligence – ideal if you’re a researcher, planner or marketer.

Whilst access to some of the data available on Statista.com is free, given the exclusivity and specificity of many statistics, a premium account is required to access much of the platform.

StatCounter Global Stats is provided by StatCounter – the free, online visitor stats tool. It publishes technical data, such as browser and operating system usage, and screen resolutions, for desktops, mobiles, tablets and consoles, across all countries.

Stats provided are based on aggregate data collected via more than 15 billion page views per month across the StatCounter network of more than 3 million websites.

Google’s Public Data explorer publishes animated charts and maps of public datasets including economic, social, health and population data. After a little getting used to, you will find data easy to explore and visualise. And as the charts animate over time, changes in world behaviour become easier to understand.

When setting up an ad campaign, you can segment your audience, at which point Facebook will publish the potential audience size, allowing you to evaluate marketing potential. This part of the process is free and you are not obliged to make your campaign(s) live.

LinkedIn’s ad programme allows marketers and researchers to access LinkedIn’s user data free of charge. With its focus on professionals, you will have access to a range of information including company categories, sizes or specific names, job titles or job categories by country or city. LinkedIn will publish your potential reach when you go through the process of setting up an ad campaign. As with Facebook, you are not obliged to make the ad campaign live at this point.

Worldometers is run by an international team of developers and researchers, publishing world statistics. It was voted as one of the best free reference websites by the American Library Association (ALA), and was chosen as content provider at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), BBC News, and the National Media Museum (UK) among others.

Whilst it doesn’t allow segmentation of data, its country specific data is a valuable resource. And the real-time data found of its home page is both fascinating and shocking! Go take a look.

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25 Useful Market Research Resources to Check Out

by Sarah Schmidt , on December 5, 2018

Look through the links below to explore a variety of useful market research resources — including tools, websites, articles, and free data.

Valuable Market Research Tools

You can find and access the research you need quickly and easily on the platforms featured below. We've included videos to explain each option.

MarketResearch.com

MarketResearch.com is your one-stop shop for ready-made market research reports. You can quickly search through thousands of reports from hundreds of top market research companies. Plus, if you have questions or want help, you can always speak to a research specialist for free. 

If you want to stretch your research budget — and you only need to locate specific data points — Profound is a great option. It’s the only comprehensive service on the web that allows you to purchase market research reports by the section. It also includes convenient search tools to help you find what you are looking for fast.

Knowledge Centers

Do you want a regular flow of new data and insights from top industry analysts? A research subscription through a Knowledge Center may be the right choice for you. The Knowledge Center makes it easy for you to create custom reports and presentations and search through an entire collection of research, rather than managing dozens of individual PDFs.

MarketResearch.com Academic

For students and faculty, MarketResearch.com is an ideal way to access the same industry-leading research that top global corporations use on a regular basis. 

Helpful Market Research Websites

In addition to MarketResearch.com, you can find expert information on many different market research websites. Explore these sties to check out recent press releases, report abstracts, blog posts, and white papers for new data and analysis.

The Freedonia Group

The Freedonia Group publishes studies on automotive, construction, energy, industry components, plastics, chemicals, packaging, security, and more.

Simba Information

Simba Information is widely recognized as the premier authority for market intelligence in the education and professional publishing industries. 

Packaged Facts

Packaged Facts has been a leading publisher of market research in the food, beverage, consumer packaged goods, and demographic sectors for more than 50 years.

Freedonia Focus Reports

Freedonia Focus Report publishes high-level analysis in concise 20-30 page reports on a wide variety of markets and industries, from raw materials to finished manufactured goods.

Popular Market Research Articles

The MarketResearch.com blog and The Freedonia Group blog provide a steady stream of market research articles that provide practical strategies and recommendations. Here are some of the most popular articles on our sites that you may also find helpful.

• 5 Steps to Estimate Your Market Size

Conducting Market Research? Don’t Miss These 3 Critical Steps

Primary Data vs. Secondary Data: Market Research Methods

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Free Market Research Data and Analysis

If you want more in-depth information than what can be found in an article, be sure to check out the extension collection of white papers and e-books that market research companies produce. These resources contain free market research on many different industries. We’ve included a few links below to get you started.

MarketResearch.com’s Ebooks and White Papers

Get market research insights on consumer goods, financial services, food and beverage, healthcare, technology, and more.

White Papers on Food and Beverage, Pets, & More

You can also find a wealth of information about the food companies, pet industry trends, and innovative products on the Packaged Facts resource page.

Free Resources from The Freedonia Group

The Freedonia Group has published a growing collection of white papers and ebooks, covering everything from the building envelope to off-highway equipment.

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10 Free Market Research Tools You Should be Using

Market research is crucial because you can’t supply the best products or services to your customers without knowing what they need. As a business person, you should always try to solve your customers’ problems through your business’s products and services. Many of you have often invested countless hours tediously researching the market to no avail. Well, nowadays, there are various useful market research tools in the market.

But finding the best instrument from the abundance of online tools will possibly also result in a waste of your precious time. So, to save you time and money, today, we have listed the ten best free-market tools that are easy to use.

Before moving to the list of tools, let’s see why you should use market research tools for your business research. 

Fluent Forms is the most beginner-friendly form builder. Download now and start crafting beautiful forms FREE!!!

Why are market research tools necessary?

Due to constant changes in the market, knowing what is essential to your audience can help you outsell your competitors and bring new customers to you. The right tool helps you analyze your business’s market and growth. So, let’s see why market research tools are vital. 

• Spotting business opportunities easily
• Lowering your business risks
• Producing relevant materials
• Finding where to advertise
• Outperforming competitors
• Setting a higher goal for your business
• Easily making a decision
• Identifying customer requirements
• Improving selling techniques

Now, let’s move on to the main topic of this article.

10 best market research tools

Here, we have categorized the list of market research tools as follows.

Tools for data visualization

Google Trends

Tableau public, google analytics, consumer barometer.

Market research tools for keyword research

• Google keyword planner

Ubersuggest

Content research tool

•   Google Alerts

Social insights research tools

Pew Research Center

Makemypersona.

Now, let’s see the detailed information about each tool.

Google Trends is one of the best free-market research tools which lets you look for specific keywords, subjects, and phrases that have been inquired over a particular period of time. The work is done by analyzing a portion of Google searches to calculate how many searches are done for the phrase entered in proportion to the total number of searches done on Google over the concurrent.

• Real-time data 
• Point out the latest trends
• Simple and easy UI
• Easy to navigate

It’s a free tool

Statista is one of the best market research tools for building online statistics in market research. It gives access to the data from market research institutions and their opinion. With this tool, you can even get an assessment from business organizations and government institutions in different languages. Researching various industries helps you to understand the nature of competition. Furthermore, using Statista lets you discover the relative size of the industries, their average expenditures, and individual company expenditures.

• Statistics portal
• Research and analysis
• Content and information design
• eCommerce insights for your business

You can use the basic plan of Statista for primary data and statistics for free. For the Premium account, you need to buy it for $59 per month, and for a Corporate account, you have to pay $700 per month.

Tableau Public is a free data visualization tool that lets you figure out market research data with analytics and business intelligence. Using this mechanism, you will get complex data visualization simply and intuitively. Moreover, you can create an interactive and distributed dashboard that trends with colorful charts and tables. It connects to your files to obtain and proceed data into graphs.

• Create interactive graphs and maps
• Build a dashboard in minutes
• Automated mobile layouts
• Automatically connect Tableau Public to Google Sheets
• Embedded visualization
• Highlight the analysis

Tableau Public is free of cost. Prices vary if you switch to Tableau Explorer, Tableau Viewer, or Tableau Creator. 

Though Google Analytics is not a broader tool for providing market research entirely, it can give feedback on how your customers are behaving when they are on your website. It will show you which of your products have more views and fewer sales or which social media channel is getting more responses from your clients. In a nutshell, Google Analytics helps you analyze your website’s traffic and give you a complete picture of your visitors and their requirements. 

• Reporting traffic
• Tracking conversion
• Keyword guidance
• Reference of third-parties
• Custom dashboard

You can use their free service if you are a small business that wants to avoid paying monthly fees. If you want to use many features, you can buy Google Analytics 360, which will cost $150,000 in a year. 

Google developed a free, collective tool called the “Consumer Barometer.” This tool aims to help you understand buyers’ internet usage habits worldwide. There are two different ways to use this service. One is to explore the primary data from the research, which comes up with an infographic format that sums up the key trends and statistics. This will help you to identify the consumers’ internet usage habits. 

The other way is to use the tool as a graph builder. In that way, you can access the full data from the report. Additionally, broken down into country grouping, you will be able to find out how buyers interact online.

• Graph builder
• Digital trended data
• Explore audience stories
• Discover buyers curated insights

Consumer Barometer is a free tool.

Google Keyword Planner

Google Keyword Planner is a fantastic market research tool for basic keyword research. You can free create an account on Google Adwords to use the Google Keyword Planner. The main task of the tool is looking for phrases or keywords that are related to your business. In brief, Google Keyword Planner allows you to find new keywords and get a detailed idea of how your audiences search for information within your market. 

• Research keywords
• Suggestions for daily budget
• Monthly search details
• Column for new competition
• Add new keywords to existing campaigns

Google Keyword Planner is one of the free market research tools. 

Ubersuggest is a simple tool for doing market research on keywords and content. You have to input a phrase, and it will come out with a long list of additional keywords. In version 6.0, you can log in to the dashboard of Ubersuggest for free and can trace the ranking of your competitors’ websites. 

• Overview of domain
• Top SEO pages
• Keyword ideas
• Content suggestions
• Backlink data

This tool is also free.

Google Alerts

Google Alerts is one of the best free-market research tools you should use. You can set email alerts to get notified for each new result in Google that matches your needs, such as web pages, blogs, scientific research, or newspaper articles. The tool lets you put the frequency, search terms, and many more to get the best results. Besides, you can take appropriate measures to get potential clients and expand your business. 

• Free notification service
• Real-time alerts on keywords
• Track your competitors
• Create links
• Easy to use

You can use the tool for free.

Pew Research Center is a fair fact tank that informs people about the issues, points of view, and trends shaping the world. They conduct demographic research, content analysis, public opinion polling, and other data-controlled social research. The website has a massive database of free inquiries on various fields, such as marketing statistics to social media usage, and political issues to economic situations. So, this is one of the robust market research tools that will help you better understand your target audience and trace the beneficial market trends.

• Smooth user interface
• Interactive charts
• Research center
• Huge database

You can use the tool free through their website.

MakeMyPersona is one of the market research tools from HubSpot. It allows you to create buyer personas by answering a series of questions based on existing market research. Using this tool, you can definitely find out more about your market. Moreover, MakeMyPersona will help you to understand your ideal users and give them a better user experience. 

• Easily create personas
• Fantastic form layouts
• Essential question series to understand users
• Downloadable word document

This tool is free.

Final thoughts

Here, we tried to give some basic ideas on ten free market research tools. Applying one or all of them will significantly help you to know about your online business market. You should take time and look for the best ones from the list. 

Conversely, you can also consider other analytics and feature-rich paid tools, such as Ahrefs, Moz, and SEMRush, for your online business.

Hello, This is Prema. I work as a marketing strategist for Fluent Forms at WPManageNinja. When I am not playing with words, I go to explore nature.

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As a woman engaged in the business world, I am very surprised to see your mistake of singling out “businessmen” in the lead paragraph of this article. If you would like to bring more women into your circle of influence and generally be more aware of inclusionary practices, PLEASE correct that oversight to at least read “businessperson”.

If a woman made this mistake what could we say?? (Hint: this article is written by a woman.)

Jokes apart, this is an honest mistake. Prema is a talented writer on our team. I believe, she wrote it unintentionally.

I made it right, and thank you for notifying us, Kellie.

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• Mission and history
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• What’s in JSTOR
• For Librarians
• For Publishers

Open research reports

JSTOR hosts a growing curated collection of more than 50,000 open research reports from 187 think tanks and research institutes from around the world. These publications are freely accessible to everyone on JSTOR and discoverable as their own content type alongside journals, books, and primary sources. We update research reports on our platform each month as they become available through contributing institutes.

Download the list (xlsx) of contributing policy institutes.

Research reports provide current analysis on many of today’s most discussed and debated issues from a diversity of ideological and international perspectives representing 40 countries and 29 languages. A sample of topics would include: climate change, border security, fake news, cybersecurity, electric vehicles, artificial intelligence, energy policy, gender issues, terrorism, remote learning, recent trends in business and economics, and various public health issues, including COVID-19.

