Secondary Research: Definition, methods, & examples

18 min read
This ultimate guide to secondary research helps you understand changes in market
trends, customers buying patterns and your competition using existing data
sources.
In situations where you’re not involved in the data gathering process (primary
research), you have to rely on existing information and data to arrive at specific
research conclusions or outcomes. This approach is known as secondary research.
In this article, we’re going to explain what secondary research is, how it works, and
share some examples of it in practice.
What is secondary research?
Secondary research, also known as desk research, is a research method that
involves compiling existing data sourced from a variety of channels. This includes
internal sources (e.g.in-house research) or, more commonly, external sources (such
as government statistics, organisational bodies, and the internet).
Secondary research comes in several formats, such as published datasets, reports,
and survey responses, and can also be sourced from websites, libraries, and
museums.
The information is usually free — or available at a limited access cost —
and gathered using surveys, telephone interviews, observation, face-to-face
interviews, and more.
When using secondary research, researchers collect, verify, analyse and incorporate
it to help them confirm research goals for the research period.
As well as the above, it can be used to review previous research into an area of
interest. Researchers can look for patterns across data spanning several years
and identify trends — or use it to verify early hypothesis statements and establish
whether it’s worth continuing research into a prospective area.

How to conduct secondary research

There are five key steps to conducting secondary research effectively and
efficiently:
1. Identify and define the research topic
First, understand what you will be researching and define the topic by thinking
about the research questions you want to be answered.
Ask yourself: What is the point of conducting this research? Then, ask: What do we
want to achieve?
This may indicate an exploratory reason (why something happened) or confirm a
hypothesis. The answers may indicate ideas that need primary or secondary
research (or a combination) to investigate them.
2. Find research and existing data sources
If secondary research is needed, think about where you might find the information.
This helps you narrow down your secondary sources to those that help you answer
your questions. What keywords do you need to use?
Which organisations are closely working on this topic already? Are there any
competitors that you need to be aware of?
Create a list of the data sources, information, and people that could help you with
your work.
3. Begin searching and collecting the existing data
Now that you have the list of data sources, start accessing the data and collect the
information into an organised system. This may mean you start setting up research
journal accounts or making telephone calls to book meetings with third-party
research teams to verify the details around data results.
As you search and access information, remember to check the data’s date, the
credibility of the source, the relevance of the material to your research topic, and
the methodology used by the third-party researchers. Start small and as you gain
results, investigate further in the areas that help your research’s aims.
4. Combine the data and compare the results
When you have your data in one place, you need to understand, filter, order, and
combine it intelligently. Data may come in different formats where some data could
be unusable, while other information may need to be deleted.
After this, you can start to look at different data sets to see what they tell you. You
may find that you need to compare the same datasets over different periods for
changes over time or compare different datasets to notice overlaps or trends. Ask
yourself: What does this data mean to my research? Does it help or hinder my
research?
5. Analyse your data and explore further
In this last stage of the process, look at the information you have and ask yourself if
this answers your original questions for your research. Are there any gaps? Do
you understand the information you’ve found? If you feel there is more to cover,
repeat the steps and delve deeper into the topic so that you can get all the
information you need.
If secondary research can’t provide these answers, consider supplementing your
results with data gained from primary research. As you explore further, add to your
knowledge and update your findings. This will help you present clear, credible
information.
Primary vs secondary research
Unlike secondary research, primary research involves creating data first-hand by
directly working with interviewees, target users, or a target market. Primary
research focuses on the method for carrying out research, asking questions, and
collecting data using approaches such as:
 Interviews (panel, face-to-face or over the phone)
 Questionnaires or surveys
 Focus groups
Using these methods, researchers can get in-depth, targeted responses to
questions, making results more accurate and specific to their research goals.
However, it does take time to do and administer.
Unlike primary research, secondary research uses existing data, which also includes
published results from primary research. Researchers summarise the existing
research and use the results to support their research goals.
Both primary and secondary research have their places. Primary research can
support the findings found through secondary research (and fill knowledge gaps),
while secondary research can be a starting point for further primary research.
