writing marketing research report

What is a Marketing Research Report and How to Write It?

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There is nothing more embarrassing for a marketer than to hear a client say “…this doesn’t quite address the business questions that we need to answer.” And unfortunately, this is a rather common occurrence in market research reporting that most marketers would care to admit.

So, why do most market research reports fail to meet client expectations? Well, in most cases, because there is more emphasis on methodology and analytic techniques used to craft the report rather than relying on data visualization, creative story-telling, and outlining actionable direction/steps.

Now, our next big question is, how do you avoid your client’s dreaded deer-in-the-headlights reaction when presenting such a report? This blog post will answer this and much more, as we go through the following:

What Is a Market Research Report?

Why is market research important, differences between primary and secondary market research, types of market research, market research reports advantages and disadvantages, how to do market research, how to prepare a market research report: 5 steps, marketing research report templates, marketing research reports best practices, bring your market research reports a step further with databox.

The purpose of creating a market research report is to make calculated decisions about business ideas. Market research is done to evaluate the feasibility of a new product or service, through research conducted with potential consumers. The information obtained from conducting market research is then documented in a formal report that should contain the following details:

• The characteristics of your ideal customers
• You customers buying habits
• The value your product or service can bring to those customers
• A list of your top competitors

Every business aims to provide the best possible product or service at the lowest cost possible. Simply said, market research is important because it helps you understand your customers and determine whether the product or service that you are about to launch is worth the effort.

Here is an example of a customer complaint that may result in more detailed market research:

Suppose you sell widgets, and you want your widget business to succeed over the long term. Over the years, you have developed many different ways of making widgets. But a couple of years ago, a customer complained that your widgets were made of a cheap kind of foam that fell apart after six months. You didn’t think at the time that this was a major problem, but now you know it.

The customer is someone you really want to keep. So, you decide to research this complaint. You set up a focus group of people who use widgets and ask them what they think about the specific problem. After the conducted survey you’ll get a better picture of customer opinions, so you can either decide to make the changes regarding widget design or just let it go.

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Like most marketers and marketing managers, you want to know how well your efforts are translating into results each month. How much traffic and new contact conversions do you get? How many new contacts do you get from organic sessions? How are your email campaigns performing? How well are your landing pages converting? You might have to scramble to put all of this together in a single report, but now you can have it all at your fingertips in a single Databox dashboard.

Our Marketing Overview Dashboard includes data from Google Analytics 4 and HubSpot Marketing with key performance metrics like:

• Sessions . The number of sessions can tell you how many times people are returning to your website. Obviously, the higher the better.
• New Contacts from Sessions . How well is your campaign driving new contacts and customers?
• Marketing Performance KPIs . Tracking the number of MQLs, SQLs, New Contacts and similar will help you identify how your marketing efforts contribute to sales.
• Email Performance . Measure the success of your email campaigns from HubSpot. Keep an eye on your most important email marketing metrics such as number of sent emails, number of opened emails, open rate, email click-through rate, and more.
• Blog Posts and Landing Pages . How many people have viewed your blog recently? How well are your landing pages performing?

Now you can benefit from the experience of our Google Analytics and HubSpot Marketing experts, who have put together a plug-and-play Databox template that contains all the essential metrics for monitoring your leads. It’s simple to implement and start using as a standalone dashboard or in marketing reports, and best of all, it’s free!

You can easily set it up in just a few clicks – no coding required.

To set up the dashboard, follow these 3 simple steps:

Step 1: Get the template 

Step 2: Connect your HubSpot and Google Analytics 4 accounts with Databox. 

Step 3: Watch your dashboard populate in seconds.

Marketing research requires both primary and secondary market research. But what does that mean and what are the main differences?

Primary market research takes in information directly from customers, usually as participants in surveys. Usually, it is consisted of:

• Exploratory Primary Research – This type of research helps to identify possible problem areas, and it’s not focused on discovering specific information about customers. As with any research, exploratory primary research should be conducted carefully. Researchers need to craft an interviewing or surveying plan, and gather enough respondents to ensure reasonable levels of statistical reliability.
• Specific Primary Research – This type of research is one of the best ways to approach a problem because it relies on existing customer data. Specific research provides a deeper, more thorough understanding of the problem and its potential solutions. The greatest advantage of specific research is that it lets you explore a very specific question, and focus on a specific problem or an opportunity.

Secondary market research collects information from other sources such as databases, trend reports, market or government statistics, industry content, etc. We can divide secondary market research into 3 categories:

• Public market data – Public sources range from academic journals and government reports to tax returns and court documents. These sources aren’t always easy to find. Many are available only in print in libraries and archives. You have to look beyond search engines like Google to find public source documents.
• Commercial data – Those are typically created by specialized agencies like Pew, Gartner or Forrester. the research agencies are quite expensive, but they provide a lot of useful information.
• Internal data – Your organization’s databases are gold mines for market research. In the best cases, your salespeople can tell you what they think about customers. Your salespeople are your direct sources of information about the market. Don’t underestimate your internal data.

In general, primary research is more reliable than secondary research, because researchers have to interview people directly. But primary research is expensive and time-consuming. Secondary research can be quicker and less expensive.

There are plenty of ways to conduct marketing research reports. Mostly, the type of research done will depend on your goals. Here are some types of market research often conducted by marketers.

Focus Groups

Product/service use research, observation-based research, buyer persona research, market segmentation research, pricing research, competitive analysis research, customer satisfaction and loyalty research, brand awareness research, campaign research.

An interview is an interactive process of asking and answering questions and observing your respondent’s responses. Interviews are one of the most commonly used tools in market research . An interview allows an organization to observe, in detail, how its consumers interact with its products and services. It also allows an organization to address specific questions.

A focus group is a group of people who get together to discuss a particular topic. A moderator leads the discussion and takes notes. The main benefit of focus groups is that they are quick and easy to conduct. You can gather a group of carefully-selected people, give them a product to try out, and get their feedback within a few hours/days.

Product or service use research helps you obtain useful information about your product or service such as:

• What your current customers do with the product/service
• Which features of the product/service are particularly important to your customers
• What they dislike about the product/service
• What they would change about the product/service

Observation-based research helps you to observe your target audience interacting with your product or service. You will see the interactions and which aspects work well and which could be improved. The main point is to directly experience the feedback from your target audience’s point of view.

Personas are an essential sales tool. By knowing your buyers’ pain points and the challenges they face, you can create better content, target messaging, and campaigns for them. Buyer persona research is based on market research, and it’s built around data that describes your customers’ demographics, behaviors, motivations, and concerns. Sales reporting software can significantly help you develop buyer personas when you gain insights after you collected all information.

Market segmentation research is carried out to better understand existing and potential market segments. The objective is to determine how to target different market segments and how they differ from each other. The three most important steps in writing a market segmentation research report are:

• Defining the problem
• Determining the solution [and]
• Defining the market

Related : 9 Customer Segmentation Tips to Personalize Ecommerce Marketing and Drive More Sales

A price that is too high, or too low, can kill a business. And without good market research, you don’t really know what is a good price for your product. Pricing research helps you define your pricing strategy.

In a competitive analysis, you define your “competition” as any other entity that competes with you in your market, whether you’re selling a widget or a piece of real estate. With competitive analysis research, you can find out things like:

• Who your competitors are
• What they’ve done in the past
• What’s working well for them
• Their weaknesses
• How they’re positioned in the market
• How they market themselves
• What they’re doing that you’re not

Related : How to Do an SEO Competitive Analysis: A Step-by-Step Guide

In today’s marketplace, companies are increasingly focused on customer loyalty. What your customers want is your product, but, more importantly, they want it delivered with a service that exceeds their expectations. Successful companies listen to their customers and respond accordingly. That’s why customer satisfaction and loyalty research is a critical component of that basic equation.

Related : 11 Tactics for Effectively Measuring Your Customer Service ROI

Who you are, what you stand for, what you offer, what you believe in, and what your audience thinks of you is all wrapped up in brand. Brand awareness research tells what your target audience knows about your brand and what’s their experience like.

A campaign research report is a detailed account of how your marketing campaign performed. It includes all the elements that went into creating the campaign: planning, implementation, and measurement.

Here are some of the top advantages and disadvantages of doing market research and crafting market research reports.

• Identify business opportunities – A market research report can be used to analyze potential markets and new products. It can give information about customer needs, preferences, and attitudes. Also, it compare products and services.
• A clear understanding of your customers – A market report gives company’s marketing department an in-depth picture about customers’ needs and wants. This knowledge can be used to improve products, prices, and advertising.
• Mitigates risks – 30% of small businesses fail within the first two years. Why is this so? The answer is that entrepreneurs are risk takers. However, there are risks that could be avoided. A good marketing research will help you identify those risks and allow you to mitigate them.
• Clear data-driven insights – Market research encompasses a wide range of activities, from determining market size and segment to forecasting demand, and from identifying competitors to monitoring pricing. All of these are quantified and measurable which means that gives you a clear path for building unique decisions based on numbers.

Disadvantages

• It’s not cheap – Although market research can be done for as little as $500, large markets like the United States can run into millions of dollars. If a research is done for a specific product, the budget may be even much higher. The budget also depends on the quality of the research. The more expensive it is, the more time the research will take.
• Some insights could be false – For example, if you are conducting a survey, data may be inadequate or inaccurate because respondents can, well, simply be dishonest and lie.

Here are the essential steps you need to take when doing market research:

Define your buyer persona

Identify a persona group to engage, prepare research questions for your market research participants, list your primary competitors, summarize your findings.

The job of a marketing persona is to describe your ideal customer and to tell you what they want, what motivates them, what frustrates them, and what limits them. Finding out these things means you have a better chance of designing your products, services, marketing messages, and brand around real customers. There is no one right way to create a buyer persona, though.

For example, if you’re in an industry focused on education, you could include things like:

• Educational level
• Education background

It’s recommended that you create 3-5 buyer personas for your products, based on your ideal customer.

This should be a representative sample of your target customers so you can better understand their behavior. You want to find people who fit both your target personas and who represent the broader demographic of your market. People who recently made a purchase or purposefully decided not to make one are a good sample to start with.

The questions you use determine the quality of your results. Of course, the quality of your results also depends on the quality of your participants.

Don’t ask questions that imply a yes or no answer. Instead, use open questions. For example, if you are researching customers about yogurt products, you could ask them: „ What have you heard about yogurt ?” or “ What do you think of yogurt ?“.

Avoid questions that use numbers, such as “ How many times a week do you eat yogurt ?”

Avoid questions that suggest a set of mutually exclusive answers, such as “ Do you like yogurt for breakfast, lunch, or dinner ?”

Avoid questions that imply a scale, such as “ Do you like chocolate-flavored yogurt ?”

Market researchers sometimes call one company the top competitor, another middle competitor, and the third one small competitor. However you classify them, you want to identify at least three companies in each category. Now, for each business on your list, list its key characteristics. For example, if your business sells running shoes, a key characteristic might be the product’s quality.

Next, make a list of your small business’s competitive advantages. These include the unique qualities or features of your business that make it the best choice of customers for the products or services it offers. Make a list of these competitive advantages and list them next to the key characteristics you listed for your business.

You have just finished writing your marketing research report. Everything is out there quantified or qualified. You just have to sum it up and focus on the most important details that are going to make a big impact on your decisions. Clear summary leads to a winning strategy!

Related : How to Prepare a Complete Marketing Report: The KPIs, Analysis, & Action Plan You Need

Here’s how to prepare a market research report in 5 simple steps:

Step 1: Cluster the data

Step 2: prepare an outline, step 3: mention the research methods, step 4: include visuals with narrative explanations, step 5: conclude the report with recommendations.

Your first step is to cluster all the available information into a manageable set. Clustering is the process of grouping information together in a way that emphasizes commonalities and minimizes differences. So, in market research, this will help to organize all the information you have about a product, service, or target market and identify your focus areas.

A marketing research report should be written so that other people can understand it:

• Include background information at the beginning to explain who your audience is and what problem you are trying to solve for them.
• In the body of the report, include a description of the methodology – Explain to the reader how your research was done, what was involved, and why you selected the methodology you used.
• Also in the body of the report, include the results of your market research. These may be quantitative or qualitative, but either way they should answer the questions you posed at the beginning.
• Include the executive summary – A summary of the entire report.

The market research methodology section includes details on the type of research, sample size, any limitations of the studies, research design, sample selection, data collection procedures, and statistical analyses used.

Visuals are an essential part of the presentation. Even the best-written text can be difficult to understand. Charts and graphs are easier to understand than text alone, and they help the reader see how the numbers fit the bigger picture.

But visuals are not the whole story. They are only one part of the presentation. Visuals are a cue for the reader. The narrative gives the story, not just the numbers.

Recommendations tend to follow logically from conclusions and are a response to a certain problem. The recommendation should always be relevant to the research rationale, that is, the recommendation should be based on the results of the research reported in the body of the report.

Now, let’s take a look at some dashboard reporting templates you could use to enhance your market research:

• Semrush (Position Tracking) Report

Brand Awareness Report

Sales pipeline performance report, customer success overview report, stripe (mrr & churn) report, semrush (position tracking) report template.

This free SEMRush dashboard template will help you monitor how your website’s search visibility on search engines evolves on a monthly basis. This dashboard contains all of the information you need to make changes and improve the ranking results of your business in Google Search.

This Brand Awareness Report will help you to get a sense of your brand awareness performance in Google Analytics, Google Organic Search, and Facebook. Use this dashboard to track brand awareness the same way you track other marketing campaigns.

Are your sales and marketing funnel healthy and growing? How is your sales and marketing funnel performing? What are the key conversion rates between your lifecycle stages? With a pipeline performance dashboard , you’ll get all of the answers quickly.

This Customer Success Overview Dashboard allows you to analyze how your customer service team’s responsiveness impacts your business. Use this dashboard to assess the correlation between your customer service performance and churn rate. 

This Stripe dashboard tracks your churn rate and MRR growth in real-time and shows you which customers (and how many of them) you have at any given point in time. All you have to do to get started is to connect your Stripe account.

As we said earlier, there are no strict rules when it comes to writing marketing research reports. On the other hand, you must find your focus if you want to write a report that will make a difference. Here are some best practices you should keep in mind when writing a research report.

• Objectives – The objective of a market research report is to define the problems, identify key issues, and suggest recommendations for further research. If you answer them successfully, you’re on the right way.
• Don’t worry about the format – Be creative. The report could be in a form of a PowerPoint presentation, Excel sheet, interactive dashboard or even a video. Use the format that best fits your audience, but make sure to make it easy to read.
• Include an executive summary, scorecard , or a dashboard – This is really important because time is money, and most people don’t have time to waste. So, how to put everything important in a short role? Address all of the objectives and put them in a graphic dashboard or scorecard. Also, you can write an executive summary template (heart of the report) that can be easily updated and read by managers or CEOs.
• Use storytelling –  A good story always makes a great point because it’s so memorable. Your research report results can double the effect with a catchy story.
• Keep it short – It’s not a secret that we are reading so little in the digital era. Use a lot of white space and bullet points. Too much text on a page means less focus for the reader.
• Be organized – Maintain the order of information. It’s important for the reader to navigate through the report easily. If they want to find some details or specific information it would be great to divide all sections with appropriate references.
• Methodological information – Methodological details could be boring. Include only the most important details that the reader needs to know to understand the big picture.
• Use images (or other visualizations) whenever you can – A good picture speaks for 1.000 words! If you can communicate the point visually, don’t hesitate to do it. It would be a lot easier for those who don’t like a lot of text to understand your results. But don’t push them where you can’t.
• Create readable graphs – The crown of marketing research reports is a comprehensive graph. Make sure to design precise and attractive graphs that will power up and round your story.
• Use the Appendix  – You can include all secondary information such as methodological details and other miscellaneous data in the Appendix at the end of the report.

