Are you doing market research for your coaching business? If not, you should be! Market research is essential for understanding your target audience, figuring out what they want and don’t want, and determining whether there’s a need for your product or service. Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs make common mistakes when conducting market research that can lead to inaccurate results.

In this blog post, we’ll discuss four of the most common market research mistakes and how to avoid them. Stay tuned – by the end of this post, you’ll be on your way to conducting successful market research!

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Market Research Mistake 1: Instagram Polls are NOT Market Research

Let’s just rip the bandaid right off. Instagram polls are NOT market research.

Are they a great way to start conversations with your audience? Absolutely!

But to call IG polls market research is not only lazy, but it actually could be totally skewing your data.

Why would it skew your data? Well, lots of bots and people who don’t follow you have access to your stories and are very likely to vote in your polls. There are actually paid services out there that will vote in random polls for you, meaning there are other people definitely using those services.

This means people who are not your ideal clients are randomly selecting an answer, which could completely change the data you would have otherwise collected.

Use Instagram polls to increase engagement and spark conversation, but don’t use them as market research.

Market Research Mistake 2: Only Using 1 Platform

This is a HUGE mistake especially if you do not know your ideal client like the back of your hand!

You need to be where your ideal client is. Period. If they spend most of their time on Instagram, great! But are they also on LinkedIn? Facebook? Clubhouse?

How do you find this out?

ASK! Ask your current clients where they spend their time online. Or, if you don’t yet have clients, ask potential leads that appear to match up to your ideal client avatar.

And if anything, you should be experimenting with different platforms to see what works best for your business.

(Also, side note: If your business only lives on social media, PLEASE get yourself a website and email list. You do not own your social media accounts on ANY platform, and they could disappear tomorrow. You don’t want your business to disappear with it!)

Market Research Mistake 3: Not Reaching Out to Strangers

Oof! But it’s true! You cannot rely on a WARM audience to conduct your market research. You need to reach out to strangers so you can incorporate actual marketing strategy into your sales copy and advertising. Why? So that it actually converts to cold leads!

If you only conduct market research with warm or hot leads (or family/friends), your marketing and sales copy will be missing a HUGE component. You may have initial success because you have spent time warming up leads who then bite at your offer.

But what happens when those warm leads run out? Your sales go dry!

So be sure you are reaching out to people you DO NOT KNOW, and hop on a call/Zoom with them to really get your market research right.

Market Research Mistake 4: Not Digging Deep Enough into Struggles & Desires

It’s not enough to just get on a call with someone and ask “So what is your goal in (enter your niche here)?”

No matter who is on the other end of the phone with you, they are going to give a surface-level answer.

For example, anytime I ask this, I’ll get a response like “I want to make 6 figures this year.”

Well, that’s awesome! But everyone and their mama want to make 6 figures this year.

So DIG DEEPER.

Ask WHY. “Why do you want to make 6 figures this year?”

And then ask WHY again, and again. And once more.

My rule of thumb is this: When you think you’re done digging, ask why one more time.

You have to peel back the layers of the onion to really get to the root of your ideal client’s struggles and their deep desires.

What is the EMOTION underlying the struggle or the desire? If you only stay surface level, you’ll fail to connect.

Lazy marketing says “I’ll help you hit 6 figures this year!”

Marketing that resonates says “Imagine being able to go on that dream vacation with your partner and kiddos because you’ve created a business that has created financial abundance and freedom in your life.”

Which one resonates more? And which one is actually UNIQUE?

I think you know the answer! 😉

But you can’t get there unless you ask WHY!

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Get Your Research Right

I’ve shown you how to fix the four most common market research mistakes, but there are so many more out there! What can we do about that? My go-to market research call script is below. When done correctly, these types of calls will yield a goldmine of information and will save you countless hours in the long run. Grab it now by hitting subscribe below and getting on track with your marketing strategy today!

Until next time…