Posts Tagged: Marketing Research

Customer Research / Market Research / Marketing Analysis Tools — No Comments
2
Apr 12

Debunking Marketing Research Myths

Teresa BasshamThere are two myths that need to be debunked about Marketing Research: It’s expensive and it takes a long time.

Not today – The first phase of any professional market research is desk research – this is something anyone can do using the internet. For DIY researchers, the internet has two important sources of information:

  1. The websites which companies, organisations and individuals have created to promote or communicate their products, services or views;
  2. User groups that are made up of people who have an interest in a particular industry or subject.

There are tips that make searching the www easier and more targeted.  I use Google Advanced Search – you can easily look at all their tips yourself but here’s a few that work well for internet market research:

  1. By putting double quotes (“”) around a set of words, you are telling Google to consider the exact words in that exact order without any change.
  2. The *, or wildcard, can be very powerful. If you include * within a query, it tells Google to try to treat the * as a placeholder for any unknown term(s) and then find the best matches.
  3. Use the file type “PDF” because most research reports are large and are protected.
  4. Set a date range e.g. not older then 12months – and then you get the latest reports, which is important in this fast moving market environment.
  5. Finally, if you can’t find an industry report, pick and industry that services the same customer base and you will at least have some useful data about your customer segment.

What your desk research won’t tell you is “WHY they buy from you”?  You can simply talk to your best (or worst) customers to ask them. My suggestion is that you draft a list of questions and ask the same questions of every customer, to provide better comparisons, but also to validate the data. Then you need to capture this information, if you have only a few customers – not so hard – but when you have hundreds – you should look at other survey methods.

There are many free online survey cloud options, ranging from Survey Monkey, SurveyGizmo to QuestionPro.  The free service has restrictions but if you are just starting out, you will not need anything too sophisticated.  The most important action is to start understanding your customer and market.

Tip 1: Look for a free package that provides a link to the survey and that way you can post your survey link on your social networks and email out to your customer or subscriber base – ensuring that you are getting feedback from connections that know you and your products and/or services.

Tip 2: If you want to improve survey response rates, offer an incentive prize that will be appealing to your audience!

It’s so important, I am going to say it again: The most important action you can take in your business, is to start understanding your customer and market.  Good luck, and let me know how you are progressing?

Zenworkz Authentic Marketing has our own online survey tool, which is very sophisticated survey software.  Thats why I like to help my customers get clear about what information they need to know; create a survey specific to their needs; provide all the administration of the survey emails or social media posting; and producing the reports – it’s not free but it is very cost, time and results effective.  If you would like an obligation free quote – please email me: teresabassham@zenworkz.com

About the author:  Teresa Bassham is the owner of Zenworkz Authentic Marketing and educates businesses to think, create, engage and optimise their marketing effort.  She coaches customers in Marketing Strategy, both off and online; and implementation.  If you would like some free how-to marketing resources, please check her website:

http://www.zenworkz.com/

For daily marketing tips and references, connect on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/Zenworkz.Authentic.Marketing

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Attracting Customers / Authentic Marketing / Authentic Message Creation / Branding / Customer Research / Uncategorized — No Comments
8
Jan 12

Not only know thyself – know thy customer is essential for 2012

Over the last year I have been fortunate to have coached exceptionally talented small and medium businesses with their authentic marketing.  We’ve spent most of our time working on a marketing planning system to improve their business results; and have focused in a way that measures personal success and not just business success.

Overwhelmingly all these talented and unique business customers (and I know they won’t mind sharing this with you) had the same marketing problems and I want to share their number 1 problem.

The commonest mistake made by SME’s is having insufficient knowledge of their ideal customer’s attitudes and behaviours.  All had difficultly answering the questions “who do you sell to” and how are your marketing strategies aligned to your customer profile?

I have covered the subject of Market Intelligence or Marketing Research or both…. in a previous blog but it’s worth recapping the importance.

Market intelligence is an activity that existing businesses, whatever their size, should engage in to answer the questions of: “who”, “what”, “how much”, “where”, and “when” your customer buys your products and services. What market intelligence cannot tell you is what your customers are really thinking or “why” your potential customers would buy from you; this is when you do need to do some customer market research. If you are just starting a business, then customer and market research is essential to identify this information, because you cannot craft your authentic offer and message, without your ideal customer in mind.

