marketing research work experience

Thinking of a Career in Market Research? Here’s What You Need to Know!

Last Updated on 08 th January 2024

Q&A with Rajashekar Lokam – Principal Analyst, Blackridge Research & Consulting

We bring you an insightful Q&A with Rajashekar Lokam—Principal Analyst at Blackridge Research & Consulting.

Rajashekar (Raj) Lokam is a seasoned market research professional with extensive primary and secondary research capabilities. Raj has managed a variety of commissioned due diligence projects across industry sectors and provided timely, strategic market intelligence to clients worldwide.

Apart from exceptional problem-solving and people skills, his expertise includes (listed in alphabetical order) :

Client management (local and international)
Competitive analysis
Market entry and development
Market positioning
Market research report writing (in addition to data sheets, white papers, and various research publications)
Market sizing and forecasting
Marketing strategy
Monitoring and analyzing global energy industry dynamics
Opportunity assessment
Primary and secondary research methods

Raj is an avid supporter of social causes and a sports aficionado.

Green Hydrogen FAQs

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How would you describe yourself in three words?

Curious, adaptable, and analytical.

What motivated you to pursue a career in market research?

One of my greatest passions is gathering, monitoring, and analyzing data for meaningful and actionable insights. Knowing that these insights help our clients make well-informed decisions that will have a positive and long-term impact on their businesses and thus help change the world for the better always excites me.

Where does your leadership style get inspiration from?

I am inspired primarily by my father, Mr. Srinivas Rao Lokam, and my former manager, Mr. Bharadwaj Reddy.

What are your interests outside of work?

I like playing chess and squash, learning photography, and watching sci-fi movies.

What are your thoughts on current trends in market research?

One of the main trends we observed is the need to accelerate time-to-insight generation. In addition, AI and automation are increasingly being used in the research industry to improve efficiency, save time, and cut costs, as well as enhance a company’s pricing and value proposition. Companies that capitalize on such trends will gain a competitive advantage to grow their businesses and provide more value to their clients.

Can you describe a unique research project in your market research career?

Recently, we worked on a local project for an Indian client to evaluate the viability of setting up a new school in Hyderabad—the capital of the Indian state of Telangana. We organized several field visits, conducted in-person interviews, and administered surveys to gather necessary data. We also developed a proprietary model for this project. Finally, our client benefited from the research findings and followed our recommendations.

Can you share a successful market research example?

One of our clients from the generator manufacturing sector in India wanted to assess the threat from the transition of using generators as backup power to battery storage and fuel cells. In addition, the client was interested to know the companies moving toward battery storage and away from generators. The client wanted to identify the backup power equipment manufacturers/suppliers catering to telecommunications applications. Our client also required us to provide advice/recommendations on adapting to these market conditions. We leveraged the existing market data and forecasts from the syndicated market research reports for this project. Subsequently, we performed a Life-Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA) for generators, batteries, and other alternatives for a telecom Base Transceiver Station (BTS). We had detailed discussions with tier-1 and tier-2 generator manufacturers and battery suppliers along with telecom operators. We surveyed to understand the major reasons for shifting from generators to other alternatives. Later, we prepared a comprehensive list of existing and potential companies in the battery and fuel cell manufacturing and distribution industry. Furthermore, we compiled a list of telecom companies transitioning toward battery storage and other alternatives. Considering the adoption rate and other parameters, we simulated different scenarios—thereby estimating their respective impact on the demand for generators. Our client used the study results and recommendations to make critical decisions on their product offerings and business growth strategy.

How do you set goals for your team?

I establish team goals that align with the company’s objectives and goals. I follow the SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound) goal-setting framework. Before setting specific targets, I make sure to engage with team members to suggest their own targets and work along with them to arrive at a mutually agreeable and achievable target.

What is your advice for market research career aspirants?

Here are some tips for market research career aspirants:

Stay curious and learn to identify trends and patterns.
Understand fundamental statistical concepts such as correlation and causation.
Learn market research basics.
Sharpen your reading comprehension and problem-solving skills.
Keep up with industry news and significant developments.

What excites you the most about the future opportunities for Blackridge Research & Consulting?

With the continuous transformation of the energy industry and the growing construction industry, Blackridge Research & Consulting is uniquely positioned to capitalize on its offerings and provide forward-thinking and trusted insights to our clients.

Wrapping Up

As more and more companies depend on in-depth knowledge of the rapidly evolving market environment, qualified market research professionals are in high demand. Market research helps businesses avoid costly mistakes, make data-driven decisions, identify new markets and opportunities, reduce the risk of bad positioning and much more.

Dynamic professional organizations, startups, and other businesses rely on market intelligence to eliminate uncertainty and empower them with strategic insights for decision-making.

It is not surprising that market research experts of varying levels of experience are indispensable to organizational success in a data-driven world.

Equipping yourself with the right degree and right skill set will prepare you for a successful career in market research.

Moreover, gaining professional experience by working for a trusted market research company will make you stand out from the crowd and boost your chances of getting hired for future positions

When you get an opportunity to gather data and gain the power to transform people’s lives or turn analytics into a much-needed asset, you know that you are making a REAL difference.

A career in market research is bright and beautiful. Go for it!

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CAREER PATHWAYS

Looking for the perfect job? Explore our Career Guides!

How to Become a Market Research Analyst

By Alyciah Beavers

Published: March 19, 2024

In today’s ever-evolving business landscape, organizations strive to make informed decisions that will propel them toward success, and this is where a market research analyst role is crucial. The career suits anyone who wants to become a master of data, a sleuth of consumer behavior, and a guardian of market insights. Read on to understand what is a market research analyst and if this career might be the right choice for you.

Career Summary

Market research analyst salary.

Here is a general trajectory of market research analyst salary, according to Glassdoor.com :

Entry Salary (US$56k)
Median Salary (US$71k)
Executive Salary (US$100k)

To put this into perspective, the annual average wage for all occupations in the US is $61,900 . This means that, based on your level, you can make some excellent cash as a market research analyst.

Market Research Analyst Job Description

So, what does a market research analyst do? A market research analyst collects, analyzes, and interprets data to provide insights and recommendations on market trends and consumer behavior to a business . Their main objective is to help businesses make informed decisions regarding their products, services, and marketing strategies. Additionally, a market research analyst conducts market analysis and assists companies in understanding the products people want and how to price them.

Market Research Analyst Career Progression

Entry-Level Analyst: It is the starting point for most market research analysts. At this stage, your roles involve assisting more senior analysts in conducting research, collecting data, and analyzing market trends. Your role also entails preparing reports and presentations.
Research Analyst: You have more independence and take on greater responsibility for designing research methodologies, managing data collection, and conducting analysis.
Senior Analyst: You have a deeper understanding of market research methodologies, advanced analytical techniques, and industry-specific knowledge.
Supervisor: Here, your role involves overseeing multiple research projects, managing a team of analysts, and contributing to high-level decision-making. You are responsible for resource allocation, project planning, and client management.
Head of Market Research: You are responsible for shaping the overall research strategy, guiding the research team, and collaborating with senior executives to align research efforts with business goals. You are also involved in budgeting, business development, and fostering relationships with clients and stakeholders.

It simulates intellectual intelligence, where you develop your critical and problem-solving skills.
It gives you the proper industry exposure since you work with clients from diverse industries.
The career offers continuous learning opportunities since market research is a rapidly evolving field.
As a marketing analyst, you can comfortably tackle complex business problems.
It offers a collaborative environment where you work as a team with other people, such as marketing professionals, statisticians, data scientists, and business executives.
Some tasks are monotonous as they involve collecting and analyzing large amounts of data, which can sometimes be tedious.
Market research often operates on tight deadlines, requiring analysts to work under pressure to meet project timelines.
At times there is limited creativity, whereby some analysts may feel constrained when developing innovative solutions or exploring unconventional approaches.
The industry is competitive, so analysts need to stay updated constantly on the trends and consumer behaviors.
There is a lot of data overload, which is overwhelming and challenging to navigate.

Useful Skills to Have As a Market Research Analyst

As a market research analyst, several useful skills can enhance your abilities and contribute to your success in the field, including:

Research and Analytical Skills
Data Interpretation and Statistical Analysis
Critical Thinking Skills
Strong Communication Skills
Problem-Solving Abilities
Technological Proficiency

Popular Market Research Analyst Specialties

Market research analysts specialize in various areas depending on the industry and the specific needs of their clients or employers.

There are some popular specialties within the field of market research analysis:

Consumer Behavior
Market Segmentation
Competitive Analysis
Brand Research
Product Development
Market Trend Analysis

How to become a Market Research Analyst

Market Research Analyst 5 Steps to Career

The right way to become a market research analyst is through education, relevant work experience, and specific skills. While the exact path can vary depending on individual circumstances, here are some common steps to help you pursue a career in market research analysis.

Obtain a Degree in a Relevant Field

Do i need a degree to become a market research analyst.

While having a degree is not always a strict requirement to become a market research analyst, it can significantly enhance your prospects and competitiveness in the job market. Many employers prefer candidates with a bachelor’s degree, particularly in fields such as market research, business administration, statistics, economics, or social sciences .

Why Is It Important to Get A Degree In Market Research or a Related Field?

While it’s not always a strict requirement, obtaining a degree offers numerous advantages. A relevant degree equips you with the foundational knowledge and analytical skills necessary for market research analysis, as well as the skills to analyze complex data sets, use statistical tools and software, and derive meaningful conclusions.

A degree program can provide a comprehensive understanding of research methodologies, statistical analysis, consumer behavior, data interpretation, and marketing principles. These skills are essential for conducting adequate market research and making informed decisions based on the collected data.

Furthermore, some employers may specifically request a degree or prefer candidates with higher qualifications for specific positions or in highly competitive job markets.

Additionally, having a degree can serve as evidence of your commitment, discipline, and ability to acquire and apply knowledge, which can be valuable to potential employers.

How Long Does It Take To Get A Degree?

The duration of a degree program in market research analysis can vary depending on several factors, including the degree level and the educational institution’s structure:

Associate’s Degree: An associate’s degree generally takes around two years to complete . This program provides a foundational understanding of market research principles and techniques.
Bachelor’s Degree: A bachelor’s degree typically requires four years of full-time study . Students delve deeper into market research methodologies, data analysis, and related business courses during this program.
Master’s Degree: Pursuing a master’s degree in market research takes two years beyond the bachelor’s degree . This program focuses on advanced research techniques, data analysis, consumer behavior, and marketing strategy.
Doctoral Degree: A Ph.D. or doctoral degree in market research analysis can take an additional four to six years of study beyond the master’s degree . The programs emphasize research, theory development, and advanced methodologies. These degrees are more suited for individuals interested in academic or research-oriented careers.

How Much Does It Cost to Study Market Research Analysis at University?

The cost of studying market research analysis at a university can vary widely depending on factors such as the country, the specific university, the level of study, undergraduate or postgraduate. Additionally, tuition fees can change over time, so it’s essential to check with the specific university or college for the most accurate and up-to-date information. Here is a breakdown as of 2022:

Undergraduate marketing research program tuition for an in-state student is US$12,020, while an out-of-state student pays US$28,345.
A graduate market research in-state student pays US$13,864, while an out-of-state student pays US$24,560.

Can I become a Market Research Analyst Through Online Education?

Yes, online education makes it possible to become a market research analyst . The web offers numerous resources and programs in multiple fields, including market research, with flexible learning hours.

Look for accredited online courses, certificate programs , or degree programs in market research, marketing, business, statistics, or related fields. Ensure that the program you choose is from a reputable institution.

Gain Practical Experience

Practical experience complements theoretical knowledge and helps you demonstrate your skills and abilities to potential employers. Seeking opportunities to apply your knowledge and skills in realistic settings and continuously striving to expand your expertise through hands-on experience in market research is the only way to go. Some ways involve volunteering and interning in different corporations to gain hands-on experience.

What are Internship Opportunities for A Market Research Analyst?

As a market research analyst, several internship opportunities are available to gain practical experience and develop your skills.

Here are some potential avenues to explore:

Market Research Firms: Many market research companies offer internship programs tailored explicitly for aspiring analysts. These firms research for various clients and industries, exposing interns to multiple projects and methodologies.
Corporate Internships: Numerous companies, especially larger ones, have in-house market research departments. These organizations often offer internships to support their research activities, allowing you to work directly with their marketing teams and gain industry-specific insights.
Advertising and Marketing Agencies: Advertising and marketing agencies frequently require market research to inform their strategies and campaigns. Interning with such agencies can expose you to diverse projects and clients, enhancing your understanding of how research drives marketing decisions.
Technology Companies: Tech companies, particularly those involved in data analytics and consumer insights, often offer internships for market research analysts. These opportunities can provide exposure to innovative tools, techniques, and datasets, allowing you to develop skills in the intersection of technology and market research.
Consulting Firms: Consulting firms may have market research divisions or projects to which interns can contribute. These firms work with clients to provide strategic advice; market research is critical to their decision-making processes.
Government Agencies: Government agencies often conduct market research to inform policy decisions, public campaigns, and program evaluations. Interning with a government agency can provide insights into the unique challenges and considerations of conducting research within the public sector.

To find internship opportunities , consider exploring online job boards, company websites, and professional networking platforms and contacting your university’s career services department. Networking with professionals in the field, attending industry events, and joining relevant market research associations or groups can also help you discover internship opportunities.

What Skills Will I Learn As A Market Research Analyst?

As a market research analyst, you will develop various skills to effectively gather, analyze, and interpret data to support business decision-making.

Here are some essential skills you can expect to learn and enhance in this role:

Research Design: You will learn how to design research studies and formulate appropriate research questions and objectives.
Data Collection: You will acquire skills in collecting data through surveys, interviews, focus groups, and observational studies. This includes developing questionnaires, conducting interviews, and managing data collection processes.
Data Analysis: You will gain proficiency in analyzing data using statistical techniques, data visualization tools, and software packages like Excel, SPSS , or R . This involves interpreting quantitative and qualitative data, identifying patterns and trends, and drawing meaningful insights.
Market Analysis: You will learn to assess market trends, customer behavior, and competitive landscapes. This includes conducting competitor analyses, market segmentation, and identifying target markets.
Report Writing: You will develop strong written communication skills to effectively communicate research findings and insights through reports, presentations, and visualizations. This involves summarizing complex data into clear and actionable recommendations.
Critical Thinking: You will enhance your ability to think critically and analytically, evaluate research methodologies, assess data quality, and identify potential biases or limitations in research findings.
Problem-Solving: As a market research analyst, you will learn to identify business problems, formulate research objectives, and develop strategic solutions based on data-driven insights.
Collaboration: You will develop teamwork and collaboration skills, as market research often involves working with cross-functional teams, stakeholders, and clients to understand their needs and deliver actionable results.
Technology and Tools: You will become proficient in utilizing market research tools, software, and technologies to enhance data collection, analysis, and reporting. This may include data analytics platforms, survey software, CRM systems , and visualization tools.
Industry Knowledge: You will gain deep knowledge and understanding of the industry or market you are researching, including key trends, regulations, and emerging opportunities.

What are Some Web Resources to Learn Skills to Become a Market Research Analyst?

Several web resources can help you acquire the necessary knowledge and skills.

