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.

I'm proud to be one of the writers for MamaTribe's features and this month I have created a hierarchy for how to prioritise your digital marketing channels. Here is a quick overview of the steps: 

1// Get your website structure and content right, making sure you are mobile first.

2// Focus on Search Engine Optimisation by researching keywords and adding them to your title tags, headings, descriptions, URLs and image ALT tags. 

3// Introduce basic email automation for important emails and make sure they are on brand.

4// Establish yourself on social media, remembering that it is better to excel at one or two social networks rather than spreading your time too thinly.

5// Dabble with social media advertising to increase your social reach and utilise social network pixels.

6// Up your email marketing ante with an email template and regular newsletters.

7// Get serious with your digital advertising across both social media and search platforms. 

8// And then add the rest, such as affiliate, content and influencer marketing.

To read my advice on prioritising your digital marketing channels in full you can find the MamaTribe feature here.