15 Best Market Research Tools for Small Businesses

Updated September 1, 2023 

Starting a successful business goes beyond the excitement and optimism of creating a product; it’s a strategic, data-based process. 

Research shows that 3 out of 4 Americans stick with the same brand, and 8 out of 10 stay with a retailer. Consumers hate change, so the odds are stacked against business owners venturing into a new market. 

However, conducting market research gives you insight into the market before you launch, enabling you to identify gaps you can fill to stand out and attract customers to your business. 

Successful market research requires functional tools and resources. They automate and provide accurate results compared to manual processes. 

Wondering how to choose an effective market research tool? This article discusses the top 11 market research software and resources you can adopt for your startup. 

Let’s get started. 

15 Best Market Research Tools

Many market research tools and resources are available, but only a few provide the insight needed for effective market research. Here are the top best resources guaranteed to enhance your market research process:

1. Attest
2. Think with Google Creative Tools
3. Make My Persona
4. Statista
5. Loop. 11
6. Temper
7. Ubersuggest
8. BrandMentions
9. Qualtrics Market Research Panels
10. Spyfu
11. Quora
12. Survey Monkey
13. Google Trends
14. Typeform 
15. Tableau

1. Attest 

A vital aspect of your market research is consumer research, and Attest makes it easy.

Rather than run your business based on what your consumer thinks, it lets you ask your consumers your most pressing questions directly. It taps into a world of over 125 million customers across 58 countries to provide actual data about who your audience is and what they want right before you launch. 

Send surveys to customized audiences and access accurate insights through the results dashboard; Attests lets you have interesting conversations with your audience. What’s more? It streamlines the process, so anyone can conduct surveys efficiently and in no time. 

Its easy process allows you to quickly access consumers’ data and make data-backed and fast-paced business decisions. Also, it provides a reliable support team, so even if you don’t know how to do market research for a startup, it will guide you through the process and help you troubleshoot challenges.

Using Attest lets you get reliable answers from the right audience because it ensures every survey matches the target consumer. This way, you get the most accurate information to make the best marketing decisions for your startup. 

2. Think with Google Digital Marketing Toolbox

If you want to begin a startup, you probably “know” the business will succeed.

But since successful companies don’t run on instincts and guesswork, you’ll need some facts to know if your business will excel. Think with Google research tools supply helpful insights on trends, market to venture into, etc.

They set you on the right track on your digital marketing campaigns, enhance product performance, and improve consumers’ experiences. For example, “Test My Site” improves your website’s speed, “Grow my store” analyzes and enhances your retail website’s store performance, and “Market Finder” locates the most profitable markets available. 

You can monitor consumers’ journey and trends. Also, you get helpful marketing strategies to gain a competitive edge and convert your audience to consumers. You’ll also find tools to boost your creativity and marketing efforts when exploring Think with Google digital marketing toolbox.

3. Make My Persona 

Creating a buyer persona is one of the best steps to appealing to your target customers. It is a fictional representation of your ideal buyer that helps you understand their needs and cater to them effectively.

Make My Persona allows you to select the name, age, challenges, characteristics and interests of your persona. This way, you can identify their demographics and psychographics for better-targeted marketing. 

It also helps you to identify your target buyers’ challenges and problems to launch a product that is useful to them, increasing your business’s success. 

4. Statista 

Source: Statista 

Statista is a reliable data visualization platform for accessing market trends across various industries. This is where you will find reports to analyze trends relating to your business.

So, let’s say you are about to launch a text-to-audio converter and you want to know how many people use the software, you only have to input your query, and you can visualize your data in charts.

Statista puts you ahead of the game with up-to-date data, allowing you to discover your audience’s interests and loopholes in the industry to know where to come in.

You will also know the paths to avoid and where to channel your efforts based on past and current trends. Adopting these insights will help you minimize errors and create successful products. 

5. Loop 11 

Loop 11 is a usability testing platform that lets you test your website’s functionality and ease of use. That’s not all; you can examine your users’ intent and sites’ information structure and see how visitors’ experiences change based on their device. 

Loop 11 helps you discover if customers can easily do what they came to do on your website, whether they want to sign up, find resources, etc. Visitors also fill out a form to share feedback on their experience with your site, allowing you to identify bugs and fix them quickly. 

6. Temper 

Forms are great for customers’ feedback, but many buyers find them tedious. Research says the longer the survey, the less time respondents take to answer questions, leading to less accurate surveys.

Temper fixes this by enabling consumers to pass their judgement using smiley faces. You only need to create a question, take a snippet of code, and integrate it on your website. 

Source: Temper.io

So, if you want to find the general opinion of your customers about a product before launching it, you include the widget in different areas of your website. After adding the widget, customize the question to suit your purpose, whether you want to know what respondents like about your product, their challenges, and what they need you to work on. 

The fantastic thing about Temper is that it’s a quick, fun way to receive audience feedback. You will also experience an increase in the number of respondents because they are quick and easy. 

