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How to Create a Market Research Plan

Table of Contents

While having a great idea is an important part of establishing a business, you’ll only get so far without laying the proper groundwork. To help your business take off, not only do you need to size up the competition, but you also need to identify who will buy your product, how much it will cost, the best approach to selling it and how many people will demand it.

To get answers to these questions, you’ll need a market research plan, which you can create yourself or pay a specialist to create for you. Market research plans define an existing problem and/or outline an opportunity. From there, the marketing strategy is broken down task by task. Your plan should include objectives and the methods that you’ll use to achieve those objectives, along with a time frame for completing the work.

What should a market research plan include?

A market research plan should provide a thorough examination of how your product or service will fare in a defined area. It should include:

• An examination of the current marketplace and an analysis of the need for your product or service: To know where you fit in the market, it’s important to have a broad understanding of your industry — covering everything from its annual revenue to the industry standards to the total number of businesses operating within it. Start by gathering statistical data from sources like the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and BMI Research and consider the industry’s market size, potential customer base and how external factors such as laws, technology, world events and socioeconomic changes impact it.
• An assessment of the competition: By analyzing your competitors, you can discover strategies to fill market gaps. This involves identifying well-known competitors and noting trends they employ successfully, scrutinizing customer feedback about businesses in your sector, such as through online reviews, and understanding competitors’ product or service offerings. This knowledge can then guide the refinement of your own products or services to differentiate them from others in the market.
• Data about customers: Identify which segment of potential customers in your industry you can effectively target, considering their demographics — such as age, ethnicity, income and location and psychographics, including beliefs, values and lifestyle. Learn about the challenges your customers face in their daily lives and determine how the features and benefits of your offerings address their needs.
• The direction for your marketing in the upcoming year: Your plan should provide a clear roadmap for your marketing strategies for the next year, focusing on approaches to distinguish your brand from competitors. Develop marketing messages that resonate with and display empathy toward your target market and find ways to address customers’ needs and demonstrate value.
• Goals to be met: Outline goals your business would like to achieve and make these goals clear to all employees on your team. Create goals that are realistic and attainable while also making a meaningful impact on the business’s growth. Consider factors including your target number of products or services, the expected number of units to sell based on market size, target market behavior, pricing for each item and the cost of production and advertising.

How to create your market research plan

Doing business without having a marketing plan is like driving without directions. You may eventually reach your destination, but there will be many costly and time-consuming mistakes made along the way.

Many entrepreneurs mistakenly believe there is a big demand for their service or product but, in reality, there may not be, your prices may be too high or too low or you may be going into a business with so many restrictions that it’s almost impossible to be successful. A market research plan will help you uncover significant issues or roadblocks.

Step 1. Conduct a comprehensive situation analysis.

One of the first steps in constructing your marketing plan is to create a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis , which is used to identify your competition, to know how they operate and then to understand their strengths and weaknesses.

When developing a market research plan, it is essential that you do your homework to determine your possible customer base, to gain knowledge about the competition and to have a solid foundation for your marketing strategy.

Step 2: Develop clear marketing objectives.

In this section, describe the desired outcome for your marketing plan with realistic and attainable objectives, the targets and a clear and concise time frame. The most common way to approach this is with marketing objectives, which may include the total number of customers and the retention rate, the average volume of purchases, total market share and the proportion of your potential market that makes purchases.

Step 3: Make a financial plan.

A financial plan is essentia l for creating a solid marketing plan. The financial plan answers a range of questions that are critical components of your business, such as how much you intend to sell, what will you charge, how much will it cost to deliver your services or produce your products, how much will it cost for your basic operating expenses and how much financing will you need to operate your business.

In your business plan, be sure to describe who you are, what your business will be about, your business goals and what your inspiration was to buy, begin or grow your business.

Step 4: Determine your target audience.

Once you know what makes you stand out from your competitors and how you’ll market yourself, you should decide who to target with all this information. That’s why your market research plan should delineate your target audience. What are their demographics and how will these qualities affect your plan? How do your company’s current products and services affect which consumers you can realistically make customers? Will that change in the future? All of these questions should be answered in your plan.

Step 5: List your research methods.

Rarely does one research avenue make for a comprehensive market research plan. Instead, your plan should indicate several methods that will be used to determine the market share you can realistically obtain. This way, you get as much information as possible from as many sources as possible. The result is a more robust path toward establishing the exact footprint you desire for your company.

A good market research plan involves using more than one type of research to obtain the information you need.

Step 6: Establish a timeline.

With your plan in place, you’ll need to figure out how long your market research process will take. Project management charts are often helpful in this regard as they divide tasks and personnel over a timeframe that you have set. No matter which type of project management chart you use, try to build some flexibility into your timeframe. A two-week buffer toward the home stretch comes in handy when a process scheduled for one week takes two — that buffer will keep you on deadline.

Step 7: Acknowledge ethical concerns.

Market research always presents opportunities for ethical missteps. After all, you’ll need to obtain competitor information and sensitive financial data that may not always be readily available. Your market research plan should thus encourage your team to not take any dicey steps to obtain this information. It may be better to state, “we could not obtain this competitor information,” than to spy on the competitor or pressure their current employees for knowledge. Plus, there’s nothing wrong with simply feeling better about the final state of your plan and how you got it there.

Using a market research firm

If the thought of trying to create your own market research plan seems daunting or too time-consuming, there are plenty of other people willing to do the work for you.

You don’t need to pay thousands of dollars for assistance crafting a market research plan. University business schools often provide free resources that can assist you.

Pros of using a market research firm

As an objective third party, businesses can benefit from a market research firm’s impartial perspective and guidance, helping to shape impactful brand strategies and marketing campaigns. These firms, which can help businesses with everything from their marketing campaigns to brand launches, deliver precise results, drawing on their expertise and experience to provide in-depth insights and solutions tailored specifically to your company’s needs. 

Even more, working with a market research firm can elevate a brand above the competition, as they provide credible and unique research that is highly valued by the media, enhancing brand credibility and potentially increasing website traffic, social media shares and online visibility.

Cons of using a market research firm

Although hiring a firm can provide businesses with tremendous results, certain downsides can lead a business toward the do-it-yourself route. Most notably, market research firms can be a costly expense that some businesses can’t afford. However, businesses that can allocate the funds will likely see a positive return on investment, as they are paying for the expertise and proficiency of seasoned professionals in the field.

Additionally, finding the right market research firm for your business’s needs can take some time — and even longer, ranging from weeks to months, for a market research firm to complete a plan. This lack of immediate results can be detrimental for businesses that don’t have the time to wait. 

Market research firms can charge into the thousands of dollars for a market research plan, but there are ways to get help more affordably, including:

• Outline your plans carefully and spell out objectives.
• Examine as many sources as possible.
• Before paying for any information, check with librarians, small business development centers or market research professors to see if they can help you access market research data for free.
• You may think you’ll need to spend a hefty sum to create a market research plan, but there are plenty of free and low-cost sources available, especially through university business schools that will guide you through the process.

Miranda Fraraccio contributed to this article. 

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Market Research for a Business Plan: How to Do It in a Day

Whether it’s your first time using market research for a business plan or this isn’t exactly your first rodeo: a quick refresh on the topic can do no harm.

If anything, it’s the smart route to take. Particularly when you consider modern-day market research data can be obtained quicker than ever – when the right tools are used.

Today, I’m going to explain exactly how to conduct market research for a business plan, and how to access that key data and juicy intel without hassle.

The importance of market research in business planning

They say knowledge is power, and where your rivals and your market are concerned, there’s nothing quite like it. By looking at things like consumer behavior, the competitive landscape , market size, and the digital strategies of others; companies at any stage in their lifecycle can stay relevant, maintain a competitive edge, set strategic direction, and experience growth. Doing periodic market research also helps businesses develop a deeper, more informed understanding of a market, its audience, and key players. If you’re seeking financial backing, doing market research is essential to show credibility and build confidence in your plans.

How to conduct market research for a business plan

Good market research for a business plan should be contextualized with information about your company, its goals, products, pricing, and financials. Sounds like a lot of work, right? Read on to learn how to conduct all the market research for a business plan you’re going to need – quickly, using the most up-to-date data there is. I’ll show you how to:

• Understand your audience
• Identify target personas
• Size your market 
• Research the competition 
• Discover your unique sales proposition
• Define marketing priorities 

Before you start, make sure your business planning document includes the following 10 headings:

This format is considered best practice, so I’ve indicated the specific sections that each element of your market research fits into.

Sound good? Then let’s get started.

1. Understand your audience

What it is – A target audience is a social segment of people who are likely to be interested in your products or services. It’s a snapshot of your target customer base, sorted by certain characteristics. It’s also known as audience demographics and can contain data like age, gender, location, values, attitudes, behaviors, and more.     

Where to use this market research in a business plan – Demographical data can help determine the size of your market, which slots into the executive summary, marketing plan, market sizing, and financial sections of the plan. What’s more, when you use it to identify groups of people to target, it can also be used in the products and services, competitive research tools , and SWOT analysis sections.

Bonus: Audience demographics can also help you develop stronger branding by choosing imagery that appeals most to your ideal customers.

How to do a quick audience analysis

Similarweb Digital Research Intelligence gives you the ability to view almost any industry in a few seconds; you can also create a custom industry based on specific players in your market.  Here’s how to see relevant audience demographics in a market. For this example, I chose the airline industry.

View typical audience relevant to your sector with gender and age distribution, along with geographical data . You can see which companies are experiencing growth and at what rate. Audience loyalty is also key to understanding how people behave, if they tend to shop around and what search terms they use to discover sites in any niche.

Read more: Learn more about how to do a demographic analysis of your market’s audience .

2. Identify target personas

What it is – An audience or target persona is a typical customer profile. It starts with audience demographics, and then zooms into a much deeper level. Most organizations develop multiple target personas, based on things like pain points, location, gender, background, occupation, influential factors, decision-making, likes, dislikes, goals, ideals, and more. 

Pro Tip: If you’re in B2B, your target personas are based on the people who make purchasing decisions, not the business itself.

Where to use this market research in a business plan – Creating target personas for your business shows you know whom you’re targeting, and how to market to them. This information will help you complete market sizing, product or service overview, marketing plan, and could fit into the competitive research section too.

How to create a buyer persona in five steps

Guesswork does not equal less work – there’s no place for shortcuts here. Your success depends on developing the most accurate representation of who your customers are, and what they care about. 

1. Research: If you’re already in business, use market research surveys as a tool to collect information about your customers. If you’re a startup or pre-startup, you can use a platform like Similarweb to establish a typical customer profile for your market. Don’t forget to use mobile app intelligence and website analytics in tandem to build a complete picture of your audience. 

Pro Tip: Secondary market research is another good source of intel for startups. You might be able to find published surveys that relate to your products or market to learn more.

2. Analysis: Here, you’re looking to answer key questions to fill in the blanks and build a complete picture of your ideal customer. Tools like Similarweb Digital Research Intelligence, Google Analytics, and competitors’ social media channels can help you find this out. Typical questions include:

• Where is your audience coming from?
• What channels do they use to find your site?
• Do they favor access via mobile site, app, or desktop?
• What are their demographics? Think age, job, salary, location, and gender.

3. Competitive market research: This shows you what marketing channels, referral partners, and keywords are sending traffic to businesses similar to yours When you combine this data with what you learned in sections 1 + 2, you are ready to build your personas.

4. Fill in a buyer persona template: We’ve done the hard work for you. Download a pre-made template below .

Further reading: The complete guide to creating buyer personas

3. Size your market

What it is – Market sizing is a way to determine the potential size of a target market using informed estimation. This is how you find out the potential revenue and market volume applicable to your business . There are three key metrics: total addressable market (TAM), service addressable market (SAM), and service obtainable market (SOM).

Where to use this market research in a business plan – Knowing how big the slice of the pie you’re going after is crucial. It can inform any goal setting and help with forecasting too. This data can be used in your executive summary, marketing plan, competitive research, SWOT analysis, market sizing, operations, and financial sections.

Further reading: How to do market sizing shows you how to calculate the TAM, SAM, and SOM for your business.

4. Research the competition

What it is – Competitive landscaping shows who you’re up against and how your offering stacks up vs others in your space. By evaluating rivals in-depth and looking at things like features, pricing, support, content, and additional products, you can form a detailed picture of the competition.

Where to use this market research in a business plan – The information you gain from performing a competitive analysis can transform what you offer and how you go to market. In business planning, this market research supports the executive summary, product or service overview, marketing plan, competitive research, SWOT analysis, and operation sections.  

How to do competitive landscaping

Using the industry overview section of Similarweb Digital Research Intelligence, competitor research is made quick and easy. Access key metrics on an industry or specific players, then download raw data in a workable excel file or get a PNG image of charts in an instant. Most data can be downloaded via excel or as an image and included in the resource section of your plan.

Here, you can see a summary of a market, yearly growth, and top sites. A quick click to industry leaders shows you market leaders and rising stars. Select any name for a complete picture of their digital presence – use this to spot potential opportunities to gain a competitive advantage.

Read more: See how to do a competitive analysis and get a free template to help you get started.

5. Discover your unique sales proposition

What it is – Not all businesses have them, and that’s OK. A unique selling proposition (USP) is something distinctive your business offers but your rivals don’t . It can be anything that’s unique to a product, service, pricing model, or other.  

Why it’s useful – Having a compelling USP helps your company stand out in a market. It can make your business more valuable to a customer vs the competition, and ultimately help you win and retain more customers.

Where to use this market research in a business plan – Your USP should be highlighted in the executive summary, the product and service overview, and the SWOT analysis.

How to find your USP

Unless you’ve developed a unique product or service, or you’re planning to sell to the market at a lower-than-average price point, you’re going to have to look for some kind of service differentiator that’ll help you stand out. In my experience, the quickest way to discover this is through competitive benchmarking. Here, I’m talking about evaluating your closest rivals to uncover things they’re not doing, or looking for gaps that your business can capitalize on. 

A competitive review of their site should look at things like:

• Customer support: do they have live chat, email support, telephone support, etc.?
• Content: do they produce additional content that offers value, free resources, etc.?
• Offers: what promotions or offers do they run?
• Loyalty or referral programs: do they reward loyalty or referrals?
• Service level agreements: what commitments do they make to their customers?
• Operations: consider delivery methods, lead times, returns policy etc.
• Price promises: what satisfaction or price promises do they offer, if at all?

Go easy on yourself and create a basic template that details each point. Once complete, look for opportunities to provide something unique that nobody else currently offers.

6. Define marketing priorities

What it is – A detailed plan showing how you position and market your products or service. It should define realistic, clear, and measurable goals that articulate tactics, customer profiles, and the position of your products in the market.

Where to use this market research in a business plan – Relevant intel you uncover should inform the marketing plan first and foremost. However, it can also be used in the SWOT analysis, operation, and financial sections.

How to do it – with a market research example

Using the marketing channels within Similarweb Digital Research Intelligence, you can short-cut the lengthy (and often costly) process of trial and error when trying to decide which channels and activities work best.

Let me show you how.

Using Similarweb Digital Research Intelligence, I can hone in on any site I like, and look at key marketing intel to uncover the strategies they’re using, along with insights into what’s driving traffic, and traffic opportunities.

In less than 60 seconds, I can see easyJet’s complete online presence; its marketing and social channels, and a snapshot of every metric that matters, like referrals, organic and paid ads, keywords, and more. Expand any section to get granular data, and view insights that show exactly where key losses, gains, and opportunities exist.

You can take this a step further and add other sites into the mix. Compare sites side-by-side to see who is winning, and how they’re doing it. While this snapshot shows a comparison of a single competitor, you can compare five at any one time. What’s more, I can see industry leaders, rising players, and any relevant mobile app intelligence stats, should a company or its rivals have an app as part of their offering.

Best practice for market research data in business plans

When doing any type of market research , it’s important to use the most up-to-date data you can get your hands on. There are two key factors for data are timeliness and trustworthiness.

For any market, look for data that applies to any period over the last 12 months. With how fast markets evolve and how quickly consumer behaviors change, being able to view dynamic data is key. What’s more, the source of any data matters just as much as its age.

To emphasize the importance of using the right type of data in a business plan, here’s some timely advice from SBA commercial lending expert and VP of Commerce National Bank and Trust, Steve Fulmer. As someone who, in the past 15 years, has approved approximately $150 million in loans to SMBs; his advice is worth paying attention to.

“ For anybody doing market research for a business plan, they must cite sources. Most new or small businesses lack historical performance data, which removes substantial confidence in their plans. As a lender, we cannot support assumptions in their business plan or their projections if their data hasn’t come from a trustworthy source.”

Wrapping up…

Now you know the six ways to do market research for a business plan, it’s time to knuckle down and get started. With Similarweb, you’ve got access to all the market intel you’re going to need to conduct timely, accurate, and reliable market research. What’s more, you can return to the platform anytime to benchmark your performance , get fresh insights, and adapt your strategies to focus on growth – helping you build a sustainable business that can withstand the test of time.

How do I do market research for a business plan?

By using Digital Research Intelligence tools like Similarweb, you can quickly conduct audience research, company research, market analysis, and benchmarking from a single place. Another method is secondary market research, but this takes more time and data isn’t always up to date. 

