7 Ways to Identify the Market Gaps and Explore Unmet Needs

Jared Atchison is the co-founder of WPForms, a drag-and-drop form builder for WordPress that's used on over 4,000,000 websites.

Aspiring entrepreneurs often struggle to come up with a decent idea for a startup. A common misconception is that your idea must be truly revolutionary for you to make it to the other side.

The fact is that you don't need something groundbreaking to start your entrepreneurial journey. All you need to do is keep an eye on market trends and explore the unmet needs of a particular audience segment.

The market dynamics keep changing over time, and the same goes for customer preferences. This gives rise to new opportunities that may serve as excellent startup ideas and help you get started.

You just need to identify the pain points of a particular audience segment and come up with viable solutions. You can capitalize on emerging market trends and introduce products or services with high chances of success.

Here are a few effective ways that can help you explore the market gap and identify unmet needs:

1. Explore the Latest Trends

The first thing you need to do is identify an industry that aligns with your expertise, interests, and vision.

Next, you identify the relevant sources of information from that particular industry and explore the latest trends or updates.

You can leverage relevant industry publications or reports and follow experts on social media for useful insights.

You can also consider exploring authoritative news websites to get acquainted with emerging market trends and identify new opportunities for business.

For example, modern-day diet trends keep changing over time, especially in the fitness industry. If you have the skills or expertise in the respective domain, this serves as an excellent opportunity for you to start a membership site or launch an app offering exclusive content to the intended audience.

2. Conduct a Survey

When it comes to knowing the preferences of a particular audience segment or identifying unmet needs, customers themselves serve as the most authentic source of information.

Conducting a survey helps you gather relevant insights and useful information that may help you make informed decisions.

You can reach out to people, ask them about the problems they face, and inquire about the new features they'd like to see in the products or services they already use.

You don't need to reinvent the wheel to start your business. You just need to identify the shortcomings of existing businesses and introduce fitting solutions to fix the problems.

3. Navigate Customer Reviews

Another effective way to explore the unmet needs of a particular audience segment is to navigate customer review websites.

You can leverage Google Business Reviews, G2, Trustpilot, Angi, Foursquare, Yelp, Better Business Bureau, and other relevant review platforms to identify the pain points of the intended audience segment.

Exploring negative reviews will help you identify new opportunities and come up with efficient ideas for your business.

You can introduce a better alternative and gain a competitive edge in a particular industry as you offer what other players currently don't.

For example, if the users of an online meeting software want their preferred solutions to offer a digital whiteboard feature, you can take advantage of the situation and offer a better alternative.

4. Consider Social Listening

Customers are quite vocal about the products or services they use on social media. They actively participate in discussions or threads concerning their preferred brands and talk about their experiences.

Keeping a close eye on such discussions can help you identify the unmet needs and pain points of the intended audience.

This is referred to as social listening, where you assess the audience's sentiments and draw relevant insights from their experiences.

It helps you identify the weaknesses of businesses in the respective industry, which may serve as a foundation for your startup. So, it's best that you track the brand mentions on relevant social media platforms and online communities.

5. Leverage Online Communities

Joining and participating in relevant communities online helps you explore relevant industry insights and identify market gaps.

These communities or groups not only serve as a reliable source of information but also help you grow your network and get in touch with industry experts.

You can learn about the current happenings in the respective industry from discussions and identify new business opportunities.

Furthermore, you can reach out to industry experts and ask them to act as your guides on your entrepreneurial journey. Their expert advice helps you steer your efforts in the right direction and start a business with a high likelihood of success.

6. Attend Industry Events

Relevant conferences and industry events serve as excellent sources of information with respect to market trends and unmet customer needs.

The speakers at such events are industry experts and veteran business professionals who generally talk about the roadblocks and potential business opportunities in a particular industry.

This gives you a chance to not only access relevant insights but also interact with renowned professionals and grow your network. You can learn from their experiences and use the knowledge to start a successful business.

7. Observe Legal Changes

Monitoring changes in laws or regulations also serves as an effective way to identify market gaps and come up with new business ideas.

New regulations can significantly change the market dynamics overnight, paving the way for you to tap into a particular industry.

The changes in customer privacy regulations, data management laws, environmental regulations, or labor laws may act as obstacles for some and opportunities for others.

You should also stay up-to-date with the legalization of new industries, as it's helpful when you seek new business ideas.

Final Words

This article showcases the seven effective ways you can leverage to identify the market gap and explore the unmet needs of customers in the respective industry. If you've been struggling to find decent ideas for your startup, the recommendations in this article may help.