Entrepreneurs Get a Ton of Marketing Data for Free

As an online business entrepreneur I am always looking for marketing data. You know statistics about population sizes, demographics, income statistics, and other market data. Sometimes this is very hard to find, and other times people want you to pay an arm and leg for it. But as an online business person sometimes we dont have enough cash to spend on marketing data and other such expensive frills.

But we need to get more people starting business and being entrepreneurs. Did you know that November of 2014 was National Entrepreneur Month, yep it was decreed by President Obama. We need more people to start business as we have been on a steady decline of entrepreneurs coming up with new business. One way to encourage this is to get reasonably low cost or free market data to be able to make an informed decision on how viable a new business start up might be.

One way to get free marketing and census data is to use the Department of Commerce data system. They have a great way to access all the marketing data you may need.

1. An area to get quick data and facts about States and the US in general.

We use this to get valuable population data on market segments we are looking into. For instance here is what pulls up for the state I do business locally in.

From this you can get some quick facts about demographics from each state and from the United States as a whole. For instance in 2013 the US population was 316,128,839 with little more than half of those female. And 87.4 people per square mile.

2. Get all the latest census information in one easy to read area.

Here you can get information on young adults, population estimates, retail statistics, people, education, and income demographics, and commuting statistics. For instance did you know;

the median income in Utah for young adult workers fell from 1980 to 2013 by $5,000.00
Wyoming has a population density of 6
12.3% of all business establishments in California are Retail in nature
New Hampshire has a higher median household income than California
New York has an average commute to work time of 32 minutes

3. If you want to know how the US economy is doing, well there is an APP for that. That’s right you can get all the information you need right from your phone or tablet. Or if you want to dig a little deeper you can get more information at the American Community Survey.

4. One of the best tools for online business is to see industry specific statistics and get data snapshots and maps of that data. These tools are invaluable for getting economic data about whatever business your in. All you need is your industry code or look it up on their category table. Here is some of the latest statistics for online eCommerce.

The Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce announced today that the estimate of U.S. retail e-commerce sales for the third quarter of 2014, adjusted for seasonal variation, but not for price changes, was $78.1 billion, an increase of 4.0 percent (±0.7%) from the second quarter of 2014. Total retail sales for the third quarter of 2014 were estimated at $1,185.1 billion, an increase of 0.9 percent (±0.2%) from the second quarter of 2014. The third quarter 2014 e-commerce estimate increased 16.2 percent (±3.2%) from the third quarter of 2013 while total retail sales increased 4.2 percent (±0.5%) in the same period. E-commerce sales in the third quarter of 2014 accounted for 6.6 percent of total sales.

On a not adjusted basis, the estimate of U.S. retail e-commerce sales for the third quarter of 2014 totaled $71.9 billion, an increase of 2.5 percent (±0.7%) from the second quarter of 2014. The third quarter 2014 e-commerce estimate increased 16.2 percent (±3.2%) from the third quarter of 2013 while total retail sales increased 4.3 percent (±0.5%) in the same period. E-commerce sales in the third quarter of 2014 accounted for 6.1 percent of total sales.

AS you can see you can get a wealth of data and graphical information which could prove to be invaluable in determining the economic condition of the market you want to enter.

5. A new tool is coming soon that will be called Open for Business. The new Census – Open for Business tool merges data to provide information about an industry and a local area. Released as a beta in September 2014, this prototype tool presents selected data that entrepreneurs can use in their business plans and to determine a location for their new businesses. The initial, full version of this tool, scheduled for release in January 2015, will reflect user feedback collected during this beta period, and will present these key statistics in a map and in a downloadable business report.

So there you have it, if you need market data that wont cost you a single cent and is probably what you are going to pay for in the more expensive programs then head on over and use these great tools.

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