Why does a business plan need market research?

Doing market research for a business plan is the quickest and easiest way to validate a business idea and establish a clear view of the market and competitive landscape. When done right, it can show you opportunities for growth, strategies to avoid, and effective ways to market your business. 

What is market research in a business plan?

Market research in business planning is one of the most powerful tools you can use to flesh out and validate your company or its products. It can tell you whether there’s a market for your product, and how big that market is – it also helps you discover industry trends, and examine the strategies of the rising stars and industry leaders in detail. 

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How to Write the Market Analysis Section of a Business Plan

Alyssa Gregory is an entrepreneur, writer, and marketer with 20 years of experience in the business world. She is the founder of the Small Business Bonfire, a community for entrepreneurs, and has authored more than 2,500 articles for The Balance and other popular small business websites.

The market analysis section of your business plan comes after the products or services section and should provide a detailed overview of the industry you intend to sell your product or service in, including statistics to support your claims.

In general, the market analysis section should include information about the industry, your target market, your competition, and how you intend to make a place for your own product and service. Extensive data for this section should be added to the end of the business plan as appendices, with only the most important statistics included in the market analysis section itself.

What Should a Market Analysis Include?

The market analysis section of your small business plan should include the following:

• Industry Description and Outlook : Describe your industry both qualitatively and quantitatively by laying out the factors that make your industry an attractive place to start and grow a business. Be sure to include detailed statistics that define the industry including size, growth rate , trends, and outlook.
• Target Market : Who is your ideal client/customer? This data should include demographics on the group you are targeting including age, gender, income level, and lifestyle preferences. This section should also include data on the size of the target market, the purchase potential and motivations of the audience, and how you intend to reach the market.
• Market Test Results : This is where you include the results of the market research you conducted as part of your initial investigation into the market. Details about your testing process and supporting statistics should be included in the appendix.
• Lead Time : Lead time is the amount of time it takes for an order to be fulfilled once a customer makes a purchase. This is where you provide information on the research you've completed on how long it will take to handle individual orders and large volume purchases, if applicable.
• Competitive Analysis : Who is your competition? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the competition? What are the potential roadblocks preventing you from entering the market?

7 Tips for Writing a Market Analysis

Here is a collection of tips to help you write an effective and well-rounded market analysis for your small business plan.

• Use the Internet : Since much of the market analysis section relies on raw data, the Internet is a great place to start. Demographic data can be gathered from the U.S. Census Bureau. A series of searches can uncover information on your competition, and you can conduct a portion of your market research online.
• Be the Customer : One of the most effective ways to gauge opportunity among your target market is to look at your products and services through the eyes of a purchaser. What is the problem that needs to be solved? How does the competition solve that problem? How will you solve the problem better or differently?
• Cut to the Chase : It can be helpful to your business plan audience if you include a summary of the market analysis section before diving into the details. This gives the reader an idea about what's to come and helps them zero in on the most important details quickly.
• Conduct Thorough Market Research : Put in the necessary time during the initial exploration phase to research the market and gather as much information as you can. Send out surveys, conduct focus groups, and ask for feedback when you have an opportunity. Then use the data gathered as supporting materials for your market analysis.
• Use Visual Aids : Information that is highly number-driven, such as statistics and metrics included in the market analysis, is typically easier to grasp when it's presented visually. Use charts and graphs to illustrate the most important numbers.
• Be Concise : In most cases, those reading your business plan already have some understanding of the market. Include the most important data and results in the market analysis section and move the support documentation and statistics to the appendix.
• Relate Back to Your Business : All of the statistics and data you incorporate in your market analysis should be related back to your company and your products and services. When you outline the target market's needs, put the focus on how you are uniquely positioned to fulfill those needs.

How to Conduct Market Research for a Business Plan

Rev › Blog › Marketing › How to Conduct Market Research for a Business Plan

Any successful business starts with a thorough, written business plan. For most small business owners, the prospect of gathering and compiling all the data required for a business plan can often seem intimidating. Fortunately, several helpful tools can make conducting market research faster and easier, especially when conducting target customer interviews.

What Does a Business Plan Include?

When building a business plan, you may include different sections or topics depending on how you intend to use the final product. For instance, business plans for internal use might not need to be quite as detailed or structured as plans that will be presented externally in order to secure financing from investors. Regardless of your purpose, most business plans include the following core sections:

• Industry Background – Include analysis of special business considerations that apply to your particular industries, such as trends, growth rates, or recent litigation.
• Value Proposition – Your value proposition (or Unique Selling Proposition) outlines how your business plans to bring value to its target customers in a way that isn’t currently being fulfilled in the market.
• Product Analysis – Describe in detail the product or service you offer, including features that are better than or differentiate you from current market offerings.
• Market Analysis – Examine your company’s target market, including customer demographics, estimated market capture, personas, and customer needs.
• Competitive Analysis – Here, you’ll compare the intended product or service to other offerings in the market and outline your company’s competitive advantages.
• Financial Analysis – Typically, your financial analysis will include estimated sales for the first 1-3 years of operation, as well as more detailed financial projections depending on who will be reading the plan.

Conducting a Market Analysis

Specific industries have different potential customers. It’s easier to reach your potential customers when you have a clear view of who they are. A market analysis helps clarify your ideal customer personas by researching both qualitative and quantitative aspects of your target market.

To better understand your potential customers, start by researching the demographics and segmentation of individuals who typically buy products and services in your industry. Your market analysis should also include:

• Research on the total size of the market
• How much additional market share is available
• Any currently unmet needs that could be sources of competitive advantage
• Features and qualities potential customers find valuable  

Using Market Research to Support Your Business Plan

Market research helps assess a business idea’s strengths and weaknesses. his research will serve as the basis for strategic marketing decisions, price positioning, and financial projections listed in the Financial Analysis section of your business plan. You can also use it to help your management team think through important decisions, ultimately leading to choices that will resonate with your target audience and get customers to buy your product or service.

Secondary Research

Conducting market research begins with fact-finding through the internet and other publicly available resources. This secondary research, or research originally conducted and compiled by others, gathers statistics on market size, average market pricing, competitor promotional effectiveness, manufacturing costs, and more.

Secondary research is necessary because it is often expensive and time-consuming for individual business owners to conduct this research firsthand. There are many reliable professional research firms that gather comprehensive industry statistics and make them available at a much more granular level than individuals could gather on their own. Some governmental organizations, such as the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics will even provide this information at no charge. Fortunately for business owners, a free resource is still perfectly valid as long as it’s reputable.

Primary Research

Beyond the initial secondary research, you should also conduct thorough primary research to vet your business idea. Primary research is conducted by talking to members of the target audience firsthand through surveys, interviews, and focus groups . These tools can provide valuable insight into how prospects judge your product or service and how they compare it to alternative options.

Primary research efforts will typically generate qualitative data in the form of audio and video recordings. These interviews are not always brief, and therefore can be difficult to process efficiently unless first converted to text. You can quickly and easily incorporate the content of these interviews into your plan once they’ve been transcribed.

With a speech-to-text service like Rev, you can get 99% accurate transcripts of your market research interviews in a matter of hours. Dramatically streamlining your business planning process with Rev gives you faster access to valuable customer feedback and potential insights, letting you skip the busy-work and get down to business.

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How to Do Market Research for a Business Plan Successfully

The entrepreneurial-minded folks may long have wondered how to do market research for a business plan. 

After all, a business plan lays out the foundation, purpose and expectations of a new business venture. Given that the risks of starting a new business are manifold , entrepreneurs must conduct market research.

20% of American businesses fail after only their first year of operation, a dismal reality that climbs to 30% after two years.

Newfound entrepreneurs and serial entrepreneurs alike should therefore carefully commit to and execute a business plan.

While market research applies to a wide breadth of applications that cover various business cycles and processes, including opening and operating a new business, it too can be used for producing a 

This article expounds upon how to do market research for a business plan — and succeed in your venture.

Defining A Business Plan and Its Needs

Before you set out to formulate a business plan, it is vital to fully understand all that it entails. Usually created for startups, it is necessary for all businesses to implement. 

A business plan is a written document that summarizes the main aspects of starting up and managing a business, making it the foundation for your business .

A business plan specifically details a business’s objectives, along with its financial, marketing and operational needs and a roadmap thereof. 

It is created to guide a business through each stage in its establishment and management.  As such, it allows business owners to lay out their needs and goals and track them as the business grows.

A business plan must be updated at regular intervals , as priorities and goals are subject to change. Additionally, when an established business moves in a different direction, it needs a new or completely updated business plan.  

The Importance of a Business Plan

A business plan is an important document and not merely for the purpose of monitoring your business as it develops. This is because this document is also needed to obtain investment , especially in the early stages of the business, in which it does not have an evidential track record.

Thus, a business plan shows investors whether your business is on the right course and is worth investing their funds into. Lenders will require proof of a business plan when they deliberate the approval of a loan. 

Here are several other reasons as to why creating and updating a business plan is important:

• Making important decisions. It allows you to answer difficult questions at the onset, before they emerge. Understanding these decisions helps you understand how they fit into your overall strategy.
• Addressing key issues to avoid future problems . These include pricing, competition evaluation, market demand, capital and team members.
• Proving the viability of your business . Planning your vision into a full-fledged business bridges the gap between an idea and reality. Market research is essential for this point, as it helps you find key insights on various aspects of your industry, including your competitors and customers. 
• Communicating objectives with team members and all those involved . This is important for larger teams, particularly for assistance when you are too busy to relay information or guidance to your team members. This may also help investors or partners who cannot reach you, as it lays out objectives and criteria.
• Standardizing and carrying out key objectives . Placing your objectives, criteria and other needs gives them more weight and attention. If they aren’t in your business plan, thereby, in writing, they can easily fall by the wayside. A business plan helps avoid this, standardizing key objectives and benchmarks.
• Guiding consultants, freelancers and other workers . When employing freelancers and contractors, you can turn to specific sections of a business plan to guide these workers, to ensure they understand your vision, goal and other key business aspects.
• Obtaining financial support. Whether it is via borrowing from a bank, turning to venture capitalists or putting your business up for an acquisition, a business plan makes your business and its viability clear for these key financial players. 
• Acclimating to market changes . Updating your business plan can help you during periods of critical change in your market. These changes include: changes in customer needs, new regulations, trends or updates in your industry.

Defining Market Research

Market Research is a wide-encompassing practice that involves gathering information to bolster knowledge about a business’s industry, niche and target market . 

It involves the systematic process of amassing, analyzing and interpreting data and information around the state of a business’s industry and its key actors . The key actors entail a business’s target market, competitors and the movers and shakers within its industry.

As such, it involves gathering research around the niche, trends and industry as a whole. 

This involves gathering secondary research , research that has already been conducted and made available, along with primary research , the kind that requires you to conduct yourself. These main types of research gathering involve various means, techniques and tools that researchers can use.

Market research largely deals with evaluating the viability of a new product or service, although this aspect is primarily referred to as customer development . By conducting market research, you can therefore gather information on virtually all areas of your business. 

Why a Business Plan Needs Market Research

A potent document, one that properly lays out the 7 components of a business plan , from the executive summary, to the market analysis, to the strategy, financial plan and all other in-betweens, most use market research to develop it. 

Market research provides the key data, information and nuances your business plan needs. Although a new business or business idea is born on intuition, a business plan must be backed up with data to prove its viability and positioning in its industry. 

As such, market research must be performed in the early stages of the business plan, as it is the phase in which you learn all about your niche, its trends and the demands of your target market (including the makeup of your target market via market segmentation ).

Only after analyzing all of your market research results, will you be able to populate the business plan within key areas such as market analysis, financial projections, strategy and implementation, marketing endeavors, pricing and location . 

A business plan must be comprehensive, another way in which market research is of utmost importance, in that there are various methods and tools you can use to conduct it. By consolidating all of the different market research techniques , you are establishing an exhaustive business plan, the kind that leaves no key consideration out.

The following presents the key data and information of a business plan that market research can extract:

• Demand : Does your product/service have enough market potential to justify a new business?
• Pricing : How will you determine the pricing of your offerings? 
• Target Market : Who makes up your target market? Do they have enough spending power to buy your product or service?
• Location : Does your business require opening a physical store or can it effectively reach its target market via ecommerce? Perhaps it needs both?
• Historic data on your product/ service : How have the products and services in your niche performed over time? How do they perform currently? 
• Marketing and Market Entry : How will you form an explanation on how you’ll enter the market? How will you promote your products/services to solidify your entry?
• Labor Requirements : Do you have enough manpower to form a business? How many employees and contractors will your business require?
• Financial Plan : Do you have the financial means to cover all operations?

How to Conduct Market Research for a Business Plan

Since a business plan ought to include concrete information to pave the way for business success, it requires thorough market research. Given that market research encompasses so many modes and forms, it can be overwhelming and even intimidating to begin to conduct it for your business plan.

The following provides a step-by-step guide on how to do market research for a business plan, so you can craft your plan in an informed manner, equipped with critical market research.

• First, search the secondary sources available; while some are free, there will be many that aren’t.
• Then, narrow it down to a specific niche, with suspected market segments.
• Focus your research via secondary sources on your market. Look at trade publications, new sites dedicated to your market, industry reports, local reports, statistics websites, blogs on the startups in your niche, including their stories of success and failure and other secondary resources.
• Conduct further secondary research on your priorities.
• Then, switch to primary research methods to zero in on your most critical research subjects.
• You can achieve this by conducting secondary research on your target market.
• Use an online survey, a focus group or a survey panel .
• Segment your target market further and start building personas from the shared characteristics they exhibit.
• Be sure to find similar offerings available to identify your competitors.
• Survey your target market on their needs and feelings towards similar products/services, along with their aversions and desires for updates.
• This will help you understand how to set up your prices as well.
• Research the costs of marketing and publicizing the launch of your business.
• Compare all costs and establish a preliminary business budget.
• Jot down their strengths and weaknesses.
• Compare your offering to theirs, does it fill any gaps or voids? Is it better price-wise?
• Break this down from high to low levels of research. Ex: From the general industry to the exact niche, from a large target market, to specific segments, to specific personas.
• Adjust your budget, goals and plans.
• The executive summary, company description, products and services, market analysis, strategy and implementation, organization and management, financial plan and projections.
• Assure that everything makes sense. If there are gaps in the information you have outlined, consider conducting more research.
• Highlight areas of opportunity, along with areas of risk. 
• Edit your business plan as needed.

Empowering Your Market Research-Powered Business Plan

Market research is a wide-reaching practice that blends consumer behavior and economic trends to help you validate and improve a business idea. It can also help you change the course or style of an already established business.

Thus, it is not solely for startups. Market research can be difficult to conduct and manage , as there are so many business aspects you’ll need to consider to lower your risk of failure. Concurrently, there is so many kinds of market research you can stand to conduct.

Even with the steps listed above, navigating through the jungle of market research can be a laborious and difficult task. While you can’t control secondary resources, you can wield control of your primary research endeavors via an online survey platform . 

This kind of market research tool allows you to take the reigns in every aspect: from asking the exact questions you seek answers to , to targeting a specific market segment , to deploying your surveys across the most-frequented websites and apps. 

A potent survey platform will complete all of these crucial tasks , making primary research an easy task. The trick is to find an online survey platform that can handle all of these tasks, along with making it easy to analyze the data.

Do you want to distribute your survey? Pollfish offers you access to millions of targeted consumers to get survey responses from $0.95 per complete. Launch your survey today.

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Business Plan Market Research Section: How to Write Guide .

Sep 17, 2023 | Business Consulting , Business Plan , Business Strategy Development , Comprehensive Business Plan , Market Analysis , Market Analysis , Market Research , Market Research , Small Business , Startup , Startup Business Plan

How to Write the Business Plan Market Research Section

“The best vision is insight.” – Malcolm Forbes 

In developing your business plan market research section, conducting a comprehensive study of your customers, market, competition, and strategic position relative to all three is essential.

You must show a strong need for your product or service and have a unique selling point distinguishing you from your rivals. This will generate a lot of interest and attention.

This analysis can reveal new information you may not have been aware of before. Take the time to reflect on any exciting insights it offers. It could mean rethinking some elements of your strategy. However, it might also just confirm what you already knew.

Regardless, you can better understand what it takes to succeed.

When to do the business plan market research section

You should include a market research or analysis section after your business plan’s products or services section. This section should provide a detailed industry overview with statistics to support your claims.

Generally speaking, your market analysis section should provide information on the industry, target market, competition, and strategy for carving out a niche for your product or service. You should include extensive data in the appendices at the end of your business plan, with only the most essential statistics in the market analysis section.

Your business plan market research section should cover the industry, target market, competition, and how you’ll stand out.

What information should be included in a business plan’s market research analysis?