Although the briefs, papers, and reports published by these institutes are not peer-reviewed, they are written by policy experts and members of the academic community who are fellows in residence. This is content that impacts policy, both foreign and domestic. It is also increasingly used by faculty in their classrooms for its currency, breadth, and accessibility.

JSTOR’s research reports cover seven Areas of Focus: Business & Economics, Critical Race & Ethnic Studies, Education, Gender & Sexuality, Public Health, Security Studies, and Sustainability.

Browse research reports

Why research reports on JSTOR?

Input from faculty and librarians revealed that although research reports were for the most part freely available outside of JSTOR, they were hard to find and not easily discoverable alongside relevant material. It was also difficult for students to differentiate between the most credible research reports and a growing corpus of questionable sources on the Web.

JSTOR has attempted to redress these issues by centralizing a curated collection of think tank research reports on a single platform, making this content freely available to all JSTOR users, and enhancing its discoverability through comprehensive searching and the application of rich metadata.

Market Research Reports

Market research reports are essential tools for businesses to understand their industry, target market, and competition. These reports provide in-depth analysis and insights into market trends, consumer behavior, and industry competition that can help businesses make informed decisions and develop effective strategies. In this article, we will explore why market research reports are crucial for business success, the types of market research reports available, their importance, key players in the market research report industry, and how to choose the right market research report for your business.

Table of Contents

Why Market Research Reports are Essential for Business Success

Market research reports are valuable resources that enable businesses to make informed decisions and develop effective strategies. These reports provide insights into consumer behavior, industry trends, and market competition, helping businesses to understand their target audience and develop effective marketing and advertising campaigns. Furthermore, market research reports can help businesses identify potential opportunities and challenges in their industry, allowing them to adapt their strategies accordingly.

Moreover, market research reports can also assist businesses in making important investment decisions. By analyzing market trends and consumer preferences, businesses can identify potential areas for growth and expansion. This information can be used to make informed decisions about where to allocate resources and invest in new products or services. Additionally, market research reports can help businesses stay ahead of the competition by providing insights into emerging trends and technologies, allowing them to innovate and stay relevant in their industry.

Types of Market Research Reports and their Importance

There are several types of market research reports, including industry analysis reports, consumer behavior reports, and competitive analysis reports. Industry analysis reports provide insights into market trends, industry growth, and the competitive landscape. Consumer behavior reports focus on consumer preferences, purchasing habits, and attitudes towards products and services. Competitive analysis reports provide insights into competitor strategies, market share, and positioning. All of these reports are essential for businesses seeking to gain a better understanding of their target market and competitors.

Another important type of market research report is the market segmentation report. This report helps businesses identify and understand different segments within their target market, such as age, gender, income, and geographic location. By understanding these segments, businesses can tailor their marketing strategies and product offerings to better meet the needs and preferences of each group.

Finally, market research reports can also include feasibility studies, which assess the viability of a new product or service. These reports analyze factors such as market demand, production costs, and potential revenue to determine whether a new product or service is worth pursuing. Feasibility studies can help businesses avoid costly mistakes and make informed decisions about new ventures.

Market Research Report Industry Overview

The market research report industry is a rapidly growing sector, fueled by the increasing demand for insights and analysis by businesses seeking to gain a competitive edge. According to a recent report by Grand View Research, the global market research report industry is expected to reach $107.05 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 5.4% from 2020 to 2027.

This growth is being driven by several factors, including the rise of e-commerce and the increasing importance of data-driven decision making. As businesses continue to expand their online presence, they require more detailed information about their customers and competitors. Market research reports provide this information, allowing businesses to make informed decisions about their marketing, product development, and overall strategy.

Key Players in the Market Research Report Industry

Some of the key players in the market research report industry include Nielsen Holdings, Kantar Group, The NPD Group, Ipsos, and GfK SE. These companies provide a range of research and consulting services, including market research reports, data analysis, and strategic consulting services.

Nielsen Holdings is a global measurement and data analytics company that provides market research, audience measurement, and advertising effectiveness solutions. They offer insights into consumer behavior and media consumption across various platforms and industries.

Kantar Group is a data, insights, and consulting company that helps clients understand their markets and customers. They offer a range of services, including brand strategy, innovation, and customer experience management.

How to Choose the Right Market Research Report for Your Business

Choosing the right market research report for your business can be a daunting task, given the vast array of reports available. Some factors to consider when selecting a report include the research methodology used, the scope of the report, the level of detail provided, and the cost. It’s also essential to consider the relevance of the report to your business and industry, ensuring that the insights provided are actionable and relevant.

Another important factor to consider when choosing a market research report is the reputation of the research firm or organization that produced the report. It’s important to select a report from a reputable source to ensure that the data and insights provided are accurate and reliable. You can research the reputation of the firm by reading reviews, checking their credentials, and looking at their track record.

Additionally, it’s important to consider the format of the report. Some reports may be presented in a traditional written format, while others may include visual aids such as graphs, charts, and infographics. Depending on your preferences and needs, you may find that a report with more visual aids is easier to understand and more engaging to read.

The Cost of Market Research Reports

The cost of market research reports can vary depending on the scope and level of detail provided. Some reports can cost several hundred or even thousands of dollars, while others may be available for free or at a lower cost. However, the cost of market research reports should be viewed as an investment in the business’s growth and success, given the insights and strategic value they provide.

It is important to note that the cost of market research reports can also be influenced by the source of the report. Reports from well-established and reputable market research firms may be more expensive, but they often provide more comprehensive and reliable data. On the other hand, reports from lesser-known or newer firms may be less expensive, but the quality and accuracy of the data may be questionable. Therefore, it is crucial to carefully evaluate the source and credibility of the report before making a purchase decision.

How to Access and Interpret Market Research Reports

Market research reports can be accessed through various channels, including research firms, industry associations, and online marketplaces. Once you have obtained a report, it’s essential to interpret the insights and data provided in a way that is relevant to your business and industry. This may involve analyzing the data, identifying trends, and developing strategic recommendations based on the insights provided.

It’s important to note that not all market research reports are created equal. Some may be more comprehensive or relevant to your business than others. Before investing in a report, it’s important to evaluate its credibility and usefulness. This can be done by researching the reputation of the research firm or organization that produced the report, as well as reviewing the methodology and sample size used in the research. By carefully selecting and interpreting market research reports, businesses can gain valuable insights that can inform their strategic decision-making and improve their competitive position in the market.

The Impact of Technology on the Market Research Report Industry

The market research report industry has been significantly impacted by technological advancements in recent years. The use of big data and artificial intelligence has enabled more in-depth analysis and insights, while online marketplaces and platforms have made it easier for businesses to access and purchase reports. These technological advancements have also led to the development of new and innovative research methods, further enhancing the value of market research reports.

One of the most significant impacts of technology on the market research report industry is the ability to collect and analyze data in real-time. With the use of mobile devices and sensors, businesses can gather data on consumer behavior and preferences as they happen, providing more accurate and up-to-date insights. This has also led to the rise of predictive analytics, which uses machine learning algorithms to forecast future trends and behaviors based on historical data. As technology continues to evolve, the market research report industry will undoubtedly continue to adapt and innovate to meet the changing needs of businesses.

Trends in the Market Research Report Industry

Some of the trends in the market research report industry include the increasing use of artificial intelligence and predictive analytics, the growing demand for real-time data and insights, the use of social media analytics, and the rise of niche research firms specializing in specific industries or markets. These trends are likely to further reshape the industry in the coming years, providing new opportunities and challenges for businesses seeking to leverage market research reports.

Top Strategies for Using Market Research Reports to Grow Your Business

There are several effective strategies for using market research reports to grow your business, including using insights to develop targeted marketing campaigns, identifying new opportunities and potential growth areas, developing competitive strategies based on competitor insights, and identifying potential risks and challenges in the industry. Adopting these strategies can help businesses to develop more effective strategies and gain a competitive edge.

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Using Market Research Reports

Using market research reports can be a complex and challenging process, and there are several common mistakes that businesses should avoid. These include failing to select a relevant report, misinterpreting data or insights, using outdated reports, failing to consider the competition, and not investing adequate time and resources in analyzing and interpreting the insights provided. By avoiding these mistakes, businesses can ensure that they are getting the most value out of their market research reports.

Case Studies: Examples of Businesses that Used Market Research Reports Successfully

There are many examples of businesses that have used market research reports successfully to gain a competitive edge. For example, Apple used consumer behavior reports to understand customer preferences and develop products that met their needs and preferences. Amazon used industry analysis reports to identify potential growth areas and develop competitive strategies in the e-commerce industry. These examples highlight the importance of using market research reports to inform strategic decision-making and drive business growth.

Future Outlook for the Market Research Report Industry

The market research report industry is expected to continue growing in the coming years, driven by the increasing demand for insights and analysis by businesses seeking to gain a competitive edge. Technological advancements and the rise of niche research firms are likely to further reshape the industry, creating new opportunities and challenges. By leveraging market research reports effectively, businesses can gain insights and develop strategies that position them for success in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

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Market Research: A How-To Guide and Template

Discover the different types of market research, how to conduct your own market research, and use a free template to help you along the way.

MARKET RESEARCH KIT

5 Research and Planning Templates + a Free Guide on How to Use Them in Your Market Research

Updated: 02/21/24

Published: 02/21/24

Today's consumers have a lot of power. As a business, you must have a deep understanding of who your buyers are and what influences their purchase decisions.

Enter: Market Research.

Whether you're new to market research or not, I created this guide to help you conduct a thorough study of your market, target audience, competition, and more. Let’s dive in.

Table of Contents

What is market research?

Primary vs. secondary research, types of market research, how to do market research, market research report template, market research examples.

Market research is the process of gathering information about your target market and customers to verify the success of a new product, help your team iterate on an existing product, or understand brand perception to ensure your team is effectively communicating your company's value effectively.

Market research can answer various questions about the state of an industry. But if you ask me, it's hardly a crystal ball that marketers can rely on for insights on their customers.

Market researchers investigate several areas of the market, and it can take weeks or even months to paint an accurate picture of the business landscape.

However, researching just one of those areas can make you more intuitive to who your buyers are and how to deliver value that no other business is offering them right now.

How? Consider these two things:

• Your competitors also have experienced individuals in the industry and a customer base. It‘s very possible that your immediate resources are, in many ways, equal to those of your competition’s immediate resources. Seeking a larger sample size for answers can provide a better edge.
• Your customers don't represent the attitudes of an entire market. They represent the attitudes of the part of the market that is already drawn to your brand.

The market research services market is growing rapidly, which signifies a strong interest in market research as we enter 2024. The market is expected to grow from roughly $75 billion in 2021 to $90.79 billion in 2025 .

Free Market Research Kit

• SWOT Analysis Template
• Survey Template
• Focus Group Template

You're all set!

Click this link to access this resource at any time.

Why do market research?

Market research allows you to meet your buyer where they are.

As our world becomes louder and demands more of our attention, this proves invaluable.

By understanding your buyer's problems, pain points, and desired solutions, you can aptly craft your product or service to naturally appeal to them.

Market research also provides insight into the following:

• Where your target audience and current customers conduct their product or service research
• Which of your competitors your target audience looks to for information, options, or purchases
• What's trending in your industry and in the eyes of your buyer
• Who makes up your market and what their challenges are
• What influences purchases and conversions among your target audience
• Consumer attitudes about a particular topic, pain, product, or brand
• Whether there‘s demand for the business initiatives you’re investing in
• Unaddressed or underserved customer needs that can be flipped into selling opportunity
• Attitudes about pricing for a particular product or service

Ultimately, market research allows you to get information from a larger sample size of your target audience, eliminating bias and assumptions so that you can get to the heart of consumer attitudes.

As a result, you can make better business decisions.

To give you an idea of how extensive market research can get , consider that it can either be qualitative or quantitative in nature — depending on the studies you conduct and what you're trying to learn about your industry.

Qualitative research is concerned with public opinion, and explores how the market feels about the products currently available in that market.

Quantitative research is concerned with data, and looks for relevant trends in the information that's gathered from public records.

That said, there are two main types of market research that your business can conduct to collect actionable information on your products: primary research and secondary research.

Primary Research

Primary research is the pursuit of first-hand information about your market and the customers within your market.

It's useful when segmenting your market and establishing your buyer personas.

Primary market research tends to fall into one of two buckets:

• Exploratory Primary Research: This kind of primary market research normally takes place as a first step — before any specific research has been performed — and may involve open-ended interviews or surveys with small numbers of people.
• Specific Primary Research: This type of research often follows exploratory research. In specific research, you take a smaller or more precise segment of your audience and ask questions aimed at solving a suspected problem.