Market research reports are all about presenting your data in an easy-to-understand way and making calculated decisions about business ideas. But this is something easier said than done.

When busy stakeholders and executives grab a report, they need something that will give them an idea of the results – the big picture that addresses company wide-business goals.

Can a PowerPoint presentation or a PDF report meet those expectations? Most likely not. But a dashboard can.

Keep in mind that even with the best market analysis in the world, your market research report won’t be actionable if you don’t present the data efficiently and in a way that everyone understands what the next steps are. Databox is your key ally in the matter.

Databox dashboards are designed to help you present your market research data with clarity – from identifying what is influencing your business, and understanding where your brand is situated in the market, to gauging the temperature of your niche or industry before a new product/service launch.

Present your research results with efficient, interactive dashboards now by signing up for a free trial .

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What is a Marketing Research Report and How to Write It

In essence, a market research report is a document that reveals the characteristics of your ideal customers, their buying habits, the value your product or service can bring to them, and the list of your top competitors.

The marketing research report paints a picture of what kinds of new products or services may be the most profitable in today’s highly competitive landscape. For products or services already available, a marketing research report can provide detailed insights as to whether they are meeting their consumers’ needs and expectations. It helps understand the reasons why consumers buy a particular product by studying consumer behavior, including how economic, cultural, societal, and personal factors influence that behavior.

Furthermore, the purpose of writing a marketing research report is to make calculated decisions about business ideas – whether they’re worth pursuing or not. This requires one primary skill which is observing the pattern which is hidden in the User Generated Content (UGC) written in different tones and perspectives on the social web.

Simply put, writing a market research report is a vital part of planning business activities and serves as a neat way to assimilate all the information about your target market and prospective customers.

Now, there are two key varieties of marketing research report formats – primary and secondary.

Primary vs. Secondary Market Research

Let’s take a look at the main recipes of how to make a market research report in detail:

Primary Research

This method of marketing research involves gathering firsthand information about your market and prospective clients. You study your customers directly by conducting:

• Interviews (either by telephone or face-to-face)
• Surveys and polls (online or by email)
• Questionnaires (online or by email)
• Focus groups discussions with a sample of potential customers and getting their direct feedback

Some crucial questions that you need to ask your prospective customers in your primary research are:

• What are the factors that motivate you to purchase this product or service?
• What do you like or dislike about this type of product or service already available on the market?
• Are there any areas you’d like to suggest for improvement?
• What according to you is the appropriate price for this product or service?

Primary research also involves analyzing competitors’ strategies, so you can find gaps and weaknesses that you can turn into your strengths.

Secondary Research

The second method of writing a marketing research report is all about analyzing the data that has already been published and using the available information on the web. That is, secondary research is done from reliable reports and statistics found on the websites of other organizations or authority blogs in your industry.

Sources can be:

• Public: This includes all the free sources like social media and forums, Google Trends, YouGov, and government sources such as the United States Census Bureau.
• Commercial: This includes industry insights compiled by research agencies like Pew, Gartner, Forrester, and so on. Typically, these are paid.
• Internal: This is the historical market data your organization already has in-house, such as the Net Promoter Score, customer churn rate, and so on.

Secondary data can help you identify competitors, establish benchmarks, and determine target customer segments or demographics – people who live a certain lifestyle, their income and buying patterns, age group, location, etc.

Market Research Reports Advantages and Disadvantages

Before we discuss how to write a marketing research report, let’s quickly take a look at market research report benefits and also some of the limitations in marketing research reports.

Advantages of Market Research Report

Here are the top reasons why you should invest in creating a market research report.

1. Gives a Better Understanding of Your Customers

The answers to questions like who will buy your product, what are the customers’ pain points, what motivates their buying behavior, and so on will be effectively answered with a market research report. Essentially, it will help you map out the full profile of your ideal customer and consequently, allow you to create tailored products and marketing campaigns.

2. Helps Spot Business Opportunities

As already mentioned, market research will give you insights about your competitors’ strategies, so you can find gaps in their offerings that you can turn into your product’s strengths. You may also find other business opportunities such as potential partnerships with brands that sell complementary products, or an opportunity to better upsell or cross-sell your products. For example, a keyword research report from a SaaS SEO agency provides an opportunity to acquire organic search ranking by creating in-depth, high-converting, and funnel-oriented content.

3. Minimizes Risks

Starting or running a business is synonymous with risk. In fact, nearly half of all small businesses with employees don’t survive for more than five years. Conducting proper market research frequently will allow you to stay on top of trends, and not waste your efforts and resources in things that would likely be fruitless.

For instance, before you launch a new product, conducting market research gives you a much better idea of the demand for your product. Or if an existing product is seeing a big drop in sales, market research helps you determine the root cause of the issue.

4. Facilitates Data-Driven Decision Making

When it comes to business decisions – data over guesswork, always. So, based on your market research results, you can make more informed decisions regarding the pricing, distribution channels, and marketing budget of your products.

Disadvantages of Market Research Report

As with anything, there are a couple of downsides to conducting marketing research as well.

1. Could Be an Expensive Activity

Conducting a comprehensive, in-depth research is usually a costly activity in terms of both time and money. To research the right audience with the right questions requires you to invest a lot of time. If you wish to use data by commercial market research agencies or get help from one such agency in conducting primary research, be prepared to spend a substantial amount.

2. Insights Gathered Could Be Inadequate or Even Inaccurate

Another problem often faced in marketing research is a lack of respondents. While you can figure out who is your target audience, getting them to fill out surveys and questionnaires can indeed be challenging. Plus, you’re using data you collected for drawing conclusions, which may be unreliable.

For example, by the time you act on the data you collected, it may have become outdated. This translates into poor decision making and the whole process may become counterproductive.

How to Prepare Market Research Report

Now, here are some concrete steps and guidelines for writing a marketing research report.

Step 1: Cluster the Data

First off, compile all the relevant data you’ve accumulated from your primary and/or secondary research efforts. Survey results, interview answers, statistics from third-party sources – bring it all together and then analyze the information to sketch out the profile of your target market.

Step 2: Prepare an Outline

Next, create a skeleton of the report so that you understand what information will go where. An outline with sections and subsections will help you structure your marketing research report properly. A typical report includes an introduction, background and methodology, executive summary, results, and a conclusion with links to all references.

With an outline in front of you, start by writing the front matter of your report – an introduction that provides a brief overview of your business and the reason you conducted the market research. Include a summary of the market research process and the results you have analyzed. For instance, you might have been gauging the feasibility of a new product, so summarize that your market research report is for a new product launch.

Step 3: Mention the Research Methods

An important next step is to clearly mention the methods used to conduct the research. That is, if you conducted polls, specify the number of polls, the percentage of responses, the types of people or businesses targeted, and the questions included in the poll. Tag all the resources for demographic information, such as census data.

Step 4: Include Visuals With Narrative Explanation

Visuals such as charts and graphs are an important part of any research paper. They make sure that the findings are easy to comprehend.

So, create tables, graphs, and/or charts illustrating the results of the research. Accompany it with a narrative explanation of the visual data. Highlight the inferences you made based on this data.

Step 5: Conclude the Report With Recommendations

Finally, conclude your report with a section that lists actionable recommendations based on the research results to facilitate decision making. For example, all the numbers may point to the conclusion that your customers desire a particular feature that no other product on the market is currently offering. In this case, it is clear that it’s a good idea to invest your resources in providing that feature and gain a competitive edge.

At the very end of the report, include reference links to all the sources and an appendix for supplementary materials and further reading.

Marketing Research Report Templates

Before you go, check out some templates and samples you can use to better understand the marketing research report structure, and maybe even use them to kickstart your report instead of preparing one from scratch.

• Market Research Report for New Product Launch
• Market Research Report for Restaurant (competitor analysis)
• Social Media Market Research Report

Writing a marketing research report is a tried-and-true way to gain a solid understanding of your target audience and competitors while enabling you to make more informed decisions and minimize investment risks. Sure, it may take considerable time, effort, and even money to conduct thorough research and prepare a report, but when done well, the ROI of it all is well worth it.

Shahid Abbasi is a senior technical SEO and content marketing lead at Growfusely, a SaaS content marketing agency specializing in content and data-driven SEO.

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5 Things to Remember When Writing a Market Research Report

Filed Under: Best Practices , Market Research , Reporting , Tools & Techniques , Quantitative Research

Lynne Bartos

Vice President and Marketing Content Strategist, Marketing

There is nothing more embarrassing for a researcher than to hear a client say “…this doesn’t really address the business questions that we set out to answer.” This is more common an occurrence in research reporting than most of us would care to admit. But unfortunately, much report writing these days falls short of expectations for those on the client side. This is likely due to more emphasis on methodology or analytic technique at the expense of clear graphics, creative story-telling and actionable direction.

What often happens during the report-writing process is that market researchers have their direct research client in mind. They neglect the fact that their direct contact must present these findings to the ultimate stakeholder in the process — someone in senior management or the head of marketing who does not function in the research realm.

We need to take conscious steps to break out of our little bubble to avoid some of the lingo that is prevalent in research circles. You know what I mean if you’ve ever found yourself presenting your findings to marketing folks. While peppering them with terms such as “mean,” “monadic,” “DK/NS,” “latent class,” and the like, you suddenly notice the deer-in-the-headlights reaction. Worse yet, your audience’s eyes glaze over completely. These terms are foreign to many marketers and, frankly, most of them couldn’t care less about such things. They simply want a viable solution to the particular business need they set out to address.

So, when writing a research report for my clients it helps me to keep a few things in mind….

Speak to Marketers in Their Language

Focus on what marketers care most about — getting customers, keeping customers, and increasing their share of the customer’s wallet. So tell them what is meaningful to them….

• How to position their brand
• How best to price it
• Who their best prospects are and how to reach them
• What message should they be communicating
• Who are their most loyal and valuable customers
• How do they keep them loyal to their service or brand

Net, net — put some Marketing-Speak into your report, and leave out the Research-speak.

Tell a good story

A good report tells a good story. So, how do you tell a compelling story? Start by getting organized!

• Develop an analytic plan that focuses on business issues and objectives — the questions that need to be answered.
• Outline how the questions will be.
• Once the data is in, all team members should know how the data relates to those question, and they can craft the best story together.

Remember, every page in the report should contribute to the story! If something doesn’t contour well with your story, stick it in the Appendix. How many hundred-page reports have you been subjected to where the charts are all in the same order as the questionnaire? Where is the story?

It’s also important to stick closely to your analytic plan when crafting your story. The analytic plan is what helps to keep everyone focused on why the research was conducted in the first place.

Insightful Headlines and Bullets

What I also find helpful in getting my arms around the story is to write effective bullets and headlines for the data presented. Too many people think an insight is reiterating the numbers that are in the charts. Remember, anyone can read the numbers on a chart – our job, as researchers, is to pull the deeper insights from seemingly obvious data.

Be Creative and Have a Llittle Fun

Creativity also comes into play! Package the story in a creative way. No one wants to see rows and rows of data. Make the report visually appealing so you don’t intimidate those who are going to be using the findings to help drive strategy. Avoid too much text and too many numbers.

And, don’t be afraid to insert some humor here and there. It reminds your clients that you are human and helps to lighten the tone and keep things relaxed.

Get to the Heart of It

And finally, probably the hardest part of the report process for any researcher is to get straight to the heart of it… what is the story – conclusions, implications, and recommendations. Go to the next step to tell them what the data MEANS, and what they might consider doing to maximize their investment.

And there is nothing sweeter to a market researcher’s ears than to hear a client voice saying, “Thanks, this really addresses the business questions that we set out to answer!”

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Marketing Reports 101: How to Create One + Templates

Written by: Unenabasi Ekeruke

You certainly can't rely on guesswork or gut feeling to answer these questions or make informed decisions. This is where marketing reports come into play.

Marketing reports provide the data you need to monitor activities, assess performance and make smarter decisions that bring better results. According to Think with Google , marketers who leverage tools to analyze, measure and report their marketing programs are 39% more likely to perform better.

If you are sold on creating high-quality marketing reports that captivate your audience, we've got you covered.

In this article, we'll teach you everything you need to know about marketing reports, how to create them and marketing report templates you can use straight away.

Table of Contents

What is a marketing report, the benefits of marketing reporting.

• How to Create a Marketing Report

Marketing Report Best Practices

Marketing report templates, level up your marketing reports with visme.

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A marketing report is a collection of data from different sources to evaluate the progress and performance of your marketing efforts and inform future marketing decisions. Businesses of all sizes create marketing reports to glean valuable into their:

• Overall marketing strategy
• Marketing goals
• Key performance indicators (KPIs)
• Marketing activities like research, promotions, content, ads, email, social media and more
• Expected outcomes and actual results

Not all marketing reports are created equal. The scope of your marketing reports can vary depending on the data you want to track and the number of marketing channels. The common types of marketing reports include:

• General marketing reports
• Social media marketing reports
• SEO marketing reports
• PPC marketing reports
• Email marketing reports

When used effectively, marketing reporting puts you on top of your marketing activities and metrics across all marketing channels. At a glance, you'll get a bird's eye view of which marketing campaigns and channels are delivering the best results.

You're probably wondering why you should create reports, especially when key stakeholders aren't compelling you to present them. Or why add another challenging task to your itinerary when you've got customers and other business activities to attend to.

Here are the major perks of creating a detailed marketing report.

Visualize Customer Purchase Journey

There's no better way to understand the customer journey than by using a marketing report. From your marketing report, you can quickly identify:

• Critical touch points
• Lead magnets or contents that are driving the most impact
• Where your prospects are on their journey
• Prospects who are willing to spend and when they plan to make a purchase
• What steps you should take to speed up the sales process and much more
• How to optimize your sales and marketing funnel to convert better

Measure and Analyze Marketing Efforts

After investing a significant amount of time and money in marketing, how do you know if your efforts are worthwhile? This is precisely where marketing reports come in.

Whether you're looking to generate leads, turn prospects into customers or increase revenue, your marketing reports will show you whether or not your campaigns are achieving the desired results. You'll quickly figure out which strategies will help you maximize return on investment and get more bang for your marketing buck.

Every marketer and data analyst understands that the struggle with reporting is real. But Visme makes writing a report super-easy regardless of your skill level. It doesn't matter what type of data you want to capture. Visme has thousands of compelling report templates , stock images, visual aids and design elements to make your reports pack a punch.

Make Informed Business Decisions

In today's hyper-competitive business environment, you can't rely on wild guesses and gut feelings to make important marketing decisions. If you want to call the right shots or get your decisions spot on, you need rich and quality data.

We're not just talking about gathering a bunch of isolated numbers for the sake of it. Relevant and actionable data shows how your marketing campaigns have fared and impacted your bottom line.

Moreover, be sure this data is digestible and deeply connected to your business outcomes. A detailed marketing report like the one below gives you all of your granular and enriching marketing data in one place.

Keeps Everyone on the Same Page

Misalignments between sales and marketing teams are a struggle for most businesses. It stifles business growth and costs companies more than $1 trillion yearly .

For this alignment to happen, data needs to flow across departments. And marketing reports are often the missing piece of the puzzle. They provide the data that sales and marketing teams need to:

• Optimize marketing content to increase emotional appeal and close more sales
• Achieve their sales and marketing goals
• Nurture leads through each stage of the sales funnel
• Increase conversions and drive revenue over the top

How To Create a Marketing Report

Now you know why you need a marketing report. The next big question is how do you create a comprehensive and useful marketing report?