A comprehensive market research section is essential when creating a small business plan. This section should cover the following areas:

• Industry Description and Outlook : Clearly describe your industry and provide qualitative and quantitative information. This should include the aspects that make your drive a desirable place to start and grow a business and detailed statistics such as industry size, growth rate, trends, and outlook.
• Target Market : Define your ideal customer by providing information on their demographics, including age, gender, income level, and lifestyle preferences. You should also include data on your target market’s size, purchase potential motivations, and your plan for reaching them.
• Market Test Results : Include the results of any market research you have conducted and details about your testing process and supporting statistics. This information should be included in the appendix.
• Lead Time : Provide information on how long it will take to fulfill customer orders, both for individual purchases and large-volume orders, based on the research you have gathered on customer orders and any considerations (i.e., supply, resource availability, postage).
• Competitive Analysis : Identify your competition, including their strengths and weaknesses, and any potential roadblocks that may prevent you from entering the market.

Your business plan’s market research should address these critical questions:

Customers are the lifeblood of any business. People looking to invest in your company or provide financing need to see that you understand what they want and that you have a detailed plan for reaching them. To do this, you should focus your attention on four questions.

• Who are your customers? Describe your target market. Perhaps create a marketing persona profile of the people you want to reach, including their age range, income levels, lifestyle choices, interests, and more. What makes them tick?
• What are their current buying habits? Concerning the sorts of products or services you offer, what are they buying now? From whom are they buying, and is it a repeat purchase? What do they generally spend monthly or annually?
• What motivates them to buy? What are the features that drive their purchase decisions? Do they seek a low price or value? How important is the choice?
• How will you make them buy from you? Take the time to synthesize the answers to the first three questions. It would help if you could demonstrate how your strategy would satisfy your target market in a way your competitors have failed to implement.

Doing your business plan market research due diligence

To convince your readers of the thoroughness of your analysis, it’s crucial to conduct a rigorous, thorough exploration backed up by ample and accurate data. Mere words won’t cut it, as people will expect substantial evidence to support your claims.

Although it may take up a significant amount of your time, doing your due diligence is a necessary investment to prioritize as a must-do activity when creating your business plan.

There are two types of research you can include in your analysis.

• Primary Research : Primary research focuses on data you gather about your customers and your competition. Companies will frequently use interviews, focus groups, and surveys to get feedback and acquire data on their target market.
• Secondary research : Secondary research takes a broader view, usually looking at your industry, and generally involves a meta-analysis of previously existing research. Important areas to check are trade groups, government agencies, and third-party research firms (which may charge a fee for their services).
• A point to include is the importance of balanced analysis. For your rationality, you should aim to compare yourself to similar companies in size, age, service area, and structure.

Choosing the right market for your business is essential, as selecting the wrong one can result in inaccurate outcomes. This can make your situation appear better or worse than it is, which can lead to your readers doubting your results. This can impact any funding you seek for your business plan.

Describe your niche and market position in your business plan market research.

Please describe your niche and market position in your business plan market research.

• Targeting a broad range of customers within your market can water down your offerings and make you less appealing.
• In the medical world, it’s the difference between a general practitioner and a specialist.
• The latter focuses on a narrower band of patients but is in higher demand because they can demonstrate thorough expertise in the services needed.
• It would help if, within your research, you articulate how your niche will service the band of customers you’re planning to target.
• These are your distinguishing features, the elements of your business that differentiate you in the marketplace.
• This includes your business model, team, offerings, and how you plan to market yourself.

Try to provide as many enriched details as possible to ensure your readers fully understand how your puzzle piece will fit with the rest of your industry.

Are you utilizing the Internet for market research?

Regarding how to write the business plan market research section, the Internet can be a valuable resource as it provides access to raw data. The USA Census Bureau and UK Gov ONS are excellent sources for gathering demographic information.

By conducting various online searches using Google , you can uncover data about your competition and show a significant part of your market research.

Accessing information about your competition is essential. You can distinguish your business and emphasize your competitive advantages by reviewing their website, social media, industry PR, and company registration information.

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Contact Noirwolf Consulting today using the website contact form or by emailing [email protected] or call us at +44 113 328 0868.

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6.3 Steps in a Successful Marketing Research Plan

Learning outcomes.

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• 1 Identify and describe the steps in a marketing research plan.
• 2 Discuss the different types of data research.
• 3 Explain how data is analyzed.
• 4 Discuss the importance of effective research reports.

Define the Problem

There are seven steps to a successful marketing research project (see Figure 6.3 ). Each step will be explained as we investigate how a marketing research project is conducted.

The first step, defining the problem, is often a realization that more information is needed in order to make a data-driven decision. Problem definition is the realization that there is an issue that needs to be addressed. An entrepreneur may be interested in opening a small business but must first define the problem that is to be investigated. A marketing research problem in this example is to discover the needs of the community and also to identify a potentially successful business venture.

Many times, researchers define a research question or objectives in this first step. Objectives of this research study could include: identify a new business that would be successful in the community in question, determine the size and composition of a target market for the business venture, and collect any relevant primary and secondary data that would support such a venture. At this point, the definition of the problem may be “Why are cat owners not buying our new cat toy subscription service?”

Additionally, during this first step we would want to investigate our target population for research. This is similar to a target market, as it is the group that comprises the population of interest for the study. In order to have a successful research outcome, the researcher should start with an understanding of the problem in the current situational environment.

Develop the Research Plan

Step two is to develop the research plan. What type of research is necessary to meet the established objectives of the first step? How will this data be collected? Additionally, what is the time frame of the research and budget to consider? If you must have information in the next week, a different plan would be implemented than in a situation where several months were allowed. These are issues that a researcher should address in order to meet the needs identified.

Research is often classified as coming from one of two types of data: primary and secondary. Primary data is unique information that is collected by the specific researcher with the current project in mind. This type of research doesn’t currently exist until it is pulled together for the project. Examples of primary data collection include survey, observation, experiment, or focus group data that is gathered for the current project.

Secondary data is any research that was completed for another purpose but can be used to help inform the research process. Secondary data comes in many forms and includes census data, journal articles, previously collected survey or focus group data of related topics, and compiled company data. Secondary data may be internal, such as the company’s sales records for a previous quarter, or external, such as an industry report of all related product sales. Syndicated data , a type of external secondary data, is available through subscription services and is utilized by many marketers. As you can see in Table 6.1 , primary and secondary data features are often opposite—the positive aspects of primary data are the negative side of secondary data.

There are four research types that can be used: exploratory, descriptive, experimental, and ethnographic research designs (see Figure 6.4 ). Each type has specific formats of data that can be collected. Qualitative research can be shared through words, descriptions, and open-ended comments. Qualitative data gives context but cannot be reduced to a statistic. Qualitative data examples are categorical and include case studies, diary accounts, interviews, focus groups, and open-ended surveys. By comparison, quantitative data is data that can be reduced to number of responses. The number of responses to each answer on a multiple-choice question is quantitative data. Quantitative data is numerical and includes things like age, income, group size, and height.

Exploratory research is usually used when additional general information in desired about a topic. When in the initial steps of a new project, understanding the landscape is essential, so exploratory research helps the researcher to learn more about the general nature of the industry. Exploratory research can be collected through focus groups, interviews, and review of secondary data. When examining an exploratory research design, the best use is when your company hopes to collect data that is generally qualitative in nature. 7

For instance, if a company is considering a new service for registered users but is not quite sure how well the new service will be received or wants to gain clarity of exactly how customers may use a future service, the company can host a focus group. Focus groups and interviews will be examined later in the chapter. The insights collected during the focus group can assist the company when designing the service, help to inform promotional campaign options, and verify that the service is going to be a viable option for the company.

Descriptive research design takes a bigger step into collection of data through primary research complemented by secondary data. Descriptive research helps explain the market situation and define an “opinion, attitude, or behavior” of a group of consumers, employees, or other interested groups. 8 The most common method of deploying a descriptive research design is through the use of a survey. Several types of surveys will be defined later in this chapter. Descriptive data is quantitative in nature, meaning the data can be distilled into a statistic, such as in a table or chart.

Again, descriptive data is helpful in explaining the current situation. In the opening example of LEGO , the company wanted to describe the situation regarding children’s use of its product. In order to gather a large group of opinions, a survey was created. The data that was collected through this survey allowed the company to measure the existing perceptions of parents so that alterations could be made to future plans for the company.

Experimental research , also known as causal research , helps to define a cause-and-effect relationship between two or more factors. This type of research goes beyond a correlation to determine which feature caused the reaction. Researchers generally use some type of experimental design to determine a causal relationship. An example is A/B testing, a situation where one group of research participants, group A, is exposed to one treatment and then compared to the group B participants, who experience a different situation. An example might be showing two different television commercials to a panel of consumers and then measuring the difference in perception of the product. Another example would be to have two separate packaging options available in different markets. This research would answer the question “Does one design sell better than the other?” Comparing that to the sales in each market would be part of a causal research study. 9

The final method of collecting data is through an ethnographic design. Ethnographic research is conducted in the field by watching people interact in their natural environment. For marketing research, ethnographic designs help to identify how a product is used, what actions are included in a selection, or how the consumer interacts with the product. 10

Examples of ethnographic research would be to observe how a consumer uses a particular product, such as baking soda. Although many people buy baking soda, its uses are vast. So are they using it as a refrigerator deodorizer, a toothpaste, to polish a belt buckle, or to use in baking a cake?

Select the Data Collection Method

Data collection is the systematic gathering of information that addresses the identified problem. What is the best method to do that? Picking the right method of collecting data requires that the researcher understand the target population and the design picked in the previous step. There is no perfect method; each method has both advantages and disadvantages, so it’s essential that the researcher understand the target population of the research and the research objectives in order to pick the best option.

Sometimes the data desired is best collected by watching the actions of consumers. For instance, how many cars pass a specific billboard in a day? What website led a potential customer to the company’s website? When are consumers most likely to use the snack vending machines at work? What time of day has the highest traffic on a social media post? What is the most streamed television program this week? Observational research is the collecting of data based on actions taken by those observed. Many data observations do not require the researched individuals to participate in the data collection effort to be highly valuable. Some observation requires an individual to watch and record the activities of the target population through personal observations .

Unobtrusive observation happens when those being observed aren’t aware that they are being watched. An example of an unobtrusive observation would be to watch how shoppers interact with a new stuffed animal display by using a one-way mirror. Marketers can identify which products were handled more often while also determining which were ignored.

Other methods can use technology to collect the data instead. Instances of mechanical observation include the use of vehicle recorders, which count the number of vehicles that pass a specific location. Computers can also assess the number of shoppers who enter a store, the most popular entry point for train station commuters, or the peak time for cars to park in a parking garage.

When you want to get a more in-depth response from research participants, one method is to complete a one-on-one interview . One-on-one interviews allow the researcher to ask specific questions that match the respondent’s unique perspective as well as follow-up questions that piggyback on responses already completed. An interview allows the researcher to have a deeper understanding of the needs of the respondent, which is another strength of this type of data collection. The downside of personal interviews it that a discussion can be very time-consuming and results in only one respondent’s answers. Therefore, in order to get a large sample of respondents, the interview method may not be the most efficient method.

Taking the benefits of an interview and applying them to a small group of people is the design of a focus group . A focus group is a small number of people, usually 8 to 12, who meet the sample requirements. These individuals together are asked a series of questions where they are encouraged to build upon each other’s responses, either by agreeing or disagreeing with the other group members. Focus groups are similar to interviews in that they allow the researcher, through a moderator, to get more detailed information from a small group of potential customers (see Figure 6.5 ).

Link to Learning

Focus groups.

Focus groups are a common method for gathering insights into consumer thinking and habits. Companies will use this information to develop or shift their initiatives. The best way to understand a focus group is to watch a few examples or explanations. TED-Ed has this video that explains how focus groups work.

You might be asking when it is best to use a focus group or a survey. Learn the differences, the pros and cons of each, and the specific types of questions you ask in both situations in this article .

Preparing for a focus group is critical to success. It requires knowing the material and questions while also managing the group of people. Watch this video to learn more about how to prepare for a focus group and the types of things to be aware of.

One of the benefits of a focus group over individual interviews is that synergy can be generated when a participant builds on another’s ideas. Additionally, for the same amount of time, a researcher can hear from multiple respondents instead of just one. 11 Of course, as with every method of data collection, there are downsides to a focus group as well. Focus groups have the potential to be overwhelmed by one or two aggressive personalities, and the format can discourage more reserved individuals from speaking up. Finally, like interviews, the responses in a focus group are qualitative in nature and are difficult to distill into an easy statistic or two.

Combining a variety of questions on one instrument is called a survey or questionnaire . Collecting primary data is commonly done through surveys due to their versatility. A survey allows the researcher to ask the same set of questions of a large group of respondents. Response rates of surveys are calculated by dividing the number of surveys completed by the total number attempted. Surveys are flexible and can collect a variety of quantitative and qualitative data. Questions can include simplified yes or no questions, select all that apply, questions that are on a scale, or a variety of open-ended types of questions. There are four types of surveys (see Table 6.2 ) we will cover, each with strengths and weaknesses defined.

Let’s start off with mailed surveys —surveys that are sent to potential respondents through a mail service. Mailed surveys used to be more commonly used due to the ability to reach every household. In some instances, a mailed survey is still the best way to collect data. For example, every 10 years the United States conducts a census of its population (see Figure 6.6 ). The first step in that data collection is to send every household a survey through the US Postal Service (USPS). The benefit is that respondents can complete and return the survey at their convenience. The downside of mailed surveys are expense and timeliness of responses. A mailed survey requires postage, both when it is sent to the recipient and when it is returned. That, along with the cost of printing, paper, and both sending and return envelopes, adds up quickly. Additionally, physically mailing surveys takes time. One method of reducing cost is to send with bulk-rate postage, but that slows down the delivery of the survey. Also, because of the convenience to the respondent, completed surveys may be returned several weeks after being sent. Finally, some mailed survey data must be manually entered into the analysis software, which can cause delays or issues due to entry errors.

Phone surveys are completed during a phone conversation with the respondent. Although the traditional phone survey requires a data collector to talk with the participant, current technology allows for computer-assisted voice surveys or surveys to be completed by asking the respondent to push a specific button for each potential answer. Phone surveys are time intensive but allow the respondent to ask questions and the surveyor to request additional information or clarification on a question if warranted. Phone surveys require the respondent to complete the survey simultaneously with the collector, which is a limitation as there are restrictions for when phone calls are allowed. According to Telephone Consumer Protection Act , approved by Congress in 1991, no calls can be made prior to 8:00 a.m. or after 9:00 p.m. in the recipient’s time zone. 12 Many restrictions are outlined in this original legislation and have been added to since due to ever-changing technology.

In-person surveys are when the respondent and data collector are physically in the same location. In-person surveys allow the respondent to share specific information, ask questions of the surveyor, and follow up on previous answers. Surveys collected through this method can take place in a variety of ways: through door-to-door collection, in a public location, or at a person’s workplace. Although in-person surveys are time intensive and require more labor to collect data than some other methods, in some cases it’s the best way to collect the required data. In-person surveys conducted through a door-to-door method is the follow-up used for the census if respondents do not complete the mailed survey. One of the downsides of in-person surveys is the reluctance of potential respondents to stop their current activity and answer questions. Furthermore, people may not feel comfortable sharing private or personal information during a face-to-face conversation.

Electronic surveys are sent or collected through digital means and is an opportunity that can be added to any of the above methods as well as some new delivery options. Surveys can be sent through email, and respondents can either reply to the email or open a hyperlink to an online survey (see Figure 6.7 ). Additionally, a letter can be mailed that asks members of the survey sample to log in to a website rather than to return a mailed response. Many marketers now use links, QR codes, or electronic devices to easily connect to a survey. Digitally collected data has the benefit of being less time intensive and is often a more economical way to gather and input responses than more manual methods. A survey that could take months to collect through the mail can be completed within a week through digital means.

Design the Sample

Although you might want to include every possible person who matches your target market in your research, it’s often not a feasible option, nor is it of value. If you did decide to include everyone, you would be completing a census of the population. Getting everyone to participate would be time-consuming and highly expensive, so instead marketers use a sample , whereby a portion of the whole is included in the research. It’s similar to the samples you might receive at the grocery store or ice cream shop; it isn’t a full serving, but it does give you a good taste of what the whole would be like.

So how do you know who should be included in the sample? Researchers identify parameters for their studies, called sample frames . A sample frame for one study may be college students who live on campus; for another study, it may be retired people in Dallas, Texas, or small-business owners who have fewer than 10 employees. The individual entities within the sampling frame would be considered a sampling unit . A sampling unit is each individual respondent that would be considered as matching the sample frame established by the research. If a researcher wants businesses to participate in a study, then businesses would be the sampling unit in that case.

The number of sampling units included in the research is the sample size . Many calculations can be conducted to indicate what the correct size of the sample should be. Issues to consider are the size of the population, the confidence level that the data represents the entire population, the ease of accessing the units in the frame, and the budget allocated for the research.

There are two main categories of samples: probability and nonprobability (see Figure 6.8 ). Probability samples are those in which every member of the sample has an identified likelihood of being selected. Several probability sample methods can be utilized. One probability sampling technique is called a simple random sample , where not only does every person have an identified likelihood of being selected to be in the sample, but every person also has an equal chance of exclusion. An example of a simple random sample would be to put the names of all members of a group into a hat and simply draw out a specific number to be included. You could say a raffle would be a good example of a simple random sample.