Here are some useful platforms and websites you can explore:

MarketResearch.com : This website offers various market research reports and articles covering multiple industries. It can help you understand different research methodologies, industry trends, and analysis techniques.
GreenBook : GreenBook provides a platform for market research professionals and offers industry news, reports, webinars, and online resources. It covers topics such as research techniques, data analysis, and emerging trends in the field.
American Marketing Association (AMA) : The AMA website provides valuable resources and tools for marketers, including market research-related content. It offers articles, white papers, webinars, and events that enhance your understanding of market research concepts and practices.
Research Association (ESOMAR) : ESOMAR is a global association for market, opinion, and social research professionals. Their website offers a comprehensive library of resources, including industry reports, webinars, and guidelines for conducting market research.
Quirks : Quirks is a website that offers market research articles, case studies, and industry news. It covers various topics like survey design, data analysis, and emerging methodologies. They also have a directory of market research vendors and services.
Research World : Research World is an online publication covering recent trends and developments in the market research industry. It provides articles, case studies, and insights from industry experts, which can be valuable for learning and staying updated.

Obtain Certifications

Consider pursuing additional certifications or courses in market research, data analysis, or relevant areas to enhance your knowledge and marketability. While there is no single universal certification for market research analysts, several reputable organizations offer certifications that can enhance your credentials.

Some popular certifications include:

Certified Market Research Professional (CMRP) : This is a widely recognized certification that demonstrates a market research analyst’s expertise in research methodologies, ethics, and data analysis. It signifies a commitment to high professional standards and best practices in the field. Earning the CMRP can enhance your credibility, increase your chances of landing job opportunities, and potentially lead to higher earning potential.
Professional Researcher Certification (PRC) : The PRC certification validates a market researcher’s knowledge, skills, and ethical practices. It covers a broad range of market research topics, including research design, data collection, analysis, and reporting. Holding the PRC designation demonstrates your commitment to professional excellence and adherence to industry standards.
Google Analytics Individual Qualification (GAIQ) : While not specific to market research, the GAIQ certification is highly relevant for market research analysts who deal with website data and analytics. It showcases proficiency in using Google Analytics, a widely used tool for analyzing website traffic and user behavior. GAIQ certification can be valuable in demonstrating your ability to interpret web data, track consumer interactions, and optimize online marketing strategies.

It’s important to note that, to take the exam and become certified, you must meet eligibility requirements. Some might require a bachelor’s degree in a relevant field such as marketing, business, or statistics and a specific number of years of experience working in market research or a related area.

What’s the Career Outlook for Market Research Analysts?

As of 2021, the career outlook for market research analysts is generally positive, and the field will continue to experience steady growth. Researchers estimate that there will be a 19% growth from 2021 to 2031, which is way faster than any other occupation.

However, please note that economic and industry trends can change over time, so it’s always a good idea to consult up-to-date sources and labor market data for the most accurate information.

Some of the factors contributing to the positive career outlook for market research analysts include:

Increasing Demand: With the rise of technology and data-driven decision-making, there is a growing need for skilled professionals who can interpret and analyze market data. Businesses across various industries rely on market research to gain a competitive edge, expand their customer base, and identify new market opportunities.
Globalization and International Markets: As companies expand their operations globally, understanding diverse markets and consumer behaviors becomes crucial. Market research analysts with expertise in international markets and cultural nuances can offer valuable insights and are in high demand.
Emphasis on Data-Driven Decision-Making: Organizations increasingly rely on data to drive their strategies in today’s data-driven business landscape. Companies seek market research analysts who can effectively collect, analyze, and interpret data using advanced analytical tools and techniques.
Technological Advancements: Advancements in technology, such as big data analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, are revolutionizing the field of market research. Professionals who can adapt to these technological changes and utilize them to extract actionable insights will likely have strong career prospects.

Market Research Analyst Popular Career Specialties

What Are The Job Opportunities Of A Market Research Analyst?

Market research analysts have a wide range of job opportunities across various industries. Their primary responsibility is to gather and analyze data to help organizations make informed business decisions.

Luckily, there are many other job opportunities within the field of market research analysis that a market research analyst can do:

Market Research Analyst: This is the primary role of a market research analyst where they collect and analyze data to identify market trends, consumer behavior, and competitive landscape. They design surveys, conduct interviews, and use statistical techniques to interpret the data and generate actionable insights for decision-making.
Market Intelligence Specialist: In this role, you would focus on gathering and analyzing data related to the industry, competitors, and market conditions. You would monitor market trends, track competitor activities, and provide strategic recommendations to support business development, product positioning, and market entry strategies.
Consumer Insights Analyst: As a consumer insights analyst, you would delve into understanding consumer behavior, preferences, and attitudes. You would employ various research methods such as surveys, focus groups, and interviews to gather data and then analyze it to uncover consumer insights. These insights help companies develop effective marketing strategies and refine product offerings.
Data Analyst : Data analysis is an essential aspect of market research, and as a data analyst, you would specialize in processing, organizing, and interpreting large datasets. You would use statistical techniques, data mining, and visualization tools to extract meaningful patterns and trends. Your findings would assist in making informed business decisions and optimizing marketing campaigns.
Market Research Consultant: In a consulting role, you would work with clients from different industries to provide expert market research guidance. You would conduct comprehensive market studies, assess competitive landscapes, and deliver strategic recommendations based on your analysis. Consultants often work on a project basis and collaborate closely with clients to address specific business challenges.
Brand Strategist: Brand strategists combine market research insights with creative thinking to develop and implement effective branding strategies. You would analyze consumer perceptions, market positioning, and competitive landscape to define brand identities, messaging, and marketing campaigns that resonate with target audiences.

What Type Of Companies Hire A Market Research Analyst?

Market research analysts are in demand across various industries and sectors.

Some of the companies that hire market research analysts include:

Market Research Firms: These specialized firms conduct market research for clients across different industries.
Consumer Goods Companies: Companies that produce and sell consumer goods often employ market research analysts to gather insights on consumer preferences, market trends, and product performance.
Technology Companies: Technology companies, especially those involved in software development, electronics, and telecommunications, rely on market research analysts to understand customer needs, evaluate competition, and assess market potential.
Healthcare and Pharmaceutical Companies: These companies require market research analysts to study patient demographics, evaluate the efficacy of drugs, analyze healthcare trends, and assess market opportunities.
Financial Institutions: Banks, insurance companies, and investment firms hire market research analysts to analyze market trends, identify investment opportunities, and assess customer preferences.
Advertising and Marketing Agencies: Agencies that offer advertising, branding, and marketing services often have market research analysts on their teams to provide insights for developing effective strategies and campaigns.
Retail Companies: Retailers employ market research analysts to understand consumer behavior, analyze purchasing patterns, and identify market opportunities.
Media and Entertainment Companies: Media companies, including television networks, film studios, and streaming platforms, use market research analysts to understand audience preferences, gauge viewership, and identify potential content opportunities.

What Is The Work-Life Balance Of A Market Research Analyst?

A market research analyst’s work-life balance can vary depending on company culture , industry, workload, and personal preferences. Generally, market research analysts strive to maintain a balanced lifestyle, but the actual balance achieved can differ from person to person.

The working hours of market research analysts involve standard office hours, 9 am to 5 pm, or similar. However, there may be times when they need to perform additional hours to meet project deadlines or during busy periods. Therefore, this affects how these individuals maintain their work and social life.

However, there is also a lot of flexibility in this job. Depending on the company and specific job requirements, market research analysts may have some flexibility in their work arrangements. This could include options for remote work , flexible schedules, or compressed work weeks. Flexibility can contribute positively to achieving a better work-life balance.

The workload varies based on the organization’s demands and the projects involved at different quarters of the year. There may be periods with high-intensity work where you should meet the deadlines, which could affect your work-life balance. However, there may also be quieter periods with a more manageable workload. Balancing workload, managing deadlines, and effectively communicating with stakeholders can help alleviate stress and improve work-life balance.

Personal factors such as individual preferences, commitments, and priorities significantly affect work-life balance. Some market research analysts may prioritize their personal lives, hobbies, or family time more, while others may focus more on their careers. Individuals must assess and prioritize their needs to achieve the desired work-life balance.

Ultimately, achieving a good work-life balance as a market research analyst involves finding a suitable position with a supportive company culture, managing workload and stress effectively, and establishing personal boundaries to ensure time for personal life outside of work.

Should I become a Market Research Analyst?

If you have a passion for market research, understanding market trends, and delving into the factors that influence consumers’ life decisions, this is the perfect career for you. It’s important to make an informed decision based on your interests, skills, and long-term goals. Notably, there will be over 99,800 job openings for market research analysts each year for the next decade leading to this job increase. Therefore, if you’re looking to invest in a promising career for the future, this is the ideal path to pursue.

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Market research definition

Market research – in-house or outsourced, market research in the age of data, when to use market research.

Types of market research

Different types of primary research

How to do market research (primary data), how to do secondary market research, communicating your market research findings, choose the right platform for your market research, try qualtrics for free, the ultimate guide to market research: how to conduct it like a pro.

27 min read Wondering how to do market research? Or even where to start learning about it? Use our ultimate guide to understand the basics and discover how you can use market research to help your business.

Market research is the practice of gathering information about the needs and preferences of your target audience – potential consumers of your product.

When you understand how your target consumer feels and behaves, you can then take steps to meet their needs and mitigate the risk of an experience gap – where there is a shortfall between what a consumer expects you to deliver and what you actually deliver. Market research can also help you keep abreast of what your competitors are offering, which in turn will affect what your customers expect from you.

Market research connects with every aspect of a business – including brand , product , customer service , marketing and sales.

Market research generally focuses on understanding:

The consumer (current customers, past customers, non-customers, influencers))
The company (product or service design, promotion, pricing, placement, service, sales)
The competitors (and how their market offerings interact in the market environment)
The industry overall (whether it’s growing or moving in a certain direction)

Free eBook: 2024 market research trends report

Why is market research important?

A successful business relies on understanding what like, what they dislike, what they need and what messaging they will respond to. Businesses also need to understand their competition to identify opportunities to differentiate their products and services from other companies.

Today’s business leaders face an endless stream of decisions around target markets, pricing, promotion, distribution channels, and product features and benefits . They must account for all the factors involved, and there are market research studies and methodologies strategically designed to capture meaningful data to inform every choice. It can be a daunting task.

Market research allows companies to make data-driven decisions to drive growth and innovation.

What happens when you don’t do market research?

Without market research, business decisions are based at best on past consumer behavior, economic indicators, or at worst, on gut feel. Decisions are made in a bubble without thought to what the competition is doing. An important aim of market research is to remove subjective opinions when making business decisions. As a brand you are there to serve your customers, not personal preferences within the company. You are far more likely to be successful if you know the difference, and market research will help make sure your decisions are insight-driven.

Traditionally there have been specialist market researchers who are very good at what they do, and businesses have been reliant on their ability to do it. Market research specialists will always be an important part of the industry, as most brands are limited by their internal capacity, expertise and budgets and need to outsource at least some aspects of the work.

However, the market research external agency model has meant that brands struggled to keep up with the pace of change. Their customers would suffer because their needs were not being wholly met with point-in-time market research.

Businesses looking to conduct market research have to tackle many questions –

Who are my consumers, and how should I segment and prioritize them?
What are they looking for within my category?
How much are they buying, and what are their purchase triggers, barriers, and buying habits?
Will my marketing and communications efforts resonate?
Is my brand healthy ?
What product features matter most?
Is my product or service ready for launch?
Are my pricing and packaging plans optimized?

They all need to be answered, but many businesses have found the process of data collection daunting, time-consuming and expensive. The hardest battle is often knowing where to begin and short-term demands have often taken priority over longer-term projects that require patience to offer return on investment.

Today however, the industry is making huge strides, driven by quickening product cycles, tighter competition and business imperatives around more data-driven decision making. With the emergence of simple, easy to use tools , some degree of in-house market research is now seen as essential, with fewer excuses not to use data to inform your decisions. With greater accessibility to such software, everyone can be an expert regardless of level or experience.

How is this possible?

The art of research hasn’t gone away. It is still a complex job and the volume of data that needs to be analyzed is huge. However with the right tools and support, sophisticated research can look very simple – allowing you to focus on taking action on what matters.

If you’re not yet using technology to augment your in-house market research, now is the time to start.

The most successful brands rely on multiple sources of data to inform their strategy and decision making, from their marketing segmentation to the product features they develop to comments on social media. In fact, there’s tools out there that use machine learning and AI to automate the tracking of what’s people are saying about your brand across all sites.

The emergence of newer and more sophisticated tools and platforms gives brands access to more data sources than ever and how the data is analyzed and used to make decisions. This also increases the speed at which they operate, with minimal lead time allowing brands to be responsive to business conditions and take an agile approach to improvements and opportunities.

Expert partners have an important role in getting the best data, particularly giving access to additional market research know-how, helping you find respondents , fielding surveys and reporting on results.

How do you measure success?

Business activities are usually measured on how well they deliver return on investment (ROI). Since market research doesn’t generate any revenue directly, its success has to be measured by looking at the positive outcomes it drives – happier customers, a healthier brand, and so on.

When changes to your products or your marketing strategy are made as a result of your market research findings, you can compare on a before-and-after basis to see if the knowledge you acted on has delivered value.

Regardless of the function you work within, understanding the consumer is the goal of any market research. To do this, we have to understand what their needs are in order to effectively meet them. If we do that, we are more likely to drive customer satisfaction , and in turn, increase customer retention .

Several metrics and KPIs are used to gauge the success of decisions made from market research results, including

Brand awareness within the target market
Share of wallet
CSAT (customer satisfaction)
NPS (Net Promoter Score)

You can use market research for almost anything related to your current customers, potential customer base or target market. If you want to find something out from your target audience, it’s likely market research is the answer.

Here are a few of the most common uses:

Buyer segmentation and profiling

Segmentation is a popular technique that separates your target market according to key characteristics, such as behavior, demographic information and social attitudes. Segmentation allows you to create relevant content for your different segments, ideally helping you to better connect with all of them.

Buyer personas are profiles of fictional customers – with real attributes. Buyer personas help you develop products and communications that are right for your different audiences, and can also guide your decision-making process. Buyer personas capture the key characteristics of your customer segments, along with meaningful insights about what they want or need from you. They provide a powerful reminder of consumer attitudes when developing a product or service, a marketing campaign or a new brand direction.

By understanding your buyers and potential customers, including their motivations, needs, and pain points, you can optimize everything from your marketing communications to your products to make sure the right people get the relevant content, at the right time, and via the right channel .

Attitudes and Usage surveys

Attitude & Usage research helps you to grow your brand by providing a detailed understanding of consumers. It helps you understand how consumers use certain products and why, what their needs are, what their preferences are, and what their pain points are. It helps you to find gaps in the market, anticipate future category needs, identify barriers to entry and build accurate go-to-market strategies and business plans.

Marketing strategy

Effective market research is a crucial tool for developing an effective marketing strategy – a company’s plan for how they will promote their products.

It helps marketers look like rock stars by helping them understand the target market to avoid mistakes, stay on message, and predict customer needs . It’s marketing’s job to leverage relevant data to reach the best possible solution based on the research available. Then, they can implement the solution, modify the solution, and successfully deliver that solution to the market.

Product development

You can conduct market research into how a select group of consumers use and perceive your product – from how they use it through to what they like and dislike about it. Evaluating your strengths and weaknesses early on allows you to focus resources on ideas with the most potential and to gear your product or service design to a specific market.

