It's never been easier for startups to ensure they've got their blackbelt in research!

Startups who do as much research as possible before they start to market themselves give themselves a competitive advantage.

I get it. Time is against you, and you're often stuck between different routes forward. On one side, you are focused on making your startup successful and doing everything step by step; on the other, you've got financial and timing pressures to start generating some return and the temptation to take shortcuts is massive. 

There is a runway, and you're barrelling down it at 100 miles an hour. It's natural to consider throwing marketing budget at your best-guess assumptions to drive opportunities. The problem is that assumptions aren't based on real data and most likely aren't fact potentially sending you down some wrong paths quickly. To be better than your competitors requires you to take the time to do your research!

The thought of doing some research can feel like you're about to walk into a black hole of months and multiple thousands of pounds. However, today it doesn't have to be that way. With the new availability of online survey panels and platforms, a decent diagnosis can be done in under three months and for a lot less budget than you might expect. 

These are the different types of data all startups should be evaluating and incorporating into their strategic review and planning:

"The current world view"

If you're at an existing organisation, maybe even doing an internal startup, then investigating and diving into the heritage of the brand, its founders, and its original location is handy. Many valuable insights have been forgotten and can be leveraged again. However, most of us at startups don't have this. But what we can unearth is the insight into what's happening in the world. What are the key trends, what is driving the market and answer the question why now? 

Secondary research

Google is your new best friend here. A fantastic amount of data is available on market size, competition, need, behaviours, and customer habits and patterns. Organisations are often doing research and research houses sharing free information. It's amazing what you can find out with a good session on the laptop. You'll usually uncover hidden gold. Make sure you do this before you waste time and energy accidentally duplicating studies that have already been done when you start to look at things that might cost budget.

Spend a few hours Google finding everything you can from news stories, press releases, old interviews and trend reports. Don't forget to look at old or existing sector or competitor brand research too. 

Consumers/buyers (Qualitative)

You have a massive opportunity to be better than all your competitors just by taking the time to do interviews and talk to your potential customers, buyers and influencers. Any opportunity you have to speak to someone about the problem you are solving is a moment for valuable insight. The hard truth is that once you started down this journey of developing your startup, you gave up your right to call yourself a customer. What you think your customers are going to say falls under the category of an assumption. If you can get a focus group of people together to talk about the problem brilliant, or you can go to a meet-up or conference and find people to talk to. 

Ethnographic 

A fancy name, but all you need to remember is this is research is about observing and/or interacting with someone in their real-life environment. Some people include this under qualitative, but I always like to list it separately because this approach can be powerful for startups and definitely valuable for B2B, where focus groups are usually not an option as companies want to be seen as an individual and not part of a group! This is about getting in the car, or on the train or walking - basically getting to them - and playing the professional idiot. Ask for help, book a 20min meeting at their offices or reception area and talk to them about the problem. In other words, if you're selling to restaurants, go speak to restaurant owners when their quiet time is. Most people love to be asked for their advice and insight and don't mind telling you about their lives! Don't launch into your solution but find out what their reality is like, what they think about the problem, and how they address it. Listen. 

Surveys (Quantitative)

We have so many more options with surveys in today's connected world which is brilliant news for startups. Check out SurveyMonkey! The best way for startups to approach qualitative research is to build their questionnaire backwards. Think about the presentation you want to be able to give after the research is done. You won't have the figures, but you will have the type of discussions you want to have. Then build your surveys from the questions you need to answer to get the slides populated. Re-run the survey every year to track changes in sentiment.