Market intelligence templates.

What Is a Market Research Template?

A market research template is a pre-built structure, a table, a matrix, a prompt list, that tells a team what to collect up front. Market research templates cut the setup phase of a market research project from days to minutes, and using templates saves time and resources in research efforts: nobody rebuilds the same table for every question.

The same logic extends to the outward-facing frameworks, the ones aimed at external signals: competitors, market trends, and industry shifts rather than survey research alone. Effective market intelligence combines structured qualitative and quantitative frameworks, and the key types mirror the types of market intelligence themselves: competitive intelligence, customer intelligence, product, and market views, one lens per question a business asks about customers and competitors.

Templates also make findings comparable. A market research template filled the same way each quarter lets users compare insights over time and track market trends instead of one-off documents nobody can compare. Every framework here can be customized to fit specific needs; Miro publishes template libraries its users apply at various stages of market research, or create the grid in a plain spreadsheet.

One caution: a market research template focuses thinking, it does not supply facts. Each section notes where the real market data comes from; a formatted document without it is worse than none.

Why Market Research Matters

Market research helps businesses understand customer needs before customers churn, it can uncover new market opportunities before a competitor claims them, and effective market research minimizes investment risks: testing demand for new products and services on paper costs a fraction of a launch.

The numbers argue for doing market research continuously rather than once. Sales-performance research put salespeople hitting their 2024 targets at 57%, down from 61% a year earlier, a drop blamed partly on stale assumptions about the target market. Regular market research helps track changes in customer needs over time; that is the fix. Surveys are a common method for gathering this evidence, and short surveys beat long ones nobody finishes.

Findings from market research provide insights beyond the research team: market intelligence informs product development and marketing strategies, and business strategies built on measured demand outlast strategies built on conviction.

The Market Research Process Behind Every Template

Every template below maps to one step of the market research process: define the question, collect data, analyze data, report the findings, decide, and repeat. A research project without a defined question yields no conclusion.

Collection splits into two research methods. Primary data means your own surveys, interviews, and sales records; secondary sources, industry reports, review platforms, public filings, supply the background information that frames every market research template. Effective research requires the collection of both primary and secondary data; the how to gather market intelligence guide covers gathering information from both.

Qualitative research supplies the why; quantitative data supplies the how much, and enough of it lets analysts find patterns interviews never show. The templates mix both: either alone gives half the story, together they give a complete picture.

The Ten Templates

Each entry covers what the template captures and where the data comes from. Together they span the market research efforts most organizations run in a year.

1. Market Analysis Template

The market overview template summarizes market size, growth, and the key trends that could move it: the comprehensive view that anchors any market analysis, the page an executive reads first; every number needs a source.

Fill this market research template from secondary sources: analyst services for size figures, plus Similarweb for digital insights on how customers split across segments.

Download the analysis (DOCX)

2. Market Sizing Template

The market sizing template defines total revenue opportunities for a business in three nested numbers: total addressable market, serviceable available market, and serviceable obtainable market. It answers how much demand actually exists, shrinking a headline figure to the slice of the target market one business can reach.

Build this market research template bottom-up where possible: the number of potential customers in the target market, multiplied by realistic annual spend, beats a top-down slice of an industry figure.

Download the calculator (XLSX)

3. Competitive Analysis Grid

The competitive analysis template tracks products, pricing, and positioning across rivals in one table: one row per dimension, one column per competitor, a running map of the competitive landscape. Templates like this help in tracking competitors' strengths and weaknesses systematically; the assessment updates on a schedule.

Competitor research for this template starts at pricing pages, product changelogs, and review sites; the market intelligence tools ranking compares the platforms that automate the tracking, and the same grid scales from three competitors to thirty.

Download the grid (XLSX)

4. Benchmarking Matrix

A benchmarking matrix plots competitors on two axes, usually price against feature coverage, to identify gaps in rival product lines where a unique value proposition can live. The empty region of the chart is the finding.

This market research template pairs with the competitor research above: that table supplies the coordinates; the chart makes the gap visible.

Download the matrix (XLSX)

5. SWOT Analysis

SWOT analysis assesses internal operations against external market conditions across four quadrants: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats. This market research template depends on specificity; "strong brand" is filler, "renewal rate 14 points above the category median" is a finding.

Strategic planning teams lean on it to align company goals with market shifts; the AI SWOT analysis guide covers where machine-drafted quadrants fail.

Download the quadrants (DOCX)

6. PEST Analysis

PEST analysis evaluates external forces impacting an industry across four columns: political, economic, social, and technological. Where SWOT examines one business, this market research template shifts the focus to the environment every business shares.

Run it yearly, or when entering a new market; external forces change slower than competitors, and the findings feed the SWOT quadrants above.

Download the grid (DOCX)

7. User Persona Template

Consumer persona templates gather insights on customer pain points and motivations, keeping the focus on one named buyer type: what pushes them to buy, what stops them, and where customers research. A persona built from surveys, with survey results and interview quotes attached, gives marketing teams a deeper understanding of the target audience than demographics tables.

