Focus groups are a tried and true method of discovering how your customer may react to a new product or service before it’s introduced to the marketplace. Large corporations use focus groups before and during a product introduction to understand how potential customers are reacting to the product and the company’s advertising about a product. Most small companies believe that focus groups are outside of their budget range. The Internet, however, is making all this important research function available to small business, albeit in a new hybrid form.

Focus Groups

Most people find that if they work for too long on a project they have difficulty in seeing the project clearly. It’s difficult to find the fresh perspective to look at a something that you’ve been so closely tied to for so long. For a business, the temptation is to become overly optimistic, to simply see all the advantages of a product and none of the drawbacks. Focus groups help to avoid that pitfall by bringing in people who fit the demographics of potential customers to gauge their reaction to a new product and the advertising associated with that product. Many times the results are surprising, and help a company avoid costly blunders.

Focus groups are typically led by professional moderators who invite participants to a research facility to see an informal product presentation and then answer a set of questions after the presentation. The client typically sits behind a one-way mirror and observes these proto-customer reactions. It’s an expensive undertaking, and most times it does not fall within a small business budget.

A Small Business Adaption

Read more in Marketing and Advertising
« Market Research
What is a Yelp Business Listing? »

If you’re on LinkedIn, then you are already familiar with this business networking site. If you’re not, then you should consider singing up with this free service. It provides access to a myriad of marketing professionals across the Unites States and Worldwide. These professionals quite willing serve as online focus groups when you post a question or a link to a product page on your site.

To use this professional resource, simply use the online “Questions and Answers” forum. This forum allows you to ask questions about any subject, but it can also be an important free resource for product development. You can post a link to a Website if you need to provide visuals of your product, or you can simply ask direct questions about product copy or price points. If your concerned about competitors learning your plans, simply mask important product details and place any Web information on a site that is not your company’s Website. A great polling feature allows you to ask a question and then sort responses with a bar chart or graph.

Although this is an adaptation of a traditional focus group, its very effective. You’ll be able to ask questions of a cross section of marketing professional – some from tony Madison avenue addresses. This is a great marketing research technique for these uncertain business times.