Chobani’s yogurt pouches are a product optimized through great market research . Using product concept testing – a form of market research – Chobani identified that packaging could negatively impact consumer purchase decisions. The brand made a subtle change, ensuring the item satisfied the needs of consumers. This ability to constantly refine its products for customer needs and preferences has helped Chobani become Australia’s #1 yogurt brand and increase market share.

Pricing decisions

Market research provides businesses with insights to guide pricing decisions too. One of the most powerful tools available to market researchers is conjoint analysis, a form of market research study that uses choice modeling to help brands identify the perfect set of features and price for customers. Another useful tool is the Gabor-Granger method, which helps you identify the highest price consumers are willing to pay for a given product or service.

Brand tracking studies

A company’s brand is one of its most important assets. But unlike other metrics like product sales, it’s not a tangible measure you can simply pull from your system. Regular market research that tracks consumer perceptions of your brand allows you to monitor and optimize your brand strategy in real time, then respond to consumer feedback to help maintain or build your brand with your target customers.

Advertising and communications testing

Advertising campaigns can be expensive, and without pre-testing, they carry risk of falling flat with your target audience. By testing your campaigns, whether it’s the message or the creative, you can understand how consumers respond to your communications before you deploy them so you can make changes in response to consumer feedback before you go live.

Finder, which is one of the world’s fastest-growing online comparison websites, is an example of a brand using market research to inject some analytical rigor into the business. Fueled by great market research, the business lifted brand awareness by 23 percent, boosted NPS by 8 points, and scored record profits – all within 10 weeks.

Competitive analysis

Another key part of developing the right product and communications is understanding your main competitors and how consumers perceive them. You may have looked at their websites and tried out their product or service, but unless you know how consumers perceive them, you won’t have an accurate view of where you stack up in comparison. Understanding their position in the market allows you to identify the strengths you can exploit, as well as any weaknesses you can address to help you compete better.

Customer Story

See How Yamaha Does Product Research

Types of market research

Although there are many types market research, all methods can be sorted into one of two categories: primary and secondary.

Primary research

Primary research is market research data that you collect yourself. This is raw data collected through a range of different means – surveys , focus groups, , observation and interviews being among the most popular.

Primary information is fresh, unused data, giving you a perspective that is current or perhaps extra confidence when confirming hypotheses you already had. It can also be very targeted to your exact needs. Primary information can be extremely valuable. Tools for collecting primary information are increasingly sophisticated and the market is growing rapidly.

Historically, conducting market research in-house has been a daunting concept for brands because they don’t quite know where to begin, or how to handle vast volumes of data. Now, the emergence of technology has meant that brands have access to simple, easy to use tools to help with exactly that problem. As a result, brands are more confident about their own projects and data with the added benefit of seeing the insights emerge in real-time.

Secondary research

Secondary research is the use of data that has already been collected, analyzed and published – typically it’s data you don’t own and that hasn’t been conducted with your business specifically in mind, although there are forms of internal secondary data like old reports or figures from past financial years that come from within your business. Secondary research can be used to support the use of primary research.

Secondary research can be beneficial to small businesses because it is sometimes easier to obtain, often through research companies. Although the rise of primary research tools are challenging this trend by allowing businesses to conduct their own market research more cheaply, secondary research is often a cheaper alternative for businesses who need to spend money carefully. Some forms of secondary research have been described as ‘lean market research’ because they are fast and pragmatic, building on what’s already there.

Because it’s not specific to your business, secondary research may be less relevant, and you’ll need to be careful to make sure it applies to your exact research question. It may also not be owned, which means your competitors and other parties also have access to it.

Primary or secondary research – which to choose?

Both primary and secondary research have their advantages, but they are often best used when paired together, giving you the confidence to act knowing that the hypothesis you have is robust.

Secondary research is sometimes preferred because there is a misunderstanding of the feasibility of primary research. Thanks to advances in technology, brands have far greater accessibility to primary research, but this isn’t always known.

If you’ve decided to gather your own primary information, there are many different data collection methods that you may consider. For example:

Customer surveys
Focus groups
Observation

Think carefully about what you’re trying to accomplish before picking the data collection method(s) you’re going to use. Each one has its pros and cons. Asking someone a simple, multiple-choice survey question will generate a different type of data than you might obtain with an in-depth interview. Determine if your primary research is exploratory or specific, and if you’ll need qualitative research, quantitative research, or both.

Qualitative vs quantitative

Another way of categorizing different types of market research is according to whether they are qualitative or quantitative.

Qualitative research

Qualitative research is the collection of data that is non-numerical in nature. It summarizes and infers, rather than pin-points an exact truth. It is exploratory and can lead to the generation of a hypothesis.

Market research techniques that would gather qualitative data include:

Interviews (face to face / telephone)
Open-ended survey questions

Researchers use these types of market research technique because they can add more depth to the data. So for example, in focus groups or interviews, rather than being limited to ‘yes’ or ‘no’ for a certain question, you can start to understand why someone might feel a certain way.

Quantitative research

Quantitative research is the collection of data that is numerical in nature. It is much more black and white in comparison to qualitative data, although you need to make sure there is a representative sample if you want the results to be reflective of reality.

Quantitative researchers often start with a hypothesis and then collect data which can be used to determine whether empirical evidence to support that hypothesis exists.

Quantitative research methods include:

Questionnaires
Review scores

Exploratory and specific research

Exploratory research is the approach to take if you don’t know what you don’t know. It can give you broad insights about your customers, product, brand, and market. If you want to answer a specific question, then you’ll be conducting specific research.

Exploratory . This research is general and open-ended, and typically involves lengthy interviews with an individual or small focus group.
Specific . This research is often used to solve a problem identified in exploratory research. It involves more structured, formal interviews.

Exploratory primary research is generally conducted by collecting qualitative data. Specific research usually finds its insights through quantitative data.

Primary research can be qualitative or quantitative, large-scale or focused and specific. You’ll carry it out using methods like surveys – which can be used for both qualitative and quantitative studies – focus groups, observation of consumer behavior, interviews, or online tools.

Step 1: Identify your research topic

Research topics could include:

Product features
Product or service launch
Understanding a new target audience (or updating an existing audience)
Brand identity
Marketing campaign concepts
Customer experience

Step 2: Draft a research hypothesis

A hypothesis is the assumption you’re starting out with. Since you can disprove a negative much more easily than prove a positive, a hypothesis is a negative statement such as ‘price has no effect on brand perception’.

Step 3: Determine which research methods are most effective

Your choice of methods depends on budget, time constraints, and the type of question you’re trying to answer. You could combine surveys, interviews and focus groups to get a mix of qualitative and quantitative data.

Step 4: Determine how you will collect and analyze your data.

Primary research can generate a huge amount of data, and when the goal is to uncover actionable insight, it can be difficult to know where to begin or what to pay attention to.

The rise in brands taking their market research and data analysis in-house has coincided with the rise of technology simplifying the process. These tools pull through large volumes of data and outline significant information that will help you make the most important decisions.

Step 5: Conduct your research!

This is how you can run your research using Qualtrics CoreXM

Pre-launch – Here you want to ensure that the survey/ other research methods conform to the project specifications (what you want to achieve/research)
Soft launch – Collect a small fraction of the total data before you fully launch. This means you can check that everything is working as it should and you can correct any data quality issues.
Full launch – You’ve done the hard work to get to this point. If you’re using a tool, you can sit back and relax, or if you get curious you can check on the data in your account.
Review – review your data for any issues or low-quality responses. You may need to remove this in order not to impact the analysis of the data.

A helping hand

If you are missing the skills, capacity or inclination to manage your research internally, Qualtrics Research Services can help. From design, to writing the survey based on your needs, to help with survey programming, to handling the reporting, Research Services acts as an extension of the team and can help wherever necessary.

Secondary market research can be taken from a variety of places. Some data is completely free to access – other information could end up costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. There are three broad categories of secondary research sources:

Public sources – these sources are accessible to anyone who asks for them. They include census data, market statistics, library catalogs, university libraries and more. Other organizations may also put out free data from time to time with the goal of advancing a cause, or catching people’s attention.
Internal sources – sometimes the most valuable sources of data already exist somewhere within your organization. Internal sources can be preferable for secondary research on account of their price (free) and unique findings. Since internal sources are not accessible by competitors, using them can provide a distinct competitive advantage.
Commercial sources – if you have money for it, the easiest way to acquire secondary market research is to simply buy it from private companies. Many organizations exist for the sole purpose of doing market research and can provide reliable, in-depth, industry-specific reports.

No matter where your research is coming from, it is important to ensure that the source is reputable and reliable so you can be confident in the conclusions you draw from it.

How do you know if a source is reliable?

Use established and well-known research publishers, such as the XM Institute , Forrester and McKinsey . Government websites also publish research and this is free of charge. By taking the information directly from the source (rather than a third party) you are minimizing the risk of the data being misinterpreted and the message or insights being acted on out of context.

How to apply secondary research

The purpose and application of secondary research will vary depending on your circumstances. Often, secondary research is used to support primary research and therefore give you greater confidence in your conclusions. However, there may be circumstances that prevent this – such as the timeframe and budget of the project.

Keep an open mind when collecting all the relevant research so that there isn’t any collection bias. Then begin analyzing the conclusions formed to see if any trends start to appear. This will help you to draw a consensus from the secondary research overall.

Market research success is defined by the impact it has on your business’s success. Make sure it’s not discarded or ignored by communicating your findings effectively. Here are some tips on how to do it.

Less is more – Preface your market research report with executive summaries that highlight your key discoveries and their implications
Lead with the basic information – Share the top 4-5 recommendations in bullet-point form, rather than requiring your readers to go through pages of analysis and data
Model the impact – Provide examples and model the impact of any changes you put in place based on your findings
Show, don’t tell – Add illustrative examples that relate directly to the research findings and emphasize specific points
Speed is of the essence – Make data available in real-time so it can be rapidly incorporated into strategies and acted upon to maximize value
Work with experts – Make sure you’ve access to a dedicated team of experts ready to help you design and launch successful projects

Trusted by 8,500 brands for everything from product testing to competitor analysis, Our Strategic Research software is the world’s most powerful and flexible research platform . With over 100 question types and advanced logic, you can build out your surveys and see real-time data you can share across the organization. Plus, you’ll be able to turn data into insights with iQ, our predictive intelligence engine that runs complicated analysis at the click of a button.

Related resources

Market intelligence 10 min read, marketing insights 11 min read, ethnographic research 11 min read, qualitative vs quantitative research 13 min read, qualitative research questions 11 min read, qualitative research design 12 min read, primary vs secondary research 14 min read, request demo.

Ready to learn more about Qualtrics?

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Home / Online Bachelor’s Degree Programs / Online Bachelor of Science in Marketing Degree / Marketing Careers for Bachelor’s in Marketing Graduates / How to Become a Market Research Analyst: Steps and Skills

How to Become a Market Research Analyst How to Become a Market Research Analyst How to Become a Market Research Analyst

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An increasing number of companies across varied industries rely on market research and statistical data to make informed decisions and carry out effective plans. This has made the market research analyst role indispensable in many organizations.

Students who are interested in entering the profession should know that educational investment is crucial. In addition to earning the right degree to become a market research analyst, they also need to develop the right set of skills and gain sufficient working experience.

What Does a Market Research Analyst Do?

Market research analysts help companies understand target markets. They do this through in-depth studies of market trends, market conditions, consumer buying behaviors, and other related metrics. Having a comprehensive understanding of these areas allows companies to devise the right products and identify which consumers are likely to purchase those products at certain prices. Market research analysts may accomplish this through questionnaires, interviews, and market analysis, among other strategies. These professionals are also skilled in researching and analyzing competitors.

Market Research Analyst Degree Path

Market research analysts are vital to helping a business target the right consumers and optimize growth strategies. Earning a degree in marketing, business analytics, or a related field can help individuals on their path toward becoming a market research analyst. Gaining professional experience and honing the skills that are considered fundamental for the role are also important.

Collectively, these steps can equip individuals with a foundation in the necessary skills and knowledge to be successful in the career. Just as importantly, they can help individuals understand how best to apply what they’ve learned to an individual company’s goals.

Market Research Analyst Education Requirements

Typically, the market research analyst role requires a minimum of a bachelor’s degree. There are a number of relevant undergraduate degrees, with the most useful offering a deeper understanding of core concepts related to market research analysis, including consumer behavior, target audience identification, and strategic planning.

Those who are interested in an advanced career in market research analysis should consider pursuing a master’s degree. This isn’t a requirement to enter the field, but some employers may prefer candidates with an advanced degree, especially for senior and managerial roles.

How to Become a Market Research Analyst

There are essential steps to becoming a market research analyst, including obtaining the right bachelor’s degree and considering a master’s degree for possible higher-level positions. Market research analysts also need several years of work experience to become certified as professional market researchers.

Step 1: Earn a Bachelor’s Degree

Students can begin their paths by earning a bachelor’s in fields such as marketing , business administration , or psychology . Each of these degrees, in different ways, provides valuable insights, enabling future market research analysts to assess consumer buying behaviors and preferences.

Specifically, a degree in marketing is valuable, since the coursework incorporates business theories and policies, marketing, and the study of consumer behaviors. A bachelor’s in business administration provides a foundation in financial accounting, economics, business law, and statistics. A degree in psychology, on the other hand, allows students to study human nature and behaviors from perspectives that incorporate fundamental concepts such as cognition, multiculturalism, critical thinking, and development through the lifespan.

Step 2: Build On-the-Job Experience

Advancing to the role of market research analyst usually requires at least a few years of industry experience, working in a role such as marketing assistant or account representative. This background helps gain access to greater job opportunities — such as becoming a market research analyst — as well as assists in qualifying for particular certifications. Market research analysts usually work full time, although certain job demands, such as time-sensitive marketing campaigns, may require them to work additional hours.

Step 3: Earn a Master’s Degree (Optional)

To qualify for higher-level positions, market research analysts should consider pursuing a master’s degree. There are degrees that focus specifically on market research analysis related fields, such as marketing, market research, or data analytics; however, professionals may also choose to earn a Master of Business Administration (MBA) .

In addition to opening greater career opportunities, a master’s degree can also serve as a valuable tool in obtaining the Insights Professional Certification, or IPC. This designation is administered by the Insights Association. To qualify, applicants need to take and pass a test and possess at least three years of work experience. Certified researchers who plan to renew their credentials, which is required every two years, must complete 20 hours of continuing education.

What Skills Does a Market Research Analyst Need?

In addition to building job experience and obtaining the right education, market research analysts need specific soft skills to succeed in the field.

The ability to analyze huge amounts of data is a must, considering that research and information analysis are at the heart of the job. In terms of choosing the right marketing strategies for any given company, critical-thinking abilities also come into play.

Finally, market research analysts need exceptional communication skills. Those interested in becoming market research analysts need to develop oral and written communication skills, as the role typically involves frequent presentations and interactions with clients, team members, consumer audiences, and other stakeholders.

Market Research Analyst Salaries and Job Outlook

According to the BLS, the median salary for a market research analyst in 2020 was $65,810. Several factors contribute to precise salary levels, such as overall professional experience and the position’s location.