Secondary Research

Secondary research is all the data and public records you have at your disposal to draw conclusions from (e.g. trend reports, market statistics, industry content, and sales data you already have on your business).

Secondary research is particularly useful for analyzing your competitors . The main buckets your secondary market research will fall into include:

• Public Sources: These sources are your first and most-accessible layer of material when conducting secondary market research. They're often free to find and review — like government statistics (e.g., from the U.S. Census Bureau ).
• Commercial Sources: These sources often come in the form of pay-to-access market reports, consisting of industry insight compiled by a research agency like Pew , Gartner , or Forrester .
• Internal Sources: This is the market data your organization already has like average revenue per sale, customer retention rates, and other historical data that can help you draw conclusions on buyer needs.
• Focus Groups
• Product/ Service Use Research
• Observation-Based Research
• Buyer Persona Research
• Market Segmentation Research
• Pricing Research
• Competitive Analysis Research
• Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty Research
• Brand Awareness Research
• Campaign Research

1. Interviews

Interviews allow for face-to-face discussions so you can allow for a natural flow of conversation. Your interviewees can answer questions about themselves to help you design your buyer personas and shape your entire marketing strategy.

2. Focus Groups

Focus groups provide you with a handful of carefully-selected people that can test out your product and provide feedback. This type of market research can give you ideas for product differentiation.

3. Product/Service Use Research

Product or service use research offers insight into how and why your audience uses your product or service. This type of market research also gives you an idea of the product or service's usability for your target audience.

4. Observation-Based Research

Observation-based research allows you to sit back and watch the ways in which your target audience members go about using your product or service, what works well in terms of UX , and which aspects of it could be improved.

5. Buyer Persona Research

Buyer persona research gives you a realistic look at who makes up your target audience, what their challenges are, why they want your product or service, and what they need from your business or brand.

6. Market Segmentation Research

Market segmentation research allows you to categorize your target audience into different groups (or segments) based on specific and defining characteristics. This way, you can determine effective ways to meet their needs.

7. Pricing Research

Pricing research helps you define your pricing strategy . It gives you an idea of what similar products or services in your market sell for and what your target audience is willing to pay.

8. Competitive Analysis

Competitive analyses give you a deep understanding of the competition in your market and industry. You can learn about what's doing well in your industry and how you can separate yourself from the competition .

9. Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty Research

Customer satisfaction and loyalty research gives you a look into how you can get current customers to return for more business and what will motivate them to do so (e.g., loyalty programs , rewards, remarkable customer service).

10. Brand Awareness Research

Brand awareness research tells you what your target audience knows about and recognizes from your brand. It tells you about the associations people make when they think about your business.

11. Campaign Research

Campaign research entails looking into your past campaigns and analyzing their success among your target audience and current customers. The goal is to use these learnings to inform future campaigns.

• Define your buyer persona.
• Identify a persona group to engage.
• Prepare research questions for your market research participants.
• List your primary competitors.
• Summarize your findings.

1. Define your buyer persona.

You have to understand who your customers are and how customers in your industry make buying decisions.

This is where your buyer personas come in handy. Buyer personas — sometimes referred to as marketing personas — are fictional, generalized representations of your ideal customers.

Use a free tool to create a buyer persona that your entire company can use to market, sell, and serve better.

Don't forget to share this post!

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How To Present Your Market Research Results And Reports In An Efficient Way

Table of Contents

1) What Is A Market Research Report?

2) Market Research Reports Examples

3) Why Do You Need Market Research Reports

4) How To Make A Market Research Report?

5) Types Of Market Research Reports

6) Challenges & Mistakes Market Research Reports

Market research analyses are the go-to solution for many professionals, and for good reason: they save time, offer fresh insights, and provide clarity on your business. In turn, market research reports will help you to refine and polish your strategy. Plus, a well-crafted report will give your work more credibility while adding weight to any marketing recommendations you offer a client or executive.

But, while this is the case, today’s business world still lacks a way to present market-based research results efficiently. The static, antiquated nature of PowerPoint makes it a bad choice for presenting research discoveries, yet it is still widely used to present results. 

Fortunately, things are moving in the right direction. There are online data visualization tools that make it easy and fast to build powerful market research dashboards. They come in handy to manage the outcomes, but also the most important aspect of any analysis: the presentation of said outcomes, without which it becomes hard to make accurate, sound decisions. 

Here, we consider the benefits of conducting research analyses while looking at how to write and present market research reports, exploring their value, and, ultimately, getting the very most from your research results by using professional market research software .

Let’s get started.

What Is a Market Research Report?

A market research report is an online reporting tool used to analyze the public perception or viability of a company, product, or service. These reports contain valuable and digestible information like customer survey responses and social, economic, and geographical insights.

On a typical market research results example, you can interact with valuable trends and gain insight into consumer behavior and visualizations that will empower you to conduct effective competitor analysis. Rather than adding streams of tenuous data to a static spreadsheet, a full market research report template brings the outcomes of market-driven research to life, giving users a data analysis tool to create actionable strategies from a range of consumer-driven insights.

With digital market analysis reports, you can make your business more intelligent more efficient, and, ultimately, meet the needs of your target audience head-on. This, in turn, will accelerate your commercial success significantly.

Your Chance: Want to test a market research reporting software? Explore our 14-day free trial & benefit from interactive research reports!

How To Present Your Results: 4 Essential Market Research Report Templates

When it comes to sharing rafts of invaluable information, research dashboards are invaluable.

Any market analysis report example worth its salt will allow everyone to get a firm grip on their results and discoveries on a single page with ease. These dynamic online dashboards also boast interactive features that empower the user to drill down deep into specific pockets of information while changing demographic parameters, including gender, age, and region, filtering the results swiftly to focus on the most relevant insights for the task at hand.

These four market research report examples are different but equally essential and cover key elements required for market survey report success. You can also modify each and use it as a client dashboard .

While there are numerous types of dashboards that you can choose from to adjust and optimize your results, we have selected the top 3 that will tell you more about the story behind them. Let’s take a closer look.

1. Market Research Report: Brand Analysis

Our first example shares the results of a brand study. To do so, a survey has been performed on a sample of 1333 people, information that we can see in detail on the left side of the board, summarizing the gender, age groups, and geolocation.

**click to enlarge**

At the dashboard's center, we can see the market-driven research discoveries concerning first brand awareness with and without help, as well as themes and celebrity suggestions, to know which image the audience associates with the brand.

Such dashboards are extremely convenient to share the most important information in a snapshot. Besides being interactive (but it cannot be seen on an image), it is even easier to filter the results according to certain criteria without producing dozens of PowerPoint slides. For instance, I could easily filter the report by choosing only the female answers, only the people aged between 25 and 34, or only the 25-34 males if that is my target audience.

Primary KPIs:

a) Unaided Brand Awareness

The first market research KPI in this most powerful report example comes in the form of unaided brand awareness. Presented in a logical line-style chart, this particular market study report sample KPI is invaluable, as it will give you a clear-cut insight into how people affiliate your brand within their niche.

As you can see from our example, based on a specific survey question, you can see how your brand stacks up against your competitors regarding awareness. Based on these outcomes, you can formulate strategies to help you stand out more in your sector and, ultimately, expand your audience.

b) Aided Brand Awareness

This market survey report sample KPI focuses on aided brand awareness. A visualization that offers a great deal of insight into which brands come to mind in certain niches or categories, here, you will find out which campaigns and messaging your target consumers are paying attention to and engaging with.

By gaining access to this level of insight, you can conduct effective competitor research and gain valuable inspiration for your products, promotional campaigns, and marketing messages.

c) Brand image

When it comes to research reporting, understanding how others perceive your brand is one of the most golden pieces of information you could acquire. If you know how people feel about your brand image, you can take informed and very specific actions that will enhance the way people view and interact with your business.

By asking a focused question, this visual of KPIs will give you a definitive idea of whether respondents agree, disagree, or are undecided on particular descriptions or perceptions related to your brand image. If you’re looking to present yourself and your message in a certain way (reliable, charming, spirited, etc.), you can see how you stack up against the competition and find out if you need to tweak your imagery or tone of voice - invaluable information for any modern business.

d) Celebrity analysis

This indicator is a powerful part of our research KPI dashboard on top, as it will give you a direct insight into the celebrities, influencers, or public figures that your most valued consumers consider when thinking about (or interacting with) your brand.

Displayed in a digestible bar chart-style format, this useful metric will not only give you a solid idea of how your brand messaging is perceived by consumers (depending on the type of celebrity they associate with your brand) but also guide you on which celebrities or influencers you should contact.

By working with the right influencers in your niche, you will boost the impact and reach of your marketing campaigns significantly, improving your commercial awareness in the process. And this is the KPI that will make it happen.

2. Market Research Results On Customer Satisfaction

Here, we have some of the most important data a company should care about: their already-existing customers and their perception of their relationship with the brand. It is crucial when we know that it is five times more expensive to acquire a new consumer than to retain one.

This is why tracking metrics like the customer effort score or the net promoter score (how likely consumers are to recommend your products and services) is essential, especially over time. You need to improve these scores to have happy customers who will always have a much bigger impact on their friends and relatives than any of your amazing ad campaigns. Looking at other satisfaction indicators like the quality, pricing, and design, or the service they received is also a best practice: you want a global view of your performance regarding customer satisfaction metrics .

Such research results reports are a great tool for managers who do not have much time and hence need to use them effectively. Thanks to these dashboards, they can control data for long-running projects anytime.

Primary KPIs :

a) Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Another pivotal part of any informative research presentation is your NPS score, which will tell you how likely a customer is to recommend your brand to their peers.

Centered on overall customer satisfaction, your NPS Score can cover the functions and output of many departments, including marketing, sales, and customer service, but also serve as a building block for a call center dashboard . When you’re considering how to present your research effectively, this balanced KPI offers a masterclass. It’s logical, it has a cohesive color scheme, and it offers access to vital information at a swift glance. With an NPS Score, customers are split into three categories: promoters (those scoring your service 9 or 10), passives (those scoring your service 7 or 8), and detractors (those scoring your service 0 to 6). The aim of the game is to gain more promoters. By gaining an accurate snapshot of your NPS Score, you can create intelligent strategies that will boost your results over time.

b) Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)

The next in our examples of market research reports KPIs comes in the form of the CSAT. The vast majority of consumers that have a bad experience will not return. Honing in on your CSAT is essential if you want to keep your audience happy and encourage long-term consumer loyalty.

This magnificent, full report KPI will show how satisfied customers are with specific elements of your products or services. Getting to grips with these scores will allow you to pinpoint very specific issues while capitalizing on your existing strengths. As a result, you can take measures to improve your CSAT score while sharing positive testimonials on your social media platforms and website to build trust.

c) Customer Effort Score (CES)

When it comes to presenting research findings, keeping track of your CES Score is essential. The CES Score KPI will give you instant access to information on how easy or difficult your audience can interact with or discover your company based on a simple scale of one to ten.

By getting a clear-cut gauge of how your customers find engagement with your brand, you can iron out any weaknesses in your user experience (UX) offerings while spotting any friction, bottlenecks, or misleading messaging. In doing so, you can boost your CES score, satisfy your audience, and boost your bottom line.

3. Market Research Results On Product Innovation

This final market-driven research example report focuses on the product itself and its innovation. It is a useful report for future product development and market potential, as well as pricing decisions.

Using the same sample of surveyed people as for the first market-focused analytical report , they answer questions about their potential usage and purchase of the said product. It is good primary feedback on how the market would receive the new product you would launch. Then comes the willingness to pay, which helps set a price range that will not be too cheap to be trusted nor too expensive for what it is. That will be the main information for your pricing strategy.

a) Usage Intention

The first of our product innovation KPI-based examples comes in the form of usage intention. When you’re considering how to write a market research report, including metrics centered on consumer intent is critical.

This simple yet effective visualization will allow you to understand not only how users see your product but also whether they prefer previous models or competitor versions . While you shouldn’t base all of your product-based research on this KPI, it is very valuable, and you should use it to your advantage frequently.

b) Purchase Intention

Another aspect to consider when looking at how to present market research data is your audience’s willingness or motivation to purchase your product. Offering percentage-based information, this effective KPI provides a wealth of at-a-glance information to help you make accurate forecasts centered on your product and service offerings.

Analyzing this information regularly will give you the confidence and direction to develop strategies that will steer you to a more prosperous future, meeting the ever-changing needs of your audience on an ongoing basis.

c) Willingness To Pay (WPS)

Our final market research example KPI is based on how willing customers are to pay for a particular service or product based on a specific set of parameters. This dynamic visualization, represented in an easy-to-follow pie chart, will allow you to realign the value of your product (USPs, functions, etc.) while setting price points that are most likely to result in conversions. This is a market research presentation template that every modern organization should use to its advantage.