We'll go over how to create marketing reports to help you make better decisions and benefit your audience.

1. Outline the Purpose of Your Marketing Report

Without a clear-cut purpose, your marketing report is just a bunch of isolated numbers without meaning. Before gathering data and creating a report, ask yourself these questions.

• What is the purpose of this report?
• What message do we want to share and how do we convey it?
• What are we looking to learn from this report?

Are you looking to measure the effectiveness of marketing campaigns? Do you want to justify marketing expenses or study marketing trends over a period of time?

Let's face it; you can't possibly fit every single piece of data into your marketing report. Answering these questions will help you focus on data that shape your marketing strategy, inform your decisions and help you perform better.

2. Know Your Audience

With a ton of marketing activities going on, you probably have a heap of data that's getting bigger by the hour.

All of this information may be relevant to you. But you want to ask yourself, is it relevant to the management team or people in other departments?

For example, the VP of marketing may be interested in which marketing campaigns bring in more leads, conversions and positive ROI. In contrast, the chief financial officer will want to see how marketing expense translates to sales and impacts the bottom line.

Before writing your marketing report, find out your target audience and what they want to know. This viewpoint will help you decide what data to provide. Plus, your marketing report must reflect the needs of your target audience.

Be sure to make your reports contain valuable information that's easy to understand. Your audience should be able to view the report and have clear direction on the next steps rather than scratching their heads in confusion.

3. Gather Your Data

Once you're clear on your target audience, the next important step is to gather, filter and analyze your data.

As your business grows, keeping tabs on granular data and tracking performance can be daunting. It's always helpful to keep an updated document of relevant documents and spreadsheets showing key metrics.

Using analytics tools like Google Analytics , Mixpanel , Hotjar , SEMRush and more to capture key marketing data can make your job a lot easier. You can also use change data capture (CDC) to track changes in your data warehouse, which will help you see the impact that new features have on the way people interact with your website.

Depending on your reporting process, you can do a daily, monthly or weekly dump and then use the data to build your report.

While gathering your data, you may be tempted to report everything, which isn't a good idea. Remember, your audience is typically only interested in the most critical metrics. Please resist the urge to drown them in a sea of meaningful information and lengthy reports.

Start by defining the period you want to focus on. Is it a weekly , monthly , quarterly or annual report ?

If you want a clear picture of your marketing performance over a period, it's better to draw comparisons between two different periods—current vs. previous. Also, be sure the metrics align with the goals you shared earlier.

4. Write Your Report

You've got reliable data to build your sales report at this stage. Now it's time to craft your report in a digestible, understandable and actionable format.

First, you want to choose a report writing format that captures the critical information and keeps your audience engaged. The next step is to identify what you should include in your report.

Let's look at your marketing report structure and what you should include in your report.

Marketing Report Structure

Marketing report structures aren't one size fits all. They may vary based on the purpose and content of your report, but the most common sections include the following:

Title or Cover Page

This page should be concise and clearly state what your report is analyzing. The cover page should include:

• Report title
• Reporting period and the date it was written

Executive Summary

This section usually comes last. It should summarize the key points of the entire report, highlight successes and failures and discuss future plans.

Introduction

In this section, you want to talk about what your report is about, who it's addressed to, what they'll find it and why they should care.

The body is usually the longest section of your report. Here you'll plug in all the marketing data you collected earlier. Again, make sure to use bullet points and visualizations to enhance readability and visual appeal.

Summarize your marketing report with key takeaways and a clear call to action. Remember to make recommendations and highlight the next steps.

What To Include in Your Report

A well-written marketing report should detail key areas and the performance of your marketing activities. While the level of details may vary based on your strategy or how complex your operations are, you should aim to capture the following critical information.

Overview of your marketing strategy

Here you should discuss your marketing goals, target audience and what channels you're using to reach your prospects. It should also highlight the specific action you're taking to execute your strategy.

Campaigns/Areas of Focus

This section should take a deep dive into your recent marketing efforts, including:

• Projects or campaigns you've run
• Pending, completed and upcoming task

You should aim to capture your win, losses, lessons learned and plans for the next phase.

Metrics and Analytics

This section should capture critical figures that show progress, performance and marketing effectiveness. It should reflect how well your campaigns are edging towards your set goals and key performance indicators.

5. Visualize Your Data

Data-heavy reports can be exhausting, especially when you're slamming your audience with large walls of text and numbers. To keep your audience engaged, visualize your marketing reports with eye-catching charts , graphs , infographics , images, videos and other visual aids .

Using visual aids will make it easier for your audience to digest your report and retain important information. You can create data visualizations such as graphs, charts and maps with the help of Visme's graph maker .

Watch the video below to learn how to create beautiful charts and graphs that make your marketing report effective.

Read this article to learn more about creating charts and other visual aids. Watch the video below to discover how to use data visualization for reporting and business intelligence.

6. Pay Attention to Design

Your marketing report design doesn't have to be dull and uninteresting. Instead, use these design tips to make your report engaging and attractive.

• Enrich and add personality to your marketing reports with images, videos and GIFs
• Use a consistent color scheme and color contrast for your report
• Customize your report using brand elements like colors, logos, fonts and layout
• Make your marketing report more engaging by incorporating animation and interactivity
• To make your report cleaner and easier to read, use headers or page transitions to divide it into sections
• Add notes, callouts and comments to bring context to critical metrics and KPIs

Fortunately, you don't need to be a professional graphic designer to create stunning and interactive marketing report designs that impress your audience. All you need is intuitive software like Visme packed with tons of design tools and templates that make your report shine.

7. Leverage Ready-to-Use Marketing Report Templates

Whether you're a novice or seasoned marketer, report templates are a great starting point. These preset templates help you choose the right data and show you where and how to place them.

Beyond saving you time and effort, they ensure your content and design elements are consistent. In the end, you're sure to have a beautiful and organized marketing report.

Visme offers thousands of fully customizable and user-friendly marketing report templates, layouts and features to suit your specific needs. All you need to do is pick a professionally-designed template and customize it to your taste. And boom, your marketing report is ready to go.

Even if you have little or no design experience, you can fast-track your next marketing report with our stunning, easy-to-use template below.

Writing a useful report requires planning, thoughtful consideration and follow-up. Let's go over some best practices to keep in mind when reporting on your marketing and sales efforts.

1. Schedule Your Reports

If you want to get timely reports for decision-making and ensure that teams are aligned, you need to schedule your reports to run periodically.

One way to ensure you're getting reports at the right time is to set a reminder to compile a report or set it to run automatically. Scheduling your report ahead of time leaves you with enough time to clean your data and reduces the risk of human error.

2. Put Your Most Valuable Data First

Whether you're creating reports to share with your team or top management, you certainly want your audience to read till the end.

Nobody wants to read an entire report only to get the key points on the last page. Make sure to place the most useful information early on. Right off the bat, your content should:

• Educate your audience,
• Highlight compelling figures and interesting insights
• Draw readers' attention to urgent and critical issues
• Provide information for decision-making

Use bullet points, callout quotes and sidebars to effectively grab the reader's attention while breaking up unappealing blocks of text. If you need to capture numbers, you can embed sheets into your documents .

3. Tell a Story

Lumping your reports with endless numbers and charts without context gives limited insight into what your report is all about. Instead, you want to walk your audience through the story behind the report, giving them the information and context they need at every level. This might also call for some interactive marketing techniques as well.

In a nutshell, your story should add more meaning to your data or answer critical questions like:

• What's responsible for the metrics, patterns or trends in your marketing data?
• What marketing tactics are you implementing that would cause the numbers to skyrocket or decline?

While telling your story, keep it succinct and add personality to make it enjoyable to read. Watch the video below to get more tips on telling compelling stories with data.

4. Gather Feedback From Your Audience

After you've presented your marketing reports and engaged your audience, remember to ask for feedback. You can ask for feedback via email or provide a short survey form for them to fill out.

Getting feedback from those using your marketing reports will help you determine whether it's useful or captures everything they need to know and what you can do to improve your marketing report in the future.

Are you ready to create attractive marketing reports that add value to your business? Look no further; you've hit the jackpot.

Here's a selection of professionally designed templates crafted to provide value and actionable insight into your marketing performance.

Template #1: Weekly Marketing Report

If you want to capture your marketing team's performance every week, this template is set up to make your work easier.

This template features a rich blend of bright colors with strong visual contrast. It also uses design elements that draw attention to KPIs and metrics like web analytics, campaigns and social media engagement.

Template #2: Monthly Marketing Report

A monthly marketing report template like this one is a perfect way to show your audience what your marketing team has been up to in the past month.

The template has a simplistic cover design and layout that accommodates key marketing performance highlights, metrics, line graphs and timelines that make your report shine.

You can add compelling images, videos and animations to make your report engaging and interactive. Customize this template with your logo, color and fonts to match your brand identity.

Template #3: Social Media Marketing Report

Assigning tasks to teams and tracking the progress of each task can be daunting, especially when you're dealing with multiple social media channels. But a single-paged report template like this example simplifies the process for your marketing team and brings everyone on the same page.

It has a rich blue and white color combination and a clean, spaced-out design. At a glance, you can capture a wealth of data, instant feedback and comments.

Simply plug in your marketing data, change the font, typography and color to match your brand and you're ready to go.

Template #4: Content Marketing Report

Do you want to share your content marketing plans and see if your efforts are paying off? Then, using this simple, clear and concise weekly report template is your best bet.

You can share your content ideas, competitor analysis and keyword search results. Then, fill in the placeholders with your data and descriptive content and make your data more visually appealing by using color-coded vector icons , shapes, charts and more.

Template #5: Quarterly Email Analytics Report

Keeping track of quarterly email analytics lets you know how your subscribers engage with your emails. With a template like this one, you can track metrics that directly link to your business goals and put your email marketing strategy and performance into perspective.

Visme gives you the creative freedom to make this template your own. Unleash your creativity and level up your email analytics report by incorporating Visme's graphic vector icons and shapes.

Explore our extensive collection of colorful, isometric, flat and outline graphics to find your perfect match and make your report stand out.

Template #6: Promotional Sales Report

This template is a perfect fit for sharing insights into your promotion campaign efforts, results and expected outcomes.

The cover page features a stunning image of the store and a powerful theme that leaves an impression on your readers.

This template moves further away from traditional neutral and corporate blue. However, the bright and bold yellow color scheme is catchy enough to draw readers into the content and show your brand's personality. The report template has four key sections and uses more text and numbers to get the message across.

Template #7: Social Media Analytics Report

This multi-page template has a sophisticated design, modern layout and dynamic elements that grab the audience's attention. It's designed to provide a high-level overview of your overall social media performance.

The template breaks down your report into four sections and beams more light on metrics such as social media reach, interaction and customer gain across multiple social media platforms.

Feel free to tweak colors, gradients, fonts to reflect your brand identity. You can also use charts, images, illustrations, characters, gestures and visualizations to bring your report to life.

Template #8: Promotional Campaign Report

This promotional campaign report template is perfect for businesses of all sizes. You can use it to share updates, progress and results of advertisements and other marketing activities.

The template has an appealing design layout and artistic theme with stylized content blocks, colorful borders, background photos and vector icons, all sourced from Visme's rich design and asset library. The colorful line graph makes the financial data compelling and memorable.

Feel free to cut, copy, paste and adjust anything you like until it fits your unique needs.

Template #9: Retail Weekly Promotional Campaign Report

If you want to ignite new interest in your company's ongoing promotional campaign, this stylish and attractive report template fits the bill.

The template uses a mix of stunning visualizations, color schemes and a uniquely crafted layout to make your information stand out. You can easily customize the template, present information in a compelling way and create an engaging experience for your audience.

Template #10: Annual Marketing Report Template

What overarching theme would you use to highlight marketing performance in the past year? Our final pick is an annual marketing report template that's sure to leave an impression on your audience.

The template caters to any business regardless of size, niche and scope. Likewise, it covers everything key stakeholders need to know, including your marketing efforts, strategy, achievements and plans for the coming years. Make your report stand out with a variety of stylish fonts, high-quality images and stock photos and visual aids from Visme.

This trendy and modern template features a rich combination of two vibrant color schemes: purple and blue. Each of the following pages features colors from the original palette to maintain a consistent appearance.

Marketing reports indicate where your marketing efforts are successful and need to be optimized to yield better results. However, marketing data is enormous and marketing reporting is an ongoing business process. That's why you need a tool like Visme's report maker that makes it super easy for you to create and share marketing reports in seconds.

Visme provides an incredible array of templates, high-quality images, design and data visualization tools to make your report impactful. With the dynamic field feature , you can ensure your reports are always accurate.

Once done, you can share your marketing report online using a link, embed it on your website, or download it for offline use in multiple formats, like PDF and HTML5. You can track how people are engaging with your report from your analytics tab .

Congratulations and happy reporting!

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About the Author

Unenabasi is a content expert with many years of experience in digital marketing, business development, and strategy. He loves to help brands tell stories that drive engagement, growth, and competitive advantage. He’s adept at creating compelling content on lifestyle, marketing, business, e-commerce, and technology. When he’s not taking the content world by storm, Unenabasi enjoys playing or watching soccer.

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How to Write a Marketing Research Report

I n today’s date, successful businesses have figured out how their customers research, shop, and buy. If you want your business to succeed, you must develop a thorough understanding of who your customers are, your target market, and what influences their purchase decisions and behaviors. That is where market research comes in.

According to HubSpot , market research is a process of collecting data about your company’s buyer personas, target audience, and customers to figure out viable and successful your service or product is going to be in this market, among these people.

A marketing research report is a document where you need to present market data, including current market trends, consumer behavior, and competitive analyses.

The primary objective of such reports is to identify business opportunities in the market. Needless to say, such reports play a crucial role in the success of a brand’s marketing strategy .

How to Prepare an Effective Marketing Research Report?

If you haven’t worked on a marketing research report before, the task may seem a bit challenging for you. In reality, however, it can be dealt with quite easily by following several tips.

#1. Understand the objectives of the report

Just like an essay writer needs to identify the objectives of the essay he/she is writing, you also need to determine the objectives of your marketing research report before you prepare one. The objectives, as you may know, justify why the research is being conducted.

Take some time to identify and understand the objectives so that you can use them as the starting point for your report. The whole report is just about answering the objectives, nothing more.

#2. Conduct thorough research

Since you are writing a report on marketing research, it is quite evident that you need to perform in-depth research of the market before you develop the report. Learn about the target market as much as you can.

Gather information about the target audience members, their purchase behaviors, and other market dynamics. Basically, you need to collect all the necessary data that will help you prepare a report in compliance with the objectives.

#3. Prepare an outline for the report

Once you are done gathering the necessary information, you need to develop the outline of your report. As you may already know from your academic years, the outline helps you organize the information in your paper and works as a skeleton of the report.

Since you have not prepared a proper marketing research report before, let me tell you about the crucial aspects of its outline:

A marketing research report generally has the following segments:

• Table of contents
• Introduction
• Background and methodology
• Executive summary

#4. Add the relevant details only

It is important that you realize that your research findings may not make it to the report. If a few pieces of information do not add value to the objectives of the report or seem insignificant to your report, you should leave them out.

Include only the relevant pieces of information. If you think some details may not be that important to the report you are preparing but can help the readers, you can add details in the appendix section.

#5. Include an executive summary

Let’s say that you are able to develop an impressive marketing research report on your first try. But there are still going to managers or other important people who just don’t have the time to read the entire report.