The expanding multimedia digital and online market environment makes it even more important to understand your customer, where they hang out – both off and online; and the behaviours and attitudes that make them ideally suited to your product or service.  It may be a lucky 1% who has something so unique that word of mouth goes viral over social media platforms and customers beat a path to your door; for the 99% of the rest of us – it takes clarity, focus, hard work and a marketing plan to achieve success.

Ready to know thy customer better in 2012? I’d love to hear your thoughts?

About the author: Teresa Bassham is the principle of Zenworkz Authentic Marketing, and is passionate about educating small and medium business professionals to create their authentic marketing message, attract more ideal customers and have a marketing plan to achieve success in 2012.  She runs local workshops in Northern NSW and coach customers online and by phone – if you would like to attend the next scheduled workshops on 24th & 25th Jan, 2012 or request distance coaching online – please contact us.

For more regular Authentic Marketing updates visit and like my facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/Zenworkz.Authentic.Marketing

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Business Transformation / Marketing 101 / Online Survey — No Comments
17
Jun 10

Market Intelligence or Marketing Research or both….

Answering this question requires an understanding of the difference between Market Intelligence and Marketing Research; and breaking down the FUD (Fear Uncertainty Doubt) about these subjects;  explaining why and when your business needs both.  What follows addresses those fears, uncertainties and doubts that sees some business owners unnecessarily shy away from the benefits that good intelligence and research could bring to their business.

Market Intelligence is an activity that all businesses, whatever their size, should engage in to answer the questions of  ”who”, “what”, “how much”, “where”, and “when” your customer buys your products and services.

At a fundamental level gathering Market Intelligence is as simple as talking to your customers and suppliers; storing and using that information, to identify trends, inform business development decisions and marketing campaigns; and prepare your business for whatever the future brings.

There are many customer relationship management (CRM) packages, the best ones linked to accounting software systems, that provide easy storage of customer and supplier information to answer the questions of who, what, how much, where and when your customer buys.

Market Intelligence is also the process of regularly gathering information about the status of market in which you trade, including competitors, regulatory issues, and economic conditions.  What market intelligence cannot tell you is what your customers are really thinking or “why” your customer buys from you.

This is where you need Marketing Research to answer specific questions, like:

  • Is there a market for my new product idea?
  • What will the market pay?
  • What is the scope of the demand and can I make a profit?
  • Identify specific market segments to target?
  • What did they think about my last promotion?
  • How satisfied are my customers?
  • How satisfied are my channel partners?
  • Evaluate the effectiveness of distribution, website, advertising etc?

Specifically, there are two myths that need to be debunked about Marketing Research:

  • It’s expensive and
  • It takes a long time.

Expense and time are often a reflection of the methodology and scope that’s employed to answer very specific marketing research questions.  The most costly and lengthy methods being face to face interviews; with many individuals collating and loading often hand written notes into a database.

Internet technology today has significantly reduced these costs and shortened timeframes by using online surveys. Survey respondents automatically load their answers, thereby reducing transcription time and human error.

Any business can use internet survey companies that will send your survey out for free (100 people).  A major criticism of internet surveys is that that they don’t represent an accurate sample of the population.
Meaning: who you ask your marketing research question to, is as important as what you ask.  This is where a skilled marketing research person really adds value that is worth paying for.

There are two tests for accuracy and soundness of the marketing research results:

  • Validity – did the research give you the answers to the questions that you needed to know?
  • Reliability – if you conducted the research again, would you get the same results?

Using online surveys certainly does keep the costs down; but a skilled marketing research person ensures “validity” and “reliability” by accurately defining the problem to be solved; the correct questions to ask; and whether there are other cost-effective ways to get the result.
Once information has been gather from the correct primary sample; a skilled marketing research person adds value by being able to spot differences, draw conclusions and make recommendations that you are able to implement.

Implementing strategies and processes based on skilled market research gives significant business value which lasts long after the survey cost is forgotten.

About the author: Teresa Bassham is a Director of Zenworkz and helps businesses effectively source the right information that improves their decision making and bottom line.

All or parts of this blog are able to be published with permission from the author – provided that the author is acknowledged and a link is given to the original source blog.

Zenworkz – informed business transformation and evaluation

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