4. Market Research Report On Customer Demographics 

This particular example of market research report, generated with a modern dashboard creator , is a powerful tool, as it displays a cohesive mix of key demographic information in one intuitive space.

By breaking down these deep pockets of consumer-centric information, you can gain the power to develop more impactful customer communications while personalizing every aspect of your target audience’s journey across every channel or touchpoint. As a result, you can transform theoretical insights into actionable strategies that will result in significant commercial growth. 

Every section of this responsive marketing research report works in unison to build a profile of your core audience in a way that will guide your company’s consumer-facing strategies with confidence. With in-depth visuals based on gender, education level, and tech adoption, you have everything you need to speak directly to your audience at your fingertips.

Let’s look at the key performance indicators (KPIs) of this invaluable market research report example in more detail.

a) Customer By Gender

This KPI is highly visual and offers a clear-cut representation of your company’s gender share over time. By gaining access to this vital information, you can deliver a more personalized experience to specific audience segments while ensuring your messaging is fair, engaging, and inclusive.

b) Customers by education level

The next market analysis report template is a KPI that provides a logical breakdown of your customers’ level of education. By using this as a demographic marker, you can refine your products to suit the needs of your audience while crafting your content in a way that truly resonates with different customer groups.

c) Customers by technology adoption

Particularly valuable if you’re a company that sells tech goods or services, this linear KPI will show you where your customers are in terms of technological know-how or usage. By getting to grips with this information over time, you can develop your products or services in a way that offers direct value to your consumers while making your launches or promotions as successful as possible.

d) Customer age groups

By understanding your customers’ age distribution in detail, you can gain a deep understanding of their preferences. And that’s exactly what this market research report sample KPI does. Presented in a bar chart format, this KPI will give you a full breakdown of your customers’ age ranges, allowing you to build detailed buyer personas and segment your audience effectively.

Why Do You Need Market Research Reports?

As the adage goes, “Look before you leap“ – which is exactly what a research report is here for. As the headlights of a car, they will show you the pitfalls and fast lanes on your road to success: likes and dislikes of a specific market segment in a certain geographical area, their expectations, and readiness. Among other things, a research report will let you:

• Get a holistic view of the market : learn more about the target market and understand the various factors involved in the buying decisions. A broader view of the market lets you benchmark other companies you do not focus on. This, in turn, will empower you to gather the industry data that counts most. This brings us to our next point.
• Curate industry information with momentum: Whether you’re looking to rebrand, improve on an existing service, or launch a new product, time is of the essence. By working with the best market research reports created with modern BI reporting tools , you can visualize your discoveries and data, formatting them in a way that not only unearths hidden insights but also tells a story - a narrative that will gain a deeper level of understanding into your niche or industry. The features and functionality of a market analysis report will help you grasp the information that is most valuable to your organization, pushing you ahead of the pack in the process.
• Validate internal research: Doing the internal analysis is one thing, but double-checking with a third party also greatly helps avoid getting blinded by your own data.
• Use actionable data and make informed decisions: Once you understand consumer behavior as well as the market, your competitors, and the issues that will affect the industry in the future, you are better armed to position your brand. Combining all of it with the quantitative data collected will allow you to more successful product development. To learn more about different methods, we suggest you read our guide on data analysis techniques .
• Strategic planning: When you want to map out big-picture organizational goals, launch a new product development, plan a geographic market expansion, or even a merger and acquisition – all of this strategic thinking needs solid foundations to fulfill the variety of challenges that come along.
• Consistency across the board: Collecting, presenting, and analyzing your results in a way that’s smarter, more interactive, and more cohesive will ensure your customer communications, marketing campaigns, user journey, and offerings meet your audience’s needs consistently across the board. The result? Faster growth, increased customer loyalty, and more profit.
• Better communication: The right market research analysis template (or templates) will empower everyone in the company with access to valuable information - the kind that is relevant and comprehensible. When everyone is moving to the beat of the same drum, they will collaborate more effectively and, ultimately, push the venture forward thanks to powerful online data analysis techniques.
• Centralization: Building on the last point, using a powerful market research report template in the form of a business intelligence dashboard will make presenting your findings to external stakeholders and clients far more effective, as you can showcase a wealth of metrics, information, insights, and invaluable feedback from one centralized, highly visual interactive screen. 
• Brand reputation: In the digital age, brand reputation is everything. By making vital improvements in all of the key areas above, you will meet your customers’ needs head-on with consistency while finding innovative ways to stand out from your competitors. These are the key ingredients of long-term success.

How To Present Market Research Analysis Results?

Here we look at how you should present your research reports, considering the steps it takes to connect with the outcomes you need to succeed:

• Collect your data 

As with any reporting process, you first and foremost need to collect the data you’ll use to conduct your studies. Businesses conduct research studies to analyze their brand awareness, identity, and influence in the market. For product development and pricing decisions, among many others. That said, there are many ways to collect information for a market research report. Among some of the most popular ones, we find: 

• Surveys: Probably the most common way to collect research data, surveys can come in the form of open or closed questions that can be answered anonymously. They are the cheapest and fastest way to collect insights about your customers and business. 
• Interviews : These are face-to-face discussions that allow the researcher to analyze responses as well as the body language of the interviewees. This method is often used to define buyer personas by analyzing the subject's budget, job title, lifestyle, wants, and needs, among other things. 
• Focus groups : This method involves a group of people discussing a topic with a mediator. It is often used to evaluate a new product or new feature or to answer a specific question that the researcher might have. 
• Observation-based research : In this type of research, the researcher or business sits back and watches customers interact with the product without any instructions or help. It allows us to identify pain points as well as strong features. 
• Market segmentation : This study allows you to identify and analyze potential market segments to target. Businesses use it to expand into new markets and audiences. 

These are just a few of the many ways in which you can gather your information. The important point is to keep the research objective as straightforward as possible. Supporting yourself with professional BI solutions to clean, manage, and present your insights is probably the smartest choice.

2. Hone in on your research:

When looking at how to source consumer research in a presentation, you should focus on two areas: primary and secondary research. Primary research comes from your internal data, monitoring existing organizational practices, the effectiveness of sales, and the tools used for communication, for instance. Primary research also assesses market competition by evaluating the company plans of the competitors. Secondary research focuses on existing data collected by a third party, information used to perform benchmarking and market analysis. Such metrics help in deciding which market segments are the ones the company should focus its efforts on or where the brand is standing in the minds of consumers. Before you start the reporting process, you should set your goals, segmenting your research into primary and secondary segments to get to grips with the kind of information you need to work with to achieve effective results.

3. Segment your customers:

To give your market research efforts more context, you should segment your customers into different groups according to the preferences outlined in the survey or feedback results or by examining behavioral or demographic data.

If you segment your customers, you can tailor your market research and analysis reports to display only the information, charts, or graphics that will provide actionable insights into their wants, needs, or industry-based pain points. 

• Identify your stakeholders:

Once you’ve drilled down into your results and segmented your consumer groups, it’s important to consider the key stakeholders within the organization that will benefit from your information the most. 

By looking at both internal and external stakeholders, you will give your results a path to effective presentation, gaining the tools to understand which areas of feedback or data are most valuable, as well as most redundant. As a consequence, you will ensure your results are concise and meet the exact information needs of every stakeholder involved in the process.

• Set your KPIs:

First, remember that your reports should be concise and accurate - straight to the point without omitting any essential information. Work to ensure your insights are clean and organized, with participants grouped into relevant categories (demographics, profession, industry, education, etc.). Once you’ve organized your research, set your goals, and cleaned your data, you should set your KPIs to ensure your report is populated with the right visualizations to get the job done. Explore our full library of interactive KPI examples for inspiration.

• Include competitor’s analysis 

Whether you are doing product innovation research, customer demographics, pricing, or any other, including some level of insights about competitors in your reports is always recommended as it can help your business or client better understand where they stand in the market. That being said, competitor analysis is not as easy as picking a list of companies in the same industry and listing them. Your main competitor can be just a company's division in an entirely different industry. For example, Apple Music competes with Spotify even though Apple is a technology company. Therefore, it is important to carefully analyze competitors from a general but detailed level. 

Providing this kind of information in your reports can also help you find areas that competitors are not exploiting or that are weaker and use them to your advantage to become a market leader. 

• Produce your summary:

To complement your previous efforts, writing an executive summary of one or two pages that will explain the general idea of the report is advisable. Then come the usual body parts:

• An introduction providing background information, target audience, and objectives;
• The qualitative research describes the participants in the research and why they are relevant to the business;
• The survey research outlines the questions asked and answered;
• A summary of the insights and metrics used to draw the conclusions, the research methods chosen, and why;
• A presentation of the findings based on your research and an in-depth explanation of these conclusions.
• Use a mix of visualizations:

When presenting your results and discoveries, you should aim to use a balanced mix of text, graphs, charts, and interactive visualizations.

Using your summary as a guide, you should decide which type of visualization will present each specific piece of market research data most effectively (often, the easier to understand and more accessible, the better).

Doing so will allow you to create a story that will put your research information into a living, breathing context, providing a level of insight you need to transform industry, competitor, or consumer info or feedback into actionable strategies and initiatives.

• Be careful not to mislead 

Expanding on the point above, using a mix of visuals can prove highly valuable in presenting your results in an engaging and understandable way. That being said, when not used correctly, graphs and charts can also become misleading. This is a popular practice in the media, news, and politics, where designers tweak the visuals to manipulate the masses into believing a certain conclusion. This is a very unethical practice that can also happen by mistake when you don’t pick the right chart or are not using it in the correct way. Therefore, it is important to outline the message you are trying to convey and pick the chart type that will best suit those needs. 

Additionally, you should also be careful with the data you choose to display, as it can also become misleading. This can happen if you, for example, cherry-pick data, which means only showing insights that prove a conclusion instead of the bigger picture. Or confusing correlation with causation, which means assuming that because two events happened simultaneously, one caused the other. 

Being aware of these practices is of utmost importance as objectivity is crucial when it comes to dealing with data analytics, especially if you are presenting results to clients. Our guides on misleading statistics and misleading data visualizations can help you learn more about this important topic. 

• Use professional dashboards:

To optimize your market research discoveries, you must work with a dynamic business dashboard . Not only are modern dashboards presentable and customizable, but they will offer you past, predictive, and real-time insights that are accurate, interactive, and yield long-lasting results.

All market research reports companies or businesses gathering industry or consumer-based information will benefit from professional dashboards, as they offer a highly powerful means of presenting your data in a way everyone can understand. And when that happens, everyone wins.

Did you know? The interactive nature of modern dashboards like datapine also offers the ability to quickly filter specific pockets of information with ease, offering swift access to invaluable insights.

• Prioritize interactivity 

The times when reports were static are long gone. Today, to extract the maximum value out of your research data, you need to be able to explore the information and answer any critical questions that arise during the presentation of results. To do so, modern reporting tools provide multiple interactivity features to help you bring your research results to life. 

For instance, a drill-down filter lets you go into lower levels of hierarchical data without generating another graph. For example, imagine you surveyed customers from 10 different countries. In your report, you have a chart displaying the number of customers by country, but you want to analyze a specific country in detail. A drill down filter would enable you to click on a specific country and display data by city on that same chart. Even better, a global filter would allow you to filter the entire report to show only results for that specific country. 

Through the use of interactive filters, such as the one we just mentioned, you’ll not only make the presentation of results more efficient and profound, but you’ll also avoid generating pages-long reports to display static results. All your information will be displayed in a single interactive page that can be filtered and explored upon need.  

• Customize the reports 

This is a tip that is valuable for any kind of research report, especially when it comes to agencies that are reporting to external clients. Customizing the report to match your client’s colors, logo, font, and overall branding will help them grasp the data better, thanks to a familiar environment. This is an invaluable tip as often your audience will not feel comfortable dealing with data and might find it hard to understand or intimidating. Therefore, providing a familiar look that is also interactive and easier to understand will keep them engaged and collaborative throughout the process. 

Plus, customizing the overall appearance of the report will also make your agency look more professional, adding extra value to your service. 

• Know your design essentials 

When you’re presenting your market research reports sample to internal or external stakeholders, having a firm grasp on fundamental design principles will make your metrics and insights far more persuasive and compelling.

By arranging your metrics in a balanced and logical format, you can guide users toward key pockets of information exactly when needed. In turn, this will improve decision-making and navigation, making your reports as impactful as possible.