However, their inputs are still important. So, you need to prepare a shorter version of that report with only the most important details in the form of an executive summary . The summary should include just the details those managers (or other important position holders in the company) will need to make the business decisions .

#6. Tell a story

No one would be interested in reading a report if it only offers statistics and data points. You need to tell a story that will make your researched and analyzed data sound practical and interesting, compelling the readers to take the necessary measures.

For instance, you can form a story of how the findings of your marketing research will allow you to serve your ideal customers better. It is important to acknowledge that stories are generally more memorable. When you present your findings in the form of a story, they often become the guiding principles for future decisions.

#7. Put the least amount of methodological information at the start

To regular people, methodological information sounds boring. Instead of putting off the readers by presenting such data at the beginning, just mention the details that the readers will need to understand the context of the data you are about to present in your report.

Details such as who took part in your research survey, the sample size, how you collected the data will allow the readers to interpret the data more effectively. So include these data, and put the rest of the details regarding methodology in the Appendix.

#8. Use pictures or other visual elements when possible

There is no denying that pictures and other visual elements such as infographics, charts, graphs, etc., are more convenient for the readers. Besides, you can communicate complex concepts with much ease when using such visual elements instead of just texts.

You also need to consider the fact that your report will not just be handed to the readers in the form of a brochure but also be presented in PowerPoint. So it is wiser to use more visual elements in your report to make it more consumable for the readers who often lose interest while reading long chunks of texts and data.

#9. Proofread and edit

Once you are done writing the report, spend some time proofreading the content of the report. While having spelling or grammatical errors in your report can cause embarrassment for you in front of your colleagues, you should also be focusing on the fact that the report you have prepared fulfills all the objectives that were identified in the beginning. Also, make the necessary editing changes in the paper to make the report more reader-friendly and comprehensive.

#10. Get it checked by a person with experience

Since you do not have much experience in preparing marketing research reports, it is possible that you may still have something missing in your report, even if you have followed all the tips. So, it will be better if you have someone read your report and offer you constructive feedback on the paper.

Make sure that the person you are asking for feedback from has enough experience in preparing such reports. Such people can tell you how to make a more practical report for the business.

In conclusion

As you can see, preparing a marketing research report is not much different from preparing an academic paper. But the problem is that you are no longer a student. So, if you make a mistake, you will have to face the consequences as well.

This is why it is important that you stick to the basic guidelines of report writing and seek guidance from people with some quality experience.

About the Author!

Clara Smith is a senior marketer who is currently working for a reputed MNC based in California, US. She is also a part of the team of experts at Essaygator.com , where she offers coursework help by AssignmentHelp.us to students on their requests.

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Learn How to Write a Market Research Report: 10 Steps to Follow for Success

Dec, 2023 - by CMI

A market research report is an integral part of the coursework for many business programs. It explores the understanding of subjective views of customers towards a product or service. Still, many students struggle to create market reports that effectively address the business question. So, how do you avoid the deer-in-the-headlights reaction when presenting a market research report?  

In most cases, marketers fail to create impactful research reports because they don’t know the actionable steps to follow. 10 main steps occur in a typical market research study and reporting process, from problem identification to acting on the result. Read on to get all the information you need to write a top-notch market research report.

What Is a Market Research Report?

A market research report is a document prepared to evaluate the feasibility of a new product or service to potential customers. Companies do market research reports to paint a picture of what products, services, or actions may be the most profitable to pursue. Actionable information is obtained through market research prepared in a formal report that reveals the characteristics of customers, the value of a product or service, buying habits, and a list of top competitors.

Writing a market research report helps businesses make calculated decisions about what ideas to pursue or not. It focuses on studying consumer behavior that influences spending decisions, including cultural, economic, societal, and personal factors. As a result, businesses can assimilate critical information and tips about prospective customers and target markets.

10 Steps to Write a Market Research Report That Accurately Highlights Market Opportunities

Identify the problem and objectives.

In market research, there’s a famous saying that a problem half defined is a problem half solved. So defining the potential problem, causes, or opportunities in the market is a great place to start your marketing research papers. The information will help you narrow down the parameters of the study, such as the business objective and research objectives. Whether you want to test a hypothesis about consumer opinion or how consumers will react to a new pricing model, they all require identifying a solid objective.  

Develop your research strategy

This is a crucial step in preparing a market research report because it will define the quality of data collection and the reliability of results. Choose between primary research or secondary research methods. Also, you will need to decide whether you will utilize quantitative or qualitative research methods. The most effective research strategy depends on your sample size and profile as well as the desired outcomes based on the objectives.

Use the help of writing services

In case you feel inefficient in handling crucial market research writing steps, such as defining the problem, identifying research objectives, or developing a research strategy, get the help you need from a professional. Reputable academic paper writing services, such as CustomWritings, have plenty of certified academic writers with extensive knowledge and experience in custom research paper writing of any complexity. You can get one written from scratch by an expert in a stipulated time to make your work easier.

Prepare an outline and set a deadline

If you can write a market research report yourself, develop an outline with sections and subsections you will cover in your paper. A typical market research report includes the following sections:

• Introduction
• Methodology

Market research reports also come with a fixed due date. So, allocate time for completing each section to ensure you finish the task before the deadline.

Specify the sample

Before you can start collecting data, you need to specify who will participate in the study. Start by defining your population correctly and defining a sampling frame from which you will draw the sample. For example, you can use a customer list, directory, or membership roster to get a good sample. Large samples produce more reliable results, but the more data you have, the costlier and more time-consuming your research will be. Use statistics to define an optimal sample size.

Gather data and information

Next, conduct fieldwork to collect relevant data. If you’re conducting quantitative research, use text, emails, websites, and social media to reach respondents. For qualitative research, primary data collection typically involves interviews or ethnographic research through video surveys. Find ways to record and organize responses from each source. You can complement each type of research with secondary data that relates to your topic.

Technology has made data analysis a breeze for researchers. Students can use programs such as Excel, STATA, and SPSS to organize, clean, analyze, and interpret basic results of their market research. The type of analysis you’ll adopt will depend on your hypothesis. Some good marketing analyses that you can conduct include:

• Market segmentation analysis
• Conjoint analysis
• Price sensitivity analysis
• TURF analysis

Present findings in a written report

It’s time to put your study together in a well-written market research analysis report that you will present to an audience of decision-makers. The goal is to make your findings come alive so that the audience understands your objectives and insights uncovered in the research. While data analysis could be complex, the final report should only point to the concrete actions and results. Ensure your college research report includes a title page, table of contents, executive summary, methodology, findings, and recommendations. In some cases, you can accompany your report with a slide presentation, charts, case summaries, and graphs.  

Cross-check

When you’re done with your market research report, take time to read through all the details to see if you’ve missed anything, have made mistakes, or if it has a good flow. Your first draft is never your final product. University students can get editing help from professional editing services, or online editing tools, or just ask a friend to double-check the report. Edit the report as many times as you want to make it clear and concise.

Act on your findings

Local and international businesses prepare market research reports for many reasons. Maybe they want to enter a new market or launch a new product. With a research report in hand, it’s time to act on the findings and the recommendations. This could involve commissioning the production of a product, setting up a social media framework, or taking actions to monitor customer loyalty. Still, stay alert to changes in trends that might require new research to be launched in the future.

Wrapping Up

When a busy business executive or professor grabs your market research report, they want to see something that will give them an idea of the research design, the results, and the big picture that addresses company goals. Follow the guide provided in this article to prepare a clear and actionable market research report.

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Explore 6 Stunning Marketing Report Examples with Free Templates

Marketing reporting is a crucial element of your marketing strategy. It shows whether your campaigns are hitting their targets or need to be redefined. 

But although reports are important, you don’t want to spend much of your time visualizing and analyzing your marketing performance. 

This is where reporting tools come into play. 

With automated reporting, you have plenty of time to develop actual marketing campaigns while essential metrics are collected and visualized in real time. 

We bring you the six most popular marketing report examples based on our template usage.

Mar 29 2023 ● 6 min read

Table of Contents

What is a marketing report, 6 reasons you need a marketing report, 1. access your data easily, 2. track the customer journey, 3. make data-driven decisions, 4. align marketing and sales team goals, 5. speed up your reporting, 6. proving your efforts, how often should you create a marketing report, how to visualize your clients’ marketing data, 6 essential marketing report examples + templates, 1. marketing campaign report, 2. social media marketing report, 3. seo marketing report, 4. ppc marketing report, 5. ecommerce marketing report, 6. email marketing report, why use whatagraph to create marketing performance reports, automated data sourcing, unlimited reports, stunning report templates, drag-and-drop to edit templates, automated delivery, are you ready to start reporting.

A marketing report is a type of report that sources data from your marketing channels in real-time, visualizes it using different graphs, charts, and tables, and allows you to share the insights with your co-workers, clients, managers, etc.

With a marketing report at your fingertips, you can easily stay on top of your marketing performance across all your channels and identify areas of improvement.

As a marketing specialist, you need a way to access data on your essential marketing KPIs easily. A digital marketing report helps you easily connect your data.

You can include key performance indicators from all the important marketing channels, from social media to email, from SEO to paid ads, and Google Analytics 4.

As a marketer, you want to know where exactly your prospective customers are on their journey. You want to know what device they’re using, when they’ll purchase your product, etc. A marketing report is a source of high-quality data that you can use to offer your prospects exactly what they’re looking for.

You can shape and reshape your entire marketing strategy thanks to your marketing reports. No matter how good you are at your job, your intuition and experience only get you half the way. But to back up your strategy, you need to rely on solid data that comes from your marketing reports.

For a company to reach its business goals, it’s important that data flows freely across the entire organization. Marketing reports can help in this aspect, as well. For example, let’s say that in the midst of a campaign, the sales team finds out that the revenue is less than the set target.

They might not know the reason behind it, but they can pass the ball to the marketing team to look into the issue.

The marketing team can look into the report, identify the issue, make improvements to their strategy, and bring sales back on track.

With so many marketing metrics available, selecting the right ones can be challenging. Luckily, you don’t have to make hard choices today.

Instead of building marketing reports from scratch, you can use our marketing report templates , each with preset KPIs, visualization elements, and a ton of customization options. If you have a different idea, just add different metrics or rearrange the existing ones.

You and I might be aware that marketing is worth the investment and that quality marketing leads to business growth. However, for many people, it’s still a support function and a risky expense. That’s where your marketing reports come in. If you can show that your campaigns are generating leads, turning your prospects into customers, and bringing in revenue, you can prove the value of your marketing efforts.

You should create a marketing report at least on a monthly basis . Weekly or daily reports can be helpful for marketers, as well, but less so for clients, who could easily get overwhelmed by the number of reports and start ignoring them.

Our own research actually shows that a majority of clients would prefer monthly reports or real-time insights via a shared dashboard they can access at wish.

Monthly marketing reports allow you to collect just enough data to see how changes have affected marketing results while also ensuring that faulty campaigns don’t run for too long.

Of course, you don’t have to stick to a monthly or weekly reporting plan. Whatagraph allows you to send reports at your own custom intervals or give the clients a link to access a dashboard in real-time.

But that shouldn’t concern you either. Whether you choose to create a daily, weekly , or monthly report, with Whatagraph, you only need to create the report once, and the data updates automatically.

Presenting clients with a clear and concise marketing report goes a long way to keeping them not only informed of your marketing efforts but also telling them whether they are getting a solid return on investment on their marketing budget.

Here’s what a comprehensive marketing report should include:

• Visuals : Graphs, charts, and value widgets are much better than tables or rows of data.
• Upfront key results : This is what most clients came for in the first place. This can either be the header section or even the entire first page of your report. Apart from these single-value widgets, Whatagraph reports allow you to include notes and commentaries as to why things happen the way they do so your clients can understand the campaign performance as a whole.

• Bad results as well : Don’t shy away from the bad results. Include them upfront as well, and make sure to explain what happened and what you’re going to do about it.
• Use headers for sections : They make it easier to follow what each section is talking about in the report.
• Keep it to the point : Whether you have two or seven pages of materials, try to keep your report short and concise. You should also add a summary at the top of the report that would outline the high-level results for the client.

At all times, you should have a great all-around marketing campaign report in your library, the one that encompasses all your marketing activities — from content marketing to SEO, to eCommerce and everything in between.

This kind of general marketing report is more of an overview. If you need to delve deeper into the metrics, you better check some of the report templates below.

A general marketing report should include:

• Campaign performance
• Bounce rate
• Conversion rate
• Channel performance by source
• Goal completion

The best way to start is with Whatagraph’s Ultimate Cross Channel Analytics Report Template .

It’s a one-stop report for presenting all your marketing results from social to email, SEO, and PPC data with attractive visuals.

• Performance overview : Time passed, Goal completions, Number of leads, Media spend, Conversions, and Cost per conversion
• Acquisition overview : Top channels conversions vs. users (direct, organic, paid, referral)
• Website overview : Users, New users, Bounce rate, Average session duration, and Page performance
• Target audience overview : Users per device, Demographics, and Interests: In-market segments
• Google Ads overview : Time passed, Impressions, Clicks, Conversions, and Cost
• Organic traffic overview : Time passed, Users, New users, Average rank, Goal completions, and Conversion rate
• Facebook Ads overview : Time passed, Impressions, Link clicks, Pixel leads, Conversions, Cost per conversion, and Total spend

As you can see, our cross-channel report template allows you to overview and optimize the performance of individual channels without digging deep for each channel

Instead, present your stakeholders with the most important KPIs and report on your progress.

When it comes to social media reporting, you’re generally interested in two aspects:

• Paid — such as Facebook Ads
• Organic — such as photos, videos, and blogs

You’re most likely to use the most popular social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn, so you need to include them in your reports.

The most important metrics in this type of report include:

• Likes and follows
• Demographics
• Impressions
• Top performing posts

However, in this case, it is important to organize your data by channel.

To help you with that, Whatagraph’s Social Media Report Template handles all your social media data analytics and evaluates the campaign effectiveness for each client.

Our social media template has the following default sections:

• Overview : Sources, Impressions, Clicks, Engagements, and CTR by source
• Paid channels overview : Sources, Impressions, Clicks, Engagements, and Click-through rate (CTR) by channel
• Facebook page : Total page likes, New page likes, Page impressions, Reach, Likes over time, Page engagement, Top performing Facebook posts
• Instagram : Followers, Engagement rate, New followers, Reach, Activity (website clicks, phone call clicks, get direction clicks, profile visits, etc.), Top locations, and Top Instagram media
• Twitter : Total followers, Following, New followers, Retweets, and Top tweets
• LinkedIn : Total followers, Post impressions, New followers, Engaged users, and Network by industry
• Snapchat : Swipes, Screen time, Shares, Saves, Engagement, and Engagement by device
• Pinterest : Followers, Views, Likes, Profile reach, Profile performance, and Performance by gender.

Of course, if you don’t need all the social media channels, you can easily remove them and add others like TikTok and YouTube.

Search engine optimization is an important part of any long-term digital marketing plan. It’s time to upgrade your reporting with an all-in SEO marketing dashboard that includes the SEO overview, website traffic report, Ahrefs links, backlink status report, etc.

When creating an SEO marketing report, you need to include

• Organic sessions
• Organic conversions
• Organic landing pages
• Keyword rankings

Luckily, you don’t need to create one from scratch. Whatagraph’s SEO Report Template can become your go-to reporting source for keeping an eye on your SEO and organic performance, changes in keyword rankings, organic CTR, branded and unbranded search terms, and many more SEO-related metrics.

