If you were going to start a marketing campaign, what would be your first step? If it would be to start writing copy, brainstorming creative treatments and getting quotes for production costs, you are WRONG (yes, it’s true). The correct answer is to first do some market research!
Too often, business leaders invest in marketing campaigns they feel would be effective iftheywere the target audience. That same campaign, however, may not always be effective for the actual target audience. In reality, most businesses’ leadership is not the same demographic as the desired audience and may require different communication vehicles or elements to be effective. And, to identify the most effective way to communicate with your audience, marketing research is essential.
Marketing research comes in many different shapes, sizes and price points. One highly effective method of research is surveying. Surveys can be an easy and inexpensive method of obtaining feedback. Surveys can clarify in what communication vehicles the audience prefers to read about your product, what verbiage they find easy to understand and can even identify what level of understanding the public currently has about your product. Websites such as Survey Monkey allow you to create free surveys to send via email with automatically generated results. Alternatively, surveying can be as simple as distributing paper surveys by hand.
Interviews can also be an effective method of garnering feedback. Often, by talking to your audience, more in-depth information on how they think, feel and react can be gleaned rather than by giving a survey, which may restrict their responses. Finally, while every marketing campaign wants to be unique, look at how your competition is doing it! If all the competition is marketing in a certain magazine or writing verbiage in a certain lingo, it may be worth considering doing the same, as their methods are most likely based on previous success.
Ultimately, while doing research upfront may add days to your timeline, it will no doubt make up for it in a targeted marketing approach that speaks more clearly to your audience and maximizes your marketing dollar.