Why You Should Do Market Research
Filed under: Affiliate Programs, Home Business, Internet Marketing, Marketing, Other - Advertising & Marketing, Viral Marketing
For any organization that wants to offer products or services that are focused and well targeted market research is essential. Business decisions that are based on good intelligence and good market research can minimise risk and pay dividends. By making market research part and parcel of the business process and conducting market research throughout the life cycle of a product or service market research will bring the following benefits:-
- Market research will help you better communicate - Your current customers experiences are a valuable information source, not only will they allow you to gauge how well you currently meet their expectations they can also tell you where you are getting things right and more importantly where you are getting things wrong. By asking your customers you no longer need to guess what your customers are thinking and you demonstrate to them that you are proactive when it comes to customer services and value their opinion.
- Market research helps you identify opportunities – If you are planning to operate a new service and want to know the preconceived attitudes people have then market research can help, not only in evaluating the potential for a new idea, but also by identify the areas where a marketing message needs to be honed.
- Market research will minimise risk - Market research can help shape a new product or service, identifying what is needed and ensure that the development of a product is highly focused towards demand.
- Market research creates benchmarks and helps you measure your progress - Unless you measure you may not be able to gauge how well your business is performing. Early research may highlight glaring holes in your service or short falls in your product, regular market research will show if improvements are being made and, if positive, will help motivate a team.
Market research brings considerable benefits and it is perhaps surprising how few organizations invest sufficient resources to enable them to gather good intelligence that will help them improve their business. Many may think that market research takes too much time and effort but that is just not the case anymore as through the power of the Internet online survey software is readily available and vital market research data can now be gathered in a quick, simple and cost effective manner.
What is Market Research Going to Tell You?
Filed under: Affiliate Programs, Home Business, Internet Marketing, Marketing, Other - Advertising & Marketing, Viral Marketing
What can you learn by conducting effective market research?
Know your customers – Market research will help you better understand your customers in a number of ways including demographic information such as their age, gender and geographic spread. The better you know your customer the easier it is to fine tune your product or service towards the target market.
Know your target market - Who exactly are your existing customers and where do they live? Does your product or service appeal to specific age group? Do you know who your potential customers are and where they live?
Know your competition – Market Research will help you measure your service compared to others. What are the strengths and weaknesses of your organization and are you improving in the right areas?
Products and services - Do you have the products or services that people want? Is what you offer value for money? How do your company’s products and services match up to that of your competitors? Can you, do you, should you deliver?
Ease of doing business – Do your customers find it easy to deal with you and when they visit your store and/or website do they find what they want? Is there enough good advice and assistance on hand? Do people find it easy to buy from you? Are your staff properly trained, knowledgeable, helpful and available?
Marketing – Is your marketing reaching the right people and is the marketing message clear and effective. Which are the least effective marketing channels?
Is your marketing message understood? Does your marketing material accurately reflect your brand? Do you use the right advertising and promotion channels? Are you reaching the right people?
With the power of the Internet it is now very easy to conduct market research using one of the many online survey software sites that make conducting surveys and collating good market research intelligence quick, easy and extremely cost effective.
Why Website Surveys are Effective
Filed under: Affiliate Programs, Home Business, Internet Marketing, Marketing, Other - Advertising & Marketing, Viral Marketing
There are many tools available to a webmaster to analyse website traffic, some free like Google’s Analytics that will allow them to monitor the number of visitors, see what pages have been accessed and the length of time visitors have spent accessing the website and a whole lot more.
However, despite the vast amount of detailed information that can be collected what will always be missing is information that will tell the webmaster what the visitor was thinking. Did they like the website? Was the layout easy to understand or confusing? Was the website easy to use and did they find the information they wanted?
A website may be generating sales but why are there some people that are visiting the website and not buying anything? Was it because they didn’t like what the product or service were or was it that they couldn’t find what it was that they wanted?
Web based surveys provide webmasters with an accurate method of answering these types of questions. Direct feedback from the website visitors means that there is no longer the need to guess, just ask the visitors how they found the site and if they found what they were looking for.