Our SEO marketing report by default has the following sections:

• Google WEB search impressions
• Google WEB search clicks
• Percent new organic sessions
• Organic goal completions
• Organic search funnel: Sessions, Users, and Goal completions
• Organic traffic compared to the previous year
• Ahrefs metrics: Backlinks, Refpages, Links internal, Linked root domains, Dofollow
• Google Search Console: Keyword performance by rank
• Ahrefs backlinks
• Ahrefs page information

But this list of channels and metrics is not set in stone. If needed, you can add more channels, such as SEMrush and their metrics, ultimately turning this SEO marketing report into a true cross-channel marketing report.

PPC is one of my favorite marketing strategies because the return on investment is so easy to track. However, in order to drive conversions, PPC results need to be monitored and optimized.

Whatagraph’s PPC Report Template helps you gather key metrics such as cost per click, conversions, and click-through rate from platforms like Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Microsoft Ads, LinkedIn Ads , and more.

Our consolidated PPC overview by default has the following sections:

• Main KPIs : Time passed, Conversions, Clicks, Impressions, and Cost;
• Insights : A textbox where you can write your own insights into the results;
• Further actions : A textbox where you can suggest further actions;
• Channel split : Traffic and conversions per Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Microsoft Ads, LinkedIn Ads, and Cost per conversion.

Using our PPC report template, you can create an engaging paid media report for your clients in minutes and have it delivered to them automatically.

As your clients’ products and services change and evolve, so should your eCommerce marketing strategy evolve to support them.

Ecommerce marketing depends on a number of marketing channels, so there’s never a shortage of metrics to track. However, every eCommerce report worth its ink should include

• Transactions
• Pages per session
• Average order value

It’s a good thing that you don’t have to extract all those metrics from social media and Google Analytics 4 manually.

Email marketing is a shortcut to getting your clients’ products and services in front of people. But you can’t just dispatch a series of emails and hope for the best.

An email marketing report helps you track the email campaign performance and how the changes you make affect your bottom line.

Some of the most essential KPIs you should report include

• Number of emails sent
• Unique open rate
• Overall campaign performance

In other words, you want to know how many people opened your email and converted as a result.

Our Email Report Template does just that. Keep all your key email marketing metrics in one place to report on the progress of your marketing campaigns.

• Total subscribers
• Unsubscribed total
• Emails sent
• Successful deliveries
• Unique opens
• Unique clicks

No manual work is needed. With our expert data visualization, the progress of your email campaigns becomes easily visible.

Every single one of these six types of marketing reports includes a large number of KPIs to the point that visualizing all that data would take too much time. Imagine doing that every month or even week for multiple clients.

With Whatagraph, you can connect your data sources once and get instant insights into your marketing results.

Because every time you create a new report, the data is refreshed — as simple as that.

No need to go back and forth through different reports for hours to make a cross-channel overview. Connect your accounts once, and the data fills in and updates automatically every time.

Whatagraph allows you to create cross-channel analytics reports with data from a range of social media, web analytics, SEO strategy, PPC, eCommerce, and email marketing platforms.

If you don’t have time to create a report from scratch, pick a report template from our library and connect your sources. Each template comes with pre-loaded visualization elements that will come to life once you connect your account.

You can choose to edit the template by introducing additional widgets for different dimensions and metrics. Customize your report template by adding graphs and charts, images, text boxes, funnels, calendars, and more.

Add your or your client’s logo or change the color scheme of the design elements to make the report more in line with your client’s branding. For a fully professional look, you can use the white-labeling option and remove Whatagraph’s logo from your reports for good.

Once you’ve customized your marketing report to your client’s liking. The only thing that remains is to schedule the delivery. It makes little difference if the clients want your report in their mailbox once a month or every week.

Set the sending interval for each account, the period to report on, and the number of recipients, and every report will be delivered automatically .

Whether it’s social media, SEO, or cross-channel reporting, getting hold of your clients’ marketing data would be hard to imagine without marketing reporting software that automates the bulk of reporting tasks and, in the end, makes the whole report look smart and engaging.

Visit our library of marketing report templates and pick the ones you need.

Published on Mar 29 2023

Nikola is a content marketer at Whatagraph with extensive writing experience in SaaS and tech niches. With a background in content management apps and composable architectures, it's his job to educate readers about the latest developments in the world of marketing data, data warehousing, headless architectures, and federated content platforms.

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A Guide on How to Create a Market Research Report

A market research report provides valuable insights into consumer behaviors, market trends, competitive analysis, and the overall health of specific industries.

This document serves as a roadmap for businesses to strategize effectively, identify new opportunities, and mitigate risks.

In this article, we will walk you through the essential components of a market research report, the steps to create one, and best practices to ensure that your findings are actionable and accurate.

What is a Market Research Report?

A market research report is a comprehensive document that gathers data about market conditions, customer preferences, competition, and other factors affecting an industry or business. It synthesizes primary and secondary research to present an analysis that helps companies make strategic decisions. The report covers various aspects, from demographic data and consumer surveys to industry trends and competitive dynamics.

Types of Market Research Reports

Market research reports can vary based on the objectives and the scope of the study. Here are some common types:

• Consumer Analysis Reports: Focus on customer demographics, preferences, and behavior to tailor products and marketing strategies.
• Competitive Analysis Reports: Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of competitors within the market, offering insights into competitive advantages and potential opportunities.
• Industry Analysis Reports: Provide a broad overview of the industry, including trends, size, and growth forecasts.
• Product Testing Reports: Gather feedback from users about a new or existing product to inform product development and improvement.
• Brand Loyalty Reports: Analyze customer loyalty and satisfaction to help develop strategies to enhance customer retention.

What Does a Market Research Report Include?

A well-rounded market research report generally contains the following elements:

• Executive Summary: A concise overview of key findings and recommendations, allowing readers to quickly understand the report's essence.
• Introduction: Contextualizes the research, including objectives and questions that the report aims to address.
• Methodology: Describes the research methods used to collect data, whether through surveys, interviews, focus groups, or secondary data sources.
• Market Analysis: Detailed analysis of the market, including size, trends, growth patterns, and environmental factors.
• Competitive Landscape: Assessment of key players in the industry, their market share, strategies, and products.
• Customer Insights: Analysis of customer demographics, buying behaviors, preferences, and needs.
• Conclusions and Recommendations: Summarize the insights derived from the research and suggest actionable strategies based on the findings.

How to Create a Market Research Report in 5 Steps

Creating an effective market research report involves a structured approach:

• Define the Purpose: Clearly articulate what you want to achieve with the report. This will guide your research focus and methodology.
• Gather Information: Use both primary and secondary research to collect comprehensive data. Primary research could include surveys and interviews, while secondary research may involve reviewing existing studies, industry reports, and competitive data.
• Analyze Data: Interpret the data to identify patterns, insights, and correlations. Use statistical tools and software for accurate analysis.
• Draft the Report: Organize the findings in a structured format. Start with the executive summary, followed by the introduction, methodology, detailed findings, and conclusions.
• Review and Revise: Ensure the report is clear, accurate, and free from bias. It may be helpful to have peers or stakeholders review the document before finalizing it.

Best Practices for Creating a Market Research Report

To enhance the effectiveness of your market research report, consider these best practices:

• Stay Objective: Maintain impartiality to ensure the report is unbiased and reliable.
• Use Visuals: Incorporate charts, graphs, and infographics to make data easier to understand and more engaging.
• Keep It Concise: Be clear and concise, avoiding overly complex language or excessive detail that may distract from the key insights.
• Segment the Data: Provide segmented analysis to offer more detailed insights into different customer groups or market segments.
• Update Regularly: Market conditions change rapidly, so it’s important to update your reports periodically to keep them relevant.

Create a Market Research Report Using Tome

Presenting your market research effectively is key to influencing strategic decisions.

With Tome, you can effortlessly craft detailed, insightful presentations that communicate complex data in an understandable and engaging manner.

Start leveraging Tome today to enhance the impact of your market research reports and drive meaningful action.

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How to Write a Marketing Report

Last Updated: March 21, 2024 References

This article was co-authored by Michelle Arbeau . Michelle Arbeau is a Numerologist & Life Strategist, and the CEO of Authentic You Media and Eleven Eleven Productions. She’s based in West Hollywood, California. With over 20 years of experience, she specializes in numerology, mediumship, and business advice. In 2015, Best Businesses named her the Best of West Hollywood Celebrity Numerologist, and she’s been hailed as the #1 Numerologist in the World and the #1 Celebrity Numerologist. There are 10 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been viewed 305,134 times.

Your business may spend a large amount of time and money on marketing. A smart business owner needs to assess how well their marketing plans are working. Specifically, your marketing efforts should get the attention of prospects. Eventually, a percentage of those prospects should become clients. You can perform market research to ask your clients about the effectiveness of your marketing message. Companies summarize the results of their research in a marketing report. Use the results of the report to make improvements in your business.

Evaluating Your Marketing Efforts

• Market research is the process of evaluating how well your marketing efforts are working. Specifically, does your marketing get the attention and interest of prospects? Are you converting enough of those prospects into clients?

• The more specific you can be about the identity of your customer, the better you can address their needs. Ask yourself, "Who am I targeting with this product?" and "What do they want?"
• Look at your current customers. What's the average age? Gender? Education level? Personality? Lifestyle? Hobby? Occupation? Marriage status? Values? [3] X Research source
• It is also important to know where your customers are coming from. Sources include search engines, social media, backlinks, referral traffic, and subscriber lists.

• For example, based on customer surveys and your industry knowledge, you uncover a customer problem. In this case, customers are losing time working or studying when their cell phone dies. If they forget their charger, they may lose hours of productivity.

• For example, to solve the problem of dying cell phones, you create a phone charger built into a backpack. Your customers use backpacks to store computers and other work or school items. As a result, the worker or student can always charge their phone.

• Over time, more customers buy your backpack and like using the built-in phone charger. These clients also believe that your product is different and better than competing products. You are building brand equity with your customers. To find out more about brand equity, see how to build brand equity.

• You continually add blog posts, articles and other content to your website. Adding content drives traffic to your site. Your content also keeps a percentage of your audience coming back for new content.
• Your site offers an opt-in button for readers to subscribe to additional content that is emailed to them. This group gets a weekly email from you with new content links.
• You have an attractive home page that includes a picture of someone using your backpack phone charger. The site allows the user to easily navigate to your content page and to web pages with product information.
• You provide an e-commerce option for customers. Clients can buy your product online and receive their backpack in just 2-3 business days.
• This should also include information about the sales channels used, like online, bricks & mortar, types of retailers, etc. Analyze how well your product is doing in each of these channels.

• Note your market share compared to competitors and market share trends. Are you gaining market share, losing it, or holding your own?
• For more on market share, see how to calculate market share.
• Keeping a close eye on your ROI is essential in order to stay abreast of how much you’re spending on marketing versus your return on that investment. Comparing what you’re spending on marketing versus your return on that investment is paramount to a good report.

• Your report should include such items as definition of the market size, competitors and their marketing size, as well as estimates of market share.
• You can use the market report to make changes to your marketing process. These changes can help you get more business from the time and money you spend on marketing.

Writing Your Executive Summary

• The summary should include specific, numeric details from the rest of your report. These details should be condensed into bullet points and made prominent on the report. [8] X Research source

• For example, if your backpack charging company had plans to expand into purse chargers or another similar product line, include these plans in your summary.
• This should also include the sales channels being used by your business, as well as competitors and their sales channels. Are you different? Why? If not, do you have a competitive advantage that can be exploited in your marketing and sales efforts?

• For example, you could be examining how well advertisements for your backpack are reaching college students, as they would be a likely audience for your product. If your ads are primarily reaching adults, who don't generally carry backpacks, this would be an issue to raise in your evaluation.

• For example, if only 1 in 20 of your site's visitors actually buy one of your backpacks, you may want to reconsider the design of your websites, the ease of purchase, or the price of your product.

Completing Your Marketing Report

• You should also consider the fact that other competitors will arise if you are successful. Significant returns attract more competition, so if you don't have direct competitors now, rest assured that you will in the future. Have a plan in place to sustain your competitive advantage in spite of new entrants to the market.
• For example, perhaps you perceive that college students may be carrying backpacks less often as they switch to an all-digital education. You could remark on how this will hurt your business and explain how you will respond to it.

• To get the most out of your focus group, carefully plan the exact series of questions you want to ask. Your marketing report should include the questions you ask and why those questions are important to you.
• In your survey or focus group, ask people how they first heard about your product. If you’re the backpack company, you might determine that most customers find you when they read a blog post or article that is posted to your site.
• Document the results of both your surveys and your focus groups. Your report should provide both questions and responses. Give the reader the percentage of each type of response. For example, maybe 40% of respondents first learned about the backpack company by finding a blog post or article that was posted on the website.
• Your qualitative research (survey and focus group questions) may be 5 to 10 pages of your report. The responses to those questions will also be 5 to 10 pages of material.

• Evaluate the extent to which your customers view your product as different and better than the competition. If they don’t see a difference, dig into their responses and find out why.
• Say, for example, that most clients see you backpack and built-in phone charger as about the same as a competitor’s product. In fact, your phone charger includes a reinforced case that makes your charger much more durable.
• Decide on some conclusions. You conclude, for example, that your website needs to emphasize that your phone charger case is much more durable than the competition.
• You decide to make changes to your website and your other marketing communication pieces. After a period of time, you can assess these changes to see how they have impacted your market share. Perform more market research to evaluate the impact of your changes.

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• ↑ http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/217345
• ↑ http://articles.bplans.com/how-to-write-a-market-analysis/
• ↑ https://www.inc.com/guides/2010/06/defining-your-target-markets.html
• ↑ http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelskok/2013/06/14/4-steps-to-building-a-compelling-value-proposition/
• ↑ http://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/competitive_advantage.asp
• ↑ https://www.shopify.com/blog/13444793-how-to-evaluate-market-demand-for-your-new-product-idea
• ↑ http://www.marketingmo.com/strategic-planning/how-to-write-an-executive-summary/
• ↑ https://www.ironistic.com/good-marketing-report/
• ↑ http://www.tdbank.com/small_business/workshops/IdentifyYourTargetMarket/texttarget_market.htm
• ↑ https://neilpatel.com/blog/10-ways-to-make-customers-fall-in-love-with-your-business/

About This Article

To write a marketing report, start by creating a 1-2 page executive summary that provides a description of the company’s goals. Next, detail the objective of your research and evaluate how well the company is reaching their intended audience. Then, include figures that represent how many visitors to your website purchased the company's product. Additionally, report on the returns the company is getting from its marketing dollars so you can tell if the money was well-spent. To learn more from our Business co-author, like how to use the marketing report to make improvements, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Characteristics of a Good Business Report

What is an r&d report, how to write an executive summary on a marketing plan.

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Your blood is pumping. A new opportunity has emerged on your business radar, and it could propel your business in a captivating and profitable direction. It could be a new product or service line, a group of untapped consumers or even – keep your voice down now – a potential merger with a smaller competitor.

Before you get too far ahead of yourself, you know that it's smart to thoroughly vet this opportunity by commissioning a market research report . At some point -- probably after your staff has finished gathering the necessary quantitative and qualitative data – you must lay out your expectations for the written report. How you approach this task should get their blood pumping, too.

Issue Three Dictates

If your marketing team is new to the task, they're probably going to love your top three directives:

• Tell a story. Tell a visual story, with lots of charts and graphs. Keep it brief.

They may not think they heard you right; after all, you did say you want a market research report, didn't you? And aren't most reports long, voluminous and yes, sometimes dull products?

Tell them to make no mistake: you expect a comprehensive effort that assesses every angle of this new business opportunity. You want the report, as they say, to “see around corners.” But there are valid reasons that drive your directives.