For essential tips, read our 23 dashboard design principles & best practices to enhance your analytics process.

• Think of security and privacy 

Cyberattacks are increasing at a concerning pace, making security a huge priority for organizations of all sizes today. The costs of having your sensitive information leaked are not only financial but also reputational, as customers might not trust you again if their data ends up in the wrong hands. Given that market research analysis is often performed by agencies that handle data from clients, security and privacy should be a top priority.  

To ensure the required security and privacy, it is necessary to invest in the right tools to present your research results. For instance, tools such as datapine offer enterprise-level security protocols that ensure your information is encrypted and protected at all times. Plus, the tool also offers additional security features, such as being able to share your reports through a password-protected URL or to set viewer rights to ensure only the right people can access and manipulate the data. 

• Keep on improving & evolving

Each time you gather or gain new marketing research reports or market research analysis report intel, you should aim to refine your existing dashboards to reflect the ever-changing landscape around you.

If you update your reports and dashboards according to the new research you conduct and new insights you connect with, you will squeeze maximum value from your metrics, enjoying consistent development in the process.

Types of Market Research Reports: Primary & Secondary Research

With so many market research examples and such little time, knowing how to best present your insights under pressure can prove tricky.

To squeeze every last drop of value from your market research efforts and empower everyone with access to the right information, you should arrange your information into two main groups: primary research and secondary research.

A. Primary research

Primary research is based on acquiring direct or first-hand information related to your industry or sector and the customers linked to it.

Exploratory primary research is an initial form of information collection where your team might set out to identify potential issues, opportunities, and pain points related to your business or industry. This type of research is usually carried out in the form of general surveys or open-ended consumer Q&As, which nowadays are often performed online rather than offline . 

Specific primary research is definitive, with information gathered based on the issues, information, opportunities, or pain points your business has already uncovered. When doing this kind of research, you can drill down into a specific segment of your customers and seek answers to the opportunities, issues, or pain points in question.

When you’re conducting primary research to feed into your market research reporting efforts, it’s important to find reliable information sources. The most effective primary research sources include:

• Consumer-based statistical data
• Social media content
• Polls and Q&A
• Trend-based insights
• Competitor research
• First-hand interviews

B. Secondary research

Secondary research refers to every strand of relevant data or public records you have to gain a deeper insight into your market and target consumers. These sources include trend reports, market stats, industry-centric content, and sales insights you have at your disposal.  Secondary research is an effective way of gathering valuable intelligence about your competitors. 

You can gather very precise, insightful secondary market research insights from:

• Public records and resources like Census data, governmental reports, or labor stats
• Commercial resources like Gartner, Statista, or Forrester
• Articles, documentaries, and interview transcripts

Another essential branch of both primary and secondary research is internal intelligence. When it comes to efficient market research reporting examples that will benefit your organization, looking inward is a powerful move. 

Existing sales, demographic, or marketing performance insights will lead you to valuable conclusions. Curating internal information will ensure your market research discoveries are well-rounded while helping you connect with the information that will ultimately give you a panoramic view of your target market. 

By understanding both types of research and how they can offer value to your business, you can carefully choose the right informational sources, gather a wide range of intelligence related to your specific niche, and, ultimately, choose the right market research report sample for your specific needs.

If you tailor your market research report format to the type of research you conduct, you will present your visualizations in a way that provides the right people with the right insights, rather than throwing bundles of facts and figures on the wall, hoping that some of them stick.

Taking ample time to explore a range of primary and secondary sources will give your discoveries genuine context. By doing so, you will have a wealth of actionable consumer and competitor insights at your disposal at every stage of your organization’s development (a priceless weapon in an increasingly competitive digital age). 

Dynamic market research is the cornerstone of business development, and a dashboard builder is the vessel that brings these all-important insights to life. Once you get into that mindset, you will ensure that your research results always deliver maximum value.

Common Challenges & Mistakes Of Market Research Reporting & Analysis

We’ve explored different types of market research analysis examples and considered how to conduct effective research. Now, it’s time to look at the key mistakes of market research reporting.  Let’s start with the mistakes.

The mistakes

One of the biggest mistakes that stunt the success of a company’s market research efforts is strategy. Without taking the time to gather an adequate mix of insights from various sources and define your key aims or goals, your processes will become disjointed. You will also suffer from a severe lack of organizational vision.

For your market research-centric strategy to work, everyone within the company must be on the same page. Your core aims and objectives must align throughout the business, and everyone must be clear on their specific role. If you try to craft a collaborative strategy and decide on your informational sources from the very start of your journey, your strategy will deliver true growth and intelligence.

• Measurement

Another classic market research mistake is measurement – or, more accurately, a lack of precise measurement. When embarking on market intelligence gathering processes, many companies fail to select the right KPIs and set the correct benchmarks for the task at hand. Without clearly defined goals, many organizations end up with a market analysis report format that offers little or no value in terms of decision-making or market insights.

To drive growth with your market research efforts, you must set clearly defined KPIs that align with your specific goals, aims, and desired outcomes.

• Competition

A common mistake among many new or scaling companies is failing to explore and examine the competition. This will leave you with gaping informational blindspots. To truly benefit from market research, you must gather valuable nuggets of information from every key source available. Rather than solely looking at your consumers and the wider market (which is incredibly important), you should take the time to see what approach your direct competitors have adopted while getting to grips with the content and communications.

One of the most effective ways of doing so (and avoiding such a monumental market research mistake) is by signing up for your competitors’ mailing lists, downloading their apps, and examining their social media content. This will give you inspiration for your own efforts while allowing you to exploit any gaps in the market that your competitors are failing to fill.

The challenges

• Informational quality

We may have an almost infinite wealth of informational insights at our fingertips, but when it comes to market research, knowing which information to trust can prove an uphill struggle.

When working with metrics, many companies risk connecting with inaccurate insights or leading to a fruitless informational rabbit hole, wasting valuable time and resources in the process. To avoid such a mishap, working with a trusted modern market research and analysis sample is the only way forward.

• Senior buy-in

Another pressing market research challenge that stunts organizational growth is the simple case of senior buy-in. While almost every senior decision-maker knows that market research is an essential component of a successful commercial strategy, many are reluctant to invest an ample amount of time or money in the pursuit.

The best way to overcome such a challenge is by building a case that defines exactly how your market research strategies will offer a healthy ROI to every key aspect of the organization, from marketing and sales to customer experience (CX) and beyond.

• Response rates

Low interview, focus group, or poll response rates can have a serious impact on the success and value of your market research strategy. Even with adequate senior buy-in, you can’t always guarantee that you will get enough responses from early-round interviews or poll requests. If you don’t, your market research discoveries run the risk of being shallow or offering little in the way of actionable insight.

To overcome this common challenge, you can improve the incentive you offer your market research prospects while networking across various platforms to discover new contact opportunities. Changing the tone of voice of your ads or emails will also help boost your consumer or client response rates.

Bringing Your Reports a Step Further

Even if it is still widespread for market-style research results presentation, using PowerPoint at this stage is a hassle and presents many downsides and complications. When busy managers or short-on-time top executives grab a report, they want a quick overview that gives them an idea of the results and the big picture that addresses the objectives: they need a dashboard. This can be applied to all areas of a business that need fast and interactive data visualizations to support their decision-making.

We all know that a picture conveys more information than simple text or figures, so managing to bring it all together on an actionable dashboard will convey your message more efficiently. Besides, market research dashboards have the incredible advantage of always being up-to-date since they work with real-time insights: the synchronization/updating nightmare of dozens of PowerPoint slides doesn’t exist for you anymore. This is particularly helpful for tracking studies performed over time that recurrently need their data to be updated with more recent ones.

In today’s fast-paced business environment, companies must identify and grab new opportunities as they arise while staying away from threats and adapting quickly. In order to always be a step further and make the right decisions, it is critical to perform market research studies to get the information needed and make important decisions with confidence.

We’ve asked the question, “What is a market research report?”, and examined the dynamics of a modern market research report example, and one thing’s for sure: a visual market research report is the best way to understand your customer and thus increase their satisfaction by meeting their expectations head-on. 

From looking at a sample of a market research report, it’s also clear that modern dashboards help you see what is influencing your business with clarity, understand where your brand is situated in the market, and gauge the temperature of your niche or industry before a product or service launch. Once all the studies are done, you must present them efficiently to ensure everyone in the business can make the right decisions that result in real progress. Market research reports are your key allies in the matter.

To start presenting your results with efficient, interactive, dynamic research reports and win on tomorrow’s commercial battlefield, try our dashboard reporting software and test every feature with our 14-day free trial !

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What is a Marketing Research Report and How to Write It?

Table of contents

There is nothing more embarrassing for a marketer than to hear a client say “…this doesn’t quite address the business questions that we need to answer.” And unfortunately, this is a rather common occurrence in market research reporting that most marketers would care to admit.

So, why do most market research reports fail to meet client expectations? Well, in most cases, because there is more emphasis on methodology and analytic techniques used to craft the report rather than relying on data visualization, creative story-telling, and outlining actionable direction/steps.

Now, our next big question is, how do you avoid your client’s dreaded deer-in-the-headlights reaction when presenting such a report? This blog post will answer this and much more, as we go through the following:

What Is a Market Research Report?

Why is market research important, differences between primary and secondary market research, types of market research, market research reports advantages and disadvantages, how to do market research, how to prepare a market research report: 5 steps, marketing research report templates, marketing research reports best practices, bring your market research reports a step further with databox.

The purpose of creating a market research report is to make calculated decisions about business ideas. Market research is done to evaluate the feasibility of a new product or service, through research conducted with potential consumers. The information obtained from conducting market research is then documented in a formal report that should contain the following details:

• The characteristics of your ideal customers
• You customers buying habits
• The value your product or service can bring to those customers
• A list of your top competitors

Every business aims to provide the best possible product or service at the lowest cost possible. Simply said, market research is important because it helps you understand your customers and determine whether the product or service that you are about to launch is worth the effort.

Here is an example of a customer complaint that may result in more detailed market research:

Suppose you sell widgets, and you want your widget business to succeed over the long term. Over the years, you have developed many different ways of making widgets. But a couple of years ago, a customer complained that your widgets were made of a cheap kind of foam that fell apart after six months. You didn’t think at the time that this was a major problem, but now you know it.

The customer is someone you really want to keep. So, you decide to research this complaint. You set up a focus group of people who use widgets and ask them what they think about the specific problem. After the conducted survey you’ll get a better picture of customer opinions, so you can either decide to make the changes regarding widget design or just let it go.

PRO TIP: How Well Are Your Marketing KPIs Performing?

Like most marketers and marketing managers, you want to know how well your efforts are translating into results each month. How much traffic and new contact conversions do you get? How many new contacts do you get from organic sessions? How are your email campaigns performing? How well are your landing pages converting? You might have to scramble to put all of this together in a single report, but now you can have it all at your fingertips in a single Databox dashboard.

Our Marketing Overview Dashboard includes data from Google Analytics 4 and HubSpot Marketing with key performance metrics like:

• Sessions . The number of sessions can tell you how many times people are returning to your website. Obviously, the higher the better.
• New Contacts from Sessions . How well is your campaign driving new contacts and customers?
• Marketing Performance KPIs . Tracking the number of MQLs, SQLs, New Contacts and similar will help you identify how your marketing efforts contribute to sales.
• Email Performance . Measure the success of your email campaigns from HubSpot. Keep an eye on your most important email marketing metrics such as number of sent emails, number of opened emails, open rate, email click-through rate, and more.
• Blog Posts and Landing Pages . How many people have viewed your blog recently? How well are your landing pages performing?

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Marketing research requires both primary and secondary market research. But what does that mean and what are the main differences?

Primary market research takes in information directly from customers, usually as participants in surveys. Usually, it is consisted of:

• Exploratory Primary Research – This type of research helps to identify possible problem areas, and it’s not focused on discovering specific information about customers. As with any research, exploratory primary research should be conducted carefully. Researchers need to craft an interviewing or surveying plan, and gather enough respondents to ensure reasonable levels of statistical reliability.
• Specific Primary Research – This type of research is one of the best ways to approach a problem because it relies on existing customer data. Specific research provides a deeper, more thorough understanding of the problem and its potential solutions. The greatest advantage of specific research is that it lets you explore a very specific question, and focus on a specific problem or an opportunity.