Conference-room personas describe the ideal customer the team wishes existed; ground every field of this market research template in customer research: real quotes from target customers, real support tickets.

Download the persona (DOCX)

8. Customer Intelligence Template

Customer intelligence templates capture segments, needs, and buying behaviors across all customers rather than one persona at a time: which segments of customers exist, what share of revenue each holds, how customer behavior differs between them, and where customer satisfaction surveys run high or low.

This is the market research template where internal records earn their keep: market intelligence combines internal and external data for insights, sales history reveals buying behaviors no outside source sees, and product usage shows which key features users open. The consumer intelligence guide covers the discipline.

9. Market Trends Tracker

Market trends trackers monitor emerging technologies and consumer behavior on a fixed cadence: each tracked trend gets a direction, a research note, and a review date. The job of this market research template is keeping the focus on identifying trends on schedule, well ahead of a rival's launch notes.

Feed it with a trend research tool; platforms like Exploding Topics surface current trends with volume data, turning the tracker from opinion into measurement, helping teams stay ahead of what customers want next.

10. Market Research Report Template

The market research report template structures the final deliverable: objective, method, market findings, competitor findings, key insights, and recommended actions: the actionable insights a stakeholder can approve. A market research analysis template for the middle sections keeps findings organized mid-project, so users create the report as they go.

Research earns its budget here: findings that never reach a decision-maker change nothing. Lead this market research template with the three findings that demand action; stakeholders read the first page, researchers read the rest.

Download the report (DOCX)

11. Competitor Battlecard Template

The competitor battlecard template turns the research into a sales-side page per rival: context, counter-messaging, proof, and scripted objection responses for mid-call use.

Download the battlecard (DOCX)

Identifying Your Target Market

Several templates above depend on knowing who the target market is, and market research helps identify customer demographics and behaviors precisely enough to act on. Gather data on age, location, income, and interests; then segment, because specific market segments improve marketing effectiveness and customer loyalty. Customers grouped by real customer behavior respond better than customers grouped by age.

A business that cannot name the target audience for a campaign should start with the persona and customer intelligence templates above, then narrow the focus to the target audience segments that respond; surveys of existing and potential customers are the fastest honest insights.

Loyal customers deserve their own segmentation row: the customer experience keeping them renewing is measurable, and gaining insights into it tells a business what to protect while chasing growth.

Free Templates vs Paid Tools

Every framework on this page works as a free market research template: rebuild the structure in a spreadsheet; the research method is identical. A free market research template plus real data beats paid software plus empty fields, for users with no budget, free resources cover the method.

Paid tools and services earn their price on the data side. Automated market research improves efficiency and accuracy once tracking runs weekly: a competitive analysis template a platform refreshes on its own saves time every cycle, and tools like Semrush for search data or ZoomInfo for company data fill fields about customers and competitors that would cost an analyst a day each. The same services run surveys at scale, recruiting respondents and returning results ready for insights.

The sequence for most organizations: run a free market research template for one full project cycle, note which fields hurt to fill, then buy the tool that fills those fields. Our methodology page covers how we score the shortlist.

FAQ

What are the 5 P's of market research?

Product, price, promotion, place, and people: the five dimensions a market research project checks a market against. Most market research templates on this page cover one or two P's; the report template is where all five meet.

Can ChatGPT do market research?

It is a valuable tool for structure: users who give it a narrow focus and a source document get surveys and summaries drafted. It cannot supply verified market data; the ChatGPT for market research guide covers the boundary.

What are the 5 components of market research?

Defining the objective, designing the method, data collection, analysis, and reporting: the five steps every team follows to create a study, shown in the diagram above.

What are the 7 basic questions in market research?

Who are the customers, what do they buy, when do they buy, where do they buy, why do they choose it, how do they buy, who else competes. A completed persona, customer view, and competitor table answer all seven.

What is included in market intelligence?

Four views: competitor intelligence, product intelligence, market understanding, and customer intelligence, spanning customer experience and buying patterns, the four ways organizations watch markets and customers move. The market intelligence vs market research page separates the disciplines.

What are the best 3 market intelligence tools on the market today?

Depends on the job: ZoomInfo for sales and company data, AlphaSense for document-heavy financial research, and Semrush for digital and search intelligence, each with pricing detailed in our reviews; the top-10 comparison lives on the homepage.

How to prepare a market intelligence report?

Define one question, fill the relevant templates with sourced data, then use the market research report template from section ten. Lead with what should change, attach the supporting insights, and date every data point so the next report measures movement.

Bottom Line

Templates are the cheapest resources in a market research practice: the structures on this page cost nothing and create comparable findings quarter after quarter. Regular use of these frameworks leads to data-driven business decisions: a labeled empty field makes the missing fact visible, and visible gaps get filled.

The competitive advantage never comes from the template itself, since a grid takes a minute to copy. Organizations that stay ahead of competitors do it through the discipline of filling fields with sourced data about real customers on a schedule, then connecting the documents, and the services behind them, to actual business decisions. Pick the one market research template that matches this quarter's hardest question; a single well-fed tracker beats ten empty frameworks, and the market intelligence examples page shows the filled-in versions.