Tag Archives: Facebook

Four Ways That Using a Customer Research Panel Makes You Money

Posted on August 1, 2011 by | Leave a comment

It was only going to be a matter of time before someone figured out that random people milling around social media channels was going to be difficult to mobilize once the technology hit the mainstream.

We’ve already seen how this works on MySpace; as soon as Facebook got into the picture and allowed for tighter, more personal relationships to develop, the random associations via MySpace fizzled.

Twitter had been moving into the same direction when they introduced “lists” and gave you the ability to start segmenting the people you followed into groups.

And now, with the swooning over Google+ and it’s circles, the trend is clear — people want to be in groups and you want them to be in groups because there’s no other way to meaningfully engage with folks without losing your mind or your money.

Customer Research Panels are Your Own Social Network

There have been customer group applications out there, but the big flaw they all have is their inability to make sense out of what your group is saying in a meaningful way.  These applications are mostly about having conversations.  And that is great – but doesn’t help you make decisions that will improve customer satisfaction or experience.

When you create a customer research panel, you are opening the door to more meaningful conversations around your product or service.  And as soon as the conversation turns meaningful — value makes an appearance and this will ultimately drive revenue.

IdeaScale is a great way to start exploring the world of customer research panels.  In a very loose definition of the term, people register on your IdeaScale page and vote improvement or development ideas up or down.  They can also add comments and get into conversations.  There is a quantitative component in that ideas get votes and a qualitative component in the comment sections of the ideas.

You can engage your IdeaScale community in rather powerful ways so that they function as a sort of focus group.

IdeaScale is really a super-two-fer tool in that it saves you money in all the preliminary work around focus groups.  It can make you money if you pay attention to the recommendations that are made by your customers and implement them.  Depending on how well you use IdeaScale, it’s not uncommon to save your small business in the range of $100,000.  This is generally what it costs to do this kind of research that was never in your budget before.  I’m not even including the money saved in mistakes and missteps because you didn’t know exactly what the customer wanted.

Funnel Your Customers Into a Panel and Build Engagement

Instead of loading up a customer list to do a traditional online customer survey, invite your customer community to participate in your online research panel.

An online research panel is really nothing more and a group of people who have volunteered to answer your questions in return for either points, rewards or other kinds of incentives.

Building a customer research panel actually makes you money in the following ways:

  1. You have a group of engaged customers waiting to tell you what they think.  It takes time and money to engage customers enough to care to give you an honest opinion.  When you already have a group of engaged customers who have your interest at heart (mostly because it’s in their interest), then you have a golden respondent base.
  2. You get faster responses to your questions.  People who have opted into answering your questions will answer them quickly.
  3. Your response rate will be better.  The assumption here is that you are regularly touching your panel, but not constantly bothering them.  As in any social response, make the exchange count.
  4. Other companies will want to reach out to your panel.  Chances are there are other companies who weren’t as savvy as you were to create a customer research panel and they sell to your customers as well.  This is an opportunity for you to give your customer panel the opportunity to earn more incentives and to earn some revenue off the work you invested in creating the panel.
  5. Better decisions.  Companies who use a customer research panel to test out ideas and do exploratory research make better decision faster.  By simply asking a few questions and getting quick responses and then showing your customers what you’ve done with the responses they’ve given you, you’re getting them involved early in the development process.
Are you currently running a customer research panel of your own?  What are some of the benefits that you’ve seen so far?

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SurveySwipe Launches Mobile Research Communities Pilot Program

Posted on July 19, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Survey Analytics Offers Companies Three Months of Free Beta Testing

Seattle, July 19 2011 – SurveySwipe, a subsidiary of Survey Analytics is introducing a free three-month demo of the Mobile Research Communities pilot program to companies who sign-up for beta testing on the SurveySwipe website. SurveySwipe Mobile Research Communities allows companies to reach out to specific audiences with questions relevant to their brand and to receive feedback from that audience in real-time – via smart phones.

SurveySwipe serves as both a social and a business application. Users who download the app can earn points for answering questions related to their particular communities and those points can then be redeemed for various kinds of prizes like iPhone applications, gift cards, and other deals. The information obtained from SurveySwipe Mobile Research Communities is highly targeted, hyper-local, and easily obtained from users who are incentivized to respond in a convenient manner.

Like other Survey Analytics solutions, SurveySwipe is accessible and developed to be user-friendly. Companies can easily adapt each survey to their research needs and create a branded survey experience for subjects. SurveySwipe is compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad devices as well as being the only app to support all four major phone platforms.

“SurveySwipe gave our conference the ability to garner immediate feedback in real-time,” says Brian Dowdy, Director of Research, PSAMA. “Through their comprehensive reporting mechanism, we were able to quickly identify the pulse of the conference and adjust resources appropriately. SurveySwipe is the premier choice when building private communities for real-time.”

“As the industry continues to trend more and more towards mobile interaction, it is essential to gather feedback from this source,” said Vivek Bhaskaran, President and CEO of Survey Analytics. “SurveySwipe offers companies unlimited surveys and responses, full control of users and data, customizable points and rewards systems, and 10,000 users from a variety of communities that reflect the needs of diverse target audiences. But because of our commitment to innovation, we will continue to add more features and augment the already-successful program as we move forward.”

