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Best Market Research Tools to Consider Going Forward

  • dfilipenco
  • 1 day ago
  • 7 min read

As a market player, you know how vital it is to understand who your clients are and what they want from the very start.


This is why various companies value market research – a process that combines observations about consumer behavior with economic trends, which allows the client base to be verified and business ideas to be improved.


The instruments used to get to know clients better are key to obtaining qualitative data.


Which ones should you use? What advantages does a paid-for digital market research tool bring, versus a free one? And what does AI have to say about all of this?


This article will help you to navigate these issues and discover the leading survey and polling tools, data analysis and visualization tools, consumer behavior tracking platforms, and the role of expert networks in enhancing your market research process.


What are market research tools?

Market research tools encompass platforms, software, and techniques that can collect and evaluate information about a company's target market, with a specific focus on its clients, its competitors, and the overall market environment, so it becomes easier to make wise decisions and maintain a competitive edge.


Access to these tools can be free, partially free, or fee-based – it all depends on your needs.


Using market research tools makes it easier to understand your market, namely, learning about customer preferences, tracking any patterns, and measuring the success of marketing campaigns.


How can market research tools help?

You can conduct market research by going directly to consumers (physically) or with the help of existing digital tools, which could save you a great deal of time and money.


The major advantage of digital market research tools is that they allow data to be collected on customer preferences, behaviors, and trends more rapidly and thus decisions can be made according to the information gathered rather than relying on gut feelings or subjective opinions.


Key features to look for in market research tools

Market research tools differ, which is why it is important that you evaluate them according to a few essential characteristics, and here are some important factors to take into account:

  1. The tool should provide reliable data from a variety of sources.

  2. When analyzing a research tool, ensure it is compatible with other applications, such as analytics platforms or team collaboration tools.

  3. Look for cost-effectiveness and scalable tools – as you grow, you should be able to scale up from what you first used.

  4. Choose tools that are easy to use and have available support functions.


Understanding market research tools and the best tools to help to elevate your strategy

There are various types of market research tools, and each serves a certain purpose so, if you’re seeking to conduct in-depth market research, consider using a combination of these.


For example, a single project may require:

  1. A survey tool to gather consumer feedback

  2. A social listening platform to analyze brand sentiment

  3. An analytics tool to interpret the collected data.

To make sense of this vast diversity, we have divided these tools into groups.


Leading survey and polling tools to conduct market research

Survey and polling tools are the most common methods of obtaining information from your target audience, allowing you to come up with questions, distribute these online, and collect structured replies rather quickly.

SurveyMonkey and Qualtrics XM are two of the most widely used.


SurveyMonkey

A popular survey platform

SurveyMonkey is a user-friendly tool that provides an easy-to-use drag-and-drop survey creator, as well as offering numerous pre-built survey templates.

It also provides access to SurveyMonkey Audience, which includes access to paid features such as:

  • A/B testing, question randomization

  • Crosstabs, dashboards, shared pages

  • Multilingual surveys.


Qualtrics XM

A survey and experience management tool

Qualtrics provides quick poll templates, allowing users to design detailed surveys for market, product, or customer research.


In addition, the platform boasts an AI-powered analytics engine that can carry out tasks such as sentiment analysis on open-ended text.


But the tool is far more sophisticated than this, being known as a complete Experience Management (XM) platform, bridging customer feedback, employee insights, market research, and even conversational AI-driven interaction across channels.


Google Forms, Typeform, and Pollfish

These three research tools are free to use and provide a basic set of instruments for a market researcher.


  • Google Forms – allows you to create forms and basic surveys to collect data and gain insights.

  • Typeform – a survey, quiz, and form-building user-friendly platform with affordable pricing plans and intuitive design tools.

  • Pollfish – a survey platform made for quick and scalable market research.


Data analysis and visualization tools for market research processes

Tools are necessary for comparing segments, identifying patterns, and sharing insights with stakeholders via dashboards, graphs, and charts.


Tableau

This powerful business intelligence and data visualization platform allows users to connect to a variety of data sources, surf through insights, generate interactive visuals, construct dashboards, and share findings in real time.


It boasts support for almost any data source and has advanced AI features.


Notable mentions: Google Sheets and Excel (free market research tools), IBM SPSS (14-day free trial)

  • Google Sheets and Excel can be employed to carry out rapid analysis, especially if they are used together with other tools although using these requires certain specific knowledge of formulas.

  • IBM SPSS - a software platform with a large library of machine learning algorithms and text analysis.


Consumer behavior tracking platforms

These tools are used to monitor and evaluate how users engage with goods, services, or information in real life.


Google Analytics

This tool allows users to analyze website and app behavior, displaying information about:

  • Website visitors

  • How those visitors found the company

  • What pages or products/services they looked at

  • Where you might be losing them in the funnel.