Another probability sample type is a stratified random sample , where the population is divided into groups by category and then a random sample of each category is selected to participate. For instance, if you were conducting a study of college students from your school and wanted to make sure you had all grade levels included, you might take the names of all students and split them into different groups by grade level—freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior. Then, from those categories, you would draw names out of each of the pools, or strata.

A nonprobability sample is a situation in which each potential member of the sample has an unknown likelihood of being selected in the sample. Research findings that are from a nonprobability sample cannot be applied beyond the sample. Several examples of nonprobability sampling are available to researchers and include two that we will look at more closely: convenience sampling and judgment sampling.

The first nonprobability sampling technique is a convenience sample . Just like it sounds, a convenience sample is when the researcher finds a group through a nonscientific method by picking potential research participants in a convenient manner. An example might be to ask other students in a class you are taking to complete a survey that you are doing for a class assignment or passing out surveys at a basketball game or theater performance.

A judgment sample is a type of nonprobability sample that allows the researcher to determine if they believe the individual meets the criteria set for the sample frame to complete the research. For instance, you may be interested in researching mothers, so you sit outside a toy store and ask an individual who is carrying a baby to participate.

Collect the Data

Now that all the plans have been established, the instrument has been created, and the group of participants has been identified, it is time to start collecting data. As explained earlier in this chapter, data collection is the process of gathering information from a variety of sources that will satisfy the research objectives defined in step one. Data collection can be as simple as sending out an email with a survey link enclosed or as complex as an experiment with hundreds of consumers. The method of collection directly influences the length of this process. Conducting personal interviews or completing an experiment, as previously mentioned, can add weeks or months to the research process, whereas sending out an electronic survey may allow a researcher to collect the necessary data in a few days. 13

Analyze and Interpret the Data

Once the data has been collected, the process of analyzing it may begin. Data analysis is the distillation of the information into a more understandable and actionable format. The analysis itself can take many forms, from the use of basic statistics to a more comprehensive data visualization process. First, let’s discuss some basic statistics that can be used to represent data.

The first is the mean of quantitative data. A mean is often defined as the arithmetic average of values. The formula is:

A common use of the mean calculation is with exam scores. Say, for example, you have earned the following scores on your marketing exams: 72, 85, 68, and 77. To find the mean, you would add up the four scores for a total of 302. Then, in order to generate a mean, that number needs to be divided by the number of exam scores included, which is 4. The mean would be 302 divided by 4, for a mean test score of 75.5. Understanding the mean can help to determine, with one number, the weight of a particular value.

Another commonly used statistic is median. The median is often referred to as the middle number. To generate a median, all the numeric answers are placed in order, and the middle number is the median. Median is a common statistic when identifying the income level of a specific geographic region. 14 For instance, the median household income for Albuquerque, New Mexico, between 2015 and 2019 was $52,911. 15 In this case, there are just as many people with an income above the amount as there are below.

Mode is another statistic that is used to represent data of all types, as it can be used with quantitative or qualitative data and represents the most frequent answer. Eye color, hair color, and vehicle color can all be presented with a mode statistic. Additionally, some researchers expand on the concept of mode and present the frequency of all responses, not just identifying the most common response. Data such as this can easily be presented in a frequency graph, 16 such as the one in Figure 6.9 .

Additionally, researchers use other analyses to represent the data rather than to present the entirety of each response. For example, maybe the relationship between two values is important to understand. In this case, the researcher may share the data as a cross tabulation (see Figure 6.10 ). Below is the same data as above regarding social media use cross tabulated with gender—as you can see, the data is more descriptive when you can distinguish between the gender identifiers and how much time is spent per day on social media.

Not all data can be presented in a graphical format due to the nature of the information. Sometimes with qualitative methods of data collection, the responses cannot be distilled into a simple statistic or graph. In that case, the use of quotations, otherwise known as verbatims , can be used. These are direct statements presented by the respondents. Often you will see a verbatim statement when reading a movie or book review. The critic’s statements are used in part or in whole to represent their feelings about the newly released item.

Infographics

As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. For this reason, research results are often shown in a graphical format in which data can be taken in quickly, called an infographic .

Check out this infographic on what components make for a good infographic. As you can see, a good infographic needs four components: data, design, a story, and the ability to share it with others. Without all four pieces, it is not as valuable a resource as it could be. The ultimate infographic is represented as the intersection of all four.

Infographics are particularly advantageous online. Refer to this infographic on why they are beneficial to use online .

Prepare the Research Report

The marketing research process concludes by sharing the generated data and makes recommendations for future actions. What starts as simple data must be interpreted into an analysis. All information gathered should be conveyed in order to make decisions for future marketing actions. One item that is often part of the final step is to discuss areas that may have been missed with the current project or any area of further study identified while completing it. Without the final step of the marketing research project, the first six steps are without value. It is only after the information is shared, through a formal presentation or report, that those recommendations can be implemented and improvements made. The first six steps are used to generate information, while the last is to initiate action. During this last step is also when an evaluation of the process is conducted. If this research were to be completed again, how would we do it differently? Did the right questions get answered with the survey questions posed to the respondents? Follow-up on some of these key questions can lead to additional research, a different study, or further analysis of data collected.

Methods of Quantifying Marketing Research

One of the ways of sharing information gained through marketing research is to quantify the research . Quantifying the research means to take a variety of data and compile into a quantity that is more easily understood. This is a simple process if you want to know how many people attended a basketball game, but if you want to quantify the number of students who made a positive comment on a questionnaire, it can be a little more complicated. Researchers have a variety of methods to collect and then share these different scores. Below are some of the most common types used in business.

Is a customer aware of a product, brand, or company? What is meant by awareness? Awareness in the context of marketing research is when a consumer is familiar with the product, brand, or company. It does not assume that the consumer has tried the product or has purchased it. Consumers are just aware. That is a measure that many businesses find valuable. There are several ways to measure awareness. For instance, the first type of awareness is unaided awareness . This type of awareness is when no prompts for a product, brand, or company are given. If you were collecting information on fast-food restaurants, you might ask a respondent to list all the fast-food restaurants that serve a chicken sandwich. Aided awareness would be providing a list of products, brands, or companies and the respondent selects from the list. For instance, if you give a respondent a list of fast-food restaurants and ask them to mark all the locations with a chicken sandwich, you are collecting data through an aided method. Collecting these answers helps a company determine how the business location compares to those of its competitors. 17

Customer Satisfaction (CSAT)

Have you ever been asked to complete a survey at the end of a purchase? Many businesses complete research on buying, returning, or other customer service processes. A customer satisfaction score , also known as CSAT, is a measure of how satisfied customers are with the product, brand, or service. A CSAT score is usually on a scale of 0 to 100 percent. 18 But what constitutes a “good” CSAT score? Although what is identified as good can vary by industry, normally anything in the range from 75 to 85 would be considered good. Of course, a number higher than 85 would be considered exceptional. 19

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) and Customer Effort Score (CES)

Other metrics often used are a customer acquisition cost (CAC) and customer effort score (CES). How much does it cost a company to gain customers? That’s the purpose of calculating the customer acquisition cost. To calculate the customer acquisition cost , a company would need to total all expenses that were accrued to gain new customers. This would include any advertising, public relations, social media postings, etc. When a total cost is determined, it is divided by the number of new customers gained through this campaign.

The final score to discuss is the customer effort score , also known as a CES. The CES is a “survey used to measure the ease of service experience with an organization.” 20 Companies that are easy to work with have a better CES than a company that is notorious for being difficult. An example would be to ask a consumer about the ease of making a purchase online by incorporating a one-question survey after a purchase is confirmed. If a number of responses come back negative or slightly negative, the company will realize that it needs to investigate and develop a more user-friendly process.

Knowledge Check

It’s time to check your knowledge on the concepts presented in this section. Refer to the Answer Key at the end of the book for feedback.

• Defining the problem
• Developing the research plan
• Selecting a data collection method
• Designing the sample
• you are able to send it to all households in an area
• it is inexpensive
• responses are automatically loaded into the software
• the data comes in quickly
• Primary data
• Secondary data
• Secondary and primary data
• Professional data
• It shows how respondents answered two variables in relation to each other and can help determine patterns by different groups of respondents.
• By presenting the data in the form of a picture, the information is easier for the reader to understand.
• It is an easy way to see how often one answer is selected by the respondents.
• This analysis can used to present interview or focus group data.

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Want to cite, share, or modify this book? This book uses the Creative Commons Attribution License and you must attribute OpenStax.

Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/principles-marketing/pages/1-unit-introduction

• Authors: Dr. Maria Gomez Albrecht, Dr. Mark Green, Linda Hoffman
• Publisher/website: OpenStax
• Book title: Principles of Marketing
• Publication date: Jan 25, 2023
• Location: Houston, Texas
• Book URL: https://openstax.org/books/principles-marketing/pages/1-unit-introduction
• Section URL: https://openstax.org/books/principles-marketing/pages/6-3-steps-in-a-successful-marketing-research-plan

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How to write a business plan for a market research and survey company?

Writing a business plan for a market research and survey company can be an intimidating task, especially for those just starting.

This in-depth guide is designed to help entrepreneurs like you understand how to create a comprehensive business plan so that you can approach the exercise with method and confidence.

We'll cover: why writing a market research and survey company business plan is so important - both when starting up, and when running and growing the business - what information you need to include in your plan, how it should be structured, and what tools you can use to get the job done efficiently.

Let's get started!

In this guide:

Why write a business plan for a market research and survey company?

• What information is needed to create a business plan for a market research and survey company?
• What goes in the financial forecast for a market research and survey company?
• What goes in the written part of a market research and survey company business plan?
• What tool can I use to write my market research and survey company business plan?

Understanding the document's scope and goals will help you easily grasp its structure and content. Before diving into the specifics of the plan, let's take a moment to explore the key reasons why having a market research and survey company business plan is so crucial.

To have a clear roadmap to grow the business

Small businesses rarely experience a constant and predictable environment. Economic cycles go up and down, while the business landscape is mutating constantly with new regulations, technologies, competitors, and consumer behaviours emerging when we least expect it.

In this dynamic context, it's essential to have a clear roadmap for your market research and survey company. Otherwise, you are navigating in the dark which is dangerous given that - as a business owner - your capital is at risk.

That's why crafting a well-thought-out business plan is crucial to ensure the long-term success and sustainability of your venture.

To create an effective business plan, you'll need to take a step-by-step approach. First, you'll have to assess your current position (if you're already in business), and then identify where you'd like your market research and survey company to be in the next three to five years.

Once you have a clear destination for your market research and survey company, you'll focus on three key areas:

• Resources: you'll determine the human, equipment, and capital resources needed to reach your goals successfully.
• Speed: you'll establish the optimal pace at which your business needs to grow if it is to meet its objectives within the desired timeframe.
• Risks: you'll identify and address potential risks you might encounter along the way.

By going through this process regularly, you'll be able to make informed decisions about resource allocation, paving the way for the long-term success of your business.

To anticipate future cash flows

Regularly comparing your actual financial performance to the projections in the financial forecast of your market research and survey company's business plan gives you the ability to monitor your business's financial health and make necessary adjustments as needed.

This practice allows you to detect potential financial issues, such as unexpected cash shortfalls before they escalate into major problems. Giving you time to find additional financing or put in place corrective measures.

Additionally, it helps you identify growth opportunities, like excess cash flow that could be allocated to launch new products and services or expand into new markets.

Staying on track with these regular comparisons enables you to make well-informed decisions about the amount of financing your business might require, or the excess cash flow you can expect to generate from your main business activities.

To secure financing

Whether you are a startup or an existing business, writing a detailed market research and survey company business plan is essential when seeking financing from banks or investors.

This makes sense given what we've just seen: financiers want to ensure you have a clear roadmap and visibility on your future cash flows.

Banks will use the information included in the plan to assess your borrowing capacity (how much debt your business can support) and your ability to repay the loan before deciding whether they will extend credit to your business and on what terms.

Similarly, investors will review your plan carefully to assess if their investment can generate an attractive return on investment.

To do so, they will be looking for evidence that your market research and survey company has the potential for healthy growth, profitability, and cash flow generation over time.

Now that you understand why it is important to create a business plan for a market research and survey company, let's take a look at what information is needed to create one.

Information needed to create a business plan for a market research and survey company

Drafting a market research and survey company business plan requires research so that you can project sales, investments and cost accurately in your financial forecast, and convince the reader that there is a viable commercial opportunity to be seized.

Below, we'll focus on three critical pieces of information you should gather before starting to write your plan.

Carrying out market research for a market research and survey company

As you consider writing your business plan for a market research and survey company, conducting market research becomes a vital step to ensure accurate and realistic financial projections.

Market research provides valuable insights into your target customer base, competitors, pricing strategies, and other key factors that can significantly impact the commercial success of your business.

Through this research, you may uncover trends that could influence your market research and survey company.

1) You could discover that many customers prefer to receive information about products and services through digital channels, such as websites or social media platforms. 2) You might find that customers are increasingly interested in comprehensive market research and survey services, rather than individual surveys.

Such market trends play a significant role in forecasting revenue, as they offer valuable data about potential customers' spending habits and preferences.

By incorporating these findings into your financial projections, you can present investors with more accurate information, helping them make informed decisions about investing in your market research and survey company.

Developing the sales and marketing plan for a market research and survey company

As you embark on creating your market research and survey company business plan, it is crucial to budget sales and marketing expenses beforehand.

A well-defined sales and marketing plan should include precise projections of the actions required to acquire and retain customers. It will also outline the necessary workforce to execute these initiatives and the budget required for promotions, advertising, and other marketing efforts.

This approach ensures that the appropriate amount of resources is allocated to these activities, aligning with the sales and growth objectives outlined in your business plan.

The staffing and equipment needs of a market research and survey company

Whether you are at the beginning stages of your market research and survey company or expanding its horizons, having a clear plan for recruitment and capital expenditures (investment in equipment and real estate) is vital to ensure your business's success.

To achieve this, both the recruitment and investment plans must align coherently with the projected timing and level of growth in your forecast. It is essential to secure appropriate funding for these plans.

A market research and survey company might incur staffing costs such as salaries for research analysts, survey administrators, and data entry personnel. It might also incur costs for equipment such as computers, software licenses, and survey and analysis tools.

To create a financial forecast that accurately represents your business's outlook, remember to factor in other day-to-day operating expenses.

Now that you have all the necessary information, it's time to dive in and start creating your business plan and developing the financial forecast for your market research and survey company.

What goes into your market research and survey company's financial forecast?

The financial forecast of your market research and survey company will enable you to assess the profitability potential of your business in the coming years and how much capital is required to fund the actions planned in the business plan.

The four key outputs of a financial forecast for a market research and survey company are:

• The profit and loss (P&L) statement ,
• The projected balance sheet ,
• The cash flow forecast ,
• And the sources and uses table .

Let's take a closer look at each of these.

The projected P&L statement

The projected P&L statement for a market research and survey company shows how much revenue and profit your business is expected to make in the future.

A healthy market research and survey company's P&L statement should show:

• Sales growing at (minimum) or above (better) inflation
• Stable (minimum) or expanding (better) profit margins
• A healthy level of net profitability

This will of course depend on the stage of your business: numbers for a startup will look different than for an established market research and survey company.

The projected balance sheet of your market research and survey company

Your market research and survey company's forecasted balance sheet enables the reader of your plan to assess your financial structure, working capital, and investment policy.

It is composed of three types of elements: assets, liabilities and equity:

• Assets: represent what the business owns and uses to produce cash flows. It includes resources such as cash, equipment, and accounts receivable (money owed by clients).
• Liabilities: represent funds advanced to the business by lenders and other creditors. It includes items such as accounts payable (money owed to suppliers), taxes due and loans.
• Equity: is the combination of what has been invested by the business owners and the cumulative profits and losses generated by the business to date (which are called retained earnings). Equity is a proxy for the value of the owner's stake in the business.

Your market research and survey company's balance sheet will usually be analyzed in conjunction with the other financial statements included in your forecast.

Two key points of focus will be:

• Your market research and survey company's liquidity: does your business have sufficient cash and short-term assets to pay what it owes over the next 12 months?
• And its solvency: does your business have the capacity to repay its debt over the medium-term?

The cash flow forecast

As we've seen earlier in this guide, monitoring future cash flows is the key to success and the only way of ensuring that your market research and survey company has enough cash to operate.

As you can expect showing future cash flows is the main role of the cash flow forecast in your market research and survey company business plan.

It is best practice to organise the cash flow statement by nature in order to show the cash impact of the following areas:

• Cash flow generated from operations: the operating cash flow shows how much cash is generated or consumed by the business's commercial activities
• Cash flow from investing activities: the investing cash flow shows how much cash is being invested in capital expenditure (equipment, real estate, etc.) either to maintain the business's equipment or to expand its capabilities
• Cash flow from financing activities: the financing cash flow shows how much cash is raised or distributed to financiers

Looking at the cash flow forecast helps you to make sure that your business has enough cash to keep running, and can help you anticipate potential cash shortfalls.

Your market research and survey company business plan will normally include both yearly and monthly cash flow forecasts so that the readers can view the impact of seasonality on your business cash position and generation.

