Market Research Tools that Work Free to Read the Audience’s Minds

Market research is crucial; without it, you can’t think of beating competitors. Nowadays, market research helps measure our strategies’ effectiveness and market decisions. Regarding the stats, around 400,000 new businesses in America are open each month. However, individual businesses or companies must conduct market research, which is more urgent than ever. So, conducting market research isn’t an easy task as it helps identify challenges. Simply put, a business starts with your customers’ needs. However, if you want to excel in the business world, let’s start discussing this concept from the base. 

What is market research?

Market research is a set of all actions and processes where we gather and analyze customer information. But while conducting the research, don’t forget to do it from the perspective of current and old customers. Simply put, we can say it’s an effort to optimize business strategy for better results. The following key points must focus on before launching a new product or service. 

• What are the goals that a customer wants to achieve through that product? 
• Are there budget constraints that your targeted customer is facing?
• You need to focus on the pain points for better results.
• What standard products and services are your targeted customers already using?

Above all, focus on the strengths and weaknesses of the products that your customers are already using. In this way, you can improve those areas in your new product. 

Importance of conducting market research: 

Now it’s common for startups to use technology to win the hearts and minds of customers. Market research aims to understand customers’ behaviors, reasons, and preferences. It makes the whole process easy, and you can act according to customers’ feedback. Here are the following benefits of using market research tools. 

• It helps to uncover the gaps and launch new products and services 
• You can understand market trends and start a new business in a niche with more customers. 
• It helps to create more compelling content that customers like and turn visitors into leads. 
• With market research tools, you can study your competitors to know what they are doing to attract people. 

Above all, you can use all this data to serve your customers better service and products better. In this way, you will earn more business, and customers will stay longer with your business. 

Top free market research tools to read audience’s minds:

Before discussing free-market research tools, it’s vital to mention different types. In this way, you can choose tools considering the kind of business that you are planning to start. 

You can find free tools in all these categories. The free tools cost nothing and help gather and analyze customer-related information and data. Here are the five free tools that are available in the market for beginners: 

Google trends: 

When discussing free market research tools, it’s unfair if we don’t talk about Google trends. It’s a new way to analyze research terms and trends most easily. Moreover, this tool allows exploring how often people have searched about any specific period. For instance, if you type “Artificial intelligence,” then Google Trends will show the search trend of this term. You can see the results in an interactive graph form that can be clicked according to days or months.

Pros	Cons
Real-time data	Google doesn’t provide transparency on how they gather search trends and numbers.
Performs best when it comes to pointing out the latest trends from all over the world
Clean user interface
Easy to navigate

The tool is free, and you can get it now by signing in with your Gmail account on the main page of Google trends. 

Statista: 

Statista is a data research platform that provides easy-to-digest information from different niches and industries. The updated information is in the form of charts, graphs, and reports. The Statista tool is potent and provides specific information where you can easily access unique content and valuable data. Moreover, the charts update is also available to see trends and market information changes. The free plan is open, but you can buy the premium version for $39/month for more detailed reports.  

Pros	Cons
A large number of charts and graphs	Free tool provides limited data
Go to the software for general insights and stats
Premium service has many tools for proper market research.

Moreover, with Statista, you can stay connected all day, every day, and it helps to make business decision-making easier. 

Google Analytics:

It’s another great tool that Google backs. It’s a free, easy-to-use tool that helps to understand traffic flow in a specific time frame. Above all, Google Analytics has many in-depth analysis features where you can conduct profound research. This way, it will be easier to take corrective measures. The tool even tells you about your audience’s geographic and age range. 

Pros	Cons
Provide detailed excellent web report	The detailed data reports could be hard to understand for beginners
Provide page-to-page report	Content organization is a bit difficult to handle
It gives information on which pages have more traffic	Mobile experience needs improvement

Google Analytics helps to paint a complete picture of your audience. If this tool is complex, then you can learn for better understanding. 

Google Alerts: 

It’s a great tool offered by Google that sends notifications of recent activities related to your research. The alerts could be about blogs, recent uploads, or newsletters. You set up the signs, and it will send you notifications in a selected period. For instance, you can set alerts for: 

• Business Information 
• Product information 
• Awareness of customer-related activities 
• Information about the company’s executive 
• Alerts about competitors 

The best part is you get real-time alerts about selected keywords or terms. The tools are easy to use and come with a simple interface like paystub generator tools. 

Survey Monkey: 

It’s another free online tool that helps to create online surveys, and its powerful features have a good reputation. Survey Monkey allows the launching of online survey projects to understand market sentiments. The tool offers quick polls, competitive analysis, and employee feedback for better market research. 

Pros	Cons
Its user friendly	The free plan is limited, and after that, you will have to buy a premium plan.
You can email many survey participants at one time.
You can provide free links directly that make it FB and businesses friendly.

The premium plan ranges between $34-$99 per month. If the free program is enough, you can use it starting. 

If you know your competitor’s thinking, you can do better product alignment and market orientation and increase sales. So, you can use the above tools to read the minds and actions of your audience and competitors.