In addition, the BLS projects 18% growth for this job between 2019 and 2029. This rate is significantly higher than the 4% average employment growth for all other occupations over the same 10-year period. By 2029, the BLS estimates that as many as 130,300 additional market research analyst jobs will be created.

Several factors contribute to this impressive growth in market research analyst jobs. Companies are relying to a greater degree on data and research to effectively target consumers. The ability to reach the right customers, due to more effective marketing and advertising strategies, leads to an increase in business profits.

The BLS further reports that job applicants with strong backgrounds in statistics and data analysis, as well as those with a master’s degree in marketing or business administration, are likely to have better employment opportunities.

Start Your Journey to Becoming a Market Research Analyst Today

If you have a passion for understanding marketing research, statistical data, and human psychology, a career as a market research analyst might be an excellent choice.

There is no better time than now to invest in your future. Earning a degree in a field such as marketing, statistics, analytics, psychology, or business administration can be a step in the right direction to becoming a market research analyst.

Maryville University offers online bachelor’s and master’s degrees in a range of fields including marketing , psychology , and business administration . These rigorous academic degree programs are designed to fit into students’ busy lifestyles, which may include family obligations and full-time jobs.

Be brave. Take the first step today toward an exciting career as a market research analyst.

5 Market Research Resume Examples & Guide for 2024

Your market research resume must quickly highlight your analytical proficiency. Showcase your ability to transform raw data into actionable insights. Demonstrate your experience with various research methodologies and tools. Employers seek your past successes in delivering effective market strategies.

All resume examples in this guide

Traditional

Resume Guide

What our market research resume guide will teach you, how to write a market research resume, what should go in a market research analyst resume header, overlooking your market research analyst resume summary would be a mistake - here’s why, how to make an effective market research resume experience section, student or entry-level here are tips for your market research analyst resume, market research skills on your resume - best practices, should i put an education section in my resume, how to include certifications on your market research resume, what are the key tricks to write a perfect market research resume.

Your superpowers can compress dense reports into insightful bite-sized data.

Crafting your Market Research Analyst resume for this job should be no different!

Yet, another application comes and goes with no callbacks.

You thought you got it all in the bag - your statistical insights, data evaluation principles and implementation skills have no match.

But, what really happened is that the recruiter never got a chance to read through your resume.

They saw the same overused duty list with no actual numbers and results .

Our Market Research Analyst resume guide is a good place to redo an unsuccessful resume.

It will take you roughly 10 minutes to know what you’re missing out.

Which are the 6 specific resume sections for a Market Researcher resume.
9 Market researcher resume examples that will underline role-specific skills and traits that recruiters look for.
How to showcase your education, experience, certifications, and achievements relevant to the industry.
How to highlight your competence relevant to market research even if you don’t have related experience yet.
How to layout and optimize your resume sections so that recruiters can pick up the important things.

You’re a Market Research Analyst.

At the end of the day, how you handle, collect, crunch and interpret large data and numbers is what’s going to wow the recruiters.

So, don’t waste your chance to show those skills by using a premade template you found by doing a 5-second Google search.

If anything, it undermines your research proficiency.

Focus instead on bringing the maximum value in the following important Market Research resume sections .

these 6 market research analyst resume sections make the difference

Professional summary
Scope of experience (coupled with numbers and results)
Relevant skills
Certifications
Education section

What recruiters pay attention to in your market research resume

Experience in SWOT analysis
Communication and presentation skills
Knowledge in data collection methods
Ability to interpret data and translate them into actionable items.

Whoever is in charge of checking your resume, they will have to go through your header.

That’s why it's important to get it done right.

To fully leverage on the power of a concise resume header , you mustn’t omit the following information below under any circumstances from your Market Research resume.

Your location (City + State/Country is enough)
Your current job profile
Contact data (professional email & a phone number)
Related links (personal website/LinkedIn profile)

Below you will see two examples of resume headers - one of them taking the upper hand on the other.

2 Market Research Resume Header Samples

You see, just by including a LinkedIn profile and at least one more contact entry, this candidate takes the lead over who gets the job.

Don’t miss your chance by dropping off relevant links like your LinkedIn profile or portfolio.

Take a pause.

Go back to the job description, and read it through.

You’ll soon start seeing a pattern:

Collecting data on consumers and competitors.
Consolidate information and turn them into actionable items, reports, and presentations.
Analysis of statistical data using traditional and modern methods.
Interpretation of data and making recommendations.
Remaining fully on-loop with current market trends to implement the most relevant and effective practices.
Thorough understanding of SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats analysis)
Evaluate methodology and data to ensure accuracy of releases.

Now, don’t make the mistake by going all blindly and write the first thing that comes to mind in your resume.

2 market research resume summary examples

This summary attempts to make a statement but falls flat at the end. It won’t impress the recruitment manager because:

It didn’t feature any of the specific skills that the candidate possess.
Claim is not backed by simple data.
Generic description that doesn’t resonate the candidate’s actual competence.

Frankly, it doesn’t look that the candidate made any effort to understand the job description.

Let’s do it right.

Summary statements should create a lasting impact with minimal word count.

The best way to do that is by focusing on the professional milestones you’ve achieved.

Recruiters can, at a certain extent, estimate your competence without having to go through your entire resume.

Market Research is a job that deals with numbers. In this industry, real numbers will make a great impact.

Top market research analysts don’t strictly come with marketing-only background.

If you performed quantitative expertise in statistical data analysis in a related field, you may very well be ahead of other candidates.

Thus, candidates in the following occupation would prove to be strong prospects for the jobs.

Mathematicians and statisticians
Public research analysts
Survey researchers
Cost estimators
Advertising, promotions, and marketing managers

The question is, what goes in your experience bullet points? Two words: numbers and results.

Include figures and estimates that could measure the amount of success you’ve had.

Let’s get you started with a few cases:

Did you gather consumer data from 5 different markets and presented 100+ report pages and briefs to C-level?
Have you identified a pattern in consumer behavior that saved your company $100K a year?
Did you identified potential new markets for your company, leading to an MRR increase of 15%?

When it comes to a job that entails in-depth analysis and mental gymnastics like Market Research Analyst, numbers can quantify your competence.

2 market research analyst resume experience examples.

• Conducted primary market research through in-person interviews
• Designed and organized a CRM training curriculum for the management team and the employees
• Conducted in-depth analyses of competitors
• Made changes to existing Input module

Yes, we agree with you.

It looks comprehensive and provides a thorough breakdown of the candidate’s responsibilities.

But, does it make an impact? We beg to differ.

If anything, it ends up sounding like the rest of the candidates vying for the position.

• Conducted primary market research through in-person interviews with over 50 wholesale and 20 retail stores
• Increased customer satisfaction from 80% to 95%; designed and organized a CRM training curriculum for the management team and 20 customer service employees by conceptualizing and renovating existing CRM program
• Conducted in-depth analyses of competitors and +20 end-markets
• Made changes to existing Input module which saved close to 2 days of manual work

Real numbers can quantify the candidate’s expertise and competence in the role.

In Market Research, numbers count - your resume should show that too!

Are you fresh out of college?

Or do you want to kickstart a career in Market Research, for a change?

Here’s what you should keep in mind:

Identify the must-have skills and experience for the Market Research job you’re eyeing. Is it designed for someone with experience in survey designs? Data analysis? Data collection method? Interpretation and intervention?
You may not have held the exact Market Research Analyst position, but chances are, you might have performed relevant tasks in the past. Occupations in the field of Statistics, Marketing, Economics, etc may have similar responsibilities that demonstrate those.
Find the right experience in your previous work and highlight it in your resume. Break it down precisely in the same language as the Market Research Analyst job description used.

If you’re making an entry-level resume, your job experience may not hold up on its own. Your skills section will be equally as important.

Ultimately, your skills section should match the exact requirement of the job, as stated in the job description.

Market Research utilizes plenty of tools under its sleeves, due to the fact that the job deals with a lot of data.

For jobs like Market Research, relevant skills come in two categories: the technical skills and soft skills.

Mixing both technical and soft skills in a single section will make it harder to read for recruiters.

Showing your tech skills on the resume properly

This is a very straightforward layout that features a candidate’s Market Research technical skills, and it should be for one good reason - it’s easy to scan.

Other than showing how equipped you are for the job, including job specific technical skills may get you past the automated gatekeeper of recruiters (ATS for short) .

Here's a list of 15 important tech skills for Market Research analyst resumes

Simplymeasured
SurveyMonkey
SPSS - by IBM
Omnia Pricewatch
MySurveyLab

How to build your soft skills resume section

Soft skills isn’t just about being able to “work under pressure” or being a “team player.”

Those generic soft skills may work for the average 9-5 jobs, but market research isn’t just any kind of job.

Here, recruiters may not take you seriously unless you embed some practical examples you’ve used those skills to complete a task.

9 market research analyst soft skills

Critical thinking
Attention to detail
Methodical approach to work
Presentation
Team management
Collaboration
Cultural trends

Market Research Analyst job need at least a bachelor’s degree. Add an education section to your resume and compliment it with some coursework , volunteering or any related projects you have been a part of, while studying.

There is no specific degree to be qualified for this profession, but candidates with the following degrees find success in this field easier:

Computer Science
Social Sciences
Communications

High caliber research positions will require a master's degree in the above field. Proven expertise in math and analytical skills are also essential.

If you have an unrelated degree, you can simply mention it but you don’t necessarily have to provide details.

Having a certificate in such cases, will matter more.

Most of the time a certification is voluntary, and many professionals find their way to this field with degree not directly related to market research.

However, if you want to have a solid proof of your professional competency in this field, pursuing one will be extremely beneficial for your credentials.

Most often, recruiters know the relevance, value, and reputation of these certifications to market research, so you don’t have to provide too many details.

However, make sure to include the name, the issuing institution, as well as the year you took it.

Top 5 market research analyst resume certifications

Professional Researcher Certification (PRC)
Certified Research Analyst (CRA)
Certified Research Expert (CRE) - for market researchers with 1 year experience.
Certified Research Professional (CRP)- for market researchers holding leadership and management roles, with minimum 3 years experience.
Graduate Certificate in Marketing Analytics and Market Research
Post Graduate Certificate Program in Market Research And Data Analytics
Certificate in Market and Social Research Practice

To wrap it up, these are the main points to remember when writing a market research resume:

When writing a summary, focus on the professional milestones you’ve achieved and the main expertise and methodologies that propelled you to reach it.
Numbers can speak volumes about your competence - write them down!
Your skills should match the exact requirement of the job, as stated in the job description.
Generic soft skills are useless. Market research need individuals who are great thinkers - your soft skills should show that.
You don't need a degree in market research, but more lucrative market research jobs will need one or a certification.

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Written by Mary Kate Miller | June 1, 2021

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Market research is a cornerstone of all successful, strategic businesses. It can also be daunting for entrepreneurs looking to launch a startup or start a side hustle . What is market research, anyway? And how do you…do it?

We’ll walk you through absolutely everything you need to know about the market research process so that by the end of this guide, you’ll be an expert in market research too. And what’s more important: you’ll have actionable steps you can take to start collecting your own market research.

What Is Market Research?

Market research is the organized process of gathering information about your target customers and market. Market research can help you better understand customer behavior and competitor strengths and weaknesses, as well as provide insight for the best strategies in launching new businesses and products. There are different ways to approach market research, including primary and secondary research and qualitative and quantitative research. The strongest approaches will include a combination of all four.

“Virtually every business can benefit from conducting some market research,” says Niles Koenigsberg of Real FiG Advertising + Marketing . “Market research can help you piece together your [business’s] strengths and weaknesses, along with your prospective opportunities, so that you can understand where your unique differentiators may lie.” Well-honed market research will help your brand stand out from the competition and help you see what you need to do to lead the market. It can also do so much more.

The Purposes of Market Research

Why do market research? It can help you…

Pinpoint your target market, create buyer personas, and develop a more holistic understanding of your customer base and market.
Understand current market conditions to evaluate risks and anticipate how your product or service will perform.
Validate a concept prior to launch.
Identify gaps in the market that your competitors have created or overlooked.
Solve problems that have been left unresolved by the existing product/brand offerings.
Identify opportunities and solutions for new products or services.
Develop killer marketing strategies .

What Are the Benefits of Market Research?

Strong market research can help your business in many ways. It can…

Strengthen your market position.
Help you identify your strengths and weaknesses.
Help you identify your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses.
Minimize risk.
Center your customers’ experience from the get-go.
Help you create a dynamic strategy based on market conditions and customer needs/demands.

What Are the Basic Methods of Market Research?

The basic methods of market research include surveys, personal interviews, customer observation, and the review of secondary research. In addition to these basic methods, a forward-thinking market research approach incorporates data from the digital landscape like social media analysis, SEO research, gathering feedback via forums, and more. Throughout this guide, we will cover each of the methods commonly used in market research to give you a comprehensive overview.

Primary vs. Secondary Market Research

Primary and secondary are the two main types of market research you can do. The latter relies on research conducted by others. Primary research, on the other hand, refers to the fact-finding efforts you conduct on your own.

This approach is limited, however. It’s likely that the research objectives of these secondary data points differ from your own, and it can be difficult to confirm the veracity of their findings.

Primary Market Research

Primary research is more labor intensive, but it generally yields data that is exponentially more actionable. It can be conducted through interviews, surveys, online research, and your own data collection. Every new business should engage in primary market research prior to launch. It will help you validate that your idea has traction, and it will give you the information you need to help minimize financial risk.

You can hire an agency to conduct this research on your behalf. This brings the benefit of expertise, as you’ll likely work with a market research analyst. The downside is that hiring an agency can be expensive—too expensive for many burgeoning entrepreneurs. That brings us to the second approach. You can also do the market research yourself, which substantially reduces the financial burden of starting a new business .

Secondary Market Research

Secondary research includes resources like government databases and industry-specific data and publications. It can be beneficial to start your market research with secondary sources because it’s widely available and often free-to-access. This information will help you gain a broad overview of the market conditions for your new business.

Identify Your Goals and Your Audience

Before you begin conducting interviews or sending out surveys, you need to set your market research goals. At the end of your market research process, you want to have a clear idea of who your target market is—including demographic information like age, gender, and where they live—but you also want to start with a rough idea of who your audience might be and what you’re trying to achieve with market research.

You can pinpoint your objectives by asking yourself a series of guiding questions:

What are you hoping to discover through your research?
Who are you hoping to serve better because of your findings?
What do you think your market is?
Who are your competitors?
Are you testing the reception of a new product category or do you want to see if your product or service solves the problem left by a current gap in the market?
Are you just…testing the waters to get a sense of how people would react to a new brand?

Once you’ve narrowed down the “what” of your market research goals, you’re ready to move onto how you can best achieve them. Think of it like algebra. Many math problems start with “solve for x.” Once you know what you’re looking for, you can get to work trying to find it. It’s a heck of a lot easier to solve a problem when you know you’re looking for “x” than if you were to say “I’m gonna throw some numbers out there and see if I find a variable.”

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How to Do Market Research

This guide outlines every component of a comprehensive market research effort. Take into consideration the goals you have established for your market research, as they will influence which of these elements you’ll want to include in your market research strategy.

Secondary Data

Secondary data allows you to utilize pre-existing data to garner a sense of market conditions and opportunities. You can rely on published market studies, white papers, and public competitive information to start your market research journey.

