Type 1: Primary Research

Primary research is all about going straight to the source: your customers, prospects, or users.

It involves gathering first hand insights through surveys, interviews, or observations so you can understand exactly what they think, feel, and need, directly from them.

This type of research gives you original, tailored insights that secondary sources simply can’t offer. You can ask the exact questions you want the answers to.

Whether you’re exploring a new market or validating a new product idea, primary research helps you uncover new data that doesn’t exist yet for secondary research.

Of course, primary research has it’s advantages and disadvantages:

Advantages of Primary Research

• Offers fresh, relevant insights tailored to your specific audience and product.
• Helps you research a new product or service launch where data doesn’t yet exist.
• Gives you control over the data collection process.
• Lets you ask exactly the questions you want the answers to.
• You own the data

Challenges of Primary Research

• Can be time-consuming and more resource-intensive than secondary data because you need to get the people and collect the data from scratch.
• Requires careful planning to avoid bias and ensure validity.
• May be biased; the people who respond to surveys don't always represent the full population. 
• There are some hard-to-reach populations (for example, you want to interview astronauts or oil well diggers).

When to use primary research

You should use primary research when you need new, specific, or first-hand information that doesn’t already exist or isn’t detailed enough in secondary sources. 

For example, if you're launching a new wellness product, you might conduct surveys or interviews to understand your target audience’s preferences and pain points.

Some common methods of primary research include:

• Surveys & questionnaires
• Interviews
• Focus Groups

Let’s break them down.

Surveys and Questionnaires

Use structured questions to collect both quantitative and qualitative feedback at scale.
Tools like Typeform and Google Forms make it easy to reach a wide audience quickly.

You also don’t have to find survey participants from scratch.

You can tap into pre-existing groups of people who’ve agreed to take part in research studies using online panels and ask them questions directly.

When it comes time for analysis, closed-ended survey responses are easy to analyze within whatever tool you choose to use. Open-ends, however, are a bit more tricky.

You can analyze open-ended survey text using a tool like Blix to quickly and easily gain insights to make smarter business decisions.

In-Depth Interviews

One-on-one conversations allow you to explore customer pain points, motivations, and objections in detail.

Unlike surveys, interviews are flexible and conversational, giving you the opportunity to dig deeper and ask follow-up questions based on what the participant says.

They’re especially valuable when you want to understand the “why” behind customer behaviors or explore new ideas before turning them into concrete offerings. Interviews can be conducted in person, over the phone, or via video calls—whatever works best for your audience.

Focus Groups

Small group discussions uncover shared perspectives, emotional reactions, and deeper context behind buying decisions.

Ideally, you want to use a mix of all three types of primary research to get a clear picture. Here’s an illustration of their uses:

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Type 2: Secondary Research

Secondary research (also called desk research) is all about working smarter, not harder. 

Instead of starting from scratch, you analyze pre-existing data. This could be company data you’ve already gathered from primary research, or it could come from credible sources like government databases, academic papers, or industry reports.

It’s fast, cost-effective, and perfect for getting a broad understanding of your market before diving into deeper analysis.

At its best, secondary research helps you benchmark performance, validate trends, and support decisions with trusted third-party data—especially when paired with your own primary research.

And now, with the rise of AI-powered “deep research” agents from companies like Google and OpenAI, teams can analyze vast amounts of secondary data in minutes or hours — not days or weeks. 

These tools can synthesize academic papers, news, and even web content to surface high-quality insights fast, making desk research more accessible and scalable than ever.

Advantages of Secondary Research

• Saves time and budget by leveraging data that already exists.
• Offers a macro-level view of your industry, market, or audience.
• Helps support hypotheses before launching primary research.
• Often more natural and less biased than primary research, because you’re collecting existing, unsolicited data like reviews.

Challenges of Secondary Research

• Data might be outdated or too broad to fit your exact needs.
• You have less control over how the data was collected.
• You can only gather data on things that already exist—doesn’t work for new product lines or launches.

When to use secondary research 

You should use secondary research when you want to save time and resources by tapping into data that’s already been collected and analyzed. It’s ideal for getting a high-level overview of a market, validating ideas, or backing up decisions with trusted third-party sources. 

For example, if you’re entering a new industry, you might review government statistics, social media posts, and industry trend reports to understand the landscape before committing to costly primary research.

Here are some ways you can perform secondary research:

Public Domain Data

Government sources like the U.S. Census Bureau or the Pew Research Center provide rich demographic and consumer trend data.

Academic & Industry Reports

Whitepapers, journals, and think tank publications offer evidence-based insights and statistical depth.

Commercial Data Providers

Market intelligence firms like Statista offer paid reports with detailed charts, competitor benchmarks, and market forecasts.

Social Media

While not necessarily a “credible” source, it’s often more authentic to get data from social media. You can see what people think and how they feel about things based on their posts and comments. 

Customer Reviews

Finally, customer reviews are an excellent source of secondary market research. You get to see exactly how customers feel about your products or services and your competitors’ products or services at scale.

Now, let’s look at the pros and cons of this type of market research.

Type 3: Qualitative Research

Qualitative research focuses on exploring thoughts, feelings, and motivations through open-ended methods like interviews, focus groups, or observations to uncover deeper insights and patterns.

While numbers can tell you what’s happening, qualitative research helps you understand why. 

This type of market research can give you rich, nuanced insights that can shape everything from product development to messaging.

Advantages of Qualitative Research

• Provides context and depth that quantitative data can’t.
• Reveals underlying motivations, emotional drivers, and unmet needs.
• Helps shape product ideas, messaging, and customer experiences.

Challenges of Qualitative Research

• Smaller sample sizes mean findings are not always generalizable.
• Insights can be subjective and require experienced analysis.
• Can be difficult and time-consuming to analyze.

When to use qualitative research 

You should use qualitative research when you want to understand the deeper “why” behind your audience’s behavior—their motivations, feelings, and perceptions. 

It’s especially valuable when you're developing new products, crafting messaging, or exploring customer experiences that aren’t easily measured with numbers alone. 

For example, if users are dropping off during your onboarding process, a few in-depth interviews can uncover emotional blockers or confusing UX elements that raw data alone wouldn’t reveal. 

Qualitative research helps you get inside your customer’s head, making it easier to create solutions that truly resonate—especially when combined with quantitative data for a fuller picture. Let’s take a look.

Here are some methods of performing qualitative research:

Open-Ended Survey Questions

Asking open-ended survey questions gives participants a chance to expand on their thoughts and feelings and show you the exact language they use in describing their pains and desires.

Of course, analyzing open-ended responses can be time-consuming and expensive if done manually—but today, AI tools like Blix can do it quickly and easily.