Because of this, these research methods are often combined for optimal research
results that are accurate at both the micro and macro level.
Primary Research Secondary Research
First-hand research to collect The research collects existing, published data.
data. May require a lot of time May require a little time
Creates raw data that the The researcher has no control over data method
researcher owns or ownership
Relevant to the goals of the May not be relevant to the goals of the research
research
The researcher conducts The researcher collects results. No information on
research. May be subject to what researcher bias existsSources of secondary
researcher bias research
Can be expensive to carry out More affordable due to access to free data
Sources of Secondary Research
There are two types of secondary research sources: internal and external. Internal
data refers to in-house data that can be gathered from the researcher’s
organisation. External data refers to data published outside of and not owned by the
researcher’s organisation.
Internal data
Internal data is a good first port of call for insights and knowledge, as you may
already have relevant information stored in your systems. Because you own this
information — and it won’t be available to other researchers — it can give you a
competitive edge. Examples of internal data include:
 Database information on sales history and business goal conversions
 Information from website applications and mobile site data
 Customer-generated data on product and service efficiency and use
 Previous research results or supplemental research areas
 Previous campaign results
External data
External data is useful when you: 1) need information on a new topic, 2) want to fill
in gaps in your knowledge, or 3) want data that breaks down a population or market
for trend and pattern analysis. Examples of external data include:
 Government, non-government agencies, and trade body statistics
 Company reports and research
 Competitor research
 Public library collections
 Textbooks and research journals
 Media stories in newspapers
 Online journals and research sites
Three examples of secondary research methods in action
How and why might you conduct secondary research? Let’s look at a few examples:
1. Collecting factual information from the internet on a specific topic or
market
There are plenty of sites that hold data for people to view and use in their research.
For example, Google Scholar, ResearchGate, or Wiley Online Library all provide
previous research on a particular topic. Researchers can create free accounts and
use the search facilities to look into a topic by keyword, before following the
instructions to download or export results for further analysis.
This can be useful for exploring a new market that your organisation wants to
consider entering. For instance, by viewing the U.S Census Bureau demographic
data for that area, you can see what your target audience’s demographic
segmentations are, and create compelling marketing campaigns accordingly.
2. Finding out the views of your target audience on a particular topic
If you’re interested in seeing the historical views on a particular topic, for example,
attitudes to women’s rights in the US, you can turn to secondary sources.
Textbooks, news articles, reviews, and journal entries can all provide qualitative
reports and interviews covering how people discussed women’s rights. There may
be multimedia elements like video or documented posters of propaganda showing
biased language usage.
By gathering this information, synthesising it, and evaluating the language, who
created it and when it was shared, you can create a timeline of how a topic was
discussed over time.
3. When you want to know the latest thinking on a topic
Educational institutions, such as schools and colleges, create a lot of research-based
reports on younger audiences or their academic specialisms. Dissertations from
students also can be submitted to research journals, making these places useful
places to see the latest insights from a new generation of academics.
Information can be requested — and sometimes academic institutions may want to
collaborate and conduct research on your behalf. This can provide key primary data
in areas that you want to research, as well as secondary data sources for your
research.
Advantages of secondary research
There are several benefits of using secondary research, which we’ve outlined below:
 Easily and readily available data – There is an abundance of readily
accessible data sources that have been pre-collected for use, in person at
local libraries and online using the internet. This data is usually sorted by
filters or can be exported into spreadsheet format, meaning that little
technical expertise is needed to access and use the data.
 Faster research speeds – Since the data is already published and in the
public arena, you don’t need to collect this information through primary
research. This can make the research easier to do and faster, as you can get
started with the data quickly.
 Low financial and time costs – Most secondary data sources can be
accessed for free or at a small cost to the researcher, so the overall research
costs are kept low. In addition, by saving on preliminary research, the time
costs for the researcher are kept down as well.
 Secondary data can drive additional research actions – The insights
gained can support future research activities (like conducting a follow-up
survey or specifying future detailed research topics) or help add value to
these activities.
 Secondary data can be useful pre-research insights – Secondary source
data can provide pre-research insights and information on effects that can
help resolve whether research should be conducted. It can also help highlight
knowledge gaps, so subsequent research can consider this.