Tell a Story

The most compelling market research reports pivot on a story – about why that new product or service line holds such promise, why that group of untapped consumers could benefit from your offerings or why that merger would be a wise investment.

Like all good stories, this one might start with an anecdote or focus on one person – the “main character” – who could serve as your ideal customer. Telling the story of your research through his or her eyes, and with plenty of dynamic quotes, should flow directly into how pursuing this new opportunity would advance your business objectives. This is a crucial part of the story, too, since the opportunity wouldn't even be worth considering if it didn't conform with your business plan.

At this point, you might wish to share with your staff the experience of a well-known manufacturer of a men's fragrance that was ready to embark on a marketing campaign – targeted to men. Then the market research revealed that women, not men, make most of these purchases, and the finding transformed the campaign. Now there was an entirely different story to tell because the main characters shifted to women – who they are, what they do for a living, when they purchase men's fragrances and how they persuade the men in their lives to acquiesce to wearing a fragrance in the first place.

Tell a Visual Story

As much of the quantitative data as possible should be consigned to charts and graphs in the market research repor t, not the actual written content. Numbers are easier to read, and evaluate, when they're displayed in a graph rather than tucked into a dense paragraph, where the reader may struggle to interpret their meaning.

This point underscores another reality about market research reports: you may think it's being written for your benefit and that of your staff. And for now, it may be. Your audience may also include your business attorney and accountant. But some day, if it's appropriate, new stakeholders may read the report, too, and charts and graphs will make it easier for them to digest.

Of course, you can always overdo a good thing. Only relevant charts and graphs – or those that advance the fundamental story – should be included in the body of the market research report. Ancillary information should be relegated to the appendix – that document repository that comes at the end of a report.

Keep it Brief

By focusing on a compelling story and relying on visuals, your staff should find it easier to address your third cardinal rule. They should know that you will judge the value of their effort on its quality, not the number of pages. (It's up to you if you wish to tell them that many market research reports run from between 10 and 50 pages.) It will also help if they:

• Use bullet points when they can.* Read each other's work and “peer edit” for clarity and concision.
• Challenge each paragraph to the relevancy test. In other words, if a paragraph doesn't advance the basic story, strike it.

Heed Two Other Tips

You may hesitate to call it an “outline,” but you should convey to your staff that the true value of their report will depend on its organization. So if they don't like the sound of establishing a step-by-step progression of the report, then turn them loose on PowerPoint, which will force the issue (in a good way). In the end, they may decide that this format – and not a paper report – is the best one for their findings.

As liberating as this may be, most market research reports hew to tradition, and necessity, by including:

• A table of contents. A section on the research objectives. A section on the research methods. An executive summary. Detailed findings and, perhaps, the implications. Told in a dynamic manner, the fascinating finish should get everyone's blood pumping.
• InfoSurv: 10 Tips for Marketing Research Reports That Get Read
• C+R Research: 5 Things to Remember When Writing a Market Research Report

Mary Wroblewski earned a master's degree with high honors in communications and has worked as a reporter and editor in two Chicago newsrooms. Then she launched her own small business, which specialized in assisting small business owners with “all things marketing” – from drafting a marketing plan and writing website copy to crafting media plans and developing email campaigns. Mary writes extensively about small business issues and especially “all things marketing.”

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10 examples of great marketing research reports from 2022

Find inspiration for your next marketing survey report. See how industry-leading brands design, develop, + promote proprietary data reports.

By Katherine Boyarsky • Dec 28, 2022

B2B SaaS brands, and any other business that has a vested interest in helping their customers succeed, need the latest benchmark data to do so. And according to Google’s Helpful Content Update guidelines , “people-first content” should be created for a specific intended audience, and include the latest information. 

Today, brands are taking proprietary research, data analysis, and industry trends report creation into their own hands. Why? It gives them the ability to tailor the research to help their audience, and creates a steady flow of traffic, which improves brand awareness.  

Looking for content marketing support for your brand? We can help. Let’s Talk

The even more recent Google Helpful Content Update on the E-A-T content marketing strategy adds an extra “E” for experience, making it the E-E-A-T strategy now. That means that people who have firsthand experience with the topic they’re writing about will be prioritized. This is where I explain that I am the CMO of a creative content marketing agency ( CXD Studio ) that helps create or reports like the annual HubSpot State of Marketing Trends report, among others. Our team has been doing the content strategy, copywriting, data analysis, design, data visualization, and promotion for marketing research reports for almost a decade, and our reports have reached millions of readers. 

Here are the basics on how to produce an industry trends report campaign and inspirational reports from 2022. 

Reminder — creating any sized research report takes significant time, effort, expertise, and resources. Don’t try to take it on yourself, and plan enough time for each phase in the production process. There will be delays — build those into your timelines. 

Who creates marketing industry trends reports? 

Marketing research reports typically fall under the responsibility of the content marketing team within the marketing department. However, they might be owned by demand generation, sales enablement, a research/analytics team, or outsourced to a specialized agency or freelancer. Here’s who typically leads and executes marketing research campaigns:

• Market research companies
• Creative agencies
• Advertising agencies
• Freelancers
• In-house content teams

Types of marketing research reports brands can create

• Industry trends reports
• Benchmark reports
• Brand awareness surveys
• Analyses of product data
• Executive/decision-maker surveys
• User experience reports

10 examples of great industry trends reports from B2B brands from 2022

Use these marketing research report examples to spark your creativity from outline, to promotion, to format.

• HubSpot’s State of Marketing Trends Report
• Owl Labs’ State of Remote Work Report
• ConvertKit’s State of the Creator Economy Report
• DoorDash’s Restaurant Online Ordering Trends Report
• TINT’s State of User-Generated Content 2022 Report
• Spotify’s Culture Next Report
• HubSpot’s Building Winning Regional Marketing Teams Report
• Semrush’s State of Content Marketing Report
• Chicory’s Annual Recipe Usage Report
• Lightcast’s Workers Wanted Worldwide Report

How do you create an industry trends research report? 

Let’s break down the marketing research report process.

Phase 1: Background research, marketing strategy, and survey design

Identify your target audience, the goals of the report, and your survey questions. Try to ask a minimum of 10-20 questions, and don’t ask too many or you’ll fatigue your respondents. If you’ll be pulling product data, map out the questions that you want to answer from the data. 

Phase 2: Survey administration and data collection

Use a platform like Pollfish or Survey Monkey Audience to collect responses from a certain demographic, or collect data from your own audience using a basic survey tool. Alternatively, some companies choose to pull product data to learn about their audience.

Phase 3: Data analysis and key themes

Examine the data using pivot tables or more advanced statistical modeling programs. Look for statistically significant themes and patterns, and analyze them in the context of the past few years. 

Phase 4: Report outline and copywriting

Include key themes as chapters, and plan for calls-to-action (CTAs) throughout where it makes sense to include them. Pull out actionable tips for your audience so they can make the most out of the data. Use your brand’s copywriting guidelines to match the right tone for the audience.

Phase 5: Data visualization and report design

Design the charts, statistics, and data visualizations using your brand identity, and create shareable images for social media. Design the report as a web page or downloadable PDF using brand fonts, colors, imagery, iconography, and overall style.

Phase 6: Promotion and distribution

Plan for a launch blog post with key findings, emails to your audience, social media posts, paid advertising, and individual posts from your team, employees, or influencers. If you work with a PR team or individual freelancer, get them involved early, and have them share the key findings when they’re finalized. Source quotes from experts on the early side, too.

Phase 7: Campaign analysis

Analyze the performance of the campaign after the first week, month, and then a year or two out. Large-scale campaigns like annual or bi-annual reports can have a long tail, so measure influenced contacts, net new contacts, and influenced revenue after a bit of time.

Marketing survey promotion ideas

• Share interesting stats and data points using data visualizations on social media, using both organic posts and paid ads. Try static and animated ads and compare the results.
• Create a compelling landing page with key insights from the report and a preview of what’s inside.
• Incorporate leadership insights from partners or thought leaders with similar audiences, then ask them to promote the report when it comes out.
• Partner with similar brands and pool your resources, then promote to all of your audiences.

Need help creating an industry trends report, from start to finish? Let’s chat.

We’ve got a small but experienced team that handles project management, survey design and data acquisition, data analysis, copywriting, content strategy, data visualization, design, and promotional assets. And we work quickly, as a seamless extension of your team. Let’s talk through your marketing research report creation needs . 

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How to Write a Market Research Analysis Report

Estimated Reading Time : 5 mins

How well do you know your market? The answer can have a huge impact on your business success.

However, even doing market research has value only if you analyze and report on findings so that they can drive decisions and prompt action. Otherwise, you’re wasting resources. So to make sure you’re making the most of your market research, you might want to follow these best practices for writing a market research analysis report that will have momentum. With tips like these, you can reap the benefits of your efforts to understand market trends and buyer behaviors.

So, what exactly is a market research analysis report? In short, it is a summary of new insights and takeaways from market research. A market research analysis report should clarify the business market and help you better understand your audience. It refines your perspective based on qualitative or quantitative data to avoid your business making decisions based on “gut feeling” and “instinct” alone.

Essential elements of a market research report

Presenting a spreadsheet or making a slide deck visualizing the findings from market research is common. Many tools online make it easy to create market research dashboards, too. However, the market research analysis report digs deeper into the results to explore the “why” behind all those bar graphs and pie charts.

The analytical report uses data from the market research to glean important information and presents it in easily digestible ways. The report writer examines the customer survey responses, as well as social, economic, and geographical data, in order to learn more about:

• Brand awareness
• Brand identity
• Brand influence
• Customer satisfaction
• Product development
• Pricing decisions
• Potential product changes
• Customer intent
• Customer likes and dislikes
• Market readiness

A typical market research report begins with a summary, then is followed by a more detailed introduction. After describing the participants and outlining the methodology of the market research, a mix of text, graphs, and charts summarizes the findings. Finally, you’ll discuss the conclusions drawn, explain the justifications for those conclusions, and make recommendations.

To gain a deeper understanding of how effective market research can transform a business, consider exploring business growth case studies that highlight successful strategies and the impactful role of comprehensive analysis.

The market research analysis becomes a valuable tool for making your business more efficient, driving innovation, meeting the target audience’s needs, and accelerating commercial success.

Best practices for writing a market research analysis report

There are many ways to approach writing your report. However, these best practices can help you to focus the information you provide and encourage broader integration of the market research results.

Tell a story

Sure, a good bar graph can say a lot. But a story that gives your reader a deeper understanding of the findings is important, too. In market research analysis, your role is to unearth the hidden insights and trends to help shape business action.

The best approach to your storytelling is to go back to the goals of the market research. What did you aim to accomplish? Let those objectives provide an outline for your approach to sharing outcomes with your audience.

Synthesize your results

As the writers over at DataPine note, “Any market analysis report example worth its salt will allow everyone to get a firm grip on their results and discoveries on a single page, with ease.”

As the writer of a research report, it’s your job to focus in on the most relevant information for your reader. Make it easier to digest with an executive summary at the front. Also, use headers and bulleted lists to allow busy readers to quickly scan for the information they need when they want it.

Provide a global view

This may seem contradictory to the previous advice, but your analysis needs to consider several indicators in conjunction before making any broad statements. For customer satisfaction, for instance, you would want to analyze response data related to quality, pricing, design, and service to get the big picture.

Identify key stakeholders

You’ve worked hard to make an effective and concise report of results. Now you need to present the reporting to the right people. Consider who will benefit most from the information you’ve gathered. Also, look for people who can provide valuable feedback , as that can help shape your next market research effort.

Simplify your visuals

Just as you want your text to be easy to read and understand, you should ensure the visuals are easily comprehensible, too. Consistency can help . For example:

• Use the same scale on all graphs
• Maintain the same color palate throughout
• Include the exact question asked with the images
• Communicate the base size for each graph or table

Take advantage of appendices

In sharing market research results, you don’t want to distract readers from the important findings. Still, there may be more data or details that can be shared. You might also want to provide tables for every survey question or provide all the questions asked. You could also use the appendix to collect discussion guides and data collection forms.

This is not an opportunity to just dump everything else you couldn’t include in the body of the report at the end of the document. Rather, you can collate added information that relates to the main themes you discuss in the body of the report.

Edit your report carefully

Make sure you review your report before sharing it. Try to take an objective eye to your writing. Ask yourself:

• Is this making sense to the reader?
• Have I provided evidence to support my points?
• Did I organize the text and visuals in a logical way?
• Have I left any important questions unaddressed?
• Could I say anything more simply?
• Are there any grammar or mechanical mistakes?

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9.2: Elements of a market research report

The market research report marks the culmination of the project, but it also marks the beginning of the recommendations’ implementation and action phase. Having established the decision problem, chosen a research method, identified a target population sample, collected and analyzed data accurately, and, hopefully, produced sound findings, the next step is to prepare the report and possibly present it to a group of decision makers. Usually, this involves writing a report and, occasionally, creating a slide show based on the report.

The six fundamental components of a research report are as follows:

• Title Page: This section provides an overview of the report, including its purpose, who requested it, when and how it was conducted.
• Table of Contents: This section lists all of the major sections of the report along with any graphs or charts, along with the page numbers where they are located.
• Executive Summary: This section provides a brief summary of all the details in the report, suitable for both executives and nonexecutives who may not have the time to read the entire document.
• Methodology and Limitations: The methodology section of the report explains the technical details of how the research was designed and conducted. The section explains, for example, how the data was collected and by whom, the size of the sample, how it was chosen, and whom or what it consisted of (e.g., the number of women versus men or children versus adults). It also includes information about the statistical techniques used to analyze the data. Every study has errors—sampling errors, interviewer errors, and so forth. The methodology section should explain these details, so decision makers can consider their overall impact. The margin of error is the overall tendency of the study to be off kilter—that is, how far it could have gone wrong in either direction. Remember how newscasters present polls before an election? They always say, “This candidate is ahead 48 to 44 percent, plus or minus 2 percent.” That “plus or minus” is the margin of error. The larger the margin of error is, the less likely the results of the study are accurate. The margin of error needs to be included in the methodology section.
• Findings: If there is additional research or secondary data that supports the study’s conclusions, it can be included in the findings section to help demonstrate that the study accomplished its goals. The findings section is an expanded, more detailed version of the executive summary that provides additional information about the statistics that the research uncovered and that support the study’s conclusions.
• Recommendations. The recommendations section should include a description of the course of action you believe should be followed in light of the research’s findings as well as the project’s objectives. Examples

Staff members have the most knowledge about the organization or business, so they will know what should and should not be included in the final research report and presentation. When preparing the report, it is important to keep the readership in mind. Avoid using technical jargon that decision makers and other readers will not understand; if you must use technical terms, explain them. Additionally, proofread the document to catch any typos or grammatical errors; ask a couple of people to proofread behind you to catch any mistakes you might have missed. Lastly, since many research reports are presented using slideshows, avoid trying to include every detail of the report on the slides. People attending the presentation will not have the time to go through the lengthy and boring material, and even if they do, it is unlikely that they will be paying attention to the presenter.

During or after the presentation, attendees can review the longer, paper version of the report so they can read the details at a convenient time, if they choose to. Instead of including all the information from the study on the slides, condense each section of the report down to key points and add some “talking points” only the presenter will see.