Secondary data, while useful, is limited and cannot substitute your own primary data. It’s best used for quantitative data that can provide background to your more specific inquiries.

Find Your Customers Online

Once you’ve identified your target market, you can use online gathering spaces and forums to gain insights and give yourself a competitive advantage. Rebecca McCusker of The Creative Content Shop recommends internet recon as a vital tool for gaining a sense of customer needs and sentiment. “Read their posts and comments on forums, YouTube video comments, Facebook group [comments], and even Amazon/Goodreads book comments to get in their heads and see what people are saying.”

If you’re interested in engaging with your target demographic online, there are some general rules you should follow. First, secure the consent of any group moderators to ensure that you are acting within the group guidelines. Failure to do so could result in your eviction from the group.

Not all comments have the same research value. “Focus on the comments and posts with the most comments and highest engagement,” says McCusker. These high-engagement posts can give you a sense of what is already connecting and gaining traction within the group.

Social media can also be a great avenue for finding interview subjects. “LinkedIn is very useful if your [target customer] has a very specific job or works in a very specific industry or sector. It’s amazing the amount of people that will be willing to help,” explains Miguel González, a marketing executive at Dealers League . “My advice here is BE BRAVE, go to LinkedIn, or even to people you know and ask them, do quick interviews and ask real people that belong to that market and segment and get your buyer persona information first hand.”

Market research interviews can provide direct feedback on your brand, product, or service and give you a better understanding of consumer pain points and interests.

When organizing your market research interviews, you want to pay special attention to the sample group you’re selecting, as it will directly impact the information you receive. According to Tanya Zhang, the co-founder of Nimble Made , you want to first determine whether you want to choose a representative sample—for example, interviewing people who match each of the buyer persona/customer profiles you’ve developed—or a random sample.

“A sampling of your usual persona styles, for example, can validate details that you’ve already established about your product, while a random sampling may [help you] discover a new way people may use your product,” Zhang says.

Market Surveys

Market surveys solicit customer inclinations regarding your potential product or service through a series of open-ended questions. This direct outreach to your target audience can provide information on your customers’ preferences, attitudes, buying potential, and more.

Every expert we asked voiced unanimous support for market surveys as a powerful tool for market research. With the advent of various survey tools with accessible pricing—or free use—it’s never been easier to assemble, disseminate, and gather market surveys. While it should also be noted that surveys shouldn’t replace customer interviews , they can be used to supplement customer interviews to give you feedback from a broader audience.

Who to Include in Market Surveys

Current customers
Past customers
Your existing audience (such as social media/newsletter audiences)

Example Questions to Include in Market Surveys

While the exact questions will vary for each business, here are some common, helpful questions that you may want to consider for your market survey. Demographic Questions: the questions that help you understand, demographically, who your target customers are:

“What is your age?”
“Where do you live?”
“What is your gender identity?”
“What is your household income?”
“What is your household size?”
“What do you do for a living?”
“What is your highest level of education?”

Product-Based Questions: Whether you’re seeking feedback for an existing brand or an entirely new one, these questions will help you get a sense of how people feel about your business, product, or service:

“How well does/would our product/service meet your needs?”
“How does our product/service compare to similar products/services that you use?”
“How long have you been a customer?” or “What is the likelihood that you would be a customer of our brand?

Personal/Informative Questions: the deeper questions that help you understand how your audience thinks and what they care about.

“What are your biggest challenges?”
“What’s most important to you?”
“What do you do for fun (hobbies, interests, activities)?”
“Where do you seek new information when researching a new product?”
“How do you like to make purchases?”
“What is your preferred method for interacting with a brand?”

Survey Tools

Online survey tools make it easy to distribute surveys and collect responses. The best part is that there are many free tools available. If you’re making your own online survey, you may want to consider SurveyMonkey, Typeform, Google Forms, or Zoho Survey.

Competitive Analysis

A competitive analysis is a breakdown of how your business stacks up against the competition. There are many different ways to conduct this analysis. One of the most popular methods is a SWOT analysis, which stands for “strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.” This type of analysis is helpful because it gives you a more robust understanding of why a customer might choose a competitor over your business. Seeing how you stack up against the competition can give you the direction you need to carve out your place as a market leader.

Social Media Analysis

Social media has fundamentally changed the market research landscape, making it easier than ever to engage with a wide swath of consumers. Follow your current or potential competitors on social media to see what they’re posting and how their audience is engaging with it. Social media can also give you a lower cost opportunity for testing different messaging and brand positioning.

SEO Analysis and Opportunities

SEO analysis can help you identify the digital competition for getting the word out about your brand, product, or service. You won’t want to overlook this valuable information. Search listening tools offer a novel approach to understanding the market and generating the content strategy that will drive business. Tools like Google Trends and Awario can streamline this process.

Ready to Kick Your Business Into High Gear?

Now that you’ve completed the guide to market research you know you’re ready to put on your researcher hat to give your business the best start. Still not sure how actually… launch the thing? Our free mini-course can run you through the essentials for starting your side hustle .

About Mary Kate Miller

Mary Kate Miller writes about small business, real estate, and finance. In addition to writing for Foundr, her work has been published by The Washington Post, Teen Vogue, Bustle, and more. She lives in Chicago.

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Market researcher

Market researchers collect and analyse data and information to help their clients make informed political, social and economic decisions

As a market researcher, you'll specialise in collecting, analysing and presenting either quantitative or qualitative research.

Most market researchers are employed by marketing agencies, where work is carried out on numerous projects for different companies and industries.

Sometimes market researchers are employed directly by a company (known as client-side), where they collect information on customer opinions, investment and marketing trends.

Types of market research

You'll specialise in either:

Quantitative research - which involves working with statistics and percentages and can deliver quick results.
Qualitative research - where you'll analyse opinions and can provide the reasons behind certain percentages. This is a longer process and can sometimes take years to complete.

Responsibilities

There can be some variation in responsibilities depending on whether you work for an agency or client-side, however, you’ll generally need to:

meet and liaise with clients to negotiate and agree research projects
prepare briefs and commission research
formulate plans or proposals to present to your client or senior management
write and manage the distribution of surveys and questionnaires
brief interviewers and researchers
liaise with and manage survey staff
moderate focus groups
undertake ethnographic research (observing people in their homes and other environments)
conduct qualitative or quantitative surveys, which may involve field, interview or focus group assessments
use statistical software to manage and organise information
monitor the progress of research projects
analyse and interpret data to identify patterns and solutions, including surveys and focus group transcripts
write detailed reports and present results
advise clients or senior management on how to best use research findings
manage budgets.
Starting salaries for market researchers are in the region of £20,000 to £25,000. With experience this can rise to £25,000 to £35,000.
At a senior level, once you've gained significant experience, you can expect to earn between £40,000 and £70,000+.

These figures do not include earnings that can be achieved from freelance work or self-employment.

Some larger firms may offer additional benefits, such as a company car, profit-sharing scheme, medical insurance, gym membership and bonuses.

Paid overtime is rare, but some organisations will offer time off in lieu.

Salary figures are intended as a guide only.

Working hours

Working hours for in-house and quantitative researchers are generally 9am to 5pm, with occasional evening or weekend work required to meet project deadlines. It's common for qualitative researchers to have to work evenings and weekends so that they have a better chance of contact with their respondents.

Career breaks and secondments may be possible if you're working for larger organisations, particularly if your role is client-side.

What to expect

You may be desk-based but some market researchers do travel nationally and occasionally internationally to visit client organisations and to complete their research.
Self-employment or freelance work is sometimes possible with significant experience. For self-employment, this usually means having acquired around ten years' experience and a good network of contacts.
Short-term contracts are available via recruitment agencies, although these are generally for more senior market research posts.
Most opportunities with market research firms are in London and the South East of England but client-side posts are generally available nationwide.
This can be a fast-paced, high-pressure role due to the tight deadlines, but it's also challenging, varied and rewarding.
Competition for jobs is strong. Speculative approaches can be more successful than relying on advertised vacancies. Consider applying for market research assistant posts first.

Qualifications

Most employers expect candidates to have a degree and look for skills in communication and analysis. If you want to get into quantitative research, the following subjects are useful:

business or management
mathematics
statistics.

For qualitative research it is helpful to have a degree in a subject such as:

anthropology
social sciences

Degrees in marketing, English and languages are also useful but a variety of degrees are often accepted by employers.

For specialist industrial market research posts, a degree in a specific subject linked to the industry, such as engineering or science, may be useful. For some posts, an understanding and knowledge of specialist statistical software may give candidates an edge.

A postgraduate qualification is not usually needed, although for some types of roles a Masters or diploma in a statistics-related subject may improve your chances of finding employment, particularly if your first degree isn't statistical.

You'll need to show:

interpersonal skills, with strong written and oral communication skills
good analytical and numerical skills
accuracy and attention to detail
the ability to use initiative
excellent organisational skills
business awareness
creativity and problem-solving skills
teamwork and negotiation skills
flexibility and drive
IT literacy
an interest in psychology and behaviour.

Work experience

Pre-entry experience in areas such as research, statistical data analysis and interview techniques will be helpful.

You can get relevant work experience through work placements, shadowing or volunteering and a range of market research agencies offer structured placement opportunities.

For details see Market Research Society (MRS) - Work Placement and Intern Opportunities .

Find out more about the different kinds of work experience and internships that are available.

Most positions are in market research agencies or consultancies. These specialist agencies manage and oversee research projects commissioned by a range of organisations, including businesses, advertising and PR agencies, local and central government and charities.

Many of the marketing research agencies are located in and around London and in the South East of England. Agencies range in size from two to several hundred employees, offering specialist or general consultancy.

Opportunities also exist client-side, where market researchers work within industrial and commercial organisations, such as manufacturing, pharmaceutical and retail companies, as well as in advertising agencies and charities. Roles in these settings may involve coordinating and contracting out the research on behalf of the company or assisting in the development of marketing strategies.

Research institutions and government departments also employ market researchers. For more information on working for local authorities or government departments, see government social research officer .

You can get details of market research agencies and consultants, as well as background information on the different sectors from:

The AQR Directory
Research Buyers Guide

Look for job vacancies at:

Marketing Week
Research Job Finder
Social Research Association (SRA)

Some recruitment agencies specialise in market research vacancies, such as Hasson Associates and Pollen Recruitment . Vacancies for graduates may be advertised as research assistants or as graduate trainees.

Professional development

Once in post, most training is provided informally, on the job, with support from more experienced colleagues. Some larger agencies run graduate training schemes, which typically last two years. There are also a variety of external courses available, specifically designed for market research professionals.

The MRS runs training courses and offers qualifications at different levels. While you're in the first two years of your market research career you can take the MRS Advanced Certificate in Market and Social Research Practice. Some large companies may incorporate this qualification into their graduate training programmes.

For more experienced market researchers who are progressing to senior roles, there is the MRS Diploma in Market and Social Research Practice. To take this you need to have between one to three years' experience in a relevant role depending on whether you already hold the MRS Advanced Certificate or another professional qualification or degree. The MRS also offers accredited Masters degrees at Cranfield School of Management and Newcastle University Business School.

Many of the qualifications offered by the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) include a market research component. There is also a range of relevant postgraduate courses available in statistics, marketing or social research.

The Social Research Associationa (SRA) runs a range of courses on topics such as survey design and quantitative data analysis.

Continuing professional development (CPD) is important and can be carried out in many ways. The MRS offers training courses covering a range of topics, as well as webinars and online training in questionnaire design and business skills. It offers a range of events and networking opportunities, some specifically designed for new and young researchers through the MRS & more - young researchers network .

Career prospects

Generally, career progression in market research can be relatively rapid, with many market researchers being given the opportunity to advance to a more senior post within two or three years of entry. Promotion is usually based on merit, professional qualifications gained, experience and specialism.

You'll often progress to research executive, before moving onto senior researcher and finally advancing to the role of account director.

Responsibility for client contact, presentations, and project and team management increases with seniority, often with a corresponding decrease in the level of field work undertaken.

It's recommended that you gain a range of experience before specialising, to enhance your career development and/or job mobility later in your career.

The rapid growth of international business and developments in information technology has created worldwide opportunities in this field. With a good level of experience in your specialist area, you can progress to working as a research practitioner, either independently or in a partnership.

You may also want to consider setting up your own consultancy or working as a freelance, but this will only be possible once you've built up substantial experience and have a good contacts list.

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4 Market Researcher Resume Examples - Here's What Works In 2024

Market research is a field where researchers help companies produce and deliver the products that consumers want at the price they want. this saves companies an insurmountable amount of money and resources and creates a consumer-motivated market. this guide will explore 4 market research titles, provide resume samples for each one, and give some tips to help you enhance your resume and snag an interview..

Hiring Manager for Market Researcher Roles

Market researchers seek to answer one central question; what products do consumers want and what are they willing to pay for them? To answer this question they gather and analyze data on markets, competitors, and consumers. They are then able to forecast consumer and sales trends and measure the effectiveness of a company’s marketing strategy. To thrive in this field you need to have excellent analytical and communication skills. An educational background in market research, statistics, or a similar field is also strongly preferred.

This booming industry is set for the employment of market researchers to grow by 22% between 2020 to 2023. This is significantly above the average for all occupations. To win one of these roles, you need a resume that stands out from the crowd and wows recruiters. This guide will help you elevate your resume using resume samples and recruiter-approved tips.

Market Researcher Resume Templates

Jump to a template:

Market Research Analyst
Insights Analyst
Market Research Specialist / Market Researcher
Qualitative Research Assistant

Jump to a resource:

Keywords for Market Researcher Resumes

Market Researcher Resume Tips

Action Verbs to Use
Related Data & Analytics Resumes

Get advice on each section of your resume:

Template 1 of 4: Market Research Analyst Resume Example

Market research analysts help companies get a better idea of what their consumers want and how they and the markets behave. This helps companies produce the right products at the right time and the right price. Some of the tasks you may be assigned include, data gathering, analyzing and synthesizing data, and preparing reports. While this can be an entry-level position, recruiters will most likely require a bachelor’s degree in market research, business, or a similar field. Any experience as a market researcher will also be a huge plus. Take a look at this successful market research analyst’s resume.

A market research analyst’s resume sample that highlights the applicant’s analyst experience and industry-standard skill set.

We're just getting the template ready for you, just a second left.

Tips to help you write your Market Research Analyst resume in 2024

ensure your skills reflects current industry standards..

New technology and programs are being created every day and you need to ensure your skills section includes the latest industry-standard tools for data collection, data synthesizing, and forecasting.

Include any corporate analyst experience.

You may not have always been a market research analyst, but you may have been a business analyst like this applicant. Be sure to include that experience as well. The skills gained in those positions are easily transferable.

Skills you can include on your Market Research Analyst resume

Template 2 of 4: insights analyst resume example.

Insights analysts make the unknown, known. They take data, look for insights or takeaways from that data, and present it to the relevant stakeholders. In essence, their job is to focus on what the next steps are and what the best decisions a company can make are. You need to have excellent analytical and critical-thinking skills. Similarly, you need to have great communication skills to collect data and also present your reports to the decision-makers. Recruiters will expect you to have a bachelor’s degree in market research or a similar field and will expect you to have experience in the same. Here is a strong insights analyst resume sample to assist.

An insight analyst’s resume sample that highlights the applicant’s quantifiable success.

