It All Starts with the Right Question: Designing Research That Works

Photo Credit: Megan Aguilera

Owning a business naturally comes with a flood of questions. Is my marketing really connecting with the right audience? Am I positioning my pricing correctly? How are people discovering my business in the first place? These questions are all part of the growth process, and many can be answered through market research.

The key is learning how to ask the right questions and design your research in a way that gives you clear, actionable insight rather than random numbers or opinions.

We covered the basics of marketing research in my previous post, Why Every Great Marketing Move Starts with Research, and now it’s time to take the next step, designing your research study. This step helps you focus your questions, define your audience, and create a plan that leads to meaningful, data-driven answers.

The Four Building Blocks of a Strong Question

Photo Credit: Megan Aguilera

Think of every strong research question as having four main parts that work together to give you clear results.

• The tool you’ll use: Decide how you’ll collect your data. This could be a survey, interview, observation, or focus group. The right tool depends on what you’re trying to learn and how much depth you need.

• The audience you’ll study: Identify exactly who can give you the best insight, such as your current customers, potential customers, or even those who chose a competitor.

• The main topic or idea: Be specific about what you want to understand. It could be awareness, satisfaction, buying intent, or perception of value.

• The metric you’ll use to measure it: Choose a way to quantify your findings, such as a rating scale, purchase intent percentage, or Net Promoter Score (NPS).

At Elevate with MGM, we use this approach all the time before launching new campaigns, services, or client strategies. It keeps our research focused and ensures that every question connects back to a goal.

For example, if we were to conduct market research right now, we might want to understand how small business owners feel about investing in digital marketing support. We could create a short online survey (tool) for entrepreneurs and local business owners (audience) to understand their confidence levels, service preferences, and perceived challenges (topic), evaluated using a 5-point agreement scale (metric).

Why This Matters for Small Businesses

Designing your research study is what gives your efforts direction and purpose. Without a clear plan, research can quickly become random data that doesn’t actually help you move forward.

Here’s why having a well-designed study matters:

• Clarity: If you don’t know why you’re doing the research, you won’t know what to measure or what success looks like.

• Focus: A clear objective keeps you from asking too many or irrelevant questions.

• Action: When you know what you’re trying to learn, the results naturally guide your next steps.

• Efficiency: Research with intention saves time, money, and confusion.

If you don’t know your purpose, your data won’t lead you anywhere; it’s like setting out on a trip without knowing the destination.

At Elevate with MGM, we believe every business deserves a clear path to growth and we’re here to help you find it.