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Domain 1: Marketing Research | Where Do I Start?

Posted by Communications2 on Feb. 8, 2023  /  Member Resource  /  Subscribe 0

Marketing Research for the Firm’s Marketing Plan: Where Do I Start?

Written by Sarah Kapp | Terracon Consultants

Whether you are a marketing, business development, or technical professional, marketing research for your firm’s marketing plan is essential. Marketing research is the process of gathering and analyzing information about a market, product, or service to gain insight into customers, competitors, and the market itself ¹. The Marketing Professional should lead this initiative, but where do you start? What if this is your first time creating a marketing plan?

As a professional in your firm, most have the same questions when you begin this process; where do I start and where do I get the information? Some of the most common questions you might need to answer are: What markets do we want to break into? Who are our target clients? What does funding look like? These questions can all be answered through marketing research. 

1. What sectors do we want to break into? – Looking at what sectors you want to break into starts with analyzing the competition. Researching the players in that sector allows you to determine how saturated the market is, who the current players are, and whether your firm has an opportunity to break in. The second is researching who your clients would be. Companies or municipalities should be listed to evaluate current relationships or the feasibility of creating those relationships. Once you have these questions answered, you can put this in your marketing plan with backup information about why this sector was chosen. 
2. What does funding look like? - Tracking funding for the public sector can be relatively easy because of the access to information, it may just take more time because of the massive amount of information available. Some examples of places to look are legislative sessions, capital improvement plans, and economic articles discussing marketing in general and the outlook for the following year. This will be important information you want to put in your marketing plan with your target sector.
3. Who are our target clients? – Target clients are always on every firm’s mind. The first questions to ask might include, what you are looking for from this client how are they doing, what are they working on, and whether any of their objectives align with your goal sectors? Next, how do we verify the information before we spend time getting a meeting with them? If we look at what kind of projects they work on, some systems can help us look at projects they have won. Sometimes all you need is to look at their social media or website. You can usually find their recent projects and their list of projects per sector. Once you have answered all these questions, you can add your target clients to your marketing plan using the substantive backup information you’ve discovered.

Marketing plans are essential to firms. Our job is to look under every rock to find the information that gives our firm the best direction for each new year. The power of technology and SMPS resources can provide us with the tools to lead our teams through any marketing plan, to ensure successful futures for our firms. 

1. Staff, Shoplify. “What Is Market Research? Definition and Guide.” Shopify, 11 Nov. 2022, https://www.shopify.com/blog/what-is-market-research#:~:text=Market%20research%20is%20the%20process,competitors%2C%20and%20the%20market%20itself. 

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