Tips to help you write your Insights Analyst resume in 2024

quantify your success..

Your insights should help companies save costs and be more efficient. Impress recruiters by including specific metrics of cost saving and increased efficiency. For example, this applicant increased efficiency by an impressive 72% at their previous job.

Use industry-standard keywords and terms.

Show recruiters your level of experience in the industry by using industry keywords throughout your resume. This applicant effectively uses terms like ‘standardize data’, ‘QA’, and ‘performance exposures’.

Skills you can include on your Insights Analyst resume

Template 3 of 4: market research specialist / market researcher resume example.

Market research specialists will look at the data collected by market research analysts and provide useful insights and recommendations to a company’s decision-makers. Your tasks will therefore include report writing, strategy development, and account handling. This position requires a lot more interaction with the client so excellent communication skills are essential. You may also find yourself working with one or more market research analysts, so you will also need to be an effective leader and team member. A bachelor’s degree in market research, business, or a similar field is the minimum expectation. Some companies will require further education like a master’s degree or specific certification. Here is a strong market research specialist resume sample.

A market research specialist’s resume sample that highlights the applicant’s career progression and communication proficiency.

Tips to help you write your Market Research Specialist / Market Researcher resume in 2024

show career progression through promotions..

Showing recruiters career progression in the market research industry, indicates your level of commitment to the profession, your wealth of knowledge in the field, and your excellent track record as an employee.

Highlight your language proficiencies.

As mentioned, you will be communicating with decision makers quite a bit, so being able to communicate in different languages is a huge advantage. This is especially true if you are applying to multi-national companies.

Skills you can include on your Market Research Specialist / Market Researcher resume

Template 4 of 4: qualitative research assistant resume example.

This is an entry-level position and is a great way for someone to enter the market research profession. As a qualitative research assistant, you will assist in the collection and analysis of data to provide useful insights to decision-makers. You may also assist in developing research procedures and methodology. You will obviously need to have excellent data collection and data analysis skills to thrive in this position. In terms of your educational background, a degree in market research, math, or a similar field would be highly desired by recruiters, as would research experience.

A qualitative research assistant’s resume sample that highlight’s the applicant’s college experience and extensive tools set.

Tips to help you write your Qualitative Research Assistant resume in 2024

include research experience from college..

You may not have a wealth of professional research experience, so feel free to include research experience from college, even if it’s not market research. Research skills are generally transferable.

Include industry-standard qualitative data analysis tools.

Show recruiters that you are experienced as a qualitative data analyst by including the industry standard tools in your skills list. Be sure to keep updating it as new tools are developed or as you become experienced with additional relevant tools.

Skills you can include on your Qualitative Research Assistant resume

As a hiring manager who has worked with top companies like Nielsen, Ipsos, and GfK, I have reviewed countless market researcher resumes. In this article, I will share insider tips on what makes a market researcher resume stand out and land interviews. These tips are based on real feedback from hiring managers in the industry.

Highlight your research skills and methodologies

Emphasize your experience with various research methodologies, such as:

Conducted focus groups and in-depth interviews to gather qualitative insights
Designed and analyzed surveys using tools like Qualtrics and SurveyMonkey
Performed data analysis using SQL, R, and Python to uncover trends and insights
Conducted A/B testing to optimize product features and messaging

Avoid simply listing the methodologies without context, like this:

Focus groups
Data analysis

Instead, provide specific examples of how you applied these methodologies to solve business problems and drive impact.

Bullet Point Samples for Market Researcher

Demonstrate your industry expertise

Showcase your knowledge of the industries and markets you have researched, such as:

Conducted market sizing and segmentation for the US pet food industry, identifying a $2B opportunity in the premium segment
Analyzed consumer trends and competitive landscape in the European mobile gaming market to inform product strategy
Developed expertise in the automotive industry, leading research projects for clients like Ford and Toyota

Avoid simply listing industries without demonstrating your depth of knowledge, like this:

Consumer goods

Instead, provide specific examples of how you leveraged your industry expertise to deliver valuable insights and recommendations to clients or stakeholders.

Quantify your impact with metrics

Use metrics to quantify the impact of your research on business outcomes, such as:

Conducted pricing research that led to a 15% increase in revenue for a key product line
Identified a new customer segment that contributed to 20% year-over-year growth
Developed a market entry strategy that helped the client capture 25% market share within the first year

Avoid using vague or unsubstantiated claims, like this:

Helped increase sales
Improved customer satisfaction
Contributed to business growth

Instead, use specific metrics to demonstrate the tangible impact of your research on the business. This helps hiring managers understand the value you can bring to their organization.

Showcase your storytelling and presentation skills

Highlight your ability to communicate research findings effectively to different audiences, such as:

Developed compelling data visualizations and infographics to communicate complex insights to executive stakeholders
Presented research findings to cross-functional teams, including product, marketing, and sales, to drive alignment and action
Created engaging research reports and presentations that were widely shared and cited within the organization

Avoid simply stating that you have communication skills without providing evidence, like this:

Strong communication skills
Experienced in presenting to stakeholders

Instead, provide specific examples of how you used your storytelling and presentation skills to influence decision-making and drive impact within the organization.

Highlight your project management and collaboration skills

Emphasize your ability to lead cross-functional research projects and collaborate with diverse stakeholders, such as:

Led a global research project across 10 markets, coordinating with local research partners and stakeholders to deliver insights on time and within budget
Collaborated with product, design, and engineering teams to integrate research findings into product roadmaps and development cycles
Managed a team of 5 research analysts, providing mentorship and guidance to ensure high-quality deliverables

Avoid simply listing collaboration or teamwork as a skill without providing context, like this:

Collaboration skills
Cross-functional collaboration

Instead, provide specific examples of how you leveraged your project management and collaboration skills to drive research projects forward and deliver value to the organization.

Tailor your resume to the specific role and company

Customize your resume for each job application to demonstrate your fit for the specific role and company, such as:

Highlighting relevant industry experience and research methodologies that match the job requirements
Showcasing projects or achievements that align with the company's business objectives and values
Using keywords and terminology that resonate with the company's culture and research practices

Avoid using a generic, one-size-fits-all resume, like this:

Experienced market researcher with a proven track record of delivering insights across various industries. Skilled in a wide range of research methodologies and tools. Strong communicator and collaborator.

Instead, tailor your resume summary and bullet points to the specific role and company you are applying to. This shows the hiring manager that you have done your research and are genuinely interested in the opportunity.

Writing Your Market Researcher Resume: Section By Section

header, 1. include your full name and relevant credentials.

Your header should prominently feature your full name. If you have relevant credentials or certifications, such as 'MBA' or 'Certified Market Research Professional (CMRP)', include them after your name to highlight your expertise.

Here's an example of a well-formatted name and credentials in a header:

John Smith, MBA, CMRP

Avoid nicknames or shortened versions of your name, which can come across as unprofessional:

Johnny Smith

2. Provide key contact details

Under your name, include your phone number, professional email address, and location (city and state). This allows hiring managers to easily contact you. For example:

John Smith, CMRP [email protected] | 555-123-4567 | Seattle, WA

Avoid providing personal details or full mailing addresses, which take up valuable space:

123 Main St, Apt 2B, Seattle, Washington, 98101
@johnnysmith (Twitter handle)

3. Tailor your header to the role

If you're applying for a specialized market researcher position, such as 'Consumer Insights Analyst' or 'Market Research Consultant', consider incorporating that specific job title under your name. This immediately conveys to employers that you're a match for the role they're filling.

Example of a tailored header for a specific market research role:

John Smith Consumer Insights Analyst [email protected] | 555-123-4567 | Seattle, WA

However, avoid listing multiple job titles or stuffing your header with keywords, which can appear unfocused:

John Smith Market Researcher | Data Analyst | Consumer Insights | Market Segmentation [email protected] | 555-123-4567 | Seattle, WA

Summary

A resume summary for a Market Researcher position is optional, but it can be a valuable addition if you want to provide context or highlight key qualifications that may not be immediately apparent from the rest of your resume. It's especially useful if you're changing careers or have a lot of experience to summarize. However, avoid using an objective statement, as it's outdated and doesn't add value to your resume.

When crafting your summary, focus on your most relevant skills, experiences, and achievements that align with the Market Researcher role. Keep it concise, typically no more than a paragraph, and avoid repeating information that's already covered in other sections of your resume.

How to write a resume summary if you are applying for a Market Researcher resume

To learn how to write an effective resume summary for your Market Researcher resume, or figure out if you need one, please read Market Researcher Resume Summary Examples , or Market Researcher Resume Objective Examples .

1. Highlight your research and analytical skills

As a Market Researcher, your ability to conduct research and analyze data is crucial. Use your summary to showcase your expertise in these areas, such as:

Experienced in designing and executing market research studies using various methodologies, including surveys, focus groups, and interviews
Skilled in analyzing complex data sets and translating findings into actionable insights for stakeholders

Avoid making vague claims or using generic buzzwords. Instead of saying:

Results-driven professional with a proven track record of success

Be specific about your accomplishments:

Conducted market research that led to a 15% increase in product sales and a 20% reduction in customer churn

2. Tailor your summary to the specific role

While it's essential to highlight your overall market research experience, tailoring your summary to the specific role you're applying for can make it more impactful. Review the job description carefully and identify the key skills and qualifications the employer is looking for.

For example, if the job description emphasizes experience with a particular research methodology or industry, make sure to mention that in your summary:

Market Researcher with 5+ years of experience conducting qualitative and quantitative research in the consumer goods industry. Skilled in designing and executing conjoint analysis studies to optimize product features and pricing. Collaborated with cross-functional teams to develop data-driven strategies that increased market share by 10%.

Avoid using a generic summary that could apply to any Market Researcher role, as it may not capture the employer's attention:

Experienced Market Researcher with a background in conducting research and analyzing data. Skilled in communicating findings to stakeholders and working collaboratively with teams.

Experience

Your work experience section is the heart of your resume. It's where you showcase your professional accomplishments and skills to potential employers. As a market researcher, it's essential to highlight your ability to analyze data, identify trends, and provide actionable insights. Here are some tips to help you craft a compelling work experience section that will catch the eye of hiring managers.

1. Focus on relevant experience

When writing your work experience section, focus on the positions that are most relevant to the market researcher role you're applying for. This may include previous market research roles, data analysis positions, or jobs that required similar skills.

For example, instead of listing every task you performed in a previous role, focus on the responsibilities and achievements that showcase your market research abilities:

Conducted market research studies to identify customer preferences and buying habits, resulting in a 15% increase in sales
Analyzed survey data using SPSS and presented findings to senior management, informing product development decisions

2. Use industry-specific keywords

Incorporate industry-specific keywords throughout your work experience section to demonstrate your knowledge and expertise. This will also help your resume pass through applicant tracking systems (ATS) that many companies use to screen resumes.

Some examples of market research keywords include:

Market segmentation
Competitive analysis
Survey design
Data visualization

However, avoid keyword stuffing, which can make your resume appear spammy. Instead, use keywords naturally within the context of your achievements and responsibilities.

3. Quantify your accomplishments

Whenever possible, use numbers and metrics to quantify your achievements. This helps hiring managers understand the impact you made in your previous roles and how you can contribute to their organization.

For example, instead of saying:

Conducted market research to inform product development decisions

Try saying:

Led market research initiatives that informed the development of 3 new product lines, resulting in a 20% increase in revenue

Other examples of quantifiable achievements for market researchers include:

Increased survey response rates by 30% through targeted outreach campaigns
Identified $500K in cost savings opportunities through competitive analysis

4. Showcase your technical skills

Market research often requires proficiency in various tools and technologies. Showcase your technical skills in your work experience section to demonstrate your ability to perform the job.

Some examples of technical skills for market researchers include:

Survey software (e.g., Qualtrics, SurveyMonkey)
Statistical analysis tools (e.g., SPSS, R)
Data visualization software (e.g., Tableau, PowerBI)
CRM platforms (e.g., Salesforce, HubSpot)

When listing your technical skills, provide context for how you used them. For example:

Utilized Qualtrics to design and distribute surveys to 10,000+ customers, resulting in a 95% completion rate and valuable insights for product improvements

Education

The education section of your market researcher resume should be concise yet impactful. It's an opportunity to showcase your relevant academic background and any specialized training that qualifies you for the role. Here are some key tips to keep in mind when crafting this section:

1. Put education at the top if you're a recent grad

If you've graduated within the past few years and your education is your strongest selling point, place the education section above your work experience. This is especially relevant if you have limited professional experience in market research.

For example:

Education Bachelor of Science in Marketing, XYZ University, Graduated: May 2022 Relevant Coursework: Market Research, Consumer Behavior, Data Analytics, Statistics

2. Keep it brief if you're a seasoned professional

If you have several years of work experience, your education section should be concise. Include only the essential details like your degree, university, and graduation year (optional). Avoid listing coursework or GPA unless it's highly relevant to the market researcher role.

Here's an example of what not to include:

Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, ABC College, Graduated: 2010
Coursework: Intro to Psychology, Social Psychology, Research Methods
GPA: 3.7/4.0

Instead, keep it short and sweet:

Education B.A. in Psychology, ABC College

3. Include relevant certifications

If you have completed any certifications relevant to market research, include them in your education section. This can help you stand out from other candidates and demonstrate your commitment to professional development.

Some examples of relevant certifications for market researchers include:

Google Analytics Individual Qualification (GAIQ)
Market Research Professional (MRP) Certification
Certified Survey Expert (CSE)

Here's how you can incorporate a certification:

Education Master of Business Administration (MBA), XYZ University Google Analytics Individual Qualification (GAIQ), 2021

Action Verbs For Market Researcher Resumes

Strong action verbs help recruiters easily understand the tasks you have undertaken as a market researcher and the successes you have had with those tasks. They help you and your successes stand out from the crowd and can help you secure that job. For a marketing research position, using action verbs that emphasize how you successfully handle data collection, analysis, reporting, and forecasting, is essential.

Here is a list of useful action verbs to get you started.

Collaborated

For a full list of effective resume action verbs, visit Resume Action Verbs .

Action Verbs for Market Researcher Resumes

Skills for market researcher resumes.

Market research is a technical profession and as such, the skills section of your resume should be equally as technical. What recruiters will be keen to see is what data collection and analysis skills and tools you have, as well as what forecasting and projection tools and skills you use. Including industry standard tools and skills is also an effective way to bypass resume filters that may have been put in place by recruiters.

Here are some general hard skills expected in your profession. Use those that are relevant to you to bolster your skills section.

Market Research
Quantitative Research
Qualitative Research
Market Analysis
Competitive Intelligence
Competitive Analysis
Customer Insight
Segmentation
Marketing Strategy
Consumer Behavior
Primary Research
Survey Design
Focus Groups
Advertising Research
Product Management
Consumer Insight
Product Marketing
Qualitative & Quantitative Research Methodologies

How To Write Your Skills Section On a Market Researcher Resumes

You can include the above skills in a dedicated Skills section on your resume, or weave them in your experience. Here's how you might create your dedicated skills section:

Skills Word Cloud For Market Researcher Resumes

This word cloud highlights the important keywords that appear on Market Researcher job descriptions and resumes. The bigger the word, the more frequently it appears on job postings, and the more 'important' it is.

Top Market Researcher Skills and Keywords to Include On Your Resume

How to use these skills?

