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By Morgan Molnar, Director of Product Marketing, SurveyMonkey Market Research Solutions

2020 has been a challenging year. In order to succeed, organizations around the globe need to effectively adapt and it’s never been more critical to make data-driven decisions. But that comes with a challenge: market research teams are getting more requests from stakeholders amidst falling budgets and scarce resources.

We decided to find out how organizations are using market research to navigate the changing marketplace. We spoke to 15 industry experts and conducted a survey of over 2,000 market research pros – both pre- and post-COVID-19 outbreak – and published our findings along with expert advice in SurveyMonkey’s 2020 Market Research Survival Guide. Here’s a sneak peek of what we heard.

More companies are benefiting from DIY research than ever before. Respondents who reported that their companies had experienced financial growth in the past year have been moving toward DIY by boosting their in-house research over the past five years, more so than those who reported their companies were on a financial decline (54% vs. 36%). Nearly 50% of market research professionals conduct more DIY research today than they did five years ago.

DIY survey tools help drive decisions but resources are still a challenge. The vast majority of companies (87%) report using market research to inform at least some of their decisions but only 24% of respondents said they were able to meet all stakeholder demands given their current research budget.

People are looking for good data solutions as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to decimate marketing budgets. Budgets are more than twice as likely to have decreased (42%) than increased (19%). To address the gaps this will create, respondents were over three times more likely to believe that their use of DIY tools will increase (41%) instead of decrease (13%). In contrast, respondents said their use of full-service vendors is more likely to decrease (54%) instead of increase (20%).

COVID-19 has accelerated an already emerging trend toward more in-house research. Our results confirm this clear trend toward do-it-yourself research. Seventy percent of respondents in our study predicted their company will likely transition to even more DIY tools in the next year. As this pandemic continues (especially as we enter the 2021 planning cycle), it’s becoming more apparent that hiring expensive agencies to conduct market research is no longer a viable option for many. Enter DIY tools like SurveyMonkey, Fuel Cycle, UserTesting and others to the rescue.

To go beyond the data and learn how top companies are navigating and thriving in spite of the uncertainties we’re all facing, check out our full report at surveymonkey.com/market-research/survival-guide/.

Want to learn more? Visit www.gotostage.com/channel/q-report.