Secondary market research collects information from other sources such as databases, trend reports, market or government statistics, industry content, etc. We can divide secondary market research into 3 categories:

• Public market data – Public sources range from academic journals and government reports to tax returns and court documents. These sources aren’t always easy to find. Many are available only in print in libraries and archives. You have to look beyond search engines like Google to find public source documents.
• Commercial data – Those are typically created by specialized agencies like Pew, Gartner or Forrester. the research agencies are quite expensive, but they provide a lot of useful information.
• Internal data – Your organization’s databases are gold mines for market research. In the best cases, your salespeople can tell you what they think about customers. Your salespeople are your direct sources of information about the market. Don’t underestimate your internal data.

In general, primary research is more reliable than secondary research, because researchers have to interview people directly. But primary research is expensive and time-consuming. Secondary research can be quicker and less expensive.

There are plenty of ways to conduct marketing research reports. Mostly, the type of research done will depend on your goals. Here are some types of market research often conducted by marketers.

Focus Groups

Product/service use research, observation-based research, buyer persona research, market segmentation research, pricing research, competitive analysis research, customer satisfaction and loyalty research, brand awareness research, campaign research.

An interview is an interactive process of asking and answering questions and observing your respondent’s responses. Interviews are one of the most commonly used tools in market research . An interview allows an organization to observe, in detail, how its consumers interact with its products and services. It also allows an organization to address specific questions.

A focus group is a group of people who get together to discuss a particular topic. A moderator leads the discussion and takes notes. The main benefit of focus groups is that they are quick and easy to conduct. You can gather a group of carefully-selected people, give them a product to try out, and get their feedback within a few hours/days.

Product or service use research helps you obtain useful information about your product or service such as:

• What your current customers do with the product/service
• Which features of the product/service are particularly important to your customers
• What they dislike about the product/service
• What they would change about the product/service

Observation-based research helps you to observe your target audience interacting with your product or service. You will see the interactions and which aspects work well and which could be improved. The main point is to directly experience the feedback from your target audience’s point of view.

Personas are an essential sales tool. By knowing your buyers’ pain points and the challenges they face, you can create better content, target messaging, and campaigns for them. Buyer persona research is based on market research, and it’s built around data that describes your customers’ demographics, behaviors, motivations, and concerns. Sales reporting software can significantly help you develop buyer personas when you gain insights after you collected all information.

Market segmentation research is carried out to better understand existing and potential market segments. The objective is to determine how to target different market segments and how they differ from each other. The three most important steps in writing a market segmentation research report are:

• Defining the problem
• Determining the solution [and]
• Defining the market

Related : 9 Customer Segmentation Tips to Personalize Ecommerce Marketing and Drive More Sales

A price that is too high, or too low, can kill a business. And without good market research, you don’t really know what is a good price for your product. Pricing research helps you define your pricing strategy.

In a competitive analysis, you define your “competition” as any other entity that competes with you in your market, whether you’re selling a widget or a piece of real estate. With competitive analysis research, you can find out things like:

• Who your competitors are
• What they’ve done in the past
• What’s working well for them
• Their weaknesses
• How they’re positioned in the market
• How they market themselves
• What they’re doing that you’re not

Related : How to Do an SEO Competitive Analysis: A Step-by-Step Guide

In today’s marketplace, companies are increasingly focused on customer loyalty. What your customers want is your product, but, more importantly, they want it delivered with a service that exceeds their expectations. Successful companies listen to their customers and respond accordingly. That’s why customer satisfaction and loyalty research is a critical component of that basic equation.

Related : 11 Tactics for Effectively Measuring Your Customer Service ROI

Who you are, what you stand for, what you offer, what you believe in, and what your audience thinks of you is all wrapped up in brand. Brand awareness research tells what your target audience knows about your brand and what’s their experience like.

A campaign research report is a detailed account of how your marketing campaign performed. It includes all the elements that went into creating the campaign: planning, implementation, and measurement.

Here are some of the top advantages and disadvantages of doing market research and crafting market research reports.

• Identify business opportunities – A market research report can be used to analyze potential markets and new products. It can give information about customer needs, preferences, and attitudes. Also, it compare products and services.
• A clear understanding of your customers – A market report gives company’s marketing department an in-depth picture about customers’ needs and wants. This knowledge can be used to improve products, prices, and advertising.
• Mitigates risks – 30% of small businesses fail within the first two years. Why is this so? The answer is that entrepreneurs are risk takers. However, there are risks that could be avoided. A good marketing research will help you identify those risks and allow you to mitigate them.
• Clear data-driven insights – Market research encompasses a wide range of activities, from determining market size and segment to forecasting demand, and from identifying competitors to monitoring pricing. All of these are quantified and measurable which means that gives you a clear path for building unique decisions based on numbers.

Disadvantages

• It’s not cheap – Although market research can be done for as little as $500, large markets like the United States can run into millions of dollars. If a research is done for a specific product, the budget may be even much higher. The budget also depends on the quality of the research. The more expensive it is, the more time the research will take.
• Some insights could be false – For example, if you are conducting a survey, data may be inadequate or inaccurate because respondents can, well, simply be dishonest and lie.

Here are the essential steps you need to take when doing market research:

Define your buyer persona

Identify a persona group to engage, prepare research questions for your market research participants, list your primary competitors, summarize your findings.

The job of a marketing persona is to describe your ideal customer and to tell you what they want, what motivates them, what frustrates them, and what limits them. Finding out these things means you have a better chance of designing your products, services, marketing messages, and brand around real customers. There is no one right way to create a buyer persona, though.

For example, if you’re in an industry focused on education, you could include things like:

• Educational level
• Education background

It’s recommended that you create 3-5 buyer personas for your products, based on your ideal customer.

This should be a representative sample of your target customers so you can better understand their behavior. You want to find people who fit both your target personas and who represent the broader demographic of your market. People who recently made a purchase or purposefully decided not to make one are a good sample to start with.

The questions you use determine the quality of your results. Of course, the quality of your results also depends on the quality of your participants.

Don’t ask questions that imply a yes or no answer. Instead, use open questions. For example, if you are researching customers about yogurt products, you could ask them: „ What have you heard about yogurt ?” or “ What do you think of yogurt ?“.

Avoid questions that use numbers, such as “ How many times a week do you eat yogurt ?”

Avoid questions that suggest a set of mutually exclusive answers, such as “ Do you like yogurt for breakfast, lunch, or dinner ?”

Avoid questions that imply a scale, such as “ Do you like chocolate-flavored yogurt ?”

Market researchers sometimes call one company the top competitor, another middle competitor, and the third one small competitor. However you classify them, you want to identify at least three companies in each category. Now, for each business on your list, list its key characteristics. For example, if your business sells running shoes, a key characteristic might be the product’s quality.

Next, make a list of your small business’s competitive advantages. These include the unique qualities or features of your business that make it the best choice of customers for the products or services it offers. Make a list of these competitive advantages and list them next to the key characteristics you listed for your business.

You have just finished writing your marketing research report. Everything is out there quantified or qualified. You just have to sum it up and focus on the most important details that are going to make a big impact on your decisions. Clear summary leads to a winning strategy!

Related : How to Prepare a Complete Marketing Report: The KPIs, Analysis, & Action Plan You Need

Here’s how to prepare a market research report in 5 simple steps:

Step 1: Cluster the data

Step 2: prepare an outline, step 3: mention the research methods, step 4: include visuals with narrative explanations, step 5: conclude the report with recommendations.

Your first step is to cluster all the available information into a manageable set. Clustering is the process of grouping information together in a way that emphasizes commonalities and minimizes differences. So, in market research, this will help to organize all the information you have about a product, service, or target market and identify your focus areas.

A marketing research report should be written so that other people can understand it:

• Include background information at the beginning to explain who your audience is and what problem you are trying to solve for them.
• In the body of the report, include a description of the methodology – Explain to the reader how your research was done, what was involved, and why you selected the methodology you used.
• Also in the body of the report, include the results of your market research. These may be quantitative or qualitative, but either way they should answer the questions you posed at the beginning.
• Include the executive summary – A summary of the entire report.

The market research methodology section includes details on the type of research, sample size, any limitations of the studies, research design, sample selection, data collection procedures, and statistical analyses used.

Visuals are an essential part of the presentation. Even the best-written text can be difficult to understand. Charts and graphs are easier to understand than text alone, and they help the reader see how the numbers fit the bigger picture.

But visuals are not the whole story. They are only one part of the presentation. Visuals are a cue for the reader. The narrative gives the story, not just the numbers.

Recommendations tend to follow logically from conclusions and are a response to a certain problem. The recommendation should always be relevant to the research rationale, that is, the recommendation should be based on the results of the research reported in the body of the report.

Now, let’s take a look at some dashboard reporting templates you could use to enhance your market research:

• Semrush (Position Tracking) Report

Brand Awareness Report

Sales pipeline performance report, customer success overview report, stripe (mrr & churn) report, semrush (position tracking) report template.

This free SEMRush dashboard template will help you monitor how your website’s search visibility on search engines evolves on a monthly basis. This dashboard contains all of the information you need to make changes and improve the ranking results of your business in Google Search.

This Brand Awareness Report will help you to get a sense of your brand awareness performance in Google Analytics, Google Organic Search, and Facebook. Use this dashboard to track brand awareness the same way you track other marketing campaigns.

Are your sales and marketing funnel healthy and growing? How is your sales and marketing funnel performing? What are the key conversion rates between your lifecycle stages? With a pipeline performance dashboard , you’ll get all of the answers quickly.

This Customer Success Overview Dashboard allows you to analyze how your customer service team’s responsiveness impacts your business. Use this dashboard to assess the correlation between your customer service performance and churn rate. 

This Stripe dashboard tracks your churn rate and MRR growth in real-time and shows you which customers (and how many of them) you have at any given point in time. All you have to do to get started is to connect your Stripe account.

As we said earlier, there are no strict rules when it comes to writing marketing research reports. On the other hand, you must find your focus if you want to write a report that will make a difference. Here are some best practices you should keep in mind when writing a research report.

• Objectives – The objective of a market research report is to define the problems, identify key issues, and suggest recommendations for further research. If you answer them successfully, you’re on the right way.
• Don’t worry about the format – Be creative. The report could be in a form of a PowerPoint presentation, Excel sheet, interactive dashboard or even a video. Use the format that best fits your audience, but make sure to make it easy to read.
• Include an executive summary, scorecard , or a dashboard – This is really important because time is money, and most people don’t have time to waste. So, how to put everything important in a short role? Address all of the objectives and put them in a graphic dashboard or scorecard. Also, you can write an executive summary template (heart of the report) that can be easily updated and read by managers or CEOs.
• Use storytelling –  A good story always makes a great point because it’s so memorable. Your research report results can double the effect with a catchy story.
• Keep it short – It’s not a secret that we are reading so little in the digital era. Use a lot of white space and bullet points. Too much text on a page means less focus for the reader.
• Be organized – Maintain the order of information. It’s important for the reader to navigate through the report easily. If they want to find some details or specific information it would be great to divide all sections with appropriate references.
• Methodological information – Methodological details could be boring. Include only the most important details that the reader needs to know to understand the big picture.
• Use images (or other visualizations) whenever you can – A good picture speaks for 1.000 words! If you can communicate the point visually, don’t hesitate to do it. It would be a lot easier for those who don’t like a lot of text to understand your results. But don’t push them where you can’t.
• Create readable graphs – The crown of marketing research reports is a comprehensive graph. Make sure to design precise and attractive graphs that will power up and round your story.
• Use the Appendix  – You can include all secondary information such as methodological details and other miscellaneous data in the Appendix at the end of the report.

Market research reports are all about presenting your data in an easy-to-understand way and making calculated decisions about business ideas. But this is something easier said than done.

When busy stakeholders and executives grab a report, they need something that will give them an idea of the results – the big picture that addresses company wide-business goals.

Can a PowerPoint presentation or a PDF report meet those expectations? Most likely not. But a dashboard can.

Keep in mind that even with the best market analysis in the world, your market research report won’t be actionable if you don’t present the data efficiently and in a way that everyone understands what the next steps are. Databox is your key ally in the matter.

Databox dashboards are designed to help you present your market research data with clarity – from identifying what is influencing your business, and understanding where your brand is situated in the market, to gauging the temperature of your niche or industry before a new product/service launch.

Present your research results with efficient, interactive dashboards now by signing up for a free trial .

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Get facts and insights on topics that matter, mar 28, 2024 | mobile internet & apps, estimated value of digital companies at spac merger 2024.