The initial financing plan

The initial financing plan, also known as a sources and uses table, is a valuable resource to have in your business plan when starting your market research and survey company as it reveals the origins of the money needed to establish the business (sources) and how it will be allocated (uses).

Having this table helps show what costs are involved in setting up your market research and survey company, how risks are shared between founders, investors and lenders, and what the starting cash position will be. This cash position needs to be sufficient to sustain operations until the business reaches a break-even point.

Now that you have a clear understanding of what goes into the financial forecast of your market research and survey company business plan, let's shift our focus to the written part of the plan.

The written part of a market research and survey company business plan

The written part of the business plan is where you will explain what your business does and how it operates, what your target market is, whom you compete against, and what strategy you will put in place to seize the commercial opportunity you've identified.

Having this context is key for the reader to form a view on whether or not they believe that your plan is achievable and the numbers in your forecast realistic.

The written part of a market research and survey company business plan is composed of 7 main sections:

• The executive summary
• The presentation of the company
• The products and services
• The market analysis
• The strategy
• The operations
• The financial plan

Let's go through the content of each section in more detail!

1. The executive summary

In your market research and survey company's business plan, the first section is the executive summary — a captivating overview of your plan that aims to pique the reader's interest and leave them eager to learn more about your business.

When crafting the executive summary, start with an introduction to your business, including its name, concept, location, how long it has been running, and what sets it apart. Briefly mention the products and services you plan to offer and your target customer profile.

Following that, provide an overview of the addressable market for your market research and survey company, current trends, and potential growth opportunities.

Next, include a summary of key financial figures like projected revenues, profits, and cash flows.

Finally, in the "ask" section, detail any funding requirements you may have.

2. The presentation of the company

The second section in your market research and survey company's business plan should focus on the structure and ownership, location, and management team of the company.

The structure and ownership part provides an overview of the legal structure of the business, who the owners are and how much each has invested and owns. If you are seeking financing it is important that the reader gets a clear picture of which legal entity is receiving the funds, and who controls the business.

The location part should give an overview of the premises from which the company is operating, and why that location is of particular interest (catchment area, accessibility, amenities nearby, etc.).

When describing the location of your market research and survey company, you could emphasize the potential it has to draw customers from a wide variety of demographics. You may point out that the location could offer access to a diverse range of people who could provide valuable feedback about their experiences with products and services. You could also emphasize the potential for growth in the area, and how the company could benefit from the influx of new customers that could come with a growing population. Additionally, you could talk about the potential for easy access to major transportation hubs, which could make it easier for clients to access the market research and survey services.

Finally, you should introduce the management team. Explain each member's role, background, and experience.

It is also important to emphasize any past successes that the members of the management team have achieved, and how long they've been working together, as this will help potential lenders or investors understand why they should trust in their leadership.

3. The products and services section

The products and services section of your business plan should include a detailed description of what your company offers, who are the target customers, and what distribution channels are part of your go-to-market. 

For example, your market research and survey company might offer services such as designing and executing surveys to measure customer satisfaction, analyzing customer feedback to gain insights into areas needing improvement, and providing detailed reports on customer trends. These services could help businesses better understand their customer base and use the data to make informed decisions in order to improve the customer experience and increase customer loyalty.

4. The market analysis

When you present your market analysis in your market research and survey company business plan, it's crucial to include detailed information about customers' demographics and segmentation, target market, competition, barriers to entry, and any relevant regulations.

The main objective of this section is to help the reader understand the size and attractiveness of the market while demonstrating your solid understanding of the industry.

Begin with the demographics and segmentation subsection, providing an overview of the addressable market for your market research and survey company, the key trends in the marketplace, and introducing different customer segments along with their preferences in terms of purchasing habits and budgets.

Next, focus on your target market, zooming in on the specific customer segments your market research and survey company aims to serve and explaining how your products and services fulfil their distinct needs.

For example, your target market might include small business owners who want to gain a better understanding of their customer base. They may want to conduct surveys to get feedback on their services and products, or to understand the wants and needs of their target audience. This market segment may also want to use market research to compare their own performance to that of their competitors.

Then proceed to the competition subsection, where you introduce your main competitors and highlight what sets you apart from them.

Finally, conclude your market analysis with an overview of the key regulations applicable to your market research and survey company.

5. The strategy section

When you write the strategy section of your market research and survey company business plan, remember to cover key elements such as your competitive edge, pricing strategy, sales & marketing plan, milestones, and risks and mitigants.

In the competitive edge subsection, elaborate on what makes your company stand out from competitors. This becomes especially important if you're a startup, aiming to carve a place for yourself amidst established players in the marketplace.

The pricing strategy subsection should demonstrate how you plan to maintain profitability while offering competitive prices to attract customers.

Outline your sales & marketing plan, detailing how you'll reach out to new customers and retain existing ones through loyalty programs or special offers.

For the milestones subsection, outline your company's achievements to date and your main objectives for the future, complete with specific dates to set clear expectations for progress.

Lastly, the risks and mitigants subsection should address the main risks that could affect your plan's execution. Explain the measures you've put in place to minimize these risks, assuring potential investors or lenders.

Your market research and survey company may face the risk of data breaches and cyber-attacks. With confidential customer data and survey results stored on databases, your company could be vulnerable to hackers and malicious software that could compromise the security of your systems and data. Your company may also face the risk of not being able to accurately measure customer sentiment and market trends. If your surveys and research methods are not effective or are not tailored to the right target audience, there is a risk that they might not provide the necessary insights to help inform your clients’ business decisions.

6. The operations section

The operations of your market research and survey company must be presented in detail in your business plan.

Begin by addressing your staff, specifying the main roles and your recruitment plan to support the anticipated growth. Outline the qualifications and experience needed for each role and discuss your recruitment strategies, which may involve using job boards, referrals, or headhunters.

Next, clearly state your market research and survey company's operating hours, allowing the reader to gauge the adequacy of your staffing levels. Additionally, mention any considerations for varying opening times during peak seasons and your approach to handling customer queries outside regular operating hours.

The key assets and intellectual property (IP) required to run your business should also be highlighted. If you rely on licenses, trademarks, physical structures like equipment or property, or lease agreements, ensure they are well-documented in this section.

You may have key assets such as software and hardware used to conduct market research and surveys. This could include proprietary technology such as survey platforms, data collection tools, and analytics software. Additionally, your company might have intellectual property such as survey designs, data analysis methods, and customer insights. These elements could help set your company apart from the competition and provide a valuable service to clients.

Finally, provide a comprehensive list of suppliers you intend to collaborate with, along with a breakdown of their services and main commercial terms, such as price, payment terms, break clauses and contract duration. Investors often seek insight into the reasons behind your supplier choices, which may include a preference for higher-quality products or established relationships from past ventures.

7. The presentation of the financial plan

The financial plan section is where we will include the financial forecast we talked about earlier in this guide.

Now that you have a clear idea of the content of a market research and survey company business plan, let's look at some of the tools you can use to create yours.

What tool should I use to write my market research and survey company's business plan?

There are two main ways of creating your market research and survey company business plan:

• Using specialized business planning software,
• Hiring a business plan writer.

Using an online business plan software for your market research and survey company's business plan

Using online business planning software is the most efficient and modern way to write a market research and survey company business plan.

There are several advantages to using specialized software:

• You can easily create your financial forecast by letting the software take care of the financial calculations for you without errors
• You are guided through the writing process by detailed instructions and examples for each part of the plan
• You can access a library of dozens of complete business plan samples and templates for inspiration
• You get a professional business plan, formatted and ready to be sent to your bank or investors
• You can easily track your actual financial performance against your financial forecast
• You can create scenarios to stress test your forecast's main assumptions
• You can easily update your forecast as time goes by to maintain visibility on future cash flows
• You have a friendly support team on standby to assist you when you are stuck

If you're interested in using this type of solution, you can try The Business Plan Shop for free by signing up here .

Hiring a business plan writer to write your market research and survey company's business plan

Outsourcing your market research and survey company business plan to a business plan writer can also be a viable option.

Business plan writers are experienced in writing business plans and adept at creating financial forecasts without errors. Furthermore, hiring a consultant can save you time and allow you to focus on the day-to-day operations of your business.

However, hiring business plan writers is expensive as you are paying for the software used by the consultant, plus their time, and their profit margin of course.

From experience, you need to budget at least £1.5k ($2.0k) excluding tax for a complete business plan, more if you need to make changes after the initial version (which happens frequently after the initial meetings with lenders or investors).

You also need to be careful when seeking investment. Investors want their money to be used to grow the business, not spent on consulting fees. Therefore, the amount you spend on business plan writing services (and other consulting services such as legal services) needs to be negligible relative to the amount raised.

The other drawback is that you usually don't own the business plan itself: you just get the output, while the actual document is saved in the consultant's business plan software - which makes it difficult to maintain the document up to date without hiring the consultant on a retainer.

For these reasons, outsourcing the market research and survey company business plan to a business plan writer should be considered carefully, weighing both the advantages and disadvantages of hiring outside help.

Ultimately, it may be the right decision for some businesses, while others may find it beneficial to write their business plan using online software.

Why not create your market research and survey company's business plan using Word or Excel?

Using Microsoft Excel and Word (or their Google, Apple, or open-source equivalents) to write a market research and survey company business plan is a terrible idea.

For starters, creating an accurate and error-free financial forecast on Excel (or any spreadsheet) is very technical and requires both a strong grasp of accounting principles and solid skills in financial modelling.

As a result, it is unlikely anyone will trust your numbers unless - like us at The Business Plan Shop - you hold a degree in finance and accounting and have significant financial modelling experience in your past.

The second reason is that it is inefficient. Building forecasts on spreadsheets was the only option in the 1990s and early 2000s, nowadays technology has advanced and software can do it much faster and much more accurately.

And with the rise of AI, software is also becoming smarter at helping us detect mistakes in our forecasts and helping us analyse the numbers to make better decisions.

Also, using software makes it easy to compare actuals vs. forecasts and maintain our forecasts up to date to maintain visibility on future cash flows - as we discussed earlier in this guide - whereas this is a pain to do with a spreadsheet.

That's for the forecast, but what about the written part of my market research and survey company business plan?

This part is less error-prone, but here also software brings tremendous gains in productivity:

• Word processors don't include instructions and examples for each part of your business plan
• Word processors don't update your numbers automatically when they change in your forecast
• Word processors don't handle the formatting for you

Overall, while Word or Excel may be viable options for creating a market research and survey company business plan for some entrepreneurs, it is by far not the best or most efficient solution.

• Using business plan software is a modern and cost-effective way of writing and maintaining business plans.
• A business plan is not a one-shot exercise as maintaining it current is the only way to keep visibility on your future cash flows.
• A business plan has 2 main parts: a financial forecast outlining the funding requirements of your market research and survey company and the expected growth, profits and cash flows for the next 3 to 5 years; and a written part which gives the reader the information needed to decide if they believe the forecast is achievable.

We hope that this in-depth guide met your expectations and that you now have a clear understanding of how to write your market research and survey company business plan. Do not hesitate to contact our friendly team if you have questions additional questions we haven't addressed here.

Also on The Business Plan Shop

• How to write a business plan to secure a bank loan?
• Key steps to write a business plan?
• Top mistakes to avoid in your business plan

Do you know entrepreneurs interested in starting or growing a market research and survey company? Share this article with them!

Founder & CEO at The Business Plan Shop Ltd

Guillaume Le Brouster is a seasoned entrepreneur and financier.

Guillaume has been an entrepreneur for more than a decade and has first-hand experience of starting, running, and growing a successful business.

Prior to being a business owner, Guillaume worked in investment banking and private equity, where he spent most of his time creating complex financial forecasts, writing business plans, and analysing financial statements to make financing and investment decisions.

Guillaume holds a Master's Degree in Finance from ESCP Business School and a Bachelor of Science in Business & Management from Paris Dauphine University.

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How to write a research plan: Step-by-step guide

Last updated

30 January 2024

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Today’s businesses and institutions rely on data and analytics to inform their product and service decisions. These metrics influence how organizations stay competitive and inspire innovation. However, gathering data and insights requires carefully constructed research, and every research project needs a roadmap. This is where a research plan comes into play.

There’s general research planning; then there’s an official, well-executed research plan. Whatever data-driven research project you’re gearing up for, the research plan will be your framework for execution. The plan should also be detailed and thorough, with a diligent set of criteria to formulate your research efforts. Not including these key elements in your plan can be just as harmful as having no plan at all.

Read this step-by-step guide for writing a detailed research plan that can apply to any project, whether it’s scientific, educational, or business-related.

• What is a research plan?

A research plan is a documented overview of a project in its entirety, from end to end. It details the research efforts, participants, and methods needed, along with any anticipated results. It also outlines the project’s goals and mission, creating layers of steps to achieve those goals within a specified timeline.

Without a research plan, you and your team are flying blind, potentially wasting time and resources to pursue research without structured guidance.

The principal investigator, or PI, is responsible for facilitating the research oversight. They will create the research plan and inform team members and stakeholders of every detail relating to the project. The PI will also use the research plan to inform decision-making throughout the project.

• Why do you need a research plan?

Create a research plan before starting any official research to maximize every effort in pursuing and collecting the research data. Crucially, the plan will model the activities needed at each phase of the research project.

Like any roadmap, a research plan serves as a valuable tool providing direction for those involved in the project—both internally and externally. It will keep you and your immediate team organized and task-focused while also providing necessary definitions and timelines so you can execute your project initiatives with full understanding and transparency.

External stakeholders appreciate a working research plan because it’s a great communication tool, documenting progress and changing dynamics as they arise. Any participants of your planned research sessions will be informed about the purpose of your study, while the exercises will be based on the key messaging outlined in the official plan.

Here are some of the benefits of creating a research plan document for every project:

Project organization and structure

Well-informed participants

All stakeholders and teams align in support of the project

Clearly defined project definitions and purposes

Distractions are eliminated, prioritizing task focus

Timely management of individual task schedules and roles

Costly reworks are avoided

• What should a research plan include?

The different aspects of your research plan will depend on the nature of the project. However, most official research plan documents will include the core elements below. Each aims to define the problem statement, devising an official plan for seeking a solution.

Specific project goals and individual objectives

Ideal strategies or methods for reaching those goals

Required resources

Descriptions of the target audience, sample sizes, demographics, and scopes

Key performance indicators (KPIs)

Project background

Research and testing support

Preliminary studies and progress reporting mechanisms

Cost estimates and change order processes

Depending on the research project’s size and scope, your research plan could be brief—perhaps only a few pages of documented plans. Alternatively, it could be a fully comprehensive report. Either way, it’s an essential first step in dictating your project’s facilitation in the most efficient and effective way.

• How to write a research plan for your project

When you start writing your research plan, aim to be detailed about each step, requirement, and idea. The more time you spend curating your research plan, the more precise your research execution efforts will be.

Account for every potential scenario, and be sure to address each and every aspect of the research.

Consider following this flow to develop a great research plan for your project:

Define your project’s purpose

Start by defining your project’s purpose. Identify what your project aims to accomplish and what you are researching. Remember to use clear language.

Thinking about the project’s purpose will help you set realistic goals and inform how you divide tasks and assign responsibilities. These individual tasks will be your stepping stones to reach your overarching goal.

Additionally, you’ll want to identify the specific problem, the usability metrics needed, and the intended solutions.

Know the following three things about your project’s purpose before you outline anything else:

What you’re doing

Why you’re doing it

What you expect from it

Identify individual objectives

With your overarching project objectives in place, you can identify any individual goals or steps needed to reach those objectives. Break them down into phases or steps. You can work backward from the project goal and identify every process required to facilitate it.

Be mindful to identify each unique task so that you can assign responsibilities to various team members. At this point in your research plan development, you’ll also want to assign priority to those smaller, more manageable steps and phases that require more immediate or dedicated attention.

Select research methods

Research methods might include any of the following:

User interviews: this is a qualitative research method where researchers engage with participants in one-on-one or group conversations. The aim is to gather insights into their experiences, preferences, and opinions to uncover patterns, trends, and data.

Field studies: this approach allows for a contextual understanding of behaviors, interactions, and processes in real-world settings. It involves the researcher immersing themselves in the field, conducting observations, interviews, or experiments to gather in-depth insights.

Card sorting: participants categorize information by sorting content cards into groups based on their perceived similarities. You might use this process to gain insights into participants’ mental models and preferences when navigating or organizing information on websites, apps, or other systems.

Focus groups: use organized discussions among select groups of participants to provide relevant views and experiences about a particular topic.

Diary studies: ask participants to record their experiences, thoughts, and activities in a diary over a specified period. This method provides a deeper understanding of user experiences, uncovers patterns, and identifies areas for improvement.

Five-second testing: participants are shown a design, such as a web page or interface, for just five seconds. They then answer questions about their initial impressions and recall, allowing you to evaluate the design’s effectiveness.

Surveys: get feedback from participant groups with structured surveys. You can use online forms, telephone interviews, or paper questionnaires to reveal trends, patterns, and correlations.

Tree testing: tree testing involves researching web assets through the lens of findability and navigability. Participants are given a textual representation of the site’s hierarchy (the “tree”) and asked to locate specific information or complete tasks by selecting paths.

