Market Research for Online Marketing Campaigns

While online marketing is becoming an increasingly important part of the marketing mix, the very basis for its success is often ignored. Many companies are jumping straight into conducting online marketing campaigns without doing the upfront hard work of market research.

As the old saying goes, "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail". This is especially true for online marketing. Unless the initial market research on keywords and phrases in implemented successfully before the online marketing campaign, then it is doomed to fail.

The following market research process should be followed before any online marketing campaigns are launched:

1. Conduct qualitative research with your customers, and find out what search terms they use to find your type of service.
2. Use the keyword tool in Google Adwords or Overture to identify other relevant phrases.
3. Use the same tools to determine which key phrases have a reasonably high search volume.
4. Put all of the relevant search terms into a list.
5. Refine this list to the top key phrases that you want your online marketing campaign to focus on.

It is only when the above market research process has been stringently followed that you can be sure your online marketing campaign has a solid chance of success.