Albrecht, M. G., Green, M., & Hoffman, L. (2023).  Principles of Marketing . OpenStax, Rice University. CC BY 4.0

Author removed at request of original publisher. (2022). Principles of Marketing – H5P Edition . BC Campus Open Education. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Introduction to Market Research Copyright © by Julie Fossitt is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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10 tips for marketing research reports that get read

Our research’s insights reports always receive accolades from our clients. We like to think that they are different – and better – from the average marketing research report. Why?  Because we focus on directly answering the project objectives and helping our clients make better business decisions. There are no hard and fast rules for writing a great marketing research report; indeed, each report is customized to the project at hand. However, there are some tips you can use to make your marketing research reports (or for that matter, any report) better. First of all, you want to get your reports read. After all, if no one reads them, you might as well not write them, and you probably shouldn’t invest money in doing research! So keep your reader in mind as you develop the report and think creatively about how to present the information in a way that makes it easy for the reader to absorb. Format, text, graphics, video – all of these are great tools to deliver information. But use them judiciously! Here are ten of our favorite tips for better marketing research reports: Answer the objectives. The objectives are the raison d’etre of your project. The objectives justify the expense of conducting the research. Make the objectives the starting point of your report. If all you do in your report is answer the objectives, you don’t need to do anything else. Don’t be a slave to your format! You may have always written text reports, but your research topic may be better expressed in PowerPoint, Excel or even in a video format. Be creative and use the format that best communicates the information. Additionally, there are many sources that tell you how to write a research report, but today, those sources are outdated. Use whatever format works for your audience, always keeping in mind that you must (1) answer the objectives and (2) make it easy for the reader. Include an executive summary, scorecard or dashboard. No matter how wonderful your report, there will always be those managers who just don’t have the time to read the entire report. Don’t take it personally! If you can boil the information down to the most important answers, those that address the objectives (hmmm, this may be important) and present it on a one-or-two page graphic dashboard or scorecard, do it. At a minimum, write an executive summary that includes only the information managers will need to make the business decision at the heart of the project. (See #6 below for more information on Executive Summaries.) Tell an interesting story. No one likes to read about data points. Telling a story makes your research results accessible and leads the reader to implementation. Stories are also more memorable, so your findings will become guiding principles for future decisions. Be brief. Research has shown that we humans are reading less and less. So keep it short and use lots of white space and bullet points. Too much text on a page can be intimidating and discourage readership. Be organized. In the executive summary, present the research results that answer the objectives, starting with the most important objective In the detailed findings section, maintain the same order of information. In the executive summary, you can direct the reader to the appropriate section of the detailed findings by providing a page reference, making it easy for them to find the specific information that might interest them. Put a minimum of methodological information at the beginning. Methodological details are boring for non-researchers. Include only the details that the reader needs to know to understand the context of the information you are presenting. Who are the respondents: customers, prospects, the general public? How big is the sample size? How did you collect the data? When was the research conducted? That is the kind of information that will help your reader understand how to interpret the results. Put more detail in the Appendix. (See #10 for more information about the content of the Appendix.) Use pictures instead of words and data when possible. Is a picture really worth 1,000 words? It depends upon the words, of course, but the fact remains that right pictures can communicate complex concepts quickly and easily. Especially for those individuals who are reluctant to read, imagery can be a wonderful. Make it easy to read your graphs. Graphs are often the heart of marketing research reports, so take care to ensure that they don’t confuse your reader. Use the same scale on all of your graphs for both axes. If one axis ends at 30% and the next ends at 90%, the reader may not notice the difference and may misinterpret the information (especially if they are not carefully reading the report!) Maintain the same colors on graphs throughout. If top Top Box score is blue on one chart and green on another, you might confuse your audience. If the 2014 data are green on one slide and the 2015 data are green on the next slide, it can be misinterpreted. Keep colors consistent to prevent the inadvertent Where possible, use the same color palate as the brands depicted in your report. Be sure to include the exact question wording with each graph or table. Often while reading research reports (or seeing research presentations) the audience will wonder how the question was worded to help them understand the information they are receiving. Don’t make them search through the questionnaire. Simply put the exact question at the bottom of the graph or table. Be sure to include the base size with each graph or table. Without understanding that programming logic can impact the base size, readers assume that every respondent answers all questions, again potentially leading to miscommunication. Be sure to include the base sizes in the report. Use the Appendix for “less important” information. Any information that does not directly address the project objectives, such as methodological detail, details about your analysis and other miscellaneous data, should not go into the main report. Include it at the end of the report in an Appendix. As you can see, all of these tips work toward making the reports easier to read, and easier for managers to absorb the information they need to make decisions. While you, as a researcher, might be more comfortable with more detail, it is your job to make information accessible to your clients. Using these tips will go a long way to making your research actionable – as well as educational and entertaining.

Our research’s insights reports always receive accolades from our clients. We like to think that they are different – and better – from the average marketing research report. Why?  Because we focus on directly answering the project objectives and helping our clients make better business decisions.

There are no hard and fast rules for writing a great marketing research report; indeed, each report is customized to the project at hand. However, there are some tips you can use to make your marketing research reports (or for that matter, any report) better.

First of all, you want to get your reports read. After all, if no one reads them, you might as well not write them, and you probably shouldn’t invest money in doing research! So keep your reader in mind as you develop the report and think creatively about how to present the information in a way that makes it easy for the reader to absorb. Format, text, graphics, video – all of these are great tools to deliver information. But use them judiciously!

Here are ten of our favorite tips for better marketing research reports:

• Answer the objectives.  The objectives are the  raison d’etre  of your project. The objectives justify the expense of conducting the research. Make the objectives the starting point of your report. If all you do in your report is answer the objectives, you don’t need to do anything else.
• Don’t be a slave to your format!  You may have always written text reports, but your research topic may be better expressed in PowerPoint, Excel or even in a video format. Be creative and use the format that best communicates the information. Additionally, there are many sources that tell you how to write a research report, but today, those sources are outdated. Use whatever format works for your audience, always keeping in mind that you must (1) answer the objectives and (2) make it easy for the reader.
• Include an executive summary, scorecard or dashboard.  No matter how wonderful your report, there will always be those managers who just don’t have the time to read the entire report. Don’t take it personally! If you can boil the information down to the most important answers, those that address the objectives (hmmm, this may be important) and present it on a one-or-two page graphic dashboard or scorecard, do it. At a minimum, write an executive summary that includes only the information managers will need to make the business decision at the heart of the project. (See #6 below for more information on Executive Summaries.)
• Tell an interesting story . No one likes to read about data points. Telling a story makes your research results accessible and leads the reader to implementation. Stories are also more memorable, so your findings will become guiding principles for future decisions.
• Be brief.  Research has shown that we humans are reading less and less. So keep it short and use lots of white space and bullet points. Too much text on a page can be intimidating and discourage readership.
• Be organized.  In the executive summary, present the research results that answer the objectives, starting with the most important objective In the detailed findings section, maintain the same order of information. In the executive summary, you can direct the reader to the appropriate section of the detailed findings by providing a page reference, making it easy for them to find the specific information that might interest them.
• Put a minimum of methodological information at the beginning . Methodological details are boring for non-researchers. Include only the details that the reader needs to know to understand the context of the information you are presenting. Who are the respondents: customers, prospects, the general public?  How big is the sample size ? How did you collect the data? When was the research conducted? That is the kind of information that will help your reader understand how to interpret the results. Put more detail in the Appendix. (See #10 for more information about the content of the Appendix.)
• Use pictures instead of words and data when possible.  Is a picture really worth 1,000 words? It depends upon the words, of course, but the fact remains that right pictures can communicate complex concepts quickly and easily. Especially for those individuals who are reluctant to read, imagery can be a wonderful.
• Use the same scale on all of your graphs for both axes . If one axis ends at 30% and the next ends at 90%, the reader may not notice the difference and may misinterpret the information (especially if they are not carefully reading the report!)
• Maintain the same colors on graphs throughout . If top Top Box score is blue on one chart and green on another, you might confuse your audience. If the 2014 data are green on one slide and the 2015 data are green on the next slide, it can be misinterpreted. Keep colors consistent to prevent the inadvertent Where possible, use the same color palate as the brands depicted in your report.
• Be sure to include the exact question wording with each graph or table . Often while reading research reports (or seeing research presentations) the audience will wonder how the question was worded to help them understand the information they are receiving. Don’t make them search through the questionnaire. Simply put the exact question at the bottom of the graph or table.
• Be sure to include the base size with each graph or table . Without understanding that programming logic can impact the base size, readers assume that every respondent answers all questions, again potentially leading to miscommunication. Be sure to include the base sizes in the report.
• Use the Appendix for “less important” information . Any information that does not directly address the project objectives, such as methodological detail, details about your analysis and other miscellaneous data, should not go into the main report. Include it at the end of the report in an Appendix.

As you can see, all of these tips work toward making the reports easier to read, and easier for managers to absorb the information they need to make decisions. While you, as a researcher, might be more comfortable with more detail, it is your job to make information accessible to your clients. Using these tips will go a long way to making your research actionable – as well as educational and entertaining.

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9 Best Marketing Research Methods to Know Your Buyer Better [+ Examples]

Published: August 08, 2024

One of the most underrated skills you can have as a marketer is marketing research — which is great news for this unapologetic cyber sleuth.

From brand design and product development to buyer personas and competitive analysis, I’ve researched a number of initiatives in my decade-long marketing career.

And let me tell you: having the right marketing research methods in your toolbox is a must.

Market research is the secret to crafting a strategy that will truly help you accomplish your goals. The good news is there is no shortage of options.

How to Choose a Marketing Research Method

Thanks to the Internet, we have more marketing research (or market research) methods at our fingertips than ever, but they’re not all created equal. Let’s quickly go over how to choose the right one.

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1. Identify your objective.

What are you researching? Do you need to understand your audience better? How about your competition? Or maybe you want to know more about your customer’s feelings about a specific product.

Before starting your research, take some time to identify precisely what you’re looking for. This could be a goal you want to reach, a problem you need to solve, or a question you need to answer.

For example, an objective may be as foundational as understanding your ideal customer better to create new buyer personas for your marketing agency (pause for flashbacks to my former life).

Or if you’re an organic sode company, it could be trying to learn what flavors people are craving.

2. Determine what type of data and research you need.

Next, determine what data type will best answer the problems or questions you identified. There are primarily two types: qualitative and quantitative. (Sound familiar, right?)

• Qualitative Data is non-numerical information, like subjective characteristics, opinions, and feelings. It’s pretty open to interpretation and descriptive, but it’s also harder to measure. This type of data can be collected through interviews, observations, and open-ended questions.
• Quantitative Data , on the other hand, is numerical information, such as quantities, sizes, amounts, or percentages. It’s measurable and usually pretty hard to argue with, coming from a reputable source. It can be derived through surveys, experiments, or statistical analysis.

Understanding the differences between qualitative and quantitative data will help you pinpoint which research methods will yield the desired results.

For instance, thinking of our earlier examples, qualitative data would usually be best suited for buyer personas, while quantitative data is more useful for the soda flavors.

However, truth be told, the two really work together.

Qualitative conclusions are usually drawn from quantitative, numerical data. So, you’ll likely need both to get the complete picture of your subject.

For example, if your quantitative data says 70% of people are Team Black and only 30% are Team Green — Shout out to my fellow House of the Dragon fans — your qualitative data will say people support Black more than Green.

(As they should.)

Primary Research vs Secondary Research

You’ll also want to understand the difference between primary and secondary research.

Primary research involves collecting new, original data directly from the source (say, your target market). In other words, it’s information gathered first-hand that wasn’t found elsewhere.

Some examples include conducting experiments, surveys, interviews, observations, or focus groups.

Meanwhile, secondary research is the analysis and interpretation of existing data collected from others. Think of this like what we used to do for school projects: We would read a book, scour the internet, or pull insights from others to work from.

So, which is better?

Personally, I say any research is good research, but if you have the time and resources, primary research is hard to top. With it, you don’t have to worry about your source's credibility or how relevant it is to your specific objective.

You are in full control and best equipped to get the reliable information you need.

3. Put it all together.

Once you know your objective and what kind of data you want, you’re ready to select your marketing research method.

For instance, let’s say you’re a restaurant trying to see how attendees felt about the Speed Dating event you hosted last week.

You shouldn’t run a field experiment or download a third-party report on speed dating events; those would be useless to you. You need to conduct a survey that allows you to ask pointed questions about the event.

This would yield both qualitative and quantitative data you can use to improve and bring together more love birds next time around.

Best Market Research Methods for 2024

Now that you know what you’re looking for in a marketing research method, let’s dive into the best options.

Note: According to HubSpot’s 2024 State of Marketing report, understanding customers and their needs is one of the biggest challenges facing marketers today. The options we discuss are great consumer research methodologies , but they can also be used for other areas.

Primary Research

1. interviews.

Interviews are a form of primary research where you ask people specific questions about a topic or theme. They typically deliver qualitative information.

I’ve conducted many interviews for marketing purposes, but I’ve also done many for journalistic purposes, like this profile on comedian Zarna Garg . There’s no better way to gather candid, open-ended insights in my book, but that doesn’t mean they’re a cure-all.

What I like: Real-time conversations allow you to ask different questions if you’re not getting the information you need. They also push interviewees to respond quickly, which can result in more authentic answers.

What I dislike: They can be time-consuming and harder to measure (read: get quantitative data) unless you ask pointed yes or no questions.

Best for: Creating buyer personas or getting feedback on customer experience, a product, or content.

2. Focus Groups

Focus groups are similar to conducting interviews but on a larger scale.

In marketing and business, this typically means getting a small group together in a room (or Zoom), asking them questions about various topics you are researching. You record and/or observe their responses to then take action.

They are ideal for collecting long-form, open-ended feedback, and subjective opinions.

One well-known focus group you may remember was run by Domino’s Pizza in 2009 .

After poor ratings and dropping over $100 million in revenue, the brand conducted focus groups with real customers to learn where they could have done better.

It was met with comments like “worst excuse for pizza I’ve ever had” and “the crust tastes like cardboard.” But rather than running from the tough love, it took the hit and completely overhauled its recipes.

The team admitted their missteps and returned to the market with better food and a campaign detailing their “Pizza Turn Around.”

The result? The brand won a ton of praise for its willingness to take feedback, efforts to do right by its consumers, and clever campaign. But, most importantly, revenue for Domino’s rose by 14.3% over the previous year.

The brand continues to conduct focus groups and share real footage from them in its promotion:

What I like: Similar to interviewing, you can dig deeper and pivot as needed due to the real-time nature. They’re personal and detailed.

What I dislike: Once again, they can be time-consuming and make it difficult to get quantitative data. There is also a chance some participants may overshadow others.

Best for: Product research or development

Pro tip: Need help planning your focus group? Our free Market Research Kit includes a handy template to start organizing your thoughts in addition to a SWOT Analysis Template, Survey Template, Focus Group Template, Presentation Template, Five Forces Industry Analysis Template, and an instructional guide for all of them. Download yours here now.

3. Surveys or Polls

Surveys are a form of primary research where individuals are asked a collection of questions. It can take many different forms.

They could be in person, over the phone or video call, by email, via an online form, or even on social media. Questions can be also open-ended or closed to deliver qualitative or quantitative information.

A great example of a close-ended survey is HubSpot’s annual State of Marketing .

In the State of Marketing, HubSpot asks marketing professionals from around the world a series of multiple-choice questions to gather data on the state of the marketing industry and to identify trends.

The survey covers various topics related to marketing strategies, tactics, tools, and challenges that marketers face. It aims to provide benchmarks to help you make informed decisions about your marketing.

It also helps us understand where our customers’ heads are so we can better evolve our products to meet their needs.

Apple is no stranger to surveys, either.

In 2011, the tech giant launched Apple Customer Pulse , which it described as “an online community of Apple product users who provide input on a variety of subjects and issues concerning Apple.”

