Market research is a crucial part of every business's planning and decision-making process.
For B2B companies marketing to other businesses, effective market research is especially important. By gathering insights directly from current and potential customers, a B2B company can better understand customer needs, pain points, and buying behaviors.
This helps businesses improve products and services, develop compelling marketing messages, and strengthen customer relationships.
While traditional market research like surveys and focus groups can still provide value, digital technologies have vastly expanded opportunities for B2B market researchers. Sites like LinkedIn and social channels allow businesses to connect directly with customers online.
Review sites provide a wealth of first-hand customer feedback. Online databases allow filtering and analysis of various business demographics. With the right strategies and tools, digital platforms can power highly effective B2B market research.
This article provides an overview of how to properly leverage digital technologies and channels to conduct market research that directly supports B2B marketing and sales goals. The focus will be on low-cost, high-impact digital research methods suitable for companies of all sizes.
Before starting any Digital B2B Market Research project, define clear goals and desired outcomes. Make sure research goals directly align with the overall marketing and sales strategy. Some examples may include:
Understanding customer pain points to improve solution/service offerings
Evaluating perceptions of a brand versus competitors
Developing profiles of ideal customer types and behaviors
Evaluating the effectiveness of current marketing messages and channels
Gathering insights on product feature priorities and needs
Having well-defined, measurable objectives ensures the research focuses on actionable insights. Take the time upfront to outline exactly what questions need answering.
With over 690 million members, LinkedIn is a marketer's best friend for B2B research. Create a company page to engage existing customers and position your company as a thought leader. Then check out these LinkedIn-specific research tips:
Browse customer profiles to understand roles, challenges, and goals within their companies
Analyze customer profiles in your company page's follower list
Connect with prospects to introduce yourself and potentially interview later
Use LinkedIn search filters to find profiles matching your target customer profile
Follow industry influencers and engage with them to tap into their networks
Data from LinkedIn profiles provides a rich context for developing deep customer insights and creating personal profiles of your most important buyer types. Connecting directly allows qualified leads for future research methods like surveys.
Review sites allow valuable, unfiltered customer feedback at your fingertips. Pay attention to pages ranking your software/services on authoritative Digital B2B Market Research Company portals like Borderlessaccess, Gartner, Capterra, and Software Advice. Regularly scan for any new reviews and analyze sentiment, themes, and mentioned strengths/weaknesses. Respond to reviews professionally and tackle any issues brought up.
These third-party sources provide a glimpse into real customer perceptions far better than asking directly. Look for opportunities to implement feedback to improve offerings based on reviews. Quotes from reviews can also be shared on owned channels to showcase social proof and customer satisfaction.
Social media offers a digital watercooler where industry players discuss challenges, priorities, and recommendations publicly. Actively listen on business-focused networks like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and industry forums to identify conversation trends and sentiment around relevant topics.
Engage with customers and prospects respectfully by asking questions, offering advice/insights, and participating in industry discussions. Data from social listening provides fodder for defining further research goals or surveys. It also helps demonstrate social proofs of authority while strengthening customer relationships.
Surveys provide structured data perfect for understanding why customers do what they do and their satisfaction levels. Draft surveys in Google Forms, SurveyMonkey, or Qualtrics optimized for mobile. Then distribute links through owned channels, relevant groups/forums, social mentions, or directly through targeted emails/LinkedIn messages.
Leverage previously gathered profiles/contacts for targeted distribution to relevant prospects. Keep surveys short (5-10 mins max) with a clear incentive for completing. Friendly, casual interview-style surveys via video conferencing tools like Zoom allow drilling deeper based on survey responses. Data from digital surveys scales insights exponentially versus traditional methods.
Google Analytics and marketing automation platforms provide a wealth of behavioral data on customer paths, popular content types, and geo/demographic patterns. Heatmaps of webpages reveal where eyeballs linger or drop off. Session recordings let you 'walk in customers' shoes' to find pain points or confusing areas.
Data shows what hooks customers to keep engaging, what prompts downloads/conversions, and how effectively websites support the sales process or answer common questions. Metadata onpdfs/webpages allows filtering visitors based on firmographics and tracking topics of most/least interest. Make minor optimization based on findings.
Tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, or Ahrefs let you find high search volume keywords and phrases relevant to products/services. Sort results by monthly searches and competition to identify low-hanging fruits for improvement. Analyze keywords you currently rank for to find gaps to target.
Pay attention to related/associated terms for new avenues. Use advantage suggestions in research tools to identify additional opportunities outside the initial scope. Identify opportunities for organic growth and inform content marketing strategy based on keyword data.
What is the best way to get people to fill out my online survey?
To maximize responses for your online survey, you'll want to incentivize participation somehow. Offer a prize drawing for those who complete it, promise to share the survey results with participants, or simply ask for their help to improve your products/services. Also, keep surveys short (under 10 minutes) and distribute through owned channels as well as posts on LinkedIn and related groups/forums.
How can I get prospect contact information to invite them to participate?
The best ways to gather prospect contacts for your market research are through LinkedIn, networking events, industry conferences/webinars, download forms on your website, and contacting companies directly to ask for their participation. Always be upfront that the purpose is research to benefit the industry as a whole.
What types of questions work best for an online survey?
Effective survey questions are short and straightforward. Ask qualitative, open-ended questions to gather detailed insights, and use ratings, ranking or multiple choice for closed-ended questions easy to analyze. Ask demographic questions last. Test your survey flow and question types among colleagues first for feedback.
How do I analyze and make sense of all the data collected?
Use survey reporting tools to generate visualizations of key findings like bar charts, pie graphs, and word clouds. Look for common themes, outliers, and correlated responses. Export qualitative data to a spreadsheet for manual coding/categorization. Outsource advanced analytics for larger datasets. Keep findings concise for action ability.
What's the best way to thank participants and share results?
Send a follow up email thanking all participants for their time and insights. Offer to share a high-level summary of key findings with them. You can also promote results through social media posts, blog articles, newsletters, or a webinar to continue the discussion. The goal is to maintain those new relationships built through your research.
With a bit of strategy and leveraging the right digital resources, any size B2B company can tap into a wealth of market intelligence. Focus on low-effort methods suitable for limited budgets yet high impact. Above all, ensure each step aligns to well-defined research objectives and provides actionable insights. Regular digital research becomes a strategic asset to continuously improve the customer experience and fuel marketing/sales momentum when done effectively."