Usability testing: ask participants to interact with a product, website, or application to evaluate its ease of use. This method enables you to uncover areas for improvement in digital key feature functionality by observing participants using the product.

Live website testing: research and collect analytics that outlines the design, usability, and performance efficiencies of a website in real time.

There are no limits to the number of research methods you could use within your project. Just make sure your research methods help you determine the following:

What do you plan to do with the research findings?

What decisions will this research inform? How can your stakeholders leverage the research data and results?

Recruit participants and allocate tasks

Next, identify the participants needed to complete the research and the resources required to complete the tasks. Different people will be proficient at different tasks, and having a task allocation plan will allow everything to run smoothly.

Prepare a thorough project summary

Every well-designed research plan will feature a project summary. This official summary will guide your research alongside its communications or messaging. You’ll use the summary while recruiting participants and during stakeholder meetings. It can also be useful when conducting field studies.

Ensure this summary includes all the elements of your research project. Separate the steps into an easily explainable piece of text that includes the following:

An introduction: the message you’ll deliver to participants about the interview, pre-planned questioning, and testing tasks.

Interview questions: prepare questions you intend to ask participants as part of your research study, guiding the sessions from start to finish.

An exit message: draft messaging your teams will use to conclude testing or survey sessions. These should include the next steps and express gratitude for the participant’s time.

Create a realistic timeline

While your project might already have a deadline or a results timeline in place, you’ll need to consider the time needed to execute it effectively.

Realistically outline the time needed to properly execute each supporting phase of research and implementation. And, as you evaluate the necessary schedules, be sure to include additional time for achieving each milestone in case any changes or unexpected delays arise.

For this part of your research plan, you might find it helpful to create visuals to ensure your research team and stakeholders fully understand the information.

Determine how to present your results

A research plan must also describe how you intend to present your results. Depending on the nature of your project and its goals, you might dedicate one team member (the PI) or assume responsibility for communicating the findings yourself.

In this part of the research plan, you’ll articulate how you’ll share the results. Detail any materials you’ll use, such as:

Presentations and slides

A project report booklet

A project findings pamphlet

Documents with key takeaways and statistics

Graphic visuals to support your findings

• Format your research plan

As you create your research plan, you can enjoy a little creative freedom. A plan can assume many forms, so format it how you see fit. Determine the best layout based on your specific project, intended communications, and the preferences of your teams and stakeholders.

Find format inspiration among the following layouts:

Written outlines

Narrative storytelling

Visual mapping

Graphic timelines

Remember, the research plan format you choose will be subject to change and adaptation as your research and findings unfold. However, your final format should ideally outline questions, problems, opportunities, and expectations.

• Research plan example

Imagine you’ve been tasked with finding out how to get more customers to order takeout from an online food delivery platform. The goal is to improve satisfaction and retain existing customers. You set out to discover why more people aren’t ordering and what it is they do want to order or experience. 

You identify the need for a research project that helps you understand what drives customer loyalty. But before you jump in and start calling past customers, you need to develop a research plan—the roadmap that provides focus, clarity, and realistic details to the project.

Here’s an example outline of a research plan you might put together:

Project title

Project members involved in the research plan

Purpose of the project (provide a summary of the research plan’s intent)

Objective 1 (provide a short description for each objective)

Objective 2

Objective 3

Proposed timeline

Audience (detail the group you want to research, such as customers or non-customers)

Budget (how much you think it might cost to do the research)

Risk factors/contingencies (any potential risk factors that may impact the project’s success)

Remember, your research plan doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel—it just needs to fit your project’s unique needs and aims.

Customizing a research plan template

Some companies offer research plan templates to help get you started. However, it may make more sense to develop your own customized plan template. Be sure to include the core elements of a great research plan with your template layout, including the following:

Introductions to participants and stakeholders

Background problems and needs statement

Significance, ethics, and purpose

Research methods, questions, and designs

Preliminary beliefs and expectations

Implications and intended outcomes

Realistic timelines for each phase

Conclusion and presentations

How many pages should a research plan be?

Generally, a research plan can vary in length between 500 to 1,500 words. This is roughly three pages of content. More substantial projects will be 2,000 to 3,500 words, taking up four to seven pages of planning documents.

What is the difference between a research plan and a research proposal?

A research plan is a roadmap to success for research teams. A research proposal, on the other hand, is a dissertation aimed at convincing or earning the support of others. Both are relevant in creating a guide to follow to complete a project goal.

What are the seven steps to developing a research plan?

While each research project is different, it’s best to follow these seven general steps to create your research plan:

Defining the problem

Identifying goals

Choosing research methods

Recruiting participants

Preparing the brief or summary

Establishing task timelines

Defining how you will present the findings

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Target Market Examples

Elon Glucklich

7 min. read

Updated March 20, 2024

Imagine your dream is to own a diner.

You have restaurant experience and a great location in mind – you just need the bank to approve your loan to get started.

But the bank has questions. A big one it wants answered is: who is your target market?

It might be tempting just to say, “hungry diners.” But you’ll need to dig deeper to truly define your target market . 

In this article, we’ll use this diner scenario to walk through the market research process and illustrate what the final result could look like.

Questions about your target market

Before you even set foot in the bank, you should already have asked – and taken steps to answer – several key questions about your target market.

Let’s call our example business the Bplans Diner. Where is that perfect location you’ve found for the diner? Is it in a densely populated urban area, suburban neighborhood, or rural?

What are your hours of operation? Some diners cater to a breakfast crowd, while others might offer 24-hour dining to be a favorite among night owls. When you expect your peak hours could help determine whether you should expect to sell more omelets or hamburgers.

What’s the area’s median income, and what types of businesses or institutions are nearby? This information will help you determine pricing and marketing strategies for your diner. For instance, if your diner is located in a business district, you may want to offer lunch specials. But if it’s near a college or university, you might want to offer student discounts.

This is what a thorough target market analysis looks like, providing key insights and data to pinpoint the specific groups of customers most likely to patronize your diner. Gathering all of this information may sound intimidating, but it’s really just a matter of doing research. If you need help and guidance, check out our complete guide to conducting market research for your business . 

Let’s look at an example of a target market analysis for this diner. Then, we’ll break it down and discuss each element in detail.

Example of a target market analysis

As you can see, the target market analysis follows the basic market segmentation process of splitting out potential customers into their demographic, geographic, psychographic and behavioral traits.

Next, let’s take a look at each in more detail. Afterward, we’ll look at how you can harness your target market analysis into actual business strategies.

• Demographic

You may have noticed that the demographic analysis in our example is very broad – 18 to 65 years old, including students, workers, and some seniors.

Finding your target market isn’t always about identifying a narrow demographic to cater to. In the case of a restaurant, it makes sense to focus on the geographic location and who currently frequents the area (more on that in the next section).

A different approach may be needed for a technology product that’s sold online. In that case, narrowing the demographic focus to specific age ranges or needs would be much more important than where the business is located.

In the case of the diner, we reached our decision by conducting a demographic analysis, examining the age ranges, occupations, and other concrete data points about potential customers near the proposed location (Reminder: we didn’t do this for the Bplans Diner, we’re just providing an example). 

There are several ways to go about collecting this information for your business. The most straightforward is to get out in the neighborhood, take a look around and talk to people. Are you mostly seeing students, or families? Are there a lot of office workers in the area? 

You can also look up data from the U.S. Census Bureau , which includes population, age, income and other useful information, often down to the neighborhood level.

After conducting this research, one valuable step is to create a detailed customer persona that represents the typical customer you expect for your business (we provide an example of a customer persona for the diner further down in this article).

While the demographic analysis considers the type of people who might frequent your business, the geographic analysis considers the characteristics of the neighborhood itself. 

Our target market analysis for Bplans Diner noted that we plan to operate in an urban area near a university with heavy foot traffic and expect a fair amount of late-night diners.

A key reason for examining the geographic makeup of your businesses is to size up your competition. If there’s already a popular diner in the area you plan to target, getting customers could be a major challenge. But if there’s a lack of dining options or no one is serving diner-style food, you’re more likely to be successful. Determining the size of your market will help you create reasonable revenue projections. 

We also mentioned the plan for Bplans Diner to cater to a late-night crowd. Examining the geographic makeup of the neighborhood will help you determine if there are the kinds of businesses – bars, music venues, or businesses such as hospitals where people are working all hours – to justify targeting this group.

• Psychographic

You know the demographics and geographic characteristics of your market. Now it’s time to consider the attitudes and values of your potential customers.

The psychographic analysis helps to understand the lifestyle of potential customers and how that might affect their preferences as consumers. If many of your potential customers are health-conscious, for instance, you’ll want to ensure your diner provides options like salads or gluten-free menu items. But if most customers are families looking for a place to bring their children, it may be important to keep classic items like hamburgers and french fries on the menu.

The best way to understand your potential customers’ attitudes is to get out and talk to them. Customer interviews are among the most powerful methods of validating a business idea , since you’ll get honest, real-time feedback from the kinds of people your business would depend on.

Finally, the behavioral analysis expands on customer psychographics by examining what customers do, given their values. This is another place where it’s worth considering the broad demographics of the diner’s target market – 18 to 65 years old, split among students, workers, and seniors.

They may all want the diner’s food, but their behaviors will vary widely. College students might be looking for a late-night study spot, or a place to meet up with friends for dinner before a concert or sporting event. But workers and seniors might be more interested in breakfast or lunch specials. 

Each of these behaviors gives a business owner valuable information to target individual segments of their target audience. For instance, you might want to play popular music in the evenings to get young diners ready for a night out on the town. But you’ll want a quieter ambiance at the time of day when seniors are most likely to come in. The environment can be adjusted based on when certain customers frequent the business.

Addressing behavioral aspects like buying motivations and concerns of your potential customers will also help you effectively market your diner. For example, you could create marketing campaigns based on student discounts, late-night specials, or a family-friendly atmosphere, depending on your customers’ behaviors.

Connecting a target market analysis to business strategy

So far, we’ve touched on each of the components of a target market analysis for a diner: customer demographics, geographics, psychographics, and behaviors. (It’s also important to conduct an industry analysis to understand competitive and macroeconomic forces affecting your planning.)

With the target market analysis complete, you’re better equipped to demonstrate a thorough understanding of your customers to a lender.

Here are a few insights a business owner could use for the Bplans Diner, developed through the above analysis.

• Bplans Diner Competitive Analysis

Market Trends: Growing demand for late-night food options, increasing preference for healthy dining options.

Competitor Strengths and Weaknesses:

Competitor A: Strong brand but limited menu options.

Competitor B: Wide variety of options but lacking in ambiance.

• Bplans Diner Marketing Strategy

Product Differentiation: Offering a diverse menu that caters to various preferences, including healthy options.

Positioning: Establishing Bplans Diner as a reliable, quality, 24-hour dining option in the region.

Promotion: Utilizing social media to announce special night-time deals and promotions.

Get started with your business plan template

A target market analysis is a key part of any business plan. But it’s just one piece. At Bplans, we take some of the pain out of business planning. We’ve developed a free business planning template to help reduce entrepreneurs’ time to create a full, lender-ready business plan. Bplans has also collected over 550 free sample business plans across numerous industries. Find a plan in your industry to get inspiration for your plan.

See why 1.2 million entrepreneurs have written their business plans with LivePlan

Elon is a marketing specialist at Palo Alto Software, working with consultants, accountants, business instructors and others who use LivePlan at scale. He has a bachelor's degree in journalism and an MBA from the University of Oregon.

Table of Contents

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For many, being a social media influencer has transformed from a side gig into a multimillion dollar business. Creators now have more say in the sponsored content they create for brands as well as the earnings they receive. And as creators continue to prove themselves as influential brand advocates, marketers are tapping these influencers for content beyond social feeds, including TV, out-of-home, and other digital media.  

Influencers have also proven resilient amid economic uncertainty and an increasingly crowded space. Influencer marketing spend rose roughly 3.5 times faster in 2023 than social ad spending, according to EMARKETER’s July 2023 forecast. 

In this guide, we explore the current state of influencer marketing, and why marketers, social platforms, and media companies should adjust their strategies as the power of the creator economy grows. 

• Want to learn more about influencer marketing and other marketing trends?  Sign up for the EMARKETER Daily newsletter.

What is the creator economy?

The creator economy , also called the influencer economy, is the interconnected ecosystem of creators, audiences, digital platforms, marketers, and agencies and/or vendors. The creator economy, as defined by EMARKETER’s Creator Economy Explainer report , enables creators to generate revenues in the form of money, goods, or services through their content, usually delivered via social media platforms. Meanwhile, marketers can partner with creators to build awareness for their brands.

Because interaction among stakeholders is constantly evolving, revenue data is sparse. A March 2023 estimate from Citigroup values the creator economy at $65.2 billion in 2023. By 2024, that figure is expected to reach $74.0 billion. 

What is influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing involves a celebrity, content creator, subject matter expert, or public figure endorsing a brand’s product or service to drive social proof. 

The market is rapidly expanding as influencer types have increased, with influencers filling every conceivable niche and sub-niche interest. 

Here are the types of influencers, based on follower count and focuses:

• Mega-influencers: Often celebrity influencers, those accounts with more than 1 million followers 
• Macro-influencers: Influencers with a follower count of 100,000 to 999,999
• Mid-tier influencers: Influencers with a follower count of 20,000 to 99,999
• Micro-influencers: Followers ranging between 5,000 to 19,999 
• Nano-influencers: A community of 1,000 to 4,999 followers 
• Kidfluencers: Gen Alphas with social followings that often review toys and games 
• Gaming influencers: Esport and video game players who discuss game strategy and livestream while in-game 
• Virtual influencers: Computer-generated avatars like Noonoouri, a fashion model and digital-only popstar 

The pandemic sped up changes in influencer marketing that were already underway, such as the trend toward “unfiltered” or less-scripted content, the rise of TikTok, and the popularity of “everyday influencers” with genuine and relatable personalities like Elyse Myers. 

Industries like financial services that hadn’t invested in influencer marketing earlier are also learning to navigate the space. And as ecommerce and social media converge, influencers will become increasingly vital intermediaries, helping to connect brands with consumers on social media. 

Creators vs. influencers: What’s the difference? 

Creators create content. Influencers are creators if the content they develop can sway the purchase decisions of a population regardless of whether they are being paid to promote a product. The term refers to a wide group of people from celebrities to loyal customers. Creators are influencers if their content affects purchase decisions. 

Who is a creator? 

Everyone has the potential to be a content creator thanks to how the term is defined. Adobe estimates there could be up to 303 million creators worldwide. For context, that figure is close to the US population at the start of 2023, per the US Census Bureau. 

Most content creators worldwide are under 41, but there are creators of all ages, including Gen Xers and baby boomers, per Adobe. 

Creators over 60 years old, dubbed “granfluencers,” have found popularity on social media due to their cross-generational appeal. 

For example, Nonna Pia, a TikTok account with 4 million followers, features a grandmother who cooks classic Italian dishes while her grandson narrates. Similarly, the Instagram account “Excuse My Grandma” follows a grandmother-granddaughter duo as they discuss generational differences in dating, fashion, and more. 

Creator categories

Although there is an account for every interest and target audience—from foraging to chiropractic medicine—lifestyle, fashion, and beauty are among the top creator categories.

While broad, these top categories overlap with many other industries, including travel, health, entertainment, food and drink, and art. Cross-category appeal is ideal for brand marketers looking to expand their reach to find like-minded audience demographics. 

Areas that have seen recent growth in creator focus include:

Collegiate sports

A 2021 NCAA policy change allows college athletes to be compensated for their name, image, and likeness. College athletes already command large audiences and regularly create content on social media, per August 2022 data from Curastory.  

B2B professionals 

Industry professionals are increasingly building audiences by sharing B2B content online. For example, a “ LinkedInfluencer ” is an influencer on B2B social platform LinkedIn. 

Nearly 1 in 4 people in the US are on LinkedIn, according to EMARKETER’s May 2023 forecast, as both the creator economy and B2B ad spending grow. As buyers get younger and B2B marketing becomes increasingly digital, authenticity and experience will matter more in marketing. 

Financial services

In the financial sector, “ finfluencers ” use their social media platform to share videos that cover personal experiences, tips, and advice about investing, budgeting, financial trends, and the economy. 

Finfluencers are capitalizing on a widespread lack of financial literacy. However, the quality of the content is controversial because some creators do not have a professional background in finance. Despite concerns, 60% of investors ages 18 to 35 use social media as a source of investment information, according to a Finra Investor Education Foundation report.  

The generational response 

Younger shoppers are more likely to use social media . About 129.5 million US Gen Zers and millennials will use social media in 2024, per a May 2023 EMARKETER forecast. 

Younger shoppers are also more likely to follow and buy from accounts run by influencers. A Q2 2022 Klarna survey found that over 40% of Gen Zers and millennials worldwide follow influencers , compared with one-quarter of Gen Xers and less than 10% of baby boomers. 

Millennials

Often considered a millennial concept, influencer culture is embraced by this extremely active social media user base. Close to 70 million US millennials will use social media next year, per EMARKETER’s May 2023 forecast. 