"For example, we did a large voluntary survey of email subscribers and top readers a few years back."

While these readers gave us a long list of topics, formats, or content types they wanted to see, they sometimes engaged more with content types they didn’t select or favor as much on the surveys when we ran follow-up ‘in the wild’ tests, like A/B testing.”  

Pepsi saw similar results when it ran its iconic field experiment, “The Pepsi Challenge” for the first time in 1975.

The beverage brand set up tables at malls, beaches, and other public locations and ran a blindfolded taste test. Shoppers were given two cups of soda, one containing Pepsi, the other Coca-Cola (Pepsi’s biggest competitor). They were then asked to taste both and report which they preferred.

People overwhelmingly preferred Pepsi, and the brand has repeated the experiment multiple times over the years to the same results.

What I like: It yields qualitative and quantitative data and can make for engaging marketing content, especially in the digital age.

What I dislike: It can be very time-consuming. And, if you’re not careful, there is a high risk for scientific error.

Best for: Product testing and competitive analysis

Pro tip:  " Don’t make critical business decisions off of just one data set," advises Pamela Bump. "Use the survey, competitive intelligence, external data, or even a focus group to give you one layer of ideas or a short-list for improvements or solutions to test. Then gather your own fresh data to test in an experiment or trial and better refine your data-backed strategy."

Secondary Research

8. public domain or third-party research.

While original data is always a plus, there are plenty of external resources you can access online and even at a library when you’re limited on time or resources.

Some reputable resources you can use include:

• Pew Research Center
• McKinley Global Institute
• Relevant Global or Government Organizations (i.e United Nations or NASA)

It’s also smart to turn to reputable organizations that are specific to your industry or field. For instance, if you’re a gardening or landscaping company, you may want to pull statistics from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

If you’re a digital marketing agency, you could look to Google Research or HubSpot Research . (Hey, I know them!)

What I like: You can save time on gathering data and spend more time on analyzing. You can also rest assured the data is from a source you trust.

What I dislike: You may not find data specific to your needs.

Best for: Companies under a time or resource crunch, adding factual support to content

Pro tip: Fellow HubSpotter Iskiev suggests using third-party data to inspire your original research. “Sometimes, I use public third-party data for ideas and inspiration. Once I have written my survey and gotten all my ideas out, I read similar reports from other sources and usually end up with useful additions for my own research.”

9. Buy Research

If the data you need isn’t available publicly and you can’t do your own market research, you can also buy some. There are many reputable analytics companies that offer subscriptions to access their data. Statista is one of my favorites, but there’s also Euromonitor , Mintel , and BCC Research .

What I like: Same as public domain research

What I dislike: You may not find data specific to your needs. It also adds to your expenses.

Best for: Companies under a time or resource crunch or adding factual support to content

Which marketing research method should you use?

You’re not going to like my answer, but “it depends.” The best marketing research method for you will depend on your objective and data needs, but also your budget and timeline.

My advice? Aim for a mix of quantitative and qualitative data. If you can do your own original research, awesome. But if not, don’t beat yourself up. Lean into free or low-cost tools . You could do primary research for qualitative data, then tap public sources for quantitative data. Or perhaps the reverse is best for you.

Whatever your marketing research method mix, take the time to think it through and ensure you’re left with information that will truly help you achieve your goals.

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A Complete Guide to Write a Marketing Research Report

• Emily Scott

It is a well-known fact that crafting a  market research  report is an absolute necessary phase of business planning. It caters a well-structured path to gather and organize information about a certain market or impending customers as well. Students pursuing their marketing degrees and coursework need to possess a flair for writing and needs to accurate, compact, on-point information without excluding any relevant part of information. There are numerous university students that require the professional assistance in writing the  marketing research projects  and reports from the expert writers available online. This ensures them quality work without any error. Acquiring the expert help from professionals is gaining popularity among the students these days.

There are several steps that can simplify the writing process of a marketing research report:

• Cluster the data –  Accumulation of data is the first and foremost step in writing an efficient  marketing research report.  Bring together the relevant data acquired from the market research endeavors. Assemble the survey outcomes and results; scrutinize the data collected from the obtainable sources for demographics. Investigate the information with an aim to ascertain the sketch of a target market.
• Write a captivating introduction –  After clustering of data starts penning down the front matter and pretext of your report that will comprise a synopsis of a particular process of market research and the examined results as well. Craft an impactful introduction that caters a concise panorama of business and the purpose of conduction of market research.
• Mention the research methods –  The next section of your report comprises the task of mentioning the exercised methods in research. If there are any surveys conducted, define the types and number of surveys, the aggregate of defenses, the approaches were undertaken to perform the survey. All these set of information needs to be tagged in the report writing.
• Initiate a narrative explanation –  This step in marketing research report writing involves the creation of tables, graphs depicting the outcomes of the research. Comprise this particular information in the coming part of the report along with a narrative interpretation of the indexed data. One need to detail the terminations reached on the basis of data.
• Concluding the report –  Conclude the crafted report with a division that lists approvals related to the outcomes of research. One can provide his or her own recommendations and suggestions related to market research and analysis. The given conclusions must be stated in a wide manner and should directly dwell the results found in research.

Students pursuing their studies in marketing are often assigned to prepare such  market research assignment example .  These types of assessments hold an impressive relevancy in the overall grading criteria of a student. Students with an aim to score better grades acquire the help of professional academic writers and subject matter experts. Nowadays availing such online assistance has become the latest trend among the students as it not only ensures them quality work but also saves their time.

Why Students Struggle with Preparing Marketing Research Projects?

There are many issues that barricade the student from preparing an impactful marketing research report. As we all are aware that the assessments and projects related to marketing research report require in-depth and through examination of the aspects of marketing and several other related concepts. This task demands a hefty amount of time in order to write an efficient report but most of the students nowadays are occupied with several other academic tasks like weekly tests and terminal exams which make it harder for them to write. No flair for writing is also a major reason for incomplete and poor quality assessments. To combat such situation students can avail online help from the experts.

Why Choosing EssayCorp can Yield Top Grades?

EssayCorp  is known for its reliable and authentic assignment assistance to the students worldwide. Our services are easy to access in numerous countries like Australia, UAE, Singapore, and UK etc. The subject matter experts we hire are highly professional and educated hence they are able to render you the best  marketing research assignment help every time.

We work according to the university guidelines and provide you plagiarism free work without any error. We cater our professional academic assistance in a student-friendly price.

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Are b2b data breaches concerning consequences of buyer's or firm's data loss on buyer and supplier related outcomes.

Research output : Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Brand communities: A literature review and future research agendas using TCCM approach

Research output : Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review

Buyers apping? Determinants of current and future use of sellers' business-to-business mobile apps

Impact of unmet privacy expectations across information, time, and space: evidence from four countries, overcoming privacy concerns in consumers’ use of health information technologies: a justice framework, introduction: advancing understanding of mobile applications in marketing.

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Revisiting Trust and Privacy Concern in Consumers' Perceptions of Marketing Information Management Practices: Replication and Extension

Social media services branding: the use of corporate brand names, to app or not to app: a business-to-business seller's decision, how to connect with your best student prospects: saying the right things, to the right students, in the right media, introduction to the special issue: b2b advertising, like, comment, or share self-presentation vs. brand relationships as drivers of social media engagement choices, the impact of pronoun choices on consumer engagement actions: exploring top global brands' social media communications, the untapped potential of b2b advertising: a literature review and future agenda, the emergence of a half-century of research on humour in advertising: what have we learned what do we still need to learn, you must be joking: an introduction to the special issue on the use of humour in advertising, audience reaction to comedic advertising violence after exposure to violent media, does linguistic style in social media communications impact consumer engagement an abstract.

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Evaluating Facebook brand content popularity for service versus goods offerings

The impact of the great recession on financial services advertising: an exploratory study, to “free” or not to “free”: trait predictors of mobile app purchasing tendencies, understanding responses to comedic advertising aggression: the role of vividness and gender identity, what messages to post evaluating the popularity of social media communications in business versus consumer markets, looking in through outdoor: a socio-cultural and historical perspective on the evolution of advertising humour, the effect of cause related marketing (crm) on emotions and attitudes.

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It’s just a joke: Violence against males in humorous advertising

Should tweets differ for b2b and b2c an analysis of fortune 500 companies' twitter communications, relationships, roles, and consumer identity in services marketing, the impact of violent humor on advertising success: a gender perspective, silence is not golden: firm response and nonresponse to consumer correspondence, the role of culture in advertising humor, it's just a joke: violence against males in humorous advertising, that’s not funny here:humorous advertising across boundaries 1, brand and message recall: the effects of situational involvement and brand symbols in the marketing of real estate services, inventing flight: a once-in-a-lifetime business opportunity, residential real estate marketing activities: what works, what doesn't, an investigation of promotional outlet effectiveness for ohio real estate brokers.

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The impact of perceived humor, product type, and humor style in radio advertising

Corporate giving behavior and decision-maker social consciousness, right under our noses: ambient scent and consumer responses, shades of green: a multidimensional analysis of environmental advertising.

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It publishes global market research reports with statistical and analytical information on the markets, industry structure information, major players and market shares, industry dynamics, technology and technology shifts, international developments relevant to the market, and five-year forecasts. Categories covered range from nanotechnology to pharmaceuticals with an emphasis on STEM/manufacturing industries.

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Intelligent Investment

U.S. Cap Rate Survey H1 2024

Cap rate expansion has peaked, but uncertainty will delay sales volume recovery until 2025..

July 31, 2024 5 Minute Read

Introduction

Looking for a pdf of this content.

The H1 2024 Cap Rate Survey provides a fresh perspective of where market sentiment is trending.

Welcome to CBRE’s H1 2024 Cap Rate Survey (CRS). This survey comes at a unique time for real estate capital markets as limited investment volume has caused pricing uncertainty. The data driving this report was informed by deals that occurred throughout the first five months of 2024. We acknowledge that market conditions are fluid, but we believe that the CRS provides a useful base and unlocks important truths about how investor sentiment is changing.

The CRS captures 3,600 cap rate estimates across more than 50 geographic markets to generate key insights.

More than 250 CBRE real estate professionals completed the H1 2024 CRS with their real-time market estimates between May and June. Given the rapidly changing macro environment, survey results may not reflect recent exogenous events or current market conditions. Readers should view all cap rate estimates within this context.

Cap Rates Held Steady During the First Half of 2024

Treasury yields remained volatile during the first half of 2024, reacting to economic data that sent mixed signals about the outlook for inflation, Federal Reserve policy, and long-term interest rates. The 10-Year Treasury yield started the year below 4% and peaked at 4.7% in late April. Ultimately continued disinflation and expectations for a Fed rate cut were holding the 10-Year Treasury yield to 4.2% as of June.

The average survey cap rate held steady in H1 2024. Interestingly, different property types did not move in unison but rather reacted uniquely to changing fundamentals and capital markets drivers. For instance, industrial cap rates fell on average and office yields continued their climb.

Figure 1: Real Estate Cap Rate and Bond Yields, period average (%)

Most Respondents Believe That Cap Rates Have Peaked

Every CRS asks respondents to estimate the direction of cap rates and the magnitude of the expected change during the next six months. Figure 2 aggregates all answers by property type and displays the results as a fraction of responses expecting further yield increases. This quarter the most common response across all categories was “no change.”

The share of respondents expecting further devaluations was highest within the office sector, reflecting the uncertainty around market fundamentals. Expectations for hotels have been less consistent with a rising share of respondents expecting cap rates to increase in coming quarters.

The share of respondents who believe cap rates will increase during the next six months has fallen compared with our previous two CRS publications. This improved sentiment is likely driven by more accommodative signals from the Fed and the decline in bond yields from their October 2023 peak.

Figure 2: Share of Respondents Who Think Yields Will Increase During the Next Six Months by CRS Vintage

Expansion Continued for Commodity Office Stock

Figure 3 compares stabilized cap rate estimates from the current CRS (horizontal axis) against H2 2023 estimates (vertical axis) for every property type and geographic market. Dots to the right of the 45-degree line represent markets where cap rates are higher than previous estimates. Yield expansion remained most pronounced in office properties, where yields increased by roughly 40 basis points, over the past six months. The estimated risk premium for Class A offices has widened considerably with cap rates exceeding 8%. Meanwhile, less competitive Class C spaces are seeing distressed pricing with cap rate estimates averaging in the low teens.

In addition to office cap rate estimates rising, the average spread between respondents’ lower and upper estimates (for example: 6%-7% has a spread of 1.0) have increased considerably suggesting more uncertainty for the sector’s pricing.

Figure 3: H1 2024 Stabilized Cap Rate Estimates Versus H2 2023 Estimates

Figure 4: Average Difference Between Lower and Upper Estimate by Sector (Percentage Points)

Uncertainty Around Values Limits Investment Volume Recovery

We asked CBRE capital markets and valuation professionals which underwriting variables market participants are most and least certain about. They say capital markets and valuation metrics are typically most difficult to estimate. Perhaps due to widespread price instability respondents believe changes in operating expenses are more difficult to gauge than space market fundamentals.

Predictably, respondents believe the office sector is facing the widest bid-ask spread. As price discovery proceeds in coming quarters this spread should shrink.

Persistent inflation and interest rates have delayed a recovery in sales volume. The previous CRS (H2 2023) pinned the recovery at late 2024. Today, most survey respondents do not expect the recovery to begin until 2025.

How certain respondents are of the outlook for key underwriting variables (1 = Least Certain)

How each sector ranks in terms of perceived bid-ask spread (1 = Widest Bid-Ask Spread)

Timing in which respondents believe transactions will begin to come back in a serious way

Definitions

Markets conform to metropolitan area and metropolitan divisions as defined by U.S. Census Bureau.

Cap rates presented in this report are based upon estimates by CBRE Capital Markets and Valuation professionals. These estimates are informed by recent trades within their markets and discussions with investors. The ranges represent the cap rates at which a given asset is likely to trade in the current market. Cap rates within each subtype vary, occasionally falling outside the stated ranges, based on asset location, quality and property-specific characteristics.

Stabilized properties are assets leased at market rents with typical lease terms and have vacancy levels close to market averages.

Stabilized cap rates are the ratio of stabilized net operating income (NOI) to the acquisition price of the asset.

Value-add cap rates are the ratio of stabilized NOI after property enhancements to the acquisition price of the asset plus value-add capital.

The NOI calculation is based on net income less operating expenses.

Related Insights

U.s. cap rate survey h2 2023.

March 5, 2024

Welcome to CBRE’s H2 2023 Cap Rate Survey (CRS). This survey comes at a unique time for real estate capital markets as limited investment volume has caused pricing uncertainty.

2024 U.S. Investor Intentions Survey

January 26, 2024

Investors cited higher-for-longer interest rates, tight credit conditions and differing buyer and seller expectations as the biggest impediments to commercial real estate investment activity in 2024.

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Research Contacts

Richard barkham, ph.d..

Global Chief Economist & Head of Americas Research, CBRE

• Phone +1 617 9125215

Dennis Schoenmaker, Ph.D.

Executive Director & Principal Economist, CBRE Econometric Advisors

• Phone + 44 20 7182 2325

Darin Mellott

Vice President, Head of U.S. Capital Markets Research

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Senior Managing Economist, Econometric Advisors

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Director, Executive Managing

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Christopher J. Decouflé

Executive Vice President

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Matt Carlson

Executive Vice President and Co-Head of U.S. Office Capital Markets, West Region

Lic. 01459868

• Phone +1 858 546 2636

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Global President, Valuation & Advisory Services

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Global Client Strategist & Senior Economic Advisor, CBRE

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