 Ability to scale up results – Secondary sources can include large datasets
(like Census data results across several states) so research results can be
scaled up quickly using large secondary data sources.
Disadvantages of secondary research
The disadvantages of secondary research are worth considering in advance
of conducting research:
 Secondary research data can be out of date – Secondary sources can be
updated regularly, but if you’re exploring the data between two updates, the
data can be out of date. Researchers will need to consider whether the data
available provides the right research coverage dates, so that insights are
accurate and timely, or if the data needs to be updated. Also, fast-moving
markets may find secondary data expires very quickly.
  Secondary research needs to be verified and interpreted – Where
there’s a lot of data from one source, a researcher needs to review and
analyse it. The data may need to be verified against other data sets or your
hypotheses for accuracy and to ensure you’re using the right data for your
research.
 The researcher has had no control over the secondary research – As
the researcher has not been involved in the secondary research, invalid data
can affect the results. It’s therefore vital that the methodology and controls
are closely reviewed so that the data is collected in a systematic and error-
free way.
 Secondary research data is not exclusive – As data sets are commonly
available, there is no exclusivity and many researchers can use the same
data. This can be problematic where researchers want to have exclusive
rights over the research results and risk duplication of research in the future.
When do we conduct secondary research?
Now that you know the basics of secondary research, when do researchers normally
conduct secondary research?
It’s often used at the beginning of research, when the researcher is trying
to understand the current landscape. In addition, if the research area is new to the
researcher, it can form crucial background context to help them understand what
information exists already. This can plug knowledge gaps, supplement the
researcher’s own learning or add to the research.
Secondary research can also be used in conjunction with primary research.
Secondary research can become the formative research that helps pinpoint where
further primary research is needed to find out specific information. It can also
support or verify the findings from primary research.
You can use secondary research where high levels of control aren’t needed by the
researcher, but a lot of knowledge on a topic is required from different angles.
Secondary research should not be used in place of primary research as both are
very different and are used for various circumstances.
Questions to ask before conducting secondary research
Before you start your secondary research, ask yourself these questions:
 Is there similar internal data that we have created for a similar area
in the past?
If your organisation has past research, it’s best to review this work before starting a
new project. The older work may provide you with the answers, and give you a
starting dataset and context of how your organisation approached the research
before. However, be mindful that the work is probably out of date and view it with
that note in mind. Read through and look for where this helps your research goals or
where more work is needed.
 What am I trying to achieve with this research?
When you have clear goals, and understand what you need to achieve, you can look
for the perfect type of secondary or primary research to support the aims. Different
secondary research data will provide you with different information – for example,
looking at news stories to tell you a breakdown of your market’s buying patterns
won’t be as useful as internal or external data e-commerce and sales data sources.
 How credible will my research be?
If you are looking for credibility, you want to consider how accurate the research
results will need to be, and if you can sacrifice credibility for speed by using
secondary sources to get you started. Bear in mind which sources you choose —
low-credibility data sites, like political party websites that are highly biased to
favour their own party, would skew your results.
 What is the date of the secondary research?
When you’re looking to conduct research, you want the results to be as useful as
possible, so using data that is 10 years old won’t be as accurate as using data that
was created a year ago. Since a lot can change in a few years, note the date of your
research and look for earlier data sets that can tell you a more recent picture of
results. One caveat to this is using data collected over a long-term period for
comparisons with earlier periods, which can tell you about the rate and direction of
change.
 Can the data sources be verified? Does the information you have
check out?
If you can’t verify the data by looking at the research methodology, speaking to the
original team or cross-checking the facts with other research, it could be hard to be
sure that the data is accurate. Think about whether you can use another source, or
if it’s worth doing some supplementary primary research to replicate and verify
results to help with this issue.
What next?
We created a front-to-back guide on conducting market research, The ultimate
guide to conducting market research, so you can understand the research
journey with confidence.
In it, you’ll learn more about:
 What effective market research looks like
 The use cases for market research
 The most important steps to conducting market research
 And how to take action on your research findings