B2B Market Research  Tags: business research research_strategies  

Primary data is research information usually gathered from original sources, mainly through telephone or mail surveys, interviews, and questionnaires. (Secondary data is information that has already been compiled by someone else.)

While most of your school projects may rely on secondary research already available for a given industry space, you may discover that a significant amount of B2B service providers rely heavily on research data collected in-house. Researching or surveying business customers, suppliers or any other parties who are involved in the running of a business is usually a routine task in the life of a B2B marketer.

Primary B2B market research may involve interviewing top decision makers – the directors, CEOs or CFOs, and very senior managers in large businesses. It may also mean interviewing the influencers of the business decisions, the implementers, possibly the ultimate end-users of a product or service, and sometimes industry experts. The respondent base for B2B market research projects is extraordinarily diverse, encompassing myriad people and occupations – purchasing clerks, heating engineers, welders, small manufacturers, trades people, industry experts, inventors, journalists, politicians, business analysts and intermediaries. 

Depending on your company's budget and time frame, you may either choose to conduct your own primary research or go with a company that specializes in B2B market surveys.

LinkedIn Polls can quickly gather insight from a targeted group of people. You can use this tool to create a poll, target it to a specific professional audience, and then analyze the results. Think of the possibilities:

• Could you make decisions faster if you could ask a question to 500 professionals who fit the profile for your target customers?
• What if you could test your marketing message on 250 small business owners in your region before launching your marketing campaign for the quarter?
• Could you refine your go-to-market strategy if you could understand how the point of view of technology professionals varies depending on company size?

LinkedIn Surveys, a new service from the LinkedIn Research Network enables market researchers and investors to conduct targeted primary research by engaging LinkedIn’s network of over 30 million worldwide professionals, approximately half of whom are IT and business decision makers. LinkedIn Research Network represents the largest B2B-focused respondent population available.