On March 26, 2024, Truth Social entered the public market via the SPAC merger of Trump Media & Technology Group with the Digital World Acquisition Corp, at a valuation of eight billion U.S. dollars. The U.S.- based mortgage company Better.com, which went public via SPAC merger with the Aurora Acquisition Corp. in August 2023, enjoyed the implied valuation of almost seven billion U.S. dollars, despite having seen its profits deteriorate in the previous year. SPAC mergers in the alt-tech scene SPAC mergers have become an increasingly common way for non-mainstream social media companies and alt-tech platforms to enter the public market. The number of Truth Social app downloads in the United States barely reached 100 thousand in February 2024. Despite this, Truth Social had a grandiose market debut, peaking at almost 80 U.S. dollars per share. Launched in February 2022, Truth Social is a microblogging platform that proposes to uphold freedom of expression by giving voice to the alt-right political figures in the American public debate. Similarly, online video platform Rumble, which monetizes content from creators such as Andrew Tate and Russell Brand, chose to go public via a SPAC merger with CF Acquisition Corp VI on September 15, 2022. The quarterly revenue generated by Rumble was almost 18 million U.S. dollars in the third quarter of 2023, down by 30 percent compared to the previous period. In comparison, the hours of uploaded video content on Rumble keep climbing to increasingly high output results, a sign that content creators have been using the platform more than in previous years. Latest social media IPOs March 2024 marked the resurgence of social media IPOs. On March 21, 2024, social forum Reddit began officially trading on the New York exchange. The platform, which was launched in 2005, first expressed its wish to go public in December 2021. Reddit was valued at 6.5 billion U.S. dollars in its pre-IPO stand, but managed to surpass a 10 billion valuation after its market debut. Within the ranking of estimated valuation of selected social media platforms at their entrance into the public market , Reddit positions itself in the mid to low tier of the scale. Former president Donald Trump’s Truth Social, which went public via a SPAC merger in the same month, enjoyed a valuation of approximately eight billion U.S. dollars. The largest social media IPO recorded in the last 15 years was Facebook, which went public at a valuation of 104 billion U.S. dollars. Among the companies that have expressed the will to go public, communication and social networking platform Discord Inc. stands out thanks to its estimated 2022 valuation at 10 billion U.S. dollars.

Apr 1, 2024 | National Security

Geopolitical risk index 1985-2024.

Since the monthly counting of the Geopolitical Risk Index (GPR) started in 1985, the index peaked in October 2001, immediately after the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon in the United States. The attack is perceived to be the  deadliest terrorist attack in the 20th and 21st century, and ultimately caused the start of the so-called war on terror, with U.S. invasions of Afghanistan (2001) and Iraq (2003) following in the aftermath.

The GPR was also high in March 2022 following Russia's invasion of Ukraine at the end of February that year. The attack on an independent state meant that the relations between Russia and the West reached a new low after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and several sanctions were imposed on Russia.

Apart from the 9/11 attacks in 2001, the index reached its highest level in January 1991. This was a result of the ongoing Gulf War following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, but also Soviet troops storming the Lithuanian capital in order to stop the country's secession from the Soviet Union . Additionally, a massacre of Tutsi in Rwanda highlighted the growing tensions in the East African country, which ultimately resulted in the genocide in 1994.

Apr 2, 2024 | Apps

Monthly global downloads of temu shopping app 2022-2024.

The popularity of ecommerce platform Temu has been surging since its debut in the fall of 2022. In March 2024, the app was downloaded over 41 million times all over the world, making it more popular than Amazon’s marketplace app.

Temu, which is owned by the Chinese online retailer PDD Holdings, has successfully replicated the meteoric growth of its sister app Pinduoduo in overseas markets through effective marketing campaigns. Focusing on providing low-cost products with free and fast shipping, Temu has emerged as a wallet-saving alternative amidst rising inflation . The newcomer has also followed the playbook of Pinduoduo, such as gamification features and personalized purchase recommendations, to make shopping on mobile more fun.

These strategies work. In the first five months of 2023, Temu generated over 1.5 billion U.S. dollars in gross merchandise volume. It has caught the eye of inflation-weary shoppers in the West, particularly young people in the United States and Mexico. In April 2023, Temu achieved its first milestone of over 100 million active users in the United States.  

Mar 26, 2024 | Environmental Technology & Greentech

Global commercial carbon sequestration projects 2024, by major country.

The United States had the highest number of projects in the commercial carbon capture and storage (CCS) facilities pipeline worldwide as of March 2024. There were 149 commercial CCS projects in the U.S. in 2024, 16 of which were operational. Canada and the United Kingdom followed, with 49 and 48 CCS projects in the pipeline, respectively.

Mar 27, 2024 | Elections

U.s. top presidential candidates for 2024 election january 2024, by age.

As of March 2024, approximately 26 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 34 reported that they would vote independently in the 2024 presidential elections if Joe Biden was the Democratic candidate and Donald Trump the Republican candidate. Of those, 21 percent said they would vote for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Mar 26, 2024 | Demographics

Ranking of the 22 richest people in china as of 2024.

As of January 2024, Zhong Shanshan topped the list of the richest people in China with a net worth of 63 billion U.S. dollars. Huang Zheng, founder of Pinduoduo, and Ma Huateng, founder of the IT giant Tencent, came in second and third respectively, while Ma Yun, founder of the IT giant Alibaba, fell back to the tenth place. Ultra-high net worth individuals (UHNWI) in China Net worth refers to the amount of value by which an individual’s assets exceed their liabilities. It is usually cited to demonstrate the economic position of a person. Following China’s extensive economic development over the past two decades, the number of wealthy people had been rapidly growing as well. According to Hurun Research Institute, Greater China was the region with the largest number of billionaires worldwide as of 2024, with a total number of 814 billionaires. As of January 2022, the number of millionaires had amounted to approximately 20,400 people in Beijing alone. Unsurprisingly, the majority of high-net worth individuals lives in one of the four first-tier cities Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen. Chinese billionaire's sources of wealth Chinese millionaires have accumulated their wealth primarily as private entrepreneurs . Most of the people listed among the 20 wealthiest Chinese in 2024 had owned their own companies. Zhong Shanshan, who topped the list of richest people in China in 2024, has made his fortune as founder of the beverage company Nongfu Spring.

Mar 27, 2024 | B2C E-Commerce

India: top 10 online stores.

Ajio.com is leading the Indian e-commerce market, with e-commerce net sales of over 2.3 billion U.S. dollars generated in India, followed by jiomart.com with over 1.6 billion in sales. Third place is taken by reliancedigital.in with revenues of nearly 1.5 billion USD. For an extended ranking as well as rankings in specific product categories, please visit ecommerceDB.com . The eCommerceDB provides detailed information for over 30,000 online stores in more than 50 countries, including detailed revenue analytics, competitor analysis, market development, marketing budget, and interesting KPIs, such as traffic, shipping providers, payment options, social media activity and many more.

Mar 27, 2024 | Stocks

Euronext: market capitalization of largest companies 2024.

As of March 2024, the largest company by market capitalization listed on the Euronext stock exchange was the French luxury goods company LVMH, which consists of Louis Vuitton, Moët and Hennessy. At this time, the company's market capital value was around 410 billion euros and in second place was the Dutch company ASML Holdings with nearly 360 billion Euros.

Mar 28, 2024 | Electricity

Household electricity prices in africa 2023, by country.

Cape Verde recorded the highest electricity price for households in Africa. As of June 2023, one kilowatt hour cost around 0.31 U.S. dollars in the country. Rwanda and Mali followed, with households paying 0.23 and 0.22 U.S. dollars per kilowatt hour, respectively. Burkina Faso, Gabon, and Kenya also recorded expensive prices for electricity on the continent. On the other hand, Libya, Ethiopia, and Sudan registered the lowest prices for electric energy in Africa.

Mar 27, 2024 | Key Economic Indicators

Inflation rate australia q1 2021-q4 2023.

The inflation rate in Australia was at 4.1 percent as of the fourth quarter of 2023. This was a decline of 3.7 percentage points from the high of 7.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2022. 

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Market Research Basics: Finding Industry Reports

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Recall that industry reports are comprehensive accounts of a particular industry, containing a depth of information, facts and statistics ( source ). They usually include information about emerging industry trends, general financial statistics (e.g. operating costs, revenue, consumer spending), details about major companies, market share, and summary of supply and demand chains.

Industry reports are usually very expensive. A lot of reports that you find in a Google search can cost around $3000, just for one report! And, the credibility of those reports is hard to determine. Good news! You can access credible industry reports through the library's subscription databases. Here are some suggestions for you.  Start here if you're from UNC. Start here if you're from a public library.

Start Here with Public Library Access

Abi/inform ( unc link ; public library link ).

If you're using public library access, First Research Industry Profiles in ABI/Inform are a good place to start researching U.S. industries. These reports are high-level overviews of U.S. industries. Click on the correct access link above and follow these instructions to find First Research Industry Profiles.

• Select “Publications” (to the right of “Basic Search”)

• Search for “First Research Industry Profiles” and select
• In the “Search within this Publication” field, enter in key words for your industry and search
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News & Insights

How to Invest in OpenAI's ChatGPT (Updated 2024)

April 08, 2024 — 04:30 pm EDT

Written by Melissa Pistilli for Investing News Network  ->

OpenAI’s ChatGPT is one of the latest technological breakthroughs in the artificial intelligence (AI) space. But is there a good investment case for a technology that has become so controversial?

This emerging technology is representative of a niche subsector of the AI industry known as generative AI — systems that can generate text, images or sounds in response to prompts given by users.

Precedence Research expects the global AI market to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19 percent to reach US$2.57 trillion by 2032. Just how much of an impact OpenAI’s ChatGPT will have on this space is hard to predict, but S&P Global suggested in December 2023 that the total market revenue of generative AI as a whole will see a CAGR of 57.9 percent through 2028, increasing from US$3.7 billion last year to US$36.36 billion in 2028.

“The key trend last year was the rise of generative AI, and 2023 will go down as one of the most exciting years for AI yet! With the launch of ChatGPT late in 2022, the true scale of its disruptive potential was more realized across the world in 2023,” said Naseem Husain , senior vice president and exchange-traded fund (ETF) strategist at Horizons ETFs. “Its success has sparked a wave of generative and chat AI models, from Midjourney to Grok.”

Of course, OpenAi has also generated a lot of controversy, such as fears over job destruction and targeted disinformation campaigns . And let’s not forget the odd and abrupt, however brief, ousting of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman .

Many lawsuits have emerged as well. Multiple news outlets , including the the New York Times , have launched copyright lawsuits against OpenAI, and some of the plaintiffs are also seeking damages from the private tech firm’s very public partner Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT ). Additionally, the Authors Guild, which represents a group of prominent authors , launched a class-action lawsuit against OpenAI that is calling for a licensing system that would allow authors to opt out of having their books used to train AI, and would require AI companies to pay for the material they do use.

With all of that said, there's still a lot of excitement surrounding generative AI technology. Many investors are wondering if it's possible to invest in OpenAI's ChatGPT, and if there are other ways to invest in generative AI. Here the Investing News Network (INN) answers those questions and more, shedding light on this new landscape.

​What is OpenAI's ChatGPT?

Created by San Francisco-based tech lab OpenAI, ChatGPT is a generative AI software application that uses a machine learning technique called reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF) to emulate human-written conversations based on a large range of user prompts. This kind of software is better known as an AI chatbot.

ChatGPT learns language by training on texts gleaned from across the internet, including online encyclopedias, books, academic journals, news sites and blogs. Based on this training, the AI chatbot generates text by making predictions about which words (or tokens) can be strung together to produce the most suitable response.

More than a million people engaged with ChatGPT within the first week of its launch for free public testing on November 30, 2022. Many were in awe of the chatbot’s seemingly natural language capabilities, not only in terms of understanding questions, but also because of its human-like responses. Users felt as if they were having a conversation with a human.

Besides being an excellent conversation partner, ChatGPT can write engaging short stories , develop catchy marketing materials, solve complicated math problems and even create code in various programming languages.

Based on this success, OpenAI has created a more powerful version of the ChatGPT system called GPT-4 , which was released in March 2023. It is currently only available to paid ChatGPT subscribers and Microsoft Copilot users .

This iteration of ChatGPT can accept visual inputs , is much more precise and can display a higher level of expertise in various subjects. Because of this, GPT-4 can describe images in vivid detail and ace standardized tests.

Unlike its predecessor, GPT-4 doesn't have any time limits on what information it can access; however, AI researcher and professor Dr. Oren Etzioni has said that the chatbot is still terrible at discussing the future and generating new ideas. It also hasn't lost its tendency to deliver incorrect information with too high a degree of confidence.

​What is Elon Musk's relationship to OpenAI?

DIA TV / Shutterstock

OpenAI was founded in 2015 by Altman, its current CEO, as well as Tesla's (NASDAQ: TSLA ) Elon Musk and other big-name investors, such as venture capitalist Peter Thiel and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman. Musk left his position on OpenAI's board of directors in 2018 to focus on Tesla and its pursuit of autonomous vehicle technology.

