If you're considering hiring a market research agency, then you're about to make a wise investment that would most likely provide significant advantages to your business.

A market research agency may develop, conduct, and analyze customized market research for your business and provide the critical data and pointers, allowing you to make strategic decisions based on facts. Furthermore, they'll ensure that the feedback you receive and the conclusions you draw are completely objective. So, let’s dig a little deeper and explore what a market research firm can possibly bring to the table for your business.

Facebook has founded fame for many brands in the digital marketing space. It has been the birthplace of brands, the solace of solo-preneurs. When the traditional marketing and promotional media have proved to be too expensive or too inaccessible for startups and innovators, Facebook has been the space that gave the small voices a loud amplifier. Social media marketing’s biggest Like is for Facebook.

One of the heroes of successful digital marketing is SEO: Search Engine Optimization. In fact, it takes center stage in the digital marketing Hall of Fame.

Why does SEO get this spotlight?

Simple – it’s the game changer for marketing to convert to sales. After promoting and publicizing your brand, SEO creates conversions and directly impacts your return on investment.

Search Engine Optimization is defined as ‘the process of improving the quality and quantity of website traffic to a website or a web page from search engines.’ (Source - Wikipedia)

Google being the most-used search engine we know, SEO helps a brand to improve its Google rankings, when a user searches using words or terms that are directly related to the brand’s expertise.

Try typing "bruised passports" in your search bar. You are immediately hit with a drop down of suggested terms - which is a mind-boggling list of global destinations. From Sikkim to Sydney, this brand is know-it-all in global travel. And a know-it-all who’s there because it has done it all. With over a decade of digital marketing best practices under its camera belt, Brusied Passports is a great case study in successfully using a platform like Facebook to build a brand.

Market research agencies ultimately help businesses by putting the collected data into action. Some activities conducted by market research agencies include:

• Conducting surveys
• Conducting interviews
• Facilitating focus groups and workshops
• Undertaking methods to observe customers
• Collect relevant information, analyze data, report findings

When you hire an agency, make sure that they are properly differentiating between quantitative and qualitative research. Simply put, quantitative data deals with facts and figures while qualitative data pertains to human experience. Both are relevant for you to make informed business decisions.