The 4 phases of an education market research project
When you're thinking about commissioning education market research, it helps to understand what's involved from start to finish. In this post, we'll walk through the four main phases of a typical project, from initial planning right through to your final report.
Phase 1—Planning and set-up
​This is where we kick off your education market research project, drilling down into the details and plotting out the specifics.
Agree research objectives.
First things first, we need to be clear about what you want to achieve. During our initial meetings, we'll dig into your specific challenges, what assumptions to test and what decisions the research needs to inform.
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Define participant profile and sample design
Next, we'll pinpoint exactly who needs to be involved. We work with you to define your ideal participant profile and design a sample that represents your target market properly. We'll consider things like geographic spread, school types and demographic factors. We'll also explore how many interviews or survey responses the research will require to give you the robust results you need.
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Design the research approach and materials
After objectives and participants have been defined, next comes creating the research materials. This might include interview discussion guides, survey questionnaires or stimulus materials for concept testing. Each tool is carefully designed to elicit honest, detailed responses. We share drafts with you for your input and write them in a way that's neutral and avoids leading participants toward particular answers.
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Designing a schedule and timeframe
With things like exams and summer holidays to consider, timing matters in education research. We plan around term times, exam periods and holidays to help make it easier for participants to take part. At this stage, we'll also map out a realistic project timeframe, building buffer time to find participants.​
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Phase 2 — Recruitment
This can be one of the more challenging parts of education marketing research. Here are just some of the ways we source participants.
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Insightful Research panel
Over the years, we've built our own Teacher Panel with hundreds of education professionals ready to participate. They're pre-screened and genuinely interested in sharing their views. It's often our quickest route to finding participants. Our guide to sourcing participants covers all these methods in detail.
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Using recruiters
We work with specialist market research recruiters to find the right profile to take part. They're especially useful for finding hard-to-reach participants like senior leaders or specialist teachers. These professionals have built networks over the years and know how to approach busy people.
Snowballing and word of mouth
Once we've found initial participants, we ask them to spread the word—this works particularly well in tight-knit professional communities. For example, we find that teachers often know others in similar roles who'd be interested. We might offer referral incentives to encourage people to help, too.
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Ads on social media
Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn let us target very specific audiences and we can run ad campaigns on these platforms to find our target participants. Campaigns run under your brand or ours, depending on the project. Social media recruitment needs careful screening as those responding sometimes misrepresent their roles for incentives. Despite this challenge, it remains helpful for large-scale studies.
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These are just some of the ways we recruit people to take part in your education market research project. Our guide to sourcing participants covers all these methods in detail, while our article on encouraging participants explains things like incentives and communication.
Phase 3 — Research stage
We then begin to conduct the actual research, including.
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Quantitative research
Quantitative research is all about collecting numerical data through methods like online surveys. We design questionnaires with closed-ended questions, rating scales and multiple-choice formats that give us statistical data. Surveys typically run 10-15 minutes and are distributed via email to large samples. We use specialist survey platforms that track completion rates and provide real-time monitoring. This method works best for measuring prevalence, tracking trends and validating hypotheses across broad populations.​
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Qualitative research
Qualitative methods gather rich, detailed insights that help us understand the "why" behind the data. There are lots of different ways to do this. For example, we might conduct one-to-one interviews or hold focus groups, with each of these following a semi-structured discussion guide. We record and transcribe all sessions for thorough analysis afterwards. Online communities are another way to conduct this kind of research. These are often run over several days to let participants contribute at a time that's convenient for them through forums. Our article on an overview of 3 different methods and 5 ways to get the best out of your participants explains more about research approaches.​​
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Phase 4 — Analysis and reporting
Once we've collected the data, we make recommendations. This phase involves:
Analysing and understanding the data
We make sense of the raw data through careful analysis that helps us reveal meaningful patterns. We analyse interviews and discussion group transcripts, coding responses thematically to identify recurring insights. Survey data gets cleaned to remove any rushed or flawed responses. It's at this stage when we connect qualitative explanations to quantitative findings.
Writing the report
We translate findings into clear, actionable insights. Reports include executive summaries, detailed findings and practical recommendations. You'll get quotes that bring the data to life, charts that highlight key statistics and competitor analysis wherever relevant. Everything's written in plain English with no jargon or waffle, so all stakeholders can dip in and understand.
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Presenting the data
You'll also benefit from a full presentation at the end of the project. We'll present the findings to your team before answering any questions and discussing the implications. You'll also receive all raw data, including survey results and anonymised transcripts. This ensures you can dig deeper into specific areas later if needed.
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How long does an education market research project take?
Timescales vary depending on how complex your project is and the time of year we're conducting research. Simple surveys might take 6 weeks, while multi-stage studies may run for as long as 12 weeks. Recruitment typically needs 2-4 weeks, fieldwork another 2-3 weeks then at least 1 week for analysis and reporting. Our post on how long market research takes breaks this down further.
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How much does an education market research project cost?
There's no fixed pricing as every project has different requirements. Costs depend on several factors including project management time, research methods and participant incentives. You'll also need to factor in potential costs like specialist software, translation services or travel expenses. At Insightful Research, we provide transparent pricing with detailed breakdowns so you know exactly what you're paying for. When you work with us, you'll receive a comprehensive quote outlining all costs upfront, so there are no surprises along the way. Our page on education market research costs explains more.​
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Work with Insightful Research
If you're ready to gain real insights into your education market, let's chat. We've spent 12+ years helping organisations like yours make better decisions through research. Get in touch today for a friendly, no-obligation conversation about your project.​
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How can we help?
If you would like to ask our advice, book a
no-obligation 30 minute consultation with us to discuss your research requirements or to simply have a chat and find out more about what we do.
Alternatively, use the briefing form to start discussing a new project, give Jill Elston a call on +44 (0)7703 462179 or email us jill@insightfulresearch.co.uk