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WEB-BASED MARKETING
RESEARCH
By: Meg Walker
As Marketing professionals, we are
all aware of the need to measure program results. We can measure
website hits, bingo card responses, 800-number calls and
increased product purchases. Unless we ask our customers,
however, we will never know WHY particular programs are
successful and others are not.
When was the last time you asked 500 of your best customers why
they are loyal to your products, services, website or
promotions? How much did it cost? How long did it take?
The most effective Marketing strategies include some level of
market research. Whether you choose the services of a large
professional organization or you conduct an in-house telephone
survey, you know that research can be complex, time-consuming
and expensive. What do you do when you need answers quickly?
Consider implementing a web-based survey. Here are several areas
where you need on-going feedback and can implement tactical
surveys to rapidly gather information that you need now.
Who is visiting your website?
Demographic information about your website visitors is crucial.
To whom does your site appeal? Why does your website appeal to
them? How long do they stay on the site? Although you can
extrapolate some information from log files analysis, these
questions cannot be answered except by asking the visitors
themselves. By implementing an online survey in a pop-up window,
you can get important demographic and site-use information.
Either by appealing to visitors’ need to express opinions or by
offering an incentive, you can rapidly gather data to help you
improve your online presence. Interestingly, customers who feel
that they contribute to your programs are more likely to remain
loyal.
Are your services meeting customer needs?
I recently launched a survey to assess the effectiveness of a
literature and sample fulfillment service that cost $250,000 per
year. By designing a brief nine-question survey and e-mailing an
invitation to recent sales prospects, I was able to gather
information about service satisfaction as well as brand loyalty,
sample usage and general demographics. I launched the survey on
Thursday at noon and by Monday afternoon had received an
unprecedented 34% response. By Tuesday morning, when I met with
the Business Unit Manager for that product, I was able to
recommend (and provide substantiation) for maintaining both the
samples program and particular brand identities. And my cost?
Less than two hours of work and under $300.
Are your advertising campaigns driving traffic?
Many advertisers now list their web address as part of their
advertisements. This is a two-edged sword. Since most prospects
have access to the Internet, they will not return bingo cards,
so ad response rates may appear significantly lower than just a
few years ago. Unless you implement special response URLs,
gateway pages or on-line mirrors of your advertising campaign,
you cannot reliably capture which site visitors are driven to
your website by traditional advertising means. These solutions
require significant time investments and can be expensive
add-ons to your already-costly advertising campaign.
With budgets that often reach into millions of dollars,
Marketing professionals need a reliable method to prove program
effectiveness so that they can focus their spending to increase
return on investment. By implementing an online survey linked to
your advertised product’s web page, you can find out what draws
your visitors to the site. Additionally, you can also discover
what prospects’ needs are, what appealed to them about your
advertising campaign and what other media sources they rely on.
Far beyond the unique URL solution or expensive industry-wide
research, surveys give you tangible, objective data about why
particular programs are effective with your unique audience.
How Do I Start?
The first step in launching a successful web-based market
research survey is to decide who you want to study and why. Of
the many uses for surveys, I’ve given three scenarios where this
tool provides important, actionable data. Putting together a
clear statement of purpose first will become invaluable as you
write and order your questions. Your statement should include
who you are surveying, why you are surveying, what data you hope
to accumulate and what business decisions the data will help you
to make.
Next, how do you want to present the data? Are there concepts or
ideas that you want to compare? Do you want to compare data from
two different demographic groups? If you plan to present the
data, choose formats and software that make graphing the data
easier (or graph the data automatically).
Write your questions. Keep the questionnaire short and on topic
or you will lose your audience. Longer, more complex surveys do
not necessarily give you enough incremental data to justify
potential frustration of tabulating responses – or decreased
response rates. Avoid adding questions that don’t have
particular bearing on your business decisions. For instance, if
your product or content is not gender-specific, you don’t need
to ask the respondents’ gender.
Decide how you want your respondents to answer. Choose
single-choice, multiple-choice, agree-disagree or sliding-scale
reply formats. Do you need more information? Add a block for a
verbose response to an open-ended question. Thinking through
response mechanisms clearly will facilitate tabulating your
data. Remember, you can always launch a follow-up survey, if
necessary.
Publicize your survey. Decide whether you want to have the
survey appear as a pop-up window or if you want to send out
e-mail notifications. If you send e-mail invitations, you can
also send follow up reminders to encourage responses. If you
send out e-mail invitations, make certain to use the BCC (blind
copy) field in your e-mail for all of the addresses. You can
reinforce confidentiality by keeping all of your audience from
knowing who else has received the invitation.
Receive and analyze your results. Unless you have chosen a
user-friendly program, this may be the most complex and
frustrating aspect of your research program. As mentioned
earlier, graphing the results will be very useful in analyzing
and presenting them.
Conclusion
With current, accurate data at your fingertips, you can make
winning decisions about the programs that you implement. Using
tactical surveys regularly allows you to adjust your messages
and strategies quickly to meet a changing market. You can know
who your customers are, what their needs are and whether your
company is meeting them – and you can show objective data to
your colleagues to support the important decisions you need to
make every day.
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During her 18 years'
experience in marketing and sales, Meg Walker has developed
winning advertising, public relations and web campaigns. As the
founder of iMarketing Group
http://www.i-mktg.com/, Meg
leverages her special expertise in marketing for biotechnology,
healthcare and pharmaceutical industries. Her clients receive
personalized attention, which results in online branding and
interactive programs that create revenue and build their bottom
line. She holds a Bachelor's Degree from Hood College, and has
completed significant coursework towards her Master's Degree at
University of Baltimore. She regularly judges in top industry
website competitions. Additionally, she has written numerous
articles which have been published by the American Marketing
Association, ExpertPR, eHealthcare Newsletter, Employee Benefits
News, eCustomer Service World, and Dr. eBiz, among others. |