Secondary Market Research – Data Sources – SG Analytics

How to Do Secondary Market Research for Insights

While each business must gather new customer data, it needs secondary market data to stay relevant. Why so? Because obtaining and processing the primary data has a slow and serious workflow. We welcome you to this piece that includes the secondary market research expertise. By the end of this article, the business leaders will appreciate how customer insights are generated from external data. 

Can the Internal Data be Secondary? 

Yes and no. The records of the in-house surveys, feedback forms, transactions, and brainstorming sessions can be secondary data under some circumstances. In general, internal data becomes a part of secondary market research due to employee transfers, resignations, and new recruitments. Of course, some old documents and records could become obsolete due to technological advancements. 

Now, you know that secondary market research can use internal data as well as external data sources. 

Using Internal Data as a Part of Secondary Market Research 

In the age of the internet, reward points and gift cards have made it possible to obtain data about customer behavior. Even if they are getting deep discounts, you get the details of their purchase preferences. 

For example, huge cashback offers give you insights into how a customer might use a credit card. If two customers have used multiple cashback one after another, selling them a credit card will be easier. Otherwise, the business might waste its resources on selling credit cards to debit-only people. 

Like the example discussed above, you can input the customer purchase history in secondary market research. And doing so will help you distinguish easy warm leads from tough cold leads. 

External Data for Secondary Research in Marketing 

With all being said and done, the enterprise must not limit its external data collection to social media. Yes, the trending hashtags or the like-dislike ratio is a valuable detail. However, you are not here to exploit the impulsive shoppers. Social trends come and go. But long-term content ecosystems and traditional marketing platforms are necessary as well. 

Here is the list of potential sources for gathering external data. Before using any data in your secondary market research, please remember the following concept of age-specific marketing. 

“For a business that targets young and adventurous clients, social media trends and discussion forums might be appropriate as a customer data source. But for targeting the middle-aged or near-retirement customers, traditional marketing methods are more important.” 

Thus, we must briefly overview the secondary data sources in the market intelligence solutions. 

1 | News and Magazines 

The readership of printed publications might have declined percentagewise. But many publications have embraced their online content production. For effective marketing efforts, all businesses must shortlist and monitor the relevant industrial outlets: be it digital media or print. Use the data being published by authoritative sources to establish the authenticity of your products and services. Besides, you can learn about your competition through their press releases. 

2 | Professional Associations 

Almost all professions tend to have an organization newsletter or sponsored library. Here, a business leader must identify the relevant professional bodies. Then, build your contacts through proper networking discipline. Once you get access to the informative content of these associations, use that data to improve your secondary market research. 

3 | Official Data in Public Domain 

Many technical documents are maintained by governments and codes of standardization. Use it for your market research strategy without fail. Throughout history, multiple corporations have failed to stay competitive because of ignorance. If needed, let your lawyers, accountants, and technical officers help you with marketing research operations. No business can survive in this era without understanding how the laws, policies, and technology affect its marketing strategy. 

Also, you could obtain more details about the industry trends and competitors using other data sources. E.g., eCommerce portals, review sites, discussion forums, etc. 

Conclusion 

When waiting for the primary data collection, a business should assemble the existing data. If the data is collected and maintained by others, then this activity is secondary market research. A business must be careful with old data or biased sources in this type of analytics. 

As such, consulting with the marketing professionals is a good move. SG Analytics has expertise in co-creating high-quality studies in the market research domain. When you contact us, you ensure that the customer insights and market intelligence are reliable.