7. Ubersuggest 

Ubersuggest is a research marketing tool for market and content research.

If you wonder what answers your audience is looking for or want to evaluate your competitors’ performance, Ubersuggest supplies keyword suggestions and highlights top-performing content in your industry. This way, you can produce quality products your audience will value. 

You will also know how often customers search for your product and if there are people who need your products or services. These insights will give you the market size and your target audience.

You can also determine how profitable your startup will be and if you should launch from the data garnered on the platform.

8. BrandMentions 

Social media is crucial for your startup's success. When done right, it can be a valuable tool for awareness and conversions. BrandMentions is an excellent social media tracking tool for understanding customers’ conversations online. 

For instance, if you input a keyword, it will supply recent posts around the keyword you’ve searched for. You will measure significant metrics like how many people see the keyword and how many people mention it daily.

BrandMentions also does a great job of revealing the number of people looking for your product daily on social media. Lastly, you can find out the overall sentiments of audiences about your brand. 

9. Qualtrics Market Research Panels

Finding respondents for your surveys can be daunting, but Qualtrics Market Research Panels simplify the process.

 
Source: Qualtrics 

No matter the demographics and psychographic of your target audience, it matches you with the right people for accurate insights. 

Getting accurate data on your market research is easy; you only have to select your target audience and receive a representative sample. These research panels also provide a responsive support team to troubleshoot any issues you may have. 

10. Spyfu 

Spyfu is a competitor analytics tool that allows you to research your competitors, monitor marketing activities to see how they are attracting traffic and converting customers. 

It supplies the general details on their performance, how they get traffic and how to target customers who are locating them.

Spyfu provides useful resources to track similar businesses, including keyword research, backlink checkers and other SEO tools to supercharge your competitors’ analysis research. 

It helps you to know what your competitors are doing and what they aren’t doing to find the gaps you need to fill. This lets you create unique offerings to meet market demands, enhancing the success of your startup. 

11. Quora 

Quora is a question-and-answer community for viewing consumer conversations around your industry, competitors and brand. Users ask questions and referrals on Quora. They also give feedback and suggestions across several topics, companies and industries. 

Quora helps you dig into how customers really feel about issues. It supplies in-depth information that confirms or disagrees with your assumptions.

It is an invaluable market research tool because it supplies unfiltered feedback from real users. You can find buyers' reviews on different brands, including products’ quality and overall customer experience. This gives you access to authentic data to use in launching a successful product. It also helps you create an enjoyable experience for buyers.

12. Survey Monkey 

Survey Monkey is a survey tool that offers a wide range of question types, such as multiple-choice, open-ended, rating scales, and more. This flexibility allows researchers to gather specific and detailed information from respondents, enabling them to gain valuable insights for their market research.

Additionally, the platform allows customization of survey design, branding, and layout according to the researcher's specific needs. Customization features include adding logos, colors, and personalized themes, which can enhance the respondent experience and increase engagement.

Thanks to it’s intuitive interface and drag-and-drop functionality, those who are new to market research find that this tool easy to use.  

13. Google Trends 

Google Trends provides insight into how frequently a particular search term is entered into Google's search engine relative to the site's total search volume.

While this tool is used for many different digital marketing functions, such as content marketing, it’s particularly effective for market research as well. The “Explore” section allows users to discover emerging trends and topics, helping them gather consumer insights like what your target audience is most interested in.

It can also be used to conduct a competitor analysis. By comparing search performance of your brand or products against those of your competitors, you can get a better understanding of your position in the market.

14. Typeform

Typeform is an intuitive platform that allows users to create interactive and visually appealing forms and surveys without the need for coding knowledge. Typeform's unique feature is its one-question-at-a-time interface, which mimics a conversation and enhances user engagement.

With Typeform, businesses and individuals can collect data, feedback, leads, and conduct research by creating customizable forms and surveys. The platform offers various templates, including quizzes, feedback forms, lead generation forms, and more, making it versatile for different use cases.

15. Tableau

Tableau is a data visualization tool that allows users to analyze data for market research more effectively. It supports advanced analytics capabilities, including data blending, data modeling, forecasting, trend analysis, and statistical calculations. It also provides interactive features like drill-down, filtering, and parameter controls, allowing users to explore data from different perspectives and uncover hidden insights.

Tableau can also be connected to various data sources, such as spreadsheets, databases, cloud services, and more, to import and blend data, making it easy to analyze large amounts of data.

The software offers a drag-and-drop interface, which makes it easy to create interactive visualizations, charts, dashboards, and reports without the need for coding or technical expertise.

Market Research is Simplified with Industry-Leading Tools 

Market research tools and resources are helpful for startup owners looking to launch and build a thriving business long-term. It streamlines the research processes and produces accurate results to create and launch an excellent product. This article discusses the most effective marketing research tools and resources to make that happen.