Conducting market research for a business plan is a simple, multi-step process: get clear goals, gather primary and secondary data, analyze your target market and your competitors, interpret the findings, and continue to monitor your market as conditions change.

This way, you make decisions based on data instead of guesses about demand, pricing, positioning, and risk, so that investors have faith in your plan.

Why a Good Business Plan Market Research is Crucial

Good business plan market research indicates whether there is a real demand before you start investing heavily (this gives decision makers, VCs, and lenders confidence that your revenue projections are based on customer behavior rather than assumptions).

It affects how you set your product, how you price your product, how you decide which marketing channels to use to launch the product, which people are your best customers, what problems they need solved, and which features they would pay for. 

For startups, as well as small and medium-sized businesses, this process is about reducing risk, focusing resources on the highest value opportunities, and helping make your business plan more straightforward to understand when busy investors skim through it.

Step 1: Specify Specific Goals of Research

Begin your market research for a business plan with one straightforward question: “What do we need to know to make a decision?”

Common goals include understanding customer needs, sizing the opportunity, testing pricing, or choosing the best niche to get into first.

Change each goal into a short and specific question for research.

Examples are “Which segment has the most willingness to pay?” or “Which channels are trusted the most by customers if they want to purchase this type of product?”

You can write these questions at the beginning of your market analysis section so the readers can see how each piece of data provides support for the decision.

Step 2: Collect Primary and Secondary Data

Your next market research steps are to gather both primary and secondary pieces of information in order to get a complete picture of the market.

Primary data is that which is collected directly from the prospective customers, and secondary data is that which is gathered from existing reports, industry databases, and websites of your competitors.

Table 1: Primary and Secondary Research

Research type	Description	Typical methods	Best use cases
Primary research	Data you collect yourself from real or potential customers.	Surveys, interviews, focus groups, customer observation.	Testing new ideas, pricing, messages, and feature preferences.
Secondary research	Data gathered by others and published in reports or databases.	Industry studies, government statistics, analyst reports, competitor sites.	Estimating market size, growth rates, and high‑level benchmarks.

 

Use simple online surveys or short interviews with decision makers for your target segment as a source of primary data.

For the latter, search for industry reports, trade associations, and government resources that cover your sector.

As you write the business plan, use a combination of both sources and make it very clear which numbers are estimates and which are from real customer input.

Step 3: Analyze the Market – Customers, Size, and Trends

This part of your market analysis for business plan takes all the data and puts it into a story.

Start with a brief industry overview distributed to explain current demand, growth rate, and the presence of any significant shifts or trends.

Next, make a simple target market analysis.

Describe who your ideal customers are from demographics (who they are), firmographics (size and sector of company), and psychographics (needs, attitudes, and triggers to buy your product).

Then, verify your scope of opportunity with fundamental market sizing.

Define your Total Addressable Market and that portion which you can realistically serve over the next few years, and the percentage of the market you plan to capture.

Finally, emphasize the trends in the primary market that are related to your idea, such as regulations, changes in technology, or customer behavior.

Link these trends back to how your product is used to solve current or emerging pain points, better than with current alternatives.

Step 4: Executive Competitor Analysis for Business Plan

Strong competitor analysis for a business plan reader is precisely where you fit in the landscape.

Also, begin by listing your direct competitors (similar products) and indirect competitors (different solutions to the same problem).

For each competitor, try to get a few key points – target segment, main benefits, pricing band, distribution channels, and marketing messages.

A simple grid or table is good, and it makes your advantages easy to scan.

Now conduct a complete light SWOT analysis where you compare your position to the most relevant competitors.

List your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats externally, and translate the most important ones into actions in your strategy part.

Table 2: Sample Outline for Market Analysis Section

This type of structure is easy for investors to follow and will provide a clear link between your analysis and your go-to-market plan.

Section	Key question	Data sources
Industry overview	How big is the market and how fast is it growing?	Industry reports, government statistics, analyst briefings.
Customer segments	Who will buy first and why?	Surveys, interviews, CRM data, online communities.
Competition	Who else serves these customers and how?	Competitor websites, review platforms, social media.
Pricing and positioning	What value do you offer and at what price?	Customer interviews, competitor price lists, A/B tests.
Risks and assumptions	What could change and how will you respond?	Scenario planning, expert input, ongoing feedback loops.

Step 5: Interpret, Apply, Monitor, and Repeat

Data on its own does not convince anyone, so tell us what your findings mean for your strategy.

Summarize two or three things that you have learned from your research and how that affects your product, channels, and revenue model.

Close the section off with a short paragraph on how you are going to “monitor and repeat” your research.

Mention that customer preferences, pricing pressure, and competitor activity will be reviewed periodically to keep the plan up to date.

Relying on Technologies Powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) Without Losing Human Intelligence

Many teams have turned to AI tools to do tasks such as summarizing reports or writing questions for surveying how to conduct market research projects faster.

These are all tools that can help you test different angles at a fast pace, but the final analysis and decisions should always fall on an experienced marketer or founder.

Use AI to sort through notes, group customer feedback, or create interview guides to validate everything against real-world conversations.

This balance keeps your business plan based on some evidence, not just on patterns that you can find using algorithms.

When to Bring in Experts like Nexus Expert Research

If you lack the time or do not have the budget for third-party validation, a specialist firm like Nexus Expert Research can conduct the studies end-to-end for your business plan.

They can use a combination of market research, expert interviews, and customer surveys to provide investor-ready insights and charts to investors.

Ready to bring your idea to life in a data-driven story that investors believe in?

Let Nexus Expert Research arm you with crisp and decision-ready market insights for your startup or developing business.