If you are a small business, you must have a plan to conduct continuing research with your clients or buyers. If you do not know why they choose you, how they navigate your line of products or services, and what will keep them coming back, your business results will be sub-optimal.
As the head of an Atlanta marketing consulting firm who has been hired by many of America's biggest corporations during the last 15 years, I design in-depth market research projects for my clients. And while focus groups, in-home or in-store interviews, and quantitative surveys are extremely useful for gathering the vital information that will help companies make smarter marketing decisions, you can get valuable results, now, with a few straightforward approaches.
The first- - and maybe most difficult- - thing you need to do is to approach your business, your industry, and your target audience from a fresh, objective viewpoint (this explains why many firms find it particularly valuable to bring on an external resource). After years of being in the same market, many business owners or entrepreneurs develop unyielding opinions as to what works and why. The challenge is that they have developed a set of filters that only confirm what they expect to see, and they become blind to new information that contradicts their pre-conceived views. The only way to deal with this is to recognize it and to consciously work against it.
The second thing is to pick out your research priorities. What is the most important thing you want to find out more about your customers or buyers? What piece of vital information are you missing about your product or service offering? What's the one thing you'd most like to know about why your customer base behaves the way it does?
Once you've focused on what you need to know, work on distilling it down to the most simple, concise set of questions you can. Shed jargon and confusing terms and describe things like you would if you were in the 4th grade. Use basic 'who ', 'what ', 'when ', 'why ', 'how ', and 'where ' questions whenever possible. Here are a sampling of ideas to get you started:
- Where did you hear about us? Who else did you check out? Why did you ultimately choose to go with us?
- What did you like best about your experience? What's they one thing that would have made it better for you?
- Why did you choose this product (or service)? How did it catch your attention?
- When you tell your friends and family about us, what will you concentrate on?
The best way to ask these questions is casually, on an one-to-one basis. Smile lightly when you talk, and use a neutral tone that will help folks understand that you appreciate their honest, candid feedback. Don't interrogate; keep your questions to 1 or 2 at a time, unless the individual you are talking with cares to share in more detail. Listen intently. After each encounter, take a minute to quickly jot down a summary of the feedback you received- - do not depend on your memory, which will skew the results because you will end up processing the feedback through your filter of biases and preconceptions.
As a small- to mid-sized business, you may not have the giant market research budget top companies enjoy- - but by employing this straightforward process on a continual basis, it's possible to get the type of information that can help you make better, more informed decisions. Begin today!
As the head of an Atlanta marketing consulting firm who has been hired by many of America's biggest corporations during the last 15 years, I design in-depth market research projects for my clients. And while focus groups, in-home or in-store interviews, and quantitative surveys are extremely useful for gathering the vital information that will help companies make smarter marketing decisions, you can get valuable results, now, with a few straightforward approaches.
The first- - and maybe most difficult- - thing you need to do is to approach your business, your industry, and your target audience from a fresh, objective viewpoint (this explains why many firms find it particularly valuable to bring on an external resource). After years of being in the same market, many business owners or entrepreneurs develop unyielding opinions as to what works and why. The challenge is that they have developed a set of filters that only confirm what they expect to see, and they become blind to new information that contradicts their pre-conceived views. The only way to deal with this is to recognize it and to consciously work against it.
The second thing is to pick out your research priorities. What is the most important thing you want to find out more about your customers or buyers? What piece of vital information are you missing about your product or service offering? What's the one thing you'd most like to know about why your customer base behaves the way it does?
Once you've focused on what you need to know, work on distilling it down to the most simple, concise set of questions you can. Shed jargon and confusing terms and describe things like you would if you were in the 4th grade. Use basic 'who ', 'what ', 'when ', 'why ', 'how ', and 'where ' questions whenever possible. Here are a sampling of ideas to get you started:
- Where did you hear about us? Who else did you check out? Why did you ultimately choose to go with us?
- What did you like best about your experience? What's they one thing that would have made it better for you?
- Why did you choose this product (or service)? How did it catch your attention?
- When you tell your friends and family about us, what will you concentrate on?
The best way to ask these questions is casually, on an one-to-one basis. Smile lightly when you talk, and use a neutral tone that will help folks understand that you appreciate their honest, candid feedback. Don't interrogate; keep your questions to 1 or 2 at a time, unless the individual you are talking with cares to share in more detail. Listen intently. After each encounter, take a minute to quickly jot down a summary of the feedback you received- - do not depend on your memory, which will skew the results because you will end up processing the feedback through your filter of biases and preconceptions.
As a small- to mid-sized business, you may not have the giant market research budget top companies enjoy- - but by employing this straightforward process on a continual basis, it's possible to get the type of information that can help you make better, more informed decisions. Begin today!
About the Author:
Marie Elwood runs Increased Results, a market research consulting firm in Atlanta, Georgia that focuses on consumer insights and new product commercialization.
