Why New Businesses Need Market Research Before Adopting a Social Media Strategy.

Market Research is key to a new business becoming a profitable entity but many new businesses often ignore it. It anticipates and minimizes risk, identifies potential customers and helps ensure success. Only about half of new small businesses will survive 5 years. To ensure yours is a survivor, learn how to research your market, identify potential clients and have a strategy for attracting them.
Market Research, or Business Intelligence as it is sometimes called, is a vital weapon in ensuring your new business survives to become a strong profitable entity.

It is about anticipating and minimizing risk, understanding your potential customers and so helping to ensure success for your new venture. Don’t skip this important step in the rush to get your product to market.
Finding customers is the most difficult part of running a business. So it is vital to research your market, identify potential clients and have a strategy for attracting them before you invest your time and money in a new venture.
Only about half of new small businesses will survive 5 years. Here are some of the factors that often contribute to a new business’s failure;-

 Poor adjustment to the market and Demand forces

Failure to utilize the business technology.

Lack of capital, often due to poor planning or unexpected costs

Poor cash flow management

Unexpected market factors-growth or reduction in market size

Underestimating the competition

New entrants to the market

Not having a strong business plan in place

Lack of understanding of the market

Poor advertising or marketing

Weak product

lack of selling and marketing expertise

over trading or over expansion

Market research should answer key questions, expose risks, and will probably throw up other questions. Professional analysts who study markets, products, industries, sectors, and consumer demographics are trained to provide unbiased factual information, clearly stating the risks associated with a market.
If you plan to conduct your own research rather than commissioning a professional Market Research project, be careful that you don’t seize on information and data to back up what you are hoping to find – that your business is a great idea!!
But take care to be open to market realities and factors that may even enhance your business plans. Keep a look out for niche markets that may present better opportunities than mainstream, where there is more competition.
Carefully assess market factors. There are many factors which can affect the size of a market and its pace and direction of growth. They include:

• Regional economics, politics, culture, geography and weather
• Seasonal and cyclical trends
• Fashionability and trends
• Customer wants and needs
• Competing markets
• Technological advances
• Educational opportunities
• Employment
• Regulatory requirements
• Financial incentives, grants and programmes
• Company schemes and productivity.

Finding customers is the most difficult part of running a business. But without them you don’t have a business, so do some demographics research as well, to establish who your customer is.
Make sure you know as much as possible about who will be buying from you.
After all the above factors have been fully considered ,the business can go ahead and come up with a social media strategy.