With an online survey webmasters can find out:-
- How often do people visit the website?
- How did they find the website?
- Are they interested in the website for business or pleasure?
- Did they find the information they were looking for?
- How easy was it for them to navigate the website?
- Would they recommend the website to their friends and/or colleagues?
A good website survey will be concise and will collate information that once analyzed will provide valuable information to help improve the website.
An alternative to a more traditional customer survey would be to ask just one or two questions at strategic points. One example would be to ask visitors at the end of the registration process if they found the procedure quick and easy; another example would be after ordering an item the customer could be asked if they found the ordering procedure and payment methods to their liking. So that the questions don’t become a nuisance to regular visitors the website can be configured so that the questions are only asked once for every registered user.
Website surveys take the mystery out of working out what visitors think of a website and using Online Survey Software they are quick and easy to design and once implemented will really become the webmaster’s assistant.
To see a sample website survey please follow the link: Sample Website Survey
Maintaining A Relationship with a Live Audience
Filed under: Affiliate Programs, Home Business, Internet Marketing, Marketing, Other - Advertising & Marketing, Viral Marketing
Many promoters starting out have to work hard and on a shoestring to get an audience of a few hundred people to fill a venue. Flyers, word-of-mouth and media name checks are some of the tools promoters use to fill small venues or club nights. Building up a loyal following from scratch is no easy task. Considering the amount of effort that can be required to fill even the smallest of venues it is surprising that very few promoters capitalise on their efforts and use the actual event to maximise the opportunity to encourage further audience contact.
With a minimal outlay and a little thought online surveys will help the promoter gather valuable feedback and the opportunity to establish a long term relationship with their audience. Using online Survey Software a promoter can now quickly and easily create an online survey.
With an online survey a promoter can find out exactly:-
- who attended;
- what persuaded them;
- what they thought of the event;
- would they expect to attend again;
- would they recommend future events to their friends.
A way to ensure a good response is to have a number of business sized cards that are marked clearly with words like “Feedback”, “Your opinion counts”, “Tell us what you thought”. On each card a web address will point either directly to the survey or to a website where a link to the survey can be placed. Cards can be issued at the entrance along with the tickets, or handed out among the audience and if they are made the size of business cards they will be small enough to be stick in a pocket, purse or wallet. A small incentive such as a chance to win a free guest pass for a future event, a signed CD or T shirt may improve the response rate.
Using the results from online surveys the promoter is able to:
- Obtain a profile of the audience
- Gauge the overall success of the event;
- Measure the effectiveness of different promotion;
- Receive feedback on the venue and facilities;
- Receive feedback on the act;
- Promote on a one on one basis;
- Build a targeted database for future events;
- Build a loyal audience;
- Link to merchandise and other promotions.
It takes considering effort to promote an event and only a little extra effort to use online surveys to encourage further contact and reap a number of short and long term benefits that contact will bring.
The following sample survey shows the feedback that could be used for a breaking band. Not only does the process collate good feedback it also continues to promote the band, their CDs, downloads and gives the opportunity to encourage further contact.
Sample Feedback Survey
To view the summary results of the survey: Sample Survey Results
Keeping in Contact with a Live Audience
Filed under: Affiliate Programs, Home Business, Internet Marketing, Marketing, Other - Advertising & Marketing, Viral Marketing
Many promoters starting out have to work hard and on a shoestring to get an audience of a few hundred people to fill a venue. Flyers, word-of-mouth and media name checks are some of the tools promoters use to fill small venues or club nights. It is not easy building up a loyal following from scratch. Attracting enough people to fill even the smallest of venues can be a challenge for any up and coming band and those promoting the band shouldn’t miss the opportunity to establish a relationship with the audience that will continue beyond the end of the evening.
For a small outlay online surveys can be set up to provide the promoter with feedback and the opportunity to maintain an on going relationship with their audience. Using online Survey Software a promoter can now quickly and easily create an online survey.
With an online survey a promoter can find out exactly:-
- who attended;
- what persuaded them;
- what they thought of the event;
- would they expect to attend again;
- would they recommend future events to their friends.