A few days after ChatGPT became available for public testing, Musk took to X , formerly known as Twitter, to say, “ChatGPT is scary good. We are not far from dangerously strong AI.” That same day, he announced that X had shut the door on OpenAI’s access to its database so it could no longer use it for RLHF training.

His reason: “OpenAI was started as open-source & non-profit. Neither are still true.”

Furthering his feud with OpenAI, Musk filed a lawsuit against the company in March 2024 for an alleged breach of contract. The crux of his complaint was that OpenAI has broken the "founding agreement" made between the founders (Altman, Greg Brockman and himself) that the company would remain a non-profit. Altman and OpenAI have denied there was such an agreement and that Musk was keen on an eventual for-profit structure.

​Is ChatGPT revolutionary or hype?

Is ChatGPT a revolutionary technology or just another hyped-up tech fad that will flop, much in the way of Google Glass or the Segway ? It may be too early to tell, but as with any new technology, there are plenty of wrinkles to iron out.

One of the most challenging bugs to fix before ChatGPT can be deployed more widely is the chatbot’s propensity to respond with “plausible-sounding but incorrect or nonsensical answers," admits OpenAI .

Remember, its selection of which words to string together are actually predictions — not as fallible as mere guesses, but still fallible. Even the latest 4.0 version is “ still is not fully reliable (it “hallucinates” facts and makes reasoning errors),” says the company, which emphasizes that users should exercise caution when employing the technology.

Indeed, ChatGPT's failings can have dangerous real-life consequences. Among other negative applications, the tech can be used to spread misinformation, carry out phishing email scams or write malicious code. What’s more, the AI-based technology is prone to racial and gender-based biases. Not only has this language learning model contributed to the human-like quality of its responses, but it has also picked up on some of humanity’s shortcomings.

“ChatGPT was trained on the collective writing of humans across the world, past and present. This means that the same biases that exist in the data, can also appear in the model,” explains Garling Wu , staff writer for online technology publication MUO, in a September 2023 article. “In fact, users have shown how ChatGPT can give produce some terrible answers, some, for example, that discriminate against women. But that's just the tip of the iceberg; it can produce answers that are extremely harmful to a range of minority groups.”

On the flip side, an August 2023 study by the University of East Anglia identified a left-wing bias in ChatGPT. Researchers at the school said their work shows that ChatGPT "favors Democrats in the U.S., the Labour Party in the U.K., and president Lula da Silva of the Workers’ Party in Brazil," according to Forbes.

There’s also the fear among teachers that the technology is leading to an unwelcome rise in academic dishonesty, with students using ChatGPT to write essays or complete their science homework.

“Teachers and school administrators have been scrambling to catch students using the tool to cheat, and they are fretting about the havoc ChatGPT could wreak on their lesson plans,” writes New York Times tech columnist Kevin Roose .

Despite these concerns, we’re likely to see new iterations of ChatGPT — hopefully without the aforementioned bugs — as OpenAI has the backing of tech giant Microsoft.

Why is Microsoft investing in OpenAI? ​

Ascannio / Shutterstock

Since 2019, Microsoft has invested at least US$3 billion in OpenAI to help the small tech firm create its ultra-powerful AI chatbot, as reported by New York Times technology correspondents Cade Metz and Karen Weise.

Microsoft announced in mid-January 2023 that as part of the third phase of its partnership with OpenAI, it will make "a multiyear, multibillion dollar investment." Although the company hasn't disclosed the total amount of its latest spend, reports at the time indicated that US$10 billion is on the table . According to a February article from Reuters , OpenAI was recently valued at US$80 billion, meaning Microsoft's US$10 billion move would be huge. However, as of late 2023 there were rumors that OpenAI has only received a fraction of that purported investment.

How could Microsoft benefit from its investment? It seems the tech giant is hopeful advancements in generative AI may increase revenues for its Azure cloud computing business, as OpenAI officially licensed its technologies to Microsoft in 2020. Indeed, Pitchbook has described the deal as an “ unprecedented milestone ” for generative AI technology.

The strength of Microsoft’s confidence in OpenAI’s Altman was definitely on display in late November, when it quickly moved him to the payroll of its advanced AI research team after he was fired from OpenAI . Barely a week passed before Altman was back at the helm of OpenAI with major board changes, including the addition of Dee Templeton , Microsoft's vice president of technology and research partnerships and operations, as a non-voting observer.

​What's the future of OpenAI and ChatGPT?

The ChatGPT 3.5 platform is free to use, and can be accessed via the web. Those with an iPhone or iPad can also use ChatGPT through an app , and an Android version launched in July 2023 . OpenAI also launched a paid subscription, ChatGPT Plus for business use , in August 2023. ChatGPT Plus gives users access to the newest iteration, GPT-4.

In addition to Microsoft's use of the ChatGPT technology as part of Copilot, other companies are working with OpenAI to incorporate the technology into their platforms, including Canva, Duolingo (NASDAQ: DUOL ), Intercom, Salesforce (NYSE: CRM ), Scale, Stripe, and Upwork (NASDAQ: UPWK ).

As uptake increases, generative AI technology is replacing humans in the workplace, and will likely continue doing so in a number of fields, from content creation and customer service to transcription and translation services, and even in graphic design and paralegal fields. However, humans are hitting back, as evidenced by recent lawsuits launched against OpenAI and Microsoft. As mentioned, a growing group of prominent authors is suing the creator of ChatGPT and its financial backer for infringing on their copyright by using their books without permission to train the language models behind ChatGPT and other AI-based software.

The New York Times has also taken a stand by taking OpenAI and Microsoft to Manhattan Federal Court.

"Defendants seek to free-ride on the Times's massive investment in its journalism by using it to build substitutive products without permission or payment," states the complaint . "There is nothing 'transformative' about using the Times's content without payment to create products that substitute for the Times and steal audiences away from it."

What about the long-term goals for OpenAI and ChatGPT? Metz of the New York Times believes the end game is “artificial general intelligence, or AGI — a machine that can do anything the human brain can do.”

In keeping with this end goal, OpenAI made a major move by acquiring an AI creative firm with a deep talent bench, Global Illumination , in mid-August 2023. "Global Illumination is a company that has been leveraging AI to build creative tools, infrastructure, and digital experiences," states OpenAI on its website .

"The team previously designed and built products early on at Instagram and Facebook and have also made significant contributions at YouTube, Google, Pixar, Riot Games, and other notable companies."

In November 2023, OpenAI decided to give customers without coding skills the ability to create customized versions of its chatbot and access to large data sets for training. “OpenAI wants people to start innovating using the chatbots and creating special chatbots,” Hod Lipson, an engineering and data science professor at Columbia University, told CNBC .

Chatbot creators will eventually have the ability to share their custom chatbots through OpenAI’s GPT Store. “They’re really trying to create a marketplace, which will allow companies and people to innovate and play around with this incredible form of AI that they’ve just unleashed,” Lipson added.

What is Google's Bard AI?

Carl DMaster / Shutterstock

While ChatGPT has been generating major buzz, it's definitely not the only chatbot out there.

Notably, Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL ) subsidiary Google launched its answer to ChatGPT in March 2023. Known as Bard AI , the chatbot is built on Google’s Language Model for Dialogue Applications (or LaMDA). Google CEO Sundar Pichai has described Bard as an “experimental conversational AI service … (that) seeks to combine the breadth of the world’s knowledge with the power, intelligence and creativity of our large language models.”

As with ChatGPT, users can key in a query, request or prompt and Bard will provide a human-like response. One way in which Bard may have had a leg up on the original ChatGPT is that the latter could only use data up to 2021, while the former can access up-to-date information online; this is less relevant now that GPT-4 no longer has this limitation.

However, Bard's ability to access current data hasn’t spared it from ChatGPT’s biggest folly: confidently stating misinformation as fact. The Verge reported that when asked about new discoveries from the James Webb Space Telescope, Google’s Bard “made a factual error in its very first demo.”

In early in 2024, Google launched the latest iteration of its Bard Advanced AI chatbot with a new name, Gemini AI. The new version is powered by Google's Gemini Ultra large language model.

​Which stocks will benefit the most from AI chatbot technology?

Other than companies directly tied to generative AI technology, which stocks are likely to get a boost from advances?

There are several verticals in the tech industry with indirect exposure to AI chatbot technology, such as semiconductors, network equipment providers, cloud providers, central processing unit manufacturers and internet of things.

Some of the publicly traded companies in these verticals include:

• Graphics processing unit leader Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA )
• The world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (NYSE: TSM )
• Computer memory and data storage producer Micron Technology (NASDAQ: MU )
• Digital communications firm Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO )
• Networking products provider Juniper Networks (NYSE: JNPR )
• Semiconductor producer Marvell Technology Group (NASDAQ: MRVL )
• Cloud-computing Amazon Web Services' parent company Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN )
• Bluechip multinational technology company IBM (NYSE: IBM )
• Major semiconducter chip manufacturer Intel (NASDAQ: INTC )

While most companies specializing in generative AI remain in the venture capital stage, there are plenty of AI stocks for those interested in the space. INN's article 5 Canadian Artificial Intelligence Stocks , ASX AI Stocks: 5 Biggest Companies , and 12 Generative AI Stocks to Watch as ChatGPT Soars includes some examples.

Investors who don’t like to put all their eggs in one basket can check out these 5 Artificial Intelligence ETFs . And if you’re looking for a more general overview of the market, INN has you covered with How to Invest in Artificial Intelligence . You can also take a look back at the market in 2023 with our AI Market 2023 Year-End Review , or read projections for AI this year in our AI Market Forecast: 3 Top Trends that will Affect AI in 2024 .

​FAQs for investing in OpenAI and ChatGPT

When will openai go public.

So, can you invest in OpenAI itself? The company is not currently a publicly traded stock; however, if Microsoft does take a large position in the company, investors will be able to gain indirect exposure to OpenAI by purchasing Microsoft shares.

For those seeking direct exposure, be on the lookout for news of an initial public offering (IPO). As of late-March 2024, there are no plans for an OpenAI IPO on the horizon.

How is OpenAI funded?​

OpenAI raised US$11.3 billion over six funding rounds from 2016 to January 2024.

The three top investors are technology investment firm Thrive Capital, venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and revolutionary technology investment firm Founders Fund.

​What is the market value of ChatGPT/OpenAI?

OpenAI has a market valuation of US$80 billion as of February 2024. The company’s 2023 revenue had reached US$2 billion mark in December 2023 to join the ranks of Google and Meta (NASDAQ: META ).

Does ChatGPT use Nvidia chips?

ChatGPT’s distributed computing infrastructure depends upon powerful servers with multiple graphics processing units (GPUs). High-performance Nvidia GPU chips are preferred for this application as they also provide excellent Compute Unified Device Architecture support.

​Will ChatGPT cause another GPU shortage?

Most likely not. The type of GPUs used for machine learning models like ChatGPT are different from other types of GPUs, including those used to power gaming systems or crypto mining.

​Can ChatGPT make stock predictions?

A University of Florida study recently highlighted the potential for advanced language models such as ChatGPT to accurately predict movements in the stock market using sentiment analysis. During the course of the study, ChatGPT outperformed traditional sentiment analysis methods, and the finance professors conducting the research concluded that “incorporating advanced language models into the investment decision-making process can yield more accurate predictions and enhance the performance of quantitative trading strategies.”

When to expect ChatGPT 5?

OpenAI filed a trademark application for ChatGPT-5 in mid-July 2023, which hinted that the next iteration of the generative AI technology is currently under development. There were rumours the company planned to complete training for ChatGPT-5 by the end of 2023, which did not materialize. Its anyone's guess when we may see its launch, but most likely not before Q3 2024 .

While PC Guide notes that OpenAI did release GPT-4V and GPT-4 Turbo in Q4 2023, there is little sign that ChatGPT-5 is close to market. However, the publication did share that, "In a March 2024 interview on the Lex Fridman podcast, Sam Altman teased an “ amazing new model this year ” but wouldn’t commit to it being called GPT 5 (or anything else)".

This is an updated version of an article first published by the Investing News Network in 2023.

Don't forget to follow us @INN_Technology for real-time news updates!

Securities Disclosure: I, Melissa Pistilli, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.

Editorial Disclosure: The Investing News Network does not guarantee the accuracy or thoroughness of the information reported in the interviews it conducts. The opinions expressed in these interviews do not reflect the opinions of the Investing News Network and do not constitute investment advice. All readers are encouraged to perform their own due diligence.

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

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