Millennials look to trusted influencers for product recommendations, reviews, and as a discovery point for new brands. 

They’re also willing to purchase what they see being promoted by their favorite influencers on social media. Over half (54.1%) of US social network users ages 25 to 34 will make a purchase on a social platform in 2024, per September 2023 EMARKETER data. 

In 2024, 60.7 million US Gen Zers will use social media, according to EMARKETER’s May 2023 forecast. And while that growth is expected to continue through 2027, Gen Z will remain slightly behind millennial users.  

Gen Zers, however, are not as sold on following influencers as their older peers. Less than half (48.6%) use social media to view creator/influencer content, according to a July 2023 EMARKETER survey’s findings. 

Where influencers do have an outsize influence over Gen Z is women’s beauty and wellness. Close to 80% of Gen Z women rank creators as their most trusted source for beauty recommendations, a survey conducted by LTK found. 

Those recommendations are also turning into online and offline sales. Eighty-three percent of Gen Z women shop for creators’ product suggestions online, and 82% shop for those items in-store.  

Influencing by “de-influencing” 

While the majority of influencers promote what to buy, some influencers are turning to platforms like TikTok to tell their followers what not to buy. As of January 2024, #deinfluencing videos on TikTok have roughly 1.3 billion views, up considerably from 208 million in February 2023. 

Seen as a method to combat overconsumption in a tight economy, deinfluencing videos often offer economical alternatives to expensive products or discuss the pitfalls of fast-fashion shopping hauls. 

Creators also use de-influencing videos to share critical commentary to distance themselves from brand controversies and post honest reviews of products that don’t meet expectations. Doing so can help reinforce creator trust through authenticity and transparency. 

Influencer marketing spend 

In 2024, advertisers will spend $5.89 billion on influencer marketing, a 14.7% increase YoY, according to EMARKETER’s July 2023 forecast, which excludes paid media. 

US influencer marketing spend grew more than three times faster than social ad spending in 2023, and it will remain ahead through 2025, according to a July 2023 EMARKETER forecast. 

Social platforms are reliant on creators, not the other way around, as creators’ options extend and include owned channels like blogs, podcasts, and newsletters.

A number of well-known creators, such as YouTuber MrBeast and podcaster Alex Cooper, have launched their own audio and video networks.

Although not every creator has a strong enough brand or following to create a successful media business , the growing success of these ventures should signal to brand marketers and entertainment companies that creators can offer much more than an outlet to generate hype or hawk goods. 

Where influencers post sponsored content

Creators utilize a number of social media platforms. 

To be impactful, influencer content should be engaging, entertaining, and educational, and marketers should work with credible creators who have built trust with their communities. 

US marketers will allocate over $1 billion to sponsored content on each of the top four influencer marketing platforms in 2024, according to EMARKETER’s July 2023 forecast. When it comes to influencer monetization , Instagram posts were the top format that creators worldwide were paid by brands to create in December 2022, per a Later and Mavrck December 2022 survey. Here’s a look at the top social media marketing platforms for influencers.

Instagram remains the top platform for sponsored content, per a June 2023 report from Mavrck. About 98% of US creators share brand content via Instagram feed posts, Instagram Stories, and Instagram Reels, while 69.1% go live on the platform. 

As of June 2023, more creators worldwide report being paid to create Reels (98.0%) compared with TikTok videos (89.6%). 

Creator monetization: In May 2023, Meta began testing a new payout model for Ads on Reels. The monetization program pays creators based on the performance of the Reel, rather than the earnings of the Reel ad, per TechCrunch. 

As TikTok’s popularity rises, brand opportunities for paid content is likely to increase as well. 

Influencer marketing spending growth on TikTok has grown 27.8%, compared with 12.7% on Instagram, according to EMARKETER’s July 2023 forecast.

In 2024, over half of marketers (54.0%) will use TikTok specifically for influencer marketing, with $1.25 billion in US influencer marketing spend going to the platform, per the same EMARKETER forecast.

Creator monetization: If an influencer promotes a brand’s product on TikTok Shop, the social app’s ecommerce tool, they can earn a commission through product sales. For both brands and influencers, TikTok Shop holds a lot of promise and room for growth. In 2024, we expect 40.7 million TikTok users to make a purchase on the app. 

YouTube, like Instagram and TikTok, has a solid hold on influencer marketing. YouTube is the top platform for US adults to follow influencers, according to March 2023 CivicScience data. 

EMARKETER forecasts that in 2024, US marketers will spend $1.07 billion on influencer content for YouTube. 

Similar to Instagram Reels, YouTube has been emphasizing Shorts as a cost-effective option for marketers.

Livestreaming is also leveraged by YouTube to connect influencers—and, ultimately, the brands they partner with—to followers. One-fourth (25.0%) of internet users say they watch creator- or influencer-led livestreams on YouTube, making it the most popular livestreaming app, ahead of TikTok (18.7%), Facebook (17.4%), and Instagram (14.0%), per an April 2023 survey by The Influencer Marketing Factory. 

Creator monetization: YouTube attracts and retains creators in a number of ways. The platform offers a way to connect creator, artist, and brand stores to their YouTube channel, enabling users to more easily find and purchase featured products. YouTube also has affiliate shopping capabilities for creators interested in revenue opportunities. 

Other platforms with influencer marketing potential include Facebook, Twitch, and to a lesser extent, Snapchat and X, the social media company formerly known as Twitter. 

Despite its waning popularity among users, especially youths, Facebook is still expected to see $1.00 billion in influencer marketing spending next year, per an EMARKETER forecast. 

Popular with the esports gaming community, livestreaming app Twitch recently launched a number of features for creators. In July 2023, Twitch announced its Discovery Feed, made up of livestream clips and ad features that help creators share their content from other platforms such as YouTube, TikTok, and Reddit. 

Snap has struggled with ad monetization and commands a fraction of influencer marketing spend compared with larger platforms. In 2023, Snap crossed $40 million in influencer marketing spending, and is expected to see growth of 3.4% in 2024.  

In October 2023, Snap released Creator Collab Campaigns, a suite of tools to facilitate brand-creator partnerships on the platform. Previously, Snap’s primary focus was helping creators monetize directly on the platform through programs like ad revenue sharing. 

X (formerly Twitter)

X saw total US ad revenues decline by 54.9% in 2023 after Elon Musk’s 2022 purchase, according to EMARKETER’s October 2023 forecast, which means it is not an attractive platform for influencer marketing. 

The aforementioned June 2023 Mavrck survey found that 45.9% of US creators shared promoted tweets, while a December 2022 Later and Mavrck survey found that 8.3% of creators worldwide have been paid by a brand to post on X. 

Influencer marketing strategy

An influencer marketing strategy allows a brand to further its reach and tap new audiences, but narrowing down the right creator to work with requires an understanding of the landscape and what type of partnership will best serve the brand’s objectives.  

Influencer marketing hubs: As influencer marketing took off, agencies dedicated to influencers sprang up to help brands manage the opportunity and vice versa. 

Acting as a directory, influencer marketing hubs organize creator profiles by follower count per social platform, audience demographics, location, services offered, the price of partnership, and their interests (e.g., fashion, travel, home improvement, etc.), to take the guesswork out of selecting an influencer to partner with.  

In addition to facilitating brand-creator relationships and identifying new talent, influencer hubs create campaign narratives, determine KPIs, and amplify influencer-led social campaigns, among other responsibilities. 

For creators, working with an influencer marketing agency can be beneficial to scale and manage their own business. As influencer campaigns become more complex, an agency can manage payment, negotiate contracts, handle data analytics and reporting, and oversee other business functions.

Influencer marketing campaigns: An influencer marketing campaign is one that leverages the influence the creator has over their followers. 

When in a paid partnership with a brand, the influencer campaign’s objective is to increase awareness, engagement, and, ultimately, sales. In comparison, an unsponsored campaign, while achieving the same objectives to various degrees, can be seen as more trustworthy and authentic by the influencer’s community.  

Influencer campaigns fall into two categories: 

• User-generated content (UGC) is organic content shared by a social media influencer to promote a brand or product without direct input from the featured brand. The influencer is not paid for UGC posts, and is often not as polished as content created with brand involvement. UGC posts range from product reviews, recommendations, tutorials, and personal experiences with a given good or service.
• Influencer-generated content is a collaboration between a creator and partner brand. These campaigns follow a brand’s creative guidelines—including tone of voice, talking points, aesthetics, and frequency of posts—to produce content fitting for that creator’s audience. As more influencers become trusted partners, brands have loosened the reins, allowing talent to tap into their own creativity for campaigns. Like UGC, influencer-led campaigns are more authentic and engaging, and may prove more effective for the brand involved. 

Influencer posts: When paid for by a brand partner, an influencer post is a type of native advertising. When unpaid with no brand involvement, the post is considered UGC. 

Most commonly seen on social media platforms, formats include Instagram photos with captions, short-form videos on TikTok, and long-form video content posted to YouTube. Influencers can also post written content on blogging platforms like Substack. Influencers will often promote their posts across various platforms to increase reach, engagement, and effectiveness. 

While format is an important aspect of influencer marketing, the post’s creative should be at the forefront. According to EMARKETER’s Influencer Monetization 2023 report, the “three E’s” of influencer marketing should be remembered when creating posts. 

“Regardless of the format, each piece of content should be engaging, entertaining, and educational to drive the most impact,” according to EMARKETER analyst Jasmine Enberg. Brands should also trust creators’ input on creative and format decisions because they know what will resonate best with their audience, Enberg continued.   

Product launches: Influencers are an ideal way for a brand to launch new products. 

When introducing a new product, brands can expand their reach by working with influencers with a similar following as the brand’s target audience. A kitchenware brand, for instance, may work with a popular food influencer to introduce a new range of pots to show off the products, its attributes, and how to buy. 

As influencers become brands in their own right, many have launched their own product lines.

Thanks to an engaged and well-known audience, some influencers are able to develop products that align with the interests of the community they’ve built across their social media footprint. 

For example, beauty vlogger and influencer Huda Kattan launched her own line of false eyelashes in 2013 after her community expressed an interest. Kattan then expanded the line into a full range of cosmetics. Huda Beauty, named after Kattan’s YouTube channel and blog, is now sold D2C and at Sephora. 

Creators with large followings have launched food and beverage products, fitness programs, clothing lines, restaurants, and more to capitalize on their popularity and the value and willingness of their followers to support their businesses. Venturing into their own products also helps creators diversify their revenues and avoid alienating their audiences with too much sponsored content. 

Collaboration: Similar to leveraging an influencer’s help to launch a new product, brands also partner with their stable of creators for product collaborations. 

Often developed as a one-off or limited-edition product, brand-influencer collaborations can be a great source of product innovation. 

In March 2023, Chipotle added two new limited-edition menu items to its quesadilla lineup, the “Keithadilla” and the “Fajita Quesadilla Hack,” which were developed and popularized by TikTok creators Keith Lee and Aleix Frost. 

For some influencers, a brand collaboration may be a jumping-off point to developing their own product lines if the collaborative effort was deemed successful. 

Common influencer marketing KPIs

These metrics are a good way for brands to measure their return on investment for influencer marketing campaigns: 

• Facebook engagement rates (subscribers only): Engagement rate is defined as measurable interactions on social media posts, including likes, comments, favorites, retweets, shares, replies, and reactions, and is calculated based on all these interactions divided by total follower count.  
• Facebook posts per week  
• Instagram affiliate engagement rate : The percentage of an affiliate influencer’s audience that interacts with an affiliate influencer’s campaign or post on Instagram; this includes likes, comments, and shares.
• Instagram affiliate impression per follower rate : The number of affiliate-generated views that a specific post or piece of content received over a specific period of time on Instagram. 
• Instagram affiliate reach : The percentage of followers and viewers from an affiliate influencer’s audience that is exposed to the affiliate influencer’s Instagram. 
• Instagram affiliate view rate : The percentage of an affiliate influencer’s audience that views an affiliate influencers’ campaign or post on Instagram. 
• Instagram engagement rates : Engagement rate is defined as measurable interactions on social media posts, including likes, comments, favorites, retweets, shares, replies, and reactions, and is calculated based on all these interactions divided by total follower count.
• Instagram posts per week
• Social affiliate clicks : The clicks generated by social influencer efforts, including generating traffic or leads (through affiliate links) to the company’s website.
• Social affiliate conversion rate : The percentage of clicks generated by social influencer efforts, including generating traffic or leads (through affiliate links) to the company’s website that also result in completed orders or purchases.
• Social affiliate engagement rate : The percentage of an affiliate influencer’s audience that interacts with an affiliate influencer’s campaign or post on a social media platform; this includes likes, comments, and shares.
• Social affiliate orders : The orders generated by social influencer efforts, including generating traffic or leads (through affiliate links) to the company’s website.
• Social affiliate sales : The sales or revenues generated by social influencer efforts, including generating traffic or leads (through affiliate links) to the company’s website.
• Social affiliate view rate : The percentage of an affiliate influencer’s audience that views an affiliate influencer’s campaign or post on a social media platform.
• TikTok affiliate engagement rate : The percentage of an affiliate influencer’s audience that interacts with an affiliate influencer’s campaign or post on TikTok; this includes likes, comments, and shares.
• TikTok affiliate view rate : The percentage of an affiliate influencer’s audience that views an affiliate influencer’s campaign or post on TikTok.
• X (formerly Twitter) tweets per week

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WI Courses in Professional Writing

Wrtg-21300 and 31700 (fa24).

The Department of Writing will offer two professional writing courses in Fall 2024.

Designated Writing Intensives (WI) for the Integrative Core Curriculum (ICC), both provide students with marketable skills for their future careers.

Technical Writing (WRTG-21300-01, CRN 21379) Tuesday-Thursday: 1:10 PM to 2:50 PM

Technical Writing teaches the fundamentals for communicating technical, medical, and scientific information to general and specialized audiences. Students cover the foundations of technical writing, various formats and applications, context-specific writing strategies, basic visual design, and ethics. They also address such practical challenges within the field as job-hunting, group work, institutional demands, and market forces.

Prerequisites: WRTG-10600 or ICSM-10800. (4 credits)

Past Syllabus: https://www.ithaca.edu/file-download/download/public/24926

Proposal and Grant Writing (WRTG-31700-01, CRN 21386) Tuesday-Thursday: 9:25 AM to 11:05 AM

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Prerequisites: One 200-level course in Liberal Arts and WRTG 10600 or ICSM 10800. (4 credits)

Past Syllabus: https://www.ithaca.edu/file-download/download/public/24929

Weekend Money: Major price rises kick in this week - everything you need to know

It's National Price Hike Day on Monday, with everything from council tax to broadband going up. Read this and our Weekend Money features below and we'll be back with live consumer and personal finance updates on Tuesday.

Sunday 31 March 2024 15:03, UK

Weekend Money

• Eight things that are going up in price next week - and six major boosts to Britons' pockets
• More young people are pausing pension contributions - this is how much it's costing them
• All the places kids can eat cheap or free this Easter
• 'Game changer': Your guide to buying supermarket pasta

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• Money Problem: My boss makes me use annual leave for sick days - is this legal?
• 'Outrageous': Should the youngest British workers really be paid less?
• Free childcare about to be extended - here's all the support on offer to parents of young children
• ISA deadline approaching - here's what you need to know
• Your comments: Would Labour compensate Waspi women? | Is sourdough really healthy? | Anger from readers young and old

1 April (tomorrow) is nicknamed National Price Hike Day, as it's when government bodies and private companies traditionally increase the cost of goods and services ahead of the new financial year.

So what can we expect this year?

TV and broadband

BT, EE, Plusnet and Vodafone customers will be charged 7.9% more from April. These companies pin their prices to December's inflation figure plus 3.9%, which is common practice in the industry.

Virgin Media and O2, which merged in 2021, are upping prices by 8.8%, as they use the retail price index from January plus 3.9%. There are caveats which mean some O2 customers will see prices rise by less than this.

Sky is also implementing price rises, meaning most Sky TV and broadband customers will pay an average of 6.7% more from 1 April.

Council tax

Most people who live in councils with responsibility for social care in England will see their bills rise by the maximum of 4.99%.

In areas where the councils don't oversee social care, the rise for most will be 2.99%.

Birmingham City Council, which has declared effective bankruptcy, has been given permission to hike council tax by 21% over two years due to a black hole caused partly by equal pay claims and a botched IT systems rollout.

Council tax has been frozen by the devolved government in Scotland, while rises in Wales range anywhere from 3% to 21%. Northern Ireland uses a rating system instead of council tax, and rises are also expected here.

The annual cost of a standard colour TV licence will rise to £169.50 from 1 April - an increase of £10.50 on the current price of £159 a year.

Rent for social housing

The CPI rate of inflation in September - 6.7% - is used to determine the yearly rise in rents. 

For 2024-25, the limit will be 6.7% plus an additional 1%.

The average household water and sewerage bill in England and Wales will go up by an average of 6% from April . 

Water UK said the increases would leave households with an average annual bill of £473.

Vehicle excise duty will rise on all but the cleanest new and used cars in April.

Increases are generally calculated in line with the RPI rate of inflation and are expected to be about 6%.