A good way to ensure a good response is to have a supply of business sized cards that are marked clearly with a slogan like “Feedback”, “Your opinion counts”, “Tell us what you thought”. Each card would have a web address pointing either directly to the survey or to a website where a link to the survey can be placed. The cards can be issued at the door with the tickets, or handed out among the audience and being the size of business cards they are small enough to be stuck in a pocket, purse or wallet. It may not even be necessary but a small incentive wouldn’t harm the response rate perhaps the chance to win a free guest pass for a future event, a signed CD or T shirt.
Using the results from online surveys the promoter is able to:
- Obtain a profile of the audience
- Gauge the overall success of the event;
- Measure the effectiveness of different promotion;
- Receive feedback on the venue and facilities;
- Receive feedback on the act;
- Promote on a one on one basis;
- Build a targeted database for future events;
- Build a loyal audience;
- Link to merchandise and other promotions.
Considering the effort that it takes to promote an event and the little extra effort required in using online surveys to encourage further contact and all the immediate and long term benefits that will bring – it really couldn’t be any easier.
The following example shows the feedback that could be used for a breaking band. Not only does it gather valuable feedback, but continues to promote the band, their recorded music and establishes the opportunity to encourage further contact.
Sample Feedback Survey
To view the summary results of the survey: Sample Survey Results
A Website Survey Makes Sense
Filed under: Affiliate Programs, Home Business, Internet Marketing, Marketing, Other - Advertising & Marketing, Viral Marketing
Webmasters have access to free tools such as Google’s Analytics that will provide them with detailed information on the number of website visitors, what pages have been accessed and the length of time visitors have spent accessing the website.
However, despite the considerable data available what is missing is anything to tell the webmaster what the visitor was thinking. Did they like or dislike the site? Was the layout easy to understand or just plain confusing? Was it easy to navigate the website and were they able to find the information they wanted?
A website may be generating sales but why are some people that visit the website not buying anything? Was it because they didn’t like what the product or service were or was it that they couldn’t find what it was that they wanted?
Website surveys provide webmasters with an excellent and accurate method of answering these types of questions. Direct feedback from the website visitors cuts to the chase, there is no longer any need to guess, just ask the visitors directly how they arrived at the site and if they were able to find what they were looking for.
With an online survey webmasters can find out:-
- How often do people visit the website?
- How did they find the website?
- Is their interest in the website for reasons of business or pleasure?
- Was the information they were looking for found on the website?
- How easy was it for them to navigate the website?
- Would they be prepared to recommend the website to others?
A good website survey will be concise and will collate information that once analyzed will provide valuable information to help improve the website.
An alternative to a traditional survey would be to embed one or two survey questions within the website after specific procedures. One example would be to ask visitors at the end of the registration process if they found the procedure quick and easy; another example would be after ordering an item the customer could be asked if they found the ordering procedure and payment methods to their liking. To ensure that the questions don’t become repetitive to regular visitors the website can be programmed so that the questions are only asked once per registered user.
Website surveys take the mystery out of working out what visitors think of a website and using Online Survey Software they are quick and easy to design and once implemented will really become the webmaster’s assistant.
To see a sample website survey please follow the link: Sample Website Survey
Questions on Marketing Strategy/Segmentation.(multiple choice)?
Which of the following is typically the most difficult task of marketing strategy?
A. identifying problems for research
B. creating/implementing successful strategies to attract and profitably retain customers
C. conducting valid research
D. designing research projects
E. creating data collection instruments
Which is the 1st step in the marketing research process?
A. Determining the target market
B. Defining the problem and research objectives
C. Collecting Data
D. Determining the sample population
E. None of the above
Which of the following is the limitation of focus group research?
A. based on small samples
B. based on probability of samples
C. may suffer from interview bias
D. all of the above
E. none of the above
The process of dividing a market into distinct groups with distinct needs, characteristics or behavior, who might require separate marketing mixes is called________
A. target market
B. market positioning
C. market segmentation
D. market research
E. none of the above
Cody