Big companies spend big bucks every year doing just that. But don't sweat it, as a small business, research can be simply done. And most importantly it can be done at no cost, aside from time. Read on for more information on the different research types, and my tips on how to conduct these for free.

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH involves opinions... speaking to a small group of people and asking for their thoughts on whatever you are researching. It will give you a deeper understanding of that audience you are talking to.

My tips on how to collect this data as a small business:

• Have 1:1 conversations with customers/clients/prospects using some planned questions to gain consistency across conversations. Make sure to take notes and, preferably, record the conversation to make referring back easier.
• Run an online survey and use free text answer boxes for the responses. Be prepared to spend the time needed to read through these answers though. Survey Monkey is a very popular platform to do this on.
• Run a focus group by gathering a group of customers/clients/prospects into one place, which can be online to keep costs down. Ask them some starter questions and let the conversations flow, keeping note of the themes that are talked about. Again it is a good idea to record this for future reference. To create the focus group for free you can use an online meeting tool, Skype or create a Facebook group.
• Use social media to listen to what people are saying about your business, product, service or industry. Tools such as Hootsuite will allow you to monitor certain terms or hashtags easily.

QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH involves numbers... what statistically stacks up based on the options given to a wide sample of people. This type of research will give you a clear topline understanding of what an audience likes/dislikes.

My tips on how to collect this data as a small business:

• Create a straightforward multiple choice survey about your chosen research area and send it out to as many participants as possible. You can also post the link in relevant Facebook groups and forums to gain more responses, as long as you think you'll get serious answers. Again, Survey Monkey would be a popular choice for running this.
• Running tests on your website or marketing channels and then analysing the results. If you're testing the way your audience responds to a tactic or messaging then use your current channels to get the results. 

Overall, my top tip for small businesses when it comes to research is that you should run a survey to your target audience / customers with both quantitative and qualitative questions on at least at annual basis, just to check you're still serving your customers as well as you can.

If you have any questions then please comment or get in touch with me. You can find more digital marketing top tips over on my instagram.

Over on my Instagram account I offer digital marketing advice for small businesses. Here is a summary of the posts that were most popular amongst my followers last month:

1. DIGITAL BRANDING TIPS: Important to get right so customers can easily recognise your business and what it stands for. Here are some things to think about:
   💥 What are your values and how do they make you stand out?
   💥 How can this be interpreted into your design?
   💥 What tone of voice should you use to match your values?
   💥 How can you ensure complete consistency across all communications?
   
   
2. GOOGLE ANALYTICS TIPS: Here are the top 3 stats that you should use Google Analytics to keep an eye on: 
   💥USERS vs. NEW USERS. The number of unique people visiting your website and indication whether that traffic is from acquisition or retention marketing.
   💥SESSIONS. The number of times your website has been visited and another indication whether people are coming back, which we want.
   💥BOUNCE RATE. How many people visited your website and didn't interact at all before leaving. 
   
   
3. SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY TIPS: With so many networks and post types available the best approach is to separate out the different types as strategy strands, then use them together in order to create a harmonious message for your brand. Think about how customers consume information on stories vs. grid vs. feed vs. pin vs. tweet etc. and use this as a basis for your strategy, which will work towards achieving your overarching objectives.
   
   
4. TONE OF VOICE TIPS: For your content, it's not just what you say, it's also the way that you say it. Your tone needs to speak directly to your audience and relay your brand values. Get it right and it's a big step towards creating brand affinity. Get it wrong and you may alienate your audience. 
   💥 Choose some words that describe and fit your brand values.
   💥 Adopt these tone notes in all language you use, from the headlines to the small print.
   ​
5. KEYWORD RESEARCH TIPS: Choosing the right keywords to use is imperative for your search engine optimisation.
   💥 Identify a combination of words and phrases you think people search when looking for your product or service.
   💥 Type this into a search engine and see what alternatives come up. 
   💥 Identify what other words or phrases competitors target. 
   💥 You can also use a tool like SEMrush to check search volumes.
   💥 Focus your efforts on niche searches. ​

For the full Instagram post content that elaborate on the advice above, and many more digital marketing tips, please do head on over to Instagram and follow me @digitalmarketingmama.