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Marketing careers bring three people together on a project.

Updated: 09/08/22

Published: 09/08/22

Marketing seems simple, but it gets more complex as you break it down. If you don't already know about marketing careers, scanning jobs online could convince you that this isn't your dream job.

But marketing is fun . Marketing a company is essentially grabbing a bullhorn and saying, "Hey! We love this company, and here’s why you should, too."

Marketing is also incredibly dynamic and diverse. It offers positions for people of all strengths. Whether you’re equipped with creative ability or analytical prowess, marketing’s got a spot for you.

In this article, we’ll break down what marketers do. We'll show you how you can get into marketing and the different marketing jobs that are out there. We'll give you what you need to map out your marketing career and pinpoint your goals. Let’s get started.

What You Need to Be a Marketer

The marketing job market, marketing careers, marketing jobs, how to get a marketing job, example marketing career path.

According to Merriam-Webster , marketing is "the process or technique of promoting, selling, and distributing a product or service." But the job involves much, much more than that.

The day-to-day activities of a marketer depend on what they’re marketing, whom they’re targeting, and what platforms they use to promote products or services. There are too many marketing roles and functions to provide a single definition applicable to everyone in this field.

Before we dive into the various positions you can find within a marketing department, let’s discuss tools and education necessary to become a marketer.

There’s not a single, definitive path to any job field. Marketing comes from people with all kinds of backgrounds — journalism, psychology, and more. I’ve mapped out a career path as it’s the most straightforward way to jump into a marketing job. Later in this article, I’ll dive into how to get a marketing job.

If you’re serious about a long-term marketing career primed for growth and variety, a bachelor’s degree is the way to go. Four-year programs teach you the skills and competencies needed to join and excel in the competitive, fast-paced landscape that is the marketing world. They can help with public speaking, creative problem-solving, logistics, sales, and analytics.

The following degree programs can lead to a career in marketing:

Communications
Public Relations

Nowadays, it doesn’t matter as much what you major in as it does where you go to school or what you get involved in. Organizations like the American Marketing Association , National Association of Sales Professionals , or Pi Sigma Epsilon (a co-ed marketing fraternity) can help you get connected outside the classroom and off-campus.

Some marketers choose to extend (or return to) their schooling by pursuing a Master of Business Administration (MBA) or graduate degree in marketing . Both programs offer in-depth studies of marketing, but they differ in education specifics and structure.

MBA programs focus on the humanity of business, such as people management, organizational behavior, and leadership. Graduate marketing programs study consumer behavior, changes in the domestic and international marketplace, and growing digital trends.

You can combine these programs, of course, but their cost and completion time can be an issue for most students.

While we can’t tell you if graduate school is the right choice for you, we can encourage you to research your options for career success. Here’s a great article from U.S. News to help you figure out if an MBA or master’s program is for you.

Internships and Co-ops

While a degree (or three) may not be in the cards for you, an internship or co-op most certainly should. There’s no better education than real-life experience, and internships allow you to learn on the go while you’re still learning in the classroom.

Marketing internships are valuable because they help you determine what kind of marketing you want to do. Do you like the creative side of marketing, or do you like working with numbers and analytics? Does promoting a single product excite you, or would you prefer to work on overall brand awareness?

Marketing departments have lots of moving parts, and internships and co-ops help you determine exactly which projects and promotions you’d like to join.

Lastly, internships are valuable currency in today’s job market. Think about it: Thousands of students graduate each year and enter the workforce. That’s not even considering how many workers are changing their minds and careers to pursue marketing jobs .

With some real-life experience under your belt, you automatically become a highly desirable candidate to employers. Some internships can lead to full-time jobs, too.

Many educational institutions offer internships through their business or communications departments, so if you’re still in college, start there. Universities worldwide hold valuable relationships with local businesses that will hire students while still in school.

If going through your college or university isn’t an option, sites like WayUp and Chegg Internships can help you find open positions. Idealist is an internship site that focuses on nonprofit roles, and Global Experiences helps you find international opportunities.

And, of course, you can always find open internships through LinkedIn , Glassdoor , and Indeed .

Skills and Aptitudes

Surgeons possess incredible patience and stability, psychologists are fantastic listeners, and chefs have excellent memory. Like any other professional role, great marketers tend to carry a particular set of skills. These can be skills you’re born with or skills you develop and fine-tune through schooling and real-life practice.

Either way, the following skills and aptitudes are typically required to excel in any marketing role:

Creativity. Whether you’re writing a business plan or a campaign brief, being able to creatively spell out your vision is a must in the marketing field. In today’s world, grabbing consumers’ attention isn’t easy. Marketers have to constantly think up new ways to attract their audience and entice them to make a purchase — great marketers are creative.
Problem-solving. Imagine the conundrum marketers faced when DVR came out and commercials became futile. What about the overwhelming switch to mobile versus desktop? These trends in the marketplace forever changed the way businesses sell, and marketers were on the front lines of those shifts, huddling and figuring out how to solve new problems that came their way. Great marketers are problem-solvers.
Passion for numbers. Even the most right-brained marketers have a passion for numbers and ROI. How else do companies know that their promotional efforts are working? Whether they’re tracking retweets, click-throughs, or video views, marketers live and breathe metrics. Great marketers are analytical so they can prove the value of their work.
Curiosity. The marketing landscape is ever-changing, and opportunities arise every day for businesses to promote their products in new and exciting ways. But marketers wouldn’t be able to seize these opportunities if they don’t continually ask, "What if?" Great marketers stay curious and are lifelong learners.

Now that you know what’s recommended (if not required) to thrive in a marketing role, let’s take a look at the job market for marketers. How many people are looking for marketing jobs, and what companies are looking for them? Is there room for growth and innovation?

According to Statista , marketing jobs are expected to grow 10% from 2020 to 2030 — a faster rate than average for all other jobs, and likely not stopping any time soon.

Marketing and promotional campaigns are essential to every company, regardless of industry, as organizations seek to grow and maintain their market share.

That’s why marketing jobs are available at all kinds of organizations — large firms, startups, small businesses, and nonprofits. Do some companies offer better marketing jobs than others? No, not really. But there are some companies that excel at different types of marketing and offer opportunities for different kinds of employees.

Marketing is also a great career if you’re looking for a remote job. 35% of full-time employees in the United States have the option to work remotely. Another 23% have the option to work remotely part-time. And according to LinkedIn , remote jobs in marketing increased by 177% in 2021.

Here are some places to start your research on companies for marketers, based on a variety of factors:

Top companies for marketing jobs (LinkedIn)
10 companies that are defining innovation in branding (Fast Company)
Top companies for remote marketing jobs (FlexJobs)

Today’s job market is thriving, and there’s more opportunity than ever to dip your toe into the proverbial marketing waters. But what are these specific opportunities, you ask? Below we’ll break down the various marketing jobs and marketing career paths available.

Digital Marketing
Content Marketing
Product Marketing
Brand Marketing
Event Marketing
Niche Marketing
Marketing Analysis

Marketing Strategy

Any given marketing department manages a variety of positions, projects, and goals. The difference between these roles can be minute or major — it all depends on what medium they’re working with, what they’re promoting, and who they’re promoting to.

1. Digital Marketing

Digital marketing refers to marketing through digital channels like search engines, websites, email, and mobile apps. In the last 30 years, the rise of the internet, smartphones, and big data has completely changed the way companies market and promote their products and services. In turn, these shifts create many new marketing careers.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) / Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

Search engine optimization refers to organically optimizing web content. This helps search engines index your content, which makes it easier for your audience to find.

Search engine marketing is paying for advertising space on said search engines. SEO, SEM, and their ever-changing trends have become such an influential part of online marketing that people are specializing in it — and companies are hiring for it, too.

Email Marketing

Email as a marketing medium may seem more traditional, but email's impact is still strong. Email marketing uses a single channel to reach current and potential customers through creatively-written emails and digital promotions.

Growth Marketing

Growth marketing (or hacking) is a relatively new term and refers to marketing that targets the entire funnel — not just the top few tiers. Growth marketing takes into account the fact that retention is a major factor of growth and so it prioritizes both customer success and customer acquisition.

2. Content Marketing

Content marketing, since it’s mainly executed online, could be considered a segment of digital marketing. But the career path has become so impactful that we believe it deserves its own section.

Content like blogs, ebooks, white papers, and guides are critical components of a solid inbound marketing strategy, and content marketers are the people who create them. Content marketing refers to marketing via long-form content, websites, blogs, and even audio and video content.

Marketing Copywriting

Copywriting is a foundational part of marketing and advertising. Content and copywriters create copy for:

Landing pages
Social media

They use language to encourage, educate, and inform. In the process, they entice customers to buy, stakeholders to engage, and leaders to support the business.

Graphic Design

Graphic design is a subset of content marketing that focuses more on the visual appeal of web and print content. Graphic designers typically work on:

Website design
Infographics
Images used in marketing or promotions

Content Creation

30% of social media marketers are investing more in short-form video in 2022, while 29% are trying it for the first time.

To keep up with this kind of trend, businesses are investing in content creation. Content creation focuses on digital content like video, podcasting, and other new media. This focus gives brands an opportunity to connect with customers where they spend the most time online. This strategy can speed up business growth.

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing leverages social platforms to promote a company and its products. Some specialize in one or two platforms, while others manage multi-channel promotion.

Social media marketing also helps brands connect and engage with audiences in new and authentic ways.

Community Management

Community management focuses on community-building for businesses. This role helps to connect customers, employees, and stakeholders.

Adding a community manager for engagement can help a brand:

Improve brand reputation
Share updates
Grow with customer needs in mind

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)

The main goal of content marketing is to use content to educate, interest, and convert readers into customers. But content can’t always do that on its own. That’s where conversion rate optimization comes into play.

3. Product Marketing

Product marketing is all about setting the tone for how, where, when, and why a company promotes its products and services. Product marketers are typically assigned to one product or product line. They act as chief advocate and strategist for that product.

4. Brand Marketing

In today’s economy, a company’s brand plays a major role in how consumers shop. According to a 2022 survey of U.S. consumers from Salsify , 46% of shoppers will pay more for a brand they trust. This consumer behavior has paved the way for roles in brand management and public relations.

5. Event Marketing

Company-run events are a popular way to interact with and entertain potential customers and clients. Event marketing brings together your community, delights your customers, and puts a friendly face to your brand name — especially for B2B marketers. For this reason, companies need event marketers.

6. Niche Marketing

As online shopping and social media expand the reach of big brands, it's become more important than ever to stand out. Niche marketing focuses promotional efforts on small defined segments.

Niche marketers use their personal knowledge to target the unique needs of a specific audience. Whether your focus is health and wellness or travel, your niche could be your path to a career in marketing.

7. Marketing Analysis

In the marketing world, numbers are king. No other factor has the power to shift campaigns, change budgets, hire and fire employees, and draw investors.

Marketing analysis is a unique role. While most companies hire internal analysts, third-party consultants and agencies also exist to help businesses interpret and apply data findings. Regardless of whom they work for, data scientists — specifically marketing analysts — read and interpret digital data to help businesses and marketing departments make better business decisions.

8. Marketing Strategy

While many careers in marketing focus on tactics, as you advance you may develop an interest in strategy. Marketing strategy involves creating long-term plans that connect business goals to customer needs. Strategists create the playbook for how you can find the right prospects and make them loyal customers for your brand and products.

Digital Marketing Manager
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) / Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Specialist
Email Marketer
Growth Marketer
Content Marketer
Marketing Copywriter
Graphic Designer
Content Creator
Social Media Marketer
Community Manager
Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) Specialist
Product Marketer
Brand Marketer
Event Marketer
Ecommerce Marketing Specialist
Marketing Analyst
Marketing Strategist

As you review these choices, it's important to note that different marketing positions can have the same or similar titles. Job titles are often less important than job descriptions in marketing. The same can be true about whether an open role is at the entry, mid, or leadership level.

So, when searching for marketing jobs, look at and assess each job description individually.

1. Digital Marketing Manager

Career path: digital marketing, responsibilities.

Digital marketing managers develop and support the online identity and sales for a brand. This is often a multi-dimensional role that could include:

Data analysis
Paid ad placement
Email marketing
Content marketing
Social media management

Responsibilities for this role might also include presentations, and developing and executing marketing campaigns.

To succeed in this role, you will need to be a flexible and strategic thinker. Skills in a range of marketing tactics, including copywriting, research, and design, are useful. It’s also important to have skills in building and maintaining professional relationships.

Digital marketing managers make $47,000 to $101,000 per year.

2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) / Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Specialist

SEO specialist responsibilities include:

Improving the ranking of a website on a search engine results page (SERP)
Conducting keyword research
Making technical SEO recommendations
Designing site architecture
Analyzing and applying metrics on website and keyword performance

SEM specialists use search engines like Google and Bing to increase website visits, conversions, and revenue through paid ads.

The skills and qualifications for both SEO and SEM specialists include experience interpreting and applying analytics. They also need to be able to manage a marketing budget and read and apply website and search analytics. Google Ads and Google Analytics experience and knowledge of search engine trends and news are also important skills.

SEO specialists make between $52,000 and $105,000. SEM specialists make between $64,000 and $176,000.

3. Email Marketer

The responsibilities of an email marketer include:

Creating emails that recipients not only open but also engage with
Increasing revenue and sales
Growing and segmenting email lists
Reading and analyzing data
Optimizing promotions and open rates

The skills and qualifications required of email marketers include proficiency in email marketing and tracking programs, excellent creative communication and design skills, HTML, and data analysis and interpretation.

Email marketers make between $43,000 and $70,000.

4. Growth Marketer

Growth marketers work with a variety of media and teams, including but not limited to SEO and SEM, social media, PR, and email.

Because of this, the responsibilities of growth marketers can range from A/B testing to conversion funnel optimization to content creation and user experience design.

The skills and qualifications required of growth marketers include innovative and creative mindsets, quantitative and qualitative problem-solving skills, knowledge of a variety of digital marketing systems, and experience interpreting and applying data.

Growth marketers make between $41,000 and $165,000.

5. Content Marketer

Career path: content marketing.

The responsibilities of a content marketer include:

Strategizing and executing content creation and delivery
Tracking metrics that influence content strategy
Managing a team of writers, designers, and strategists

The skills and qualifications required of a content marketer include strong writing and editing skills, proficiency with content creation and management tools, project management, and experience in online audience growth.

Content marketers make between $37,000 and $82,000.

6. Marketing Copywriter / Content Writer

A copywriter creates clear and useful written content for a business. Their writing encourages customers to purchase products and services. They might also:

Write instructional content
Develop blogs, website copy, and print ads
Draft emails
Develop video scripts
Research keywords
Proofread or edit written content

Marketing copywriters need to have strong writing skills. Many pursue a degree in marketing, writing, or advertising. Others come to marketing from other fields, including psychology, journalism, or literature.

Salaries for marketing copywriters usually range from $45,000 - $59,000 per year.

7. Graphic Designer

The responsibilities of a graphic designer include creating any visuals used in marketing materials or campaigns, both print and digital. Some graphic designers work on corporate identity and establish how a company will visually communicate its overall message and brand.

The skills and qualifications required of graphic designers include proficiency in graphic design programs like Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign, knowledge of design elements, excellent verbal and visual communication skills, and experience creating visual art for marketing purposes.