NielsenIQ (NIQ)

This is a popular consumer intelligence company that focuses on providing information that can help users to learn about customer purchasing patterns and identify fresh avenues for growth by combining detailed consumer data with predictive analytics tools driven by AI.


Trend analysis and social listening tools to consider

These tools can help a company to stay on top of changes by monitoring real-time external data streams such as search queries, social media posts, and news to track what’s trending and what people are saying.


  • Google Trends – tracks popular search terms over time and by region. Useful for comparing phrases, spotting seasonal trends, and gauging interest shifts.

  • Brandwatch and Mention – monitor brand mentions, competitors, and trending topics across social media, blogs, forums, and news.

  • AnswerThePublic – shows commonly asked questions from Google, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Bing.


Market intelligence and competitor analysis tools

Although these tools relate more to competitive intelligence rather than consumer behaviour, they can help you to keep an eye on industry trends, market size, and competitor activities, providing a clear big-picture view of your market position.


  • Ahrefs – an all-in-one SEO toolkit that provides backlink analysis and competitor keyword research, which might reveal market gaps (keywords or audiences that your rivals haven't yet addressed).

  • Statista – an international resource for data, reports, and insights on more than 80,000 subjects from 22,500 sources. It offers ready-made charts, reports, and projections covering a wide range of industries.

  • BuzzSumo – a tool that analyzes trending topics and identifies high-performing content and influencers by indexing millions of articles and social posts. It doubles as a competitor content tracker.


Comparative analysis: Free vs. paid market research tools

When considering research tools, you will come across both free and paid software and applications.


Why and when to use free tools (or the free versions of tools)

These can be great when you carry out exploratory research (such as reading industry reports) or if you're just getting started and your research needs are somewhat modest.


The Google Trends database, for example, is free and provides a plethora of information that can help you to understand your industry in a broad sense without costing you anything.


Limitations of free tools:

  • They may not provide detailed data that is vital for your research

  • They may lack advanced features such as detailed analytics or data export.


Why and when to use paid tools

Paid tools provide full access to a platform's capabilities, including additional market research data, functionality, and support.


For instance, although basic Statista figures are free to view, a subscription is needed to access in-depth analysis and projections.


Use paid tools when:

  • Market research needs are critical (e.g., entering a new market)

  • You need deeper insights, better accuracy, and integration

  • You are carrying out large-scale research that needs historical data, advanced analytics, and more.


Advantages of paid tools:

  • More accurate data with fewer limitations

  • Customer services and guarantees

  • Higher ROI when used for big business decisions.


How will AI change market research?

It is expected that AI, and particularly generative AI, will make market research faster, more scalable, and more insightful, although some limitations are also expected. But let’s take it from the top:


Advantages of AI in market research

  • AI will speed up the research process

  • AI can automate time-consuming activities (analyzing interview transcripts, generating reports)

  • Using synthetic data (i.e., artificially generated insights that resemble actual customer behavior and preferences), AI could help companies to test ideas and run simulations more quickly

  • AI can provide data-driven insights

  • Startups and large firms will use AI to tailor insights and deepen customer knowledge.


Limitations of AI in market research

  • Bias in AI-generated insights (rooted in training data) can lead to the misrepresentation of customer segments and market trends

  • Sensitivity to prompt design – AI answers can change based on how questions are worded

  • AI responses can feel artificial and sound unreliable when repeated

  • Unrealistic experimental results.


In an experiment described by the Columbia Business School (originally published by Harvard Business Review), when AI was used to model how people might respond to different prices, the demand curves that AI produced were not only unrealistic but also different from those that emerged when the same questions were addressed to human responders.


How can you integrate expert calls into your market research?

Expert networks are another powerful market research tool capable of providing fast insights, thus complementing traditional market research.


As a market research tool, expert networks connect companies with subject-matter experts (marketers, social scientists, among others), thereby assisting in gathering primary, qualitative insights, which is helpful for numerous needs including:

  • Understanding customer behavior and preferences

  • Validating hypotheses during the development of a new product

  • Collecting feedback on market needs or trends

  • Benchmarking against competitors

  • Exploring ways to enter new markets.


RightAngle

At RightAngle, we provide direct access to professionals with deep industry experience (CEOs, specialists, former employees, regulators, etc.)


We help our clients to collect first-hand insights rather than relying on secondary data (e.g., reports or news) via:

  • Complex insights collected and evaluated by our experts

  • Up-to-date answers to the most important research queries

  • Market reports and analyses

  • 1:1 conversations with experts

  • Latest market knowledge


As market research tools evolve, getting to know an Expert Network and introducing one to your market research is an efficient way to gain a competitive advantage and improve business strategy.


RightAngle offers fast, tailored insights into niche markets or emerging trends – often faster than traditional market research methods such as surveys or focus groups.


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