Train fares

Rail fares will rise by 8.7% in April for those in Scotland, after the Scottish government argued previous fare freezes were not sustainable. 

For those in England and Wales, fares rose by 4.9% on 3 March. 

The Royal Mail will raise the price of stamps again as the company struggles with a decline in the number of letters being posted.

The price of a first class and second class stamp will increase by 10p to £1.35 and 85p respectively from 2 April.

It's not all bad news in April

National insurance

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced in the budget earlier this month that the starting rate for NI will change from 10% to 8% from 6 April (Saturday).

This will benefit 27 million workers, he said, and is worth about £450 a year to an employee on an average salary of £35,000.

NI for two million self-employed workers is also being cut.

Their rate will fall from 8% to 6%. The government says that is worth £350 to a self-employed person earning £28,200.

Child benefit

The amount people can earn before child benefit is reduced or taken away is increasing.

At the moment, people lose 1% of the benefit for every £100 they earn over £50,000. At £60,000, the benefit is cut completely.

From April, the benefit won't be reduced until one parent earns more than £60,000. And it will only go completely at £80,000.

Benefits and tax credits that are linked to inflation will rise by 6.7% in April.

That was the level CPI in September.

For joint claimants over the age of 25, universal credit standard allowances will rise from £578.82 to £617.60 per month.

The basic and new state pension will rise by 8.5% in April - to £11,502 a year.

The new state pension is for those reaching state pension age on or after 6 April 2016. It will rise to £221.20 a week - up from £203.85.

Minimum wage

The National Minimum Wage for those 21 and over will rise to £11.44 - an increase of £1.02, or 9.8%.

There are larger percentage increases for younger age groups -as well as a 21.2% rise for apprentices (going up to £6.40).

Energy price cap

From 1 April to 30 June this year the price paid by a typical household that uses electricity and gas will go down to £1,690 a year.

This is £238 a year lower than the price cap between 1 January and 31 March this year. 

By Bhvishya Patel, Money team

A lot of us don't want to think about it. Getting old, retirement, pensions. It's a lifetime away. 

And with rising bills and rent restricting finances right now , it seems planning for 40 or 50 years down the line is even further from the minds of young Britons.

In the past year alone, the number of financially vulnerable 30-somethings who are failing to set aside money for their retirement has increased by more than 5%, or 72,000, according to data science firm Outra. 

The total stands at 1.43 million.

One of these younger workers pausing contributions is Neha Solanki, 24, who works as an accounts assistant for a PR firm in London. She found opting out of her pension for a while meant her grocery bill - £60 a month - was covered. 

"It would have been nice to have a pension investment but because of the cost of living I think it is very difficult to do that," she says.

"I end up spending about £100 a month on travel. When you add up rent and everything else it builds up. 

"When I was trying to opt out I was advised not to but when you add up the smaller payments it makes a difference."

What could the consequences be?

Peter Jackson, formerly chief data officer at the Pensions Regulator and now in the same role at Outra, says he understands the pressures young people are under but warns...

"If you flip out of your pension you are pushing a cost of living crisis into your retirement. You are not going to have a sizeable pension pot available to you when you come to retire."

Mr Jackson goes on: "It's harder to build that pot when you are 55 or 60 because you have only got a few years left.

"Personally, that would be the last thing I would stop doing."

How much could you lose?

Pausing pension contributions even for a short time can have consequences, the life assurance and pensions company Standard Life has found.

Its analysis suggests a person who began working on a salary of £25,000 per year in 2020 and paid the standard monthly auto-enrolment contributions (5% employee and 3% employer monthly contributions) from the age of 22 could amass a total retirement pot of £459,000.

Opting out for three years would knock off £36,000 from your retirement pot - and six years £71,000.

Missing out on free money

And crucially, Mr Jackson adds...

"With a lot of employers, if you increase your contributions a lot of them will match it up to a certain percentage so it is kind of like free money."

Clare Moffat, pensions and legal expert at Royal London, says pausing pension contributions "might be something people have to do" as bills rise but they should take any pay rise as an opportunity to opt back in.

"A lot of younger people think they are not going to get any state pension or they are not going to see state pension until they are about 70 but then they still want to retire when they are about 60," she says.

"It's up to employers to help a bit as well. Remind people when they get a pay rise that this might be a good time if you have opted out to opt back in."

When it comes to knowing how much to contribute, she says, "it's better to think how much money you would need in retirement" - and there are tonnes of free online retirement calculators.

She adds: "I've never heard someone say I wish I had saved less for retirement - most people wish they had saved more.

"Sometimes, people can be put off and think they need to be saving hundreds of pounds a month but if you're in your 20s, little increases are good."

Money locked away is a good thing

Why not look at saving for a pension differently, suggests Claire Trott, divisional director for retirement and holistic planning at wealth manager St James's Place.

People see it as money being tied up for decades, but "actually that's a real winner".

"We all know we can dip into things we shouldn't but with pensions you can't. They are there, they get their tax relief, they get the growth, they sit there and year on year you will see some change," she says.

"Obviously, we know that markets fluctuate so it may not always look that rosy, but the longer it can stay in there the better.

"Getting it in there in your 30s or ideally in your first job just means you get that compound growth on it over the long-term."

She concludes:

"With pensions, because it's locked away and you are making that good decision, it means you are doing your future self a real service because you can't touch it and it is there to be invested appropriately."

The school holidays are here, and the Money team has been looking at where kids can eat cheap - or even free - this Easter. 

It's by no means an exhaustive list, but here are a few of our highlights... 

Gordon Ramsay restaurants  

During selected times on weekdays at selected eateries, a child under eight can eat for free when an adult dines from the a la carte menu.

Free meal for a child with every footlong sub ordered in participating restaurants until 14 April.

Available Monday-Friday during school holidays, kids can eat free when an adult makes any purchase in the café.

Be aware, though, you will need a Clubcard. 

TGI Fridays

Kids can eat free all day every day with the purchase of an adult main - though you will need to be signed up to their Stripes Rewards app.

For every adult that spends £10 in this Japanese eatery, one child aged 12 or under gets a free kiddo bento box.

Kids meals are just £1 throughout the holidays. 

Heathrow Airport

Going away this Easter? 

There are free children's meals on offer at participating airport restaurants until 14 April.

Angus Steakhouse

Those in London at participating restaurants can have their child (under eight) eat free with a full-paying adult buying a main course anytime until 12 April.

Beefeater 

Cheap breakfasts are the order of the day at Beefeaters - where two kids (under 16) eat free breakfast with any adult breakfast purchased for £9.99 or more.

Available 6.30am to 10.30am midweek and 7am and 11am at the weekend.

If the kids need a pit stop during a holiday furniture shop, parents can pick them up a child's portion of pasta for just 45p. 

Morrisons café

Kids can eat completely free all day over the holidays if an accompanying adult spends £4.50 or more. 

Bella Italia

This one is a real bargain - a two to 11-year-old can get three courses and a drink for just £1 with every purchase of an adult meal.

Available 4pm to 6pm Sunday-Wednesdays and all day Thursday.

Head to the Brazilian outlet's website to download a voucher for one free children's meal (for those under 10) per adult meal purchased.

The deal is available every weekday from 4pm, and all day at the weekend. 

The Real Greek

Kids under 12 can enjoy a mezze or souvlaki wrap, plus a drink and ice cream or sorbet for dessert if an adult spends £10 or more.

Sizzling Pub and Grill

Kids can eat for just £1 with a purchase of every adult meal Monday to Friday from 12pm.

Bill's Restaurants

Until 12 April, up to two children can eat for free all day (excluding weekends) when one adult orders any main. 

Hungry Horse

Every Monday, kids can eat for £1, though larger dishes will cost you £1.50.

Up to two kids can eat with every full-paying adult.

Table Table

Two kids under 16 can get free, unlimited all-you-can-eat buffet breakfast with any adult purchase of £9.99. 

By Ollie Cooper, Money team

It can be hard to balance getting nutritious foods that make you feel good without emptying your wallet.

In this series over the coming months, we're trying to find the cheapest ways to identify the healthiest options in the supermarket.

We've asked  Sunna Van Kampen,  who went viral on social media for reviewing supermarket products in the search of healthier choices, for his input. 

The series does not aim to identify the outright healthiest option, rather how to get better nutritional value for as little money as possible.

Today we're looking at pasta , a staple in many kitchens but often dismissed as just a carb-heavy comfort food. 

The key to transforming your pasta into a protein and fibre-packed meal without sacrificing taste or breaking the bank lies in the variety of wheat, Sunna says. 

"Pasta made from refined wheat strips out the bran and germ, which lowers the protein content as well as fibre and other nutrients," he says. 

"Typical lower-cost pasta varieties therefore contain on average about 5-6g of protein per 100g. Make yourself a nice big plate and you can expect 10-12g per portion - not really a game changer."

Here's where the Italians have it right. 

"Traditional Italian branded varieties are made using local semolina flour from Italy in traditional ways," Sunna says.

"Italian pasta must adhere to strict standards that have been set by the government - meaning a typical branded Italian pasta will select the best durum wheats in terms of gluten quality, healthiness and protein content."

That means a 200g plate of pasta has 24-28g of protein - before you add any meat or protein into the sauce.

Another option that's been popping up on supermarket shelves is legume pasta, made from lentils or chickpeas.

"These help increase the protein content (on average about 12-13g per 100g) but have other important health benefits too," Sunna says.

"Lentil pasta can boast 25-50% more fibre than standard pasta, is gluten-free and helps keep you fuller for longer."

On that note... 

Fibre is vital for gut health and Public Health England estimates as low as 9% of us are getting enough of it in our diets.

"This is where lentil or wholewheat pasta can be a game changer," Sunna says.

With a 200g serving of lentil pasta you'd be getting 6.4g of fibre, which is 21% of your daily intake, or for wholewheat you'd be getting 7.6g of fibre or 25% of your daily intake. 

"Fibre will also help limit the impact of the carbohydrates, so opting for a higher fibre variety can also be helpful if you are focused on weight loss," he says.

The nutritionist's view - from  Dr Laura Brown , senior lecturer in nutrition, food, and health sciences at Teesside University

"Yes, these are good suggestions. 

"It's definitely worth promoting the higher fibre and higher protein types - both of which make you feel fuller for longer and also help to support and encourage a healthy bowel. 

"White versions of pasta also can cause a spike in blood glucose levels, leaving us feeling tired shortly after, as well as potentially hungry again quite soon. 

"This effect is correlated with increasing the risk for type 2 diabetes and should be discouraged."

Own label regular pasta ( low protein, low fibre, gluten ) is usually £1.50/kg at all supermarkets as they price match each other on household staples.

Own label wholewheat pasta ( low protein, high fibre, gluten ) is usually £1.50/kg at all supermarkets.

Branded Italian pasta ( high protein, medium fibre, gluten ) ranges from £2.25-£3.00/kg .

Lentil pasta ( high protein, high fibre, gluten-free ) is where things get pricey at an average of £6.80/kg .

Now you've got the facts and figures, it's up to you to decide what works for your budget and needs. 

April is around the corner - here are the key money dates that could affect you in the next month.

'National price hike day'

TV and broadband customers are likely see rises of between 6.7% and 8.8% depending on their provider. 

Council tax rises by just under 5% for most people who live in councils with responsibility for social care in England. In areas where the councils don't oversee social care, the rise for most is 2.99%. Rises are more variable in Wales, while council tax has been frozen in Scotland.

The TV licence jumps from £159 a year to £169.50, while water, rent for social housing, car tax and (Scottish) train fares also go up. 

Read full details of all the increases  here ...

Minimum wage rise

The national minimum wage for those 21 and over rises to £11.44 - an increase of £1.02, or 9.8%.

There are bigger percentage increases for younger age groups -as well as a 21.2% rise for apprentices (going up to £6.40).

From 1 April, when the new cap kicks in, to 30 June, the price paid by a typical household that uses electricity and gas is £1,690 a year.

This is £238 a year lower than the cap between 1 January and 31 March. 

The Royal Mail increases the price of stamps again as the company struggles with a decline in letters.

The price of a first class and second class stamp go up by 10p to £1.35 and 85p respectively.

5 April - end of tax year

If you're paying into an ISA, funds need to have cleared by this date for it to count towards the 2023-24 year's contributions. The new £20,000 allowance kicks in the following day.

Benefits and pensions increase

Benefits and tax credits - specifically those linked to inflation - rise by 6.7%. 

For joint claimants over 25, universal credit standard allowances rise from £578.82 to £617.60 a month.

The basic and new state pension also go up by 8.5%.

The new state pension is for those who reached state pension age on or after 6 April 2016. It rises to £221.20 a week - up from £203.85.

National insurance cut

After Jeremy Hunt's promise in the budget, a further two pennies in every pound is cut from NI contributions. 

Capital gains cut

The top rate for capital gains tax goes down from 28% to 24%.

8 April - eBay fee

eBay introduces a "regulatory operating fee" for sellers, charging 0.35% of a total sale, including postage. 

It affects anyone listing items in the UK, Austria, Belgium, France, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and Switzerland.

17 April - inflation data for March

We get insight into inflation in March when the Office for National Statistics releases its latest figures. 

We'll cover that announcement here in the Money blog - see you at 7am on 17 April. 

The Money blog is your place for consumer news, economic analysis and everything you need to know about the cost of living - bookmark news.sky.com/money.

It runs with live updates every weekday (except bank holidays) - while on Saturdays we scale back and offer you a selection of weekend reads.

Check them out this morning and we'll be back on Tuesday with rolling news and features.

The Money team is Emily Mee, Bhvishya Patel, Jess Sharp, Katie Williams, Brad Young and Ollie Cooper, with sub-editing by Isobel Souster. The blog is edited by Jimmy Rice.

We'll be back with our Weekend Money features on Saturday - and will return with live consumer and personal finance updates after the Easter weekend on Tuesday.

For those who've got time off, enjoy - and thanks for following along.

By James Sillars , business reporter

High margins for fuel retailers may mean drivers are still paying over the odds at the pump, according to the competition regulator.

In a monitoring report, following its fuel market study of 2022, the Competition and Market Authority (CMA) said fuel margins - the difference between what retailers pay for their fuel and the price they sell it at - remained "concerning".

The regulator said supermarket margins, which had stood at 4% in 2017, rose to 7.8% in 2023.

Other retailers, it said, saw their margins hit 9.1% last year.

This was "not a good sign for drivers", the CMA said, though it stopped short of openly declaring that they were being overcharged.

Lobby groups representing both the supermarkets and independent retailers, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and Petrol Retailers Association (PRA) respectively, have consistently denied ripping drivers off.

Read more on this story here ... 

By Victoria Seabrook , climate reporter 

Emissions of climate-heating gases from the UK continued to fall last year.

That's good news for the climate, and reinforces the fact UK has cut emissions faster than any other G20 country - by 53% since 1990.

But the reasons aren't entirely good.

While most of the fall last year was down to the UK burning less gas for electricity because it imported more from France, a large chunk was due to homes and businesses cutting back on electricity amid soaring prices.

Budgets were also "squeezed" by high interest rates, inflation and mortgages, said Glenn Rickson, who analyses the UK power sector for S&P Global Commodity Insights.

Read more on this story here ...

More than 600 Border Force officers at Heathrow Airport will go on a four-day strike from 11 April, the last weekend of the Easter school break, their union has announced.

The officers, who carry out immigration controls and passport checks, have voted to take strike action over a new roster and changes to their shift pattern. 

The PCS union has warned the changes could see 250 members of staff lose their jobs by the end of April.

"Ministers have 14 days to withdraw these unfair and unnecessary proposals or our members at Heathrow will take strike action," Fran Heathcote, its general secretary, said.

"Ripping up flexible working arrangements is no way to treat staff especially as the government says their work is critical to our nation's security." 

Read more on this story here :

Respected energy consultants Cornwall Insight have predicted the typical household's energy bill will fall to £1,560 a year from July. 

That's more than £100 less than the price cap that comes into force on Monday, which is set at £1,690 a year. 

However, the leading market researcher's latest prediction is around 7% higher than its previous forecast from around a month ago.

Ofgem changes the price cap every three months based on several factors, the most important of which is the price of energy on wholesale markets.

Wholesale prices recently hit their lowest point for a quarter of a decade, but have risen slightly in recent weeks.

The price cap does not limit a household's total bills - the figures provided are just for an average-use household.

Cornwall Insight also predicts the price cap will rise slightly from the July figure to £1,631 in October. 

"With wholesale prices hitting a two-and-a-half-year low, it was only a matter of time before a slight rise occurred as the market stabilises," Dr Craig Lowrey, its principal consultant, said.

"While no household will want to see forecasts rising, it's important to recognise that these do still represent a fall from the new cap coming in from April, itself a large drop." 

Uswitch has said the prediction is "another step in the right direction" for households. 

Energy expert Will Owen said: "Energy prices are forecast to rise into autumn and winter, so for the many households wanting price certainty, now is a good time to consider fixing.

"We're increasingly seeing suppliers offer better value deals, but Ofgem’s steps to reform the price cap must encourage more innovation from suppliers and bring back competition on price and customer service." 

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