Graphic designers make between $35,000 and $66,000.

8. Content Creator

A content creator works individually or as part of a team to create

content for a range of media and channels.

Content creators include:

Social media influencers
Video content creators
Blog writers
Newsletter authors
Video game streamers

Successful content creators balance creative skills with the ability to research and analyze data and consumer habits. Depending on their target audience, a content creator might need skills in SEO, promotion, or production to thrive in this role.

While some content creators work independently as freelancers, others work full-time for brands. Independent content creators also need to develop entrepreneurial skills .

Content creators earn $17,500 to $83,500 per year.

9. Social Media Marketer

The responsibilities of social media marketers include:

Managing a company’s social presence
Monitoring online conversation
Organizing customer service through social media
Creating content for social channels
Staying up-to-date on social media trends and news

The skills and qualifications required of a social media marketer include excellent verbal and digital communication skills, a creative and innovative approach to digital marketing, proficiency in all social channels, and experience in public relations or public brand management.

Social media marketers make between $37,000 and $86,000.

10. Community Manager

Community manager responsibilities vary widely depending on the business goals. Usually, their ultimate goal is community-building. Many manage communications in online groups and communities, including social media, for a brand. Some also represent the brand at online and in-person events.

The ability to multitask and organize is essential for community managers. This is because this position requires communication on many platforms at a fast pace. Other valuable skills for this marketing role include:

Flexibility

This role offers support and clarity to audiences that include business leaders and new customers. This means that a top skill for this role is staying informed and positive as needs change.

Community managers make $52,000 to $64,000 per year.

11. Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) Specialist

CRO specialists focus on optimizing websites, user flows, and content offers to drive the most conversions — whether a conversion means making a sale, securing a lead, or getting a subscriber. The responsibilities of a CRO marketer include:

Auditing content to measure effectiveness and ROI
Influencing content creation to ensure impact
Measuring how visitors and readers interact with your content
Using data to optimize for improved performance

The skills and qualifications required of CRO specialists include experience auditing and creating digital content, ability to A/B test and measure content impact, and proficiency in online content platforms and analysis tools.

CRO specialists make between $30,000 and $96,000.

12. Product Marketer

Career path: product marketing.

The responsibilities of a product marketer include:

Determining overall messaging and positioning of the product
Mapping the buyer’s journey to purchase the product
Collaborating with the product creators, designers, and other marketers

The skills and qualifications required of product marketers include excellent verbal and written communication skills, collaborative working style, prior experience strategizing and analyzing marketing campaigns, and competitive intelligence skills.

Product marketers make between $64,000 and $134,000.

13. PR Manager

Career path: brand marketing.

The responsibilities of a public relations (PR) manager include creating and maintaining a company’s public image, working with other teams to ensure content and messaging are consistent, and contributing to campaigns to promote and boost the business.

The skills and qualifications required of a PR manager include excellent written and verbal communication skills, experience with brand and crisis management, proficiency with email and social media marketing, and ability to manage projects and people.

PR managers make between $48,000 and $104,000.

14. Brand Marketer

Brand marketers create a distinct identity for a brand. Instead of promoting a specific product or campaign, brand marketers focus on the overall brand. This includes making sure that any new products or marketing aligns with the brand. It may also involve creating and analyzing assets or campaigns.

Brand marketers often have extensive experience in marketing and may have advanced degrees, like an MBA.

Brand marketers make $62,000 to $136,000 per year.

15. Event Marketer

Career path: event marketing.

The responsibilities of an event marketer/manager include organizing and promoting events, creating messaging, designing and organizing marketing campaigns, connecting with audience members, and managing a team of marketers.

The skills and qualifications required of event marketers/managers include excellent digital and written communication skills, willingness to work under pressure and on deadlines, and high-level negotiation and organizational skills.

Event marketers make between $40,000 and $82,000.

16. Ecommerce Marketing Specialist

Career path: niche marketing.

Ecommerce marketing specialists develop and maintain online stores. They also create and execute marketing strategies for online businesses based on data analysis. They are responsible for both online sales and brand awareness for online brands.

Besides the marketing skills listed above, ecommerce specialists may also need skills in:

User experience

The ability to work with different teams is also important.

Ecommerce marketing specialists make between $34,000 and $78,000 per year.

17. Marketing Analyst

Career path: marketing analysis.

The responsibilities of a marketing analyst include:

Using data to influence campaign impact, allocate funds, determine how to design and optimize a website, set the prices of products and services, and more.

Analysts also identify new opportunities and initiatives as well as develop metrics, benchmarks, and standards for future performance.

The skills and qualifications required of a marketing analyst include data analysis and management, fluency with programs like Microsoft Excel, SPSS Statistics, and SAS, and knowledge and experience with trends in big data.

Marketing analysts make between $43,000 and $80,000.

18. Marketing Strategist

Career path: marketing strategy.

A marketing strategist develops and communicates strategic plans to meet business goals. They also pull together the efforts of different teams to execute those strategies.

Besides broad marketing strategist positions, there are also roles for:

SEO strategists
Content strategists
Social marketing strategists

Strategists sometimes cover the day-to-day tasks for their area of expertise, but they are usually focused only on strategy. For example, a social media manager will design and publish posts on social media. But a social media strategist will develop and research the targeted campaigns and customer targets that inform those daily posts.

Advanced experience and technical knowledge. Awareness of SEO, SEM, and marketing news and trends is also important. Besides bringing knowledge and experience, strategists should also have strong skills in:

Time management
Communication
Presentation

Salaries for marketing strategists range from $51,000 to $152,000 per year.

The outlines above are only a partial list of popular marketing jobs and career paths. It's clear that there's a lot of opportunity. But that doesn’t mean that marketing isn't a highly competitive field.

With ever-changing trends and consumers, marketers must be at the top of their game when applying to and thriving within their roles. Next, we’ll dive into how to find, apply for, and get a marketing job in your chosen field.

Getting a marketing job might feel complicated, but it’s not impossible. There are a few things you can do to ensure you’re applying for the right jobs and promoting the best version of yourself in the process.

1. Figure out what type of role you want.

Before opening a job application, you must figure out what type of marketing job you want. As we explained above, there are plenty of marketing jobs available — and we hardly scratched the surface.

Do yourself (and your potential employers) a favor and perform some self-analysis before deciding which jobs to pursue. Review the jobs we’ve described above and research others that spark your interest. Take a look at how marketing impacts your day-to-day life and see which components intrigue you.

Do you find yourself gravitating towards the creative parts of marketing, or are you excited by the analytical side? Both play an important role in marketing, but the jobs for each will differ.

Make a list of what you’d like to do in your role. If I were building a list of "wants," I’d say:

I like writing and telling stories.
I like research.
I like working with analytics only to help me create better content.
I like working with a team.

Determining what kind of marketing jobs interest you will give you much more clarity in your job search and will help you decipher which specific roles best match your interests and skills.

2. Find jobs matching your interests.

There are a few ways to go about finding marketing jobs. First, throw your search query in Google. If you’ve decided you’d like to design marketing materials for a company, search "marketing design jobs" or "graphic design marketing jobs" and see what comes up.

Second, check out job board sites like Indeed , Glassdoor , and SimplyHired . These sites aggregate available jobs and make it easy to set filters for salary, location, company size, and more. They also include suggested jobs in the search results so you can easily discover related roles.

Lastly, check out available jobs on company websites. If you’ve discovered a few companies for which you’d love to work, go to their websites directly and see what kind of roles they have listed.

Also, some roles might have different names at different companies and might not come up in common search results on job boards. For example, one company’s "blogger" might be another company’s "content creator."

3. Review job descriptions.

Once you’ve found a few open jobs to which you’d like to apply, take a close look at the job descriptions. This is when you’ll compare your list of "likes" from earlier to the terms in the job descriptions.

From my list above, I’d look for words like "writing," "editing," "content creation," "research," and more. This process will help you find the best-fit roles, which will, in turn, increase the likelihood of securing an interview — and the job.

4. Market yourself.

Outside of a job application, cover letter , and interview, there are other ways to boost your chances as an applicant. As a marketing candidate, you must be able to market yourself. In fact, your "marketability" speaks volumes to companies and managers, sometimes more so than your application material.

As you search for and apply to jobs, make sure your digital presence is spotless. Review your LinkedIn, Twitter, and other social channels and ensure they all promote the same message and self-image. Google your own name and make sure all results reflect positively on you.

Also, depending on what role(s) you’re pursuing, consider creating a portfolio or sample of your marketing chops. If you’d like to find a position in social media, create some sample posts to include in your application. If you’re pursuing a public relations role, build a contingency plan to discuss in your interview.

These steps will help you stand out from the crowd of marketing applicants and will skyrocket your chances of landing the job.

Each career in marketing is as unique as the person pursuing that career. Besides being a great career for creative people, marketing is also a popular choice for remote work.

That said, marketers that begin their careers right after college have many options for advancement. The outline below will give you some ideas of what your career path could look like in marketing.

Entry-Level

There are entry-level marketing jobs for every career path in marketing. These roles are a great way for recent graduates and those who are new to marketing.

Entry-level marketing jobs cover a wide range of skills, but most will include:

Administrative work
Customer service
Helping with creative work

These roles can help you learn the basics of marketing, and help you decide where you want your career to go. They're also a good time to develop professional soft skills .

If you're just starting out, this post offers more advice on how to secure a job in marketing .

Mid-Level Marketing Careers

Once you've been working in an entry-level role for some time, there are a few different paths you can follow in marketing. Sometimes your next step will depend on the company you're working for. Other times it's a decision you'll need to make for yourself.

Marketing strategy, freelance marketing, and marketing management are all great next steps. Let's talk about each one of these choices.

If you enjoy the day-to-day work, you may want to deepen your knowledge and responsibilities by taking on a strategist role. These careers may include some leadership. But the focus is on marketing and connecting tactics to business results.

Freelance Marketing

Another option is to develop your own business as a freelance marketer. This will give you a chance to expand your knowledge and skills. It's also a chance to experiment with new approaches to marketing.

If you're curious and want to learn more, this resource for marketing freelancers can help you get started.

Marketing Management

Marketing managers also take on new know-how and responsibilities. Besides the day-to-day work of marketing, managers are leaders. Depending on your company, this role might involve strategy, budgeting, or data analysis.

Marketing management also might include training and managing other people on your team.

Marketing Leadership

After 10-20 years of work experience in marketing, you may be looking for a leadership role. In your path toward leadership, you may also pursue additional studies. Many marketing leaders pursue MBAs or certifications over time.

Again, leadership role specifics will vary by company and industry. But, these are some positions that you may seek out as a marketing leader.

Director of Marketing

The director of marketing is a multifaceted role. Besides developing and executing marketing strategies, it might include:

Evaluating research and reports
Overseeing promotion and advertising
ROI analysis
Assessing market conditions
Reviewing customer data
Competitor analysis

Some marketing directors will report to a VP or CMO. Others will lead marketing for their organization and manage a team of mid-level marketers.

Vice President of Marketing

The VP of Marketing is responsible for a company's marketing results. This role works across departments within a business to improve and support its teams and the business. Besides managing a team of marketers, VPs may also take an active role in:

High-level project management
Market research
Campaign and strategy innovation

Chief Marketing Officer

Chief Marketing Officer , or CMO, is usually the most senior marketing role. The modern-day CMO doesn’t have a generic, one-size-fits-all background. Their primary responsibility is the return on investment from marketing activities.

There are many similarities between the vice president of marketing and CMO roles. In cases where a business has both a CMO and one or more VPs of marketing, the CMO will usually focus on high-level strategy while the VP works on tactics.

The CMO may also be responsible for managing teams across different company branches and locations. They build and develop teams and networks to execute on top organizational goals.

Marketing Job Resources

You don’t have to pursue a marketing job on your own. Looking for some resources to help you better understand specific marketing components or brush up on your skills? Check out the communities and courses below. Bonus: Some of these certifications can make you a more desirable marketing candidate, too.

Courses and Communities

HubSpot’s free inbound marketing course and certification
HubSpot’s free social media training and certification course
Google’s free Analytics Academy
HubSpot SEO training and certification
DemandCurve
Women in Tech SEO

Find a Career in Marketing That Works for You

Marketing is a career path that's going to last because it's part of every business. As businesses grow and change, their approach to marketing gets more competitive and complex.

As digital advances and new roles change the face of marketing, you need to develop new skills and get specific about the roles you want.

Whether you’re creative or analytical, a leader or a tactician, there’s a job for you. As you keep learning, the right opportunity will appear. What you do with that opportunity is up to you.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in August 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Apply for a job, keep track of important information, and prepare for an interview with the help of this free job seekers kit.

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Mobile phone ownership over time, who owns cellphones and smartphones, smartphone dependency over time, who is smartphone dependent, find out more, mobile fact sheet.

Large shares of Americans are connected to the world of digital information while “on the go” via smartphones and other mobile devices. Explore the patterns and trends that have shaped the mobile revolution below.

To better understand Americans’ smartphone and broadband adoption, Pew Research Center surveyed 5,733 U.S. adults from May 19 to Sept. 5, 2023. Ipsos conducted this National Public Opinion Reference Survey (NPORS) for the Center using address-based sampling and a multimode protocol that included both web and mail. This way nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race and ethnicity, education and other categories.

Polls from 2000 to 2021 were conducted via phone. For more on this mode shift, please read our Q&A .

Here are the questions used for this analysis , along with responses, and its methodology .

The vast majority of Americans – 97% – now own a cellphone of some kind. Nine-in-ten own a smartphone, up from just 35% in Pew Research Center’s first survey of smartphone ownership conducted in 2011.

Note: The vertical line indicates a change in mode. Polls from 2002-2021 were conducted via phone. In 2023, the poll was conducted via web and mail. For more details on this shift, please read our Q&A . Refer to the topline for more information on how question wording varied over the years. Respondents who did not give an answer are not shown.

Source: Surveys of U.S. adults conducted 2002-2023.

Substantial majorities of Americans across a wide range of demographic groups are cellphone owners. The same is true for smartphone ownership – though some differences do emerge, particularly by age, household income and level of formal education.

% of U.S. adults who say they own a __, by …

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Today, 15% of U.S. adults are “smartphone-only” internet users – meaning they own a smartphone, but do not have home broadband service.

Source: Surveys of U.S. adults conducted 2013-2023. Data for each year is based on a pooled analysis of all surveys containing broadband and smartphone questions fielded during that year.

Reliance on smartphones for online access is especially common among Americans with lower household incomes and those with lower levels of formal education.

This fact sheet was compiled by Research Assistant Olivia Sidoti , with help from Research Analyst Risa Gelles-Watnick , Research Analyst Michelle Faverio , Digital Producer Sara Atske , Associate Information Graphics Designer Kaitlyn Radde and Temporary Researcher Eugenie Park .

Follow these links for more in-depth analysis of the impact of mobile technology on American life.

Americans’ Social Media Use Jan. 31, 2024
Americans’ Use of Mobile Technology and Home Broadband Jan. 31 2024
Q&A: How and why we’re changing the way we study tech adoption Jan. 31, 2024

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How to make an effective market research resume experience section. Top market research analysts don't strictly come with marketing-only background. ... Those generic soft skills may work for the average 9-5 jobs, but market research isn't just any kind of job. Here, recruiters may not take you seriously unless you embed some practical ...
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