Online market research – find out what’s hot and what’s not!

One of the most important things you can do as you grow your business is to know who your market is and what they want. A great way to find out what’s “hot” is to conduct online research. Although a great recommendation, many people have no clue where to begin. Often marketing experts tell you what to do, but not how. Today, I am giving you a how. An excellent resource to find out what is of high interest is Amazon.com. That’s right, good ole’ Amazon.com. A quick visit to the book section of Amazon.com will show you what books are the bestsellers at any given point on any given day. You can look at the overall bestsellers or you can go into subcategories. For example, the top seller in November, 2008 over all is no surprise. It is Barack Obama’s book, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream. Actually, the two top sellers as of this posting are both by president elect, Barack Obama. With Tuesday’s election, these two books are literally flying off the shelves with both online and offline stores. Moving into your market research, let’s say your market is interested in food. You simply click the link on the left side of the page to take you to the cooking, food and wine section. There you will find numerous bestsellers in that category. One of the most popular books is by Rachael Ray. Another is by Martha Stewart. With the holidays just around the corner, recipe books are going to be very popular. Moving into the New Year it is likely diet books will become bestsellers. Accessing this information will help you to know what the market has a high interest in at any particular time. This allows you to customize your marketing and promotions material to address your market’s needs. Amazon.com is just one way to research what the market is interested in. There are dozens upon dozens of other ways. With Google at your finger tips you are only limited by your imagination.