10 DIY Market Research Tools & Resources
A lot of decisions we make on a daily basis are based on common sense, but when it comes to business, decisions can’t be made on a whim. Market research is a great way to either backup a decision or to reject it, but it doesn’t have to be elaborate to be effective; small, individual efforts can be just as effective in providing the required information. We’ve outlined the top 10 market research tools and resources you need when conducting your own research...
1. Think with Google Marketer’s Almanac
Price: Free
If you need information on how people browse and buy according to seasonality, then Think With Google’s Marketer’s Almanac is the ideal resource for you. Offering clever insights into changes in consumer behaviour, it looks at trends and events informing innovative digital campaigns.
Marketers Almanac 
2. SurveyMonkey
Price: Free for Basic, then from £25/month to £85/month/user
One of the most popular online survey tools, SurveyMonkey allows you to create in-depth survey questionnaires and polls so that you can analyze and understand your customers and market. Featuring a library of sample survey questions and templates as well as an ‘Analyze Tool’ that converts your data into professional reports, SurveyMonkey is definitely worth a try.
Survey Monkey
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3. Temper
Price: From $12/month to $199/month
Ever wondered how your customers feel about your business? Or if they’ve had a positive or negative experience? With thanks to Temper, now you can find the answer. By inserting a snippet of code onto your website, Temper allows you to ask a question, asking the user to choose one of 3 faces; happy, sad or somewhere in-between. It’s short, sweet and very insightful.
Temper
4. Google Keyword Planner
Price: Free
Google’s Keyword Planner Tool allows you to research traffic volumes and competition levels for specific keywords by location and language. The tool allows results to be broken down by device and it also shows comparisons to competitor and market leader domains.
Google Keyword Planner
5. Social Mention
Price: Free
Social Mention is a great tool for you to keep abreast of what’s going on across social channels. It acts as a type of social media search engine, allowing you to search for keywords and also mentions of certain buzzwords. You can even check to see if consumers are talking about your business and whether it’s in a good or bad instance.
Social Mention
6. HubSpot Research
Price: Free
If you need to get your hands on industry specific data, such as web traffic broken down by by industry or how average social following differs by industry, HubSpot Research has it all. In addition to their free research reports, HubSpot also allows you to build your own presentation using their presentation-builder tool, which easily pulls together the stats and charts you choose into a customized slide deck.
Hubspot Research 
7. Google Trends
Price: Free
Google Trends is an online search tool that allows you to see how often certain keywords or subjects have been searched over a certain time period.
It allows you to input multiple keywords and refine results by location, category and search history. It also shows web interest on each keyword, such as the cause of the interest (e.g. press) and the traffic source.
Google Trends
8. Statista
Price: Free for Basic, $49/month for Premium
Statista is a statistics portal that boasts 1M statistics in 170 industries. They list 10,000 studies and have a forecast tool that provides insights for over 50 countries until 2020. The data is based on market research and opinion polling which makes this tool perfect for businesses.
All stats and charts are easily downloadable in different formats and they can be customized to your specific requirements.
Statista
9. Consumer Barometer with Google
Price: Free
Google’s Consumer Barometer is a tool that shows global trends of how people use the internet. Information such as the percentage of people who use a smartphone or tablet is easily accessible. The data can also be easily filtered by country and segmented by sex and age group.
Consumer Barometer with Google
10. Worldometers
Price: Free
If you need up to the minute data, Worldometers will have the information you need. It provides real time statistics on population, economics, food, water, energy, government and health. It also shows past data and further geographic trends, such as which country produces the most cars.
Worldometers
While market research is key to decision making in business, you don’t need to throw thousands of pounds at it. Using a combination of the above tools and resources should allow you to answer those all important questions, lowering the risk of a potential costly mistake.
