8 Steps for Startup Market Analysis

You must do different kinds of research for your startup. However, before you make any new decision about your market strategy, we definitely recommended mapping the market where you are playing.  If you plan to launch a new product, market analysis has to be the first thing to do. But let's say you are already in business; it's essential from time-to-time to reconsider your moves. It is always a good to analyze the market situation.

Here are 8 steps to analyze your market:

1. Look for market reports about your industry and its surrounded fields. Perform global research and then look into the local markets by geographical area. In order to find a wide range of free information, it worth to look for press releases, and surveys from research companies. They frequently post some previews, which includes information about the market size, market segmentation, trends, industry leaders etc.
2. Seek out market segmentations. Products are divided in many categories in every industry branch.  Be aware of your place.  Type terms in Google such as "market share", or "industry categories."
3. Be an expert about your audience! Try to find out where there are, what they do, what they think, and, the most important thing, how your product can help them? Articles, blogs, and social media networks are great help.
4.  Follow your industry trends!  Thousands of articles, blogs, and websites deal with industry trends, like the well known www.trendwatching.com.  But just Google the word trend with name of your industry, and you going to have huge amount of information.  
5. Benchmark!  Look for products that have similar behaviors, for example, they are similar in distribution channels, or have the same target audience, or they give a similar solution. Try to understand what you can learn from them.
6. Map your competitive landscape.  Watch your competitors through the eyes of the clients. How does their websites look, what they blog and what is the feedback they receive. Follow them on Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin, as well as other relevant forums.   
7. Make sure to choose your information from a reliable sources (be careful, not any blog is credible).
8. Take your time. Collecting data takes awhile, and requires concentration and patience. However, if you find the right information it can provide a complete picture of the market situation and it is definitely worth all the effort.

Good luck.

In our next post we will talk about collecting the information and make practical suggestions.

You are invited to read more information about startup market analysis here:

Practical steps to researching and finding your market