Survey Analytics is working on several other new products, including SurveyPocket, developed for the iPad platform. Companies wishing to sign up for the SurveySwipe Mobile Research Communities demo, should visit or click on the SurveySwipe Logo below.

http://surveyswipe.com/application/surveyswipe/mobile-research-communities.html

Enhanced by ZemantaLink to SurveySwipe Press Release: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/surveyswipe-launches-mobile-research-communities-pilot-program-125821118.html

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Start Your Research Project With a Sense of Discovery and You’ll Come Out With More Knowledge

Posted on July 12, 2011 by | Leave a comment

One of the most common things I’d hear upon completion of a market research project was “I already knew that?!”

There is this idea that at the conclusion of some market research endeavor the heavens would open up and we would somehow know something amazingly new and different that had never occurred to us before.  Yet, when you think about it — that is the last thing that should happen.

After all, you know your business, and you are doing the research to make better decisions.  You aren’t doing it to KNOW something — you’re doing it to learn something.  I heard a quote yesterday that struck me “Knowledge is in the speaking and wisdom is in the listening.”   And when we’re talking about market research, it helps to be in the mode of discovery and listening.  That is a very different way of being than gathering information for the sake of knowing it.

Match the Tone of Your Invite to The Audience of Your Survey

You may not think it matters, but the spirit with which you enter into your research is more transparent than you might think.  It starts with the tone of your survey invitation.

These days you don’t get much real estate in which to invite your respondent.  Even if you are lucky enough to use an email invitation to an existing customer, attention spans are short and time to take surveys is even shorter.  The tone of your invitation can make all the difference to your response rate.

If your tone is too academic and rigid, respondents may already know that this will be long and painful.  If your tone is too casual for the audience, they may not take you seriously enough and skip over the survey.

Take the time to match the tone of your invite to the audience.  It also helps to create survey invitations via Twitter (if your survey is open to the public) or Facebook and schedule those throughout several days.

How Would a Spirit of Discovery Change the Questions in Your Survey?

First what is the difference between discovery and knowledge?  When you are in “discovery” mode, anything can happen.  The possibilities are wide open.  And more importantly — YOU are wide open.  You don’t know and you are open to what shows up in the process.

When you “KNOW” something.  You know it.  There is nothing to discuss, nothing to learn.  It just is.  We now know that California lies beyond Ohio there is no discovery there — there is knowledge.  But a couple of hundred years ago, as Europeans were trekking across the country, they didn’t really KNOW what lay ahead.  They had a sense of discovery around their journey.

How would your survey look if you created questions from a mindset of discovery rather than proving something or someone right or wrong?

More importantly, how would your results be reported if you looked at them as components of discovery rather than fact?

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Start Your Research Project With a Sense of Discovery and You’ll Come Out With More Knowledge

Posted on July 12, 2011 by | Leave a comment

One of the most common things I’d hear upon completion of a market research project was “I already knew that?!”

There is this idea that at the conclusion of some market research endeavor the heavens would open up and we would somehow know something amazingly new and different that had never occurred to us before.  Yet, when you think about it — that is the last thing that should happen.

After all, you know your business, and you are doing the research to make better decisions.  You aren’t doing it to KNOW something — you’re doing it to learn something.  I heard a quote yesterday that struck me “Knowledge is in the speaking and wisdom is in the listening.”   And when we’re talking about market research, it helps to be in the mode of discovery and listening.  That is a very different way of being than gathering information for the sake of knowing it.

Match the Tone of Your Invite to The Audience of Your Survey

You may not think it matters, but the spirit with which you enter into your research is more transparent than you might think.  It starts with the tone of your survey invitation.

These days you don’t get much real estate in which to invite your respondent.  Even if you are lucky enough to use an email invitation to an existing customer, attention spans are short and time to take surveys is even shorter.  The tone of your invitation can make all the difference to your response rate.

If your tone is too academic and rigid, respondents may already know that this will be long and painful.  If your tone is too casual for the audience, they may not take you seriously enough and skip over the survey.

Take the time to match the tone of your invite to the audience.  It also helps to create survey invitations via Twitter (if your survey is open to the public) or Facebook and schedule those throughout several days.

How Would a Spirit of Discovery Change the Questions in Your Survey?

First what is the difference between discovery and knowledge?  When you are in “discovery” mode, anything can happen.  The possibilities are wide open.  And more importantly — YOU are wide open.  You don’t know and you are open to what shows up in the process.

When you “KNOW” something.  You know it.  There is nothing to discuss, nothing to learn.  It just is.  We now know that California lies beyond Ohio there is no discovery there — there is knowledge.  But a couple of hundred years ago, as Europeans were trekking across the country, they didn’t really KNOW what lay ahead.  They had a sense of discovery around their journey.

How would your survey look if you created questions from a mindset of discovery rather than proving something or someone right or wrong?

More importantly, how would your results be reported if you looked at them as components of discovery rather than fact?

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5 Short and Sweet Reasons to Target a Specific Audience

Posted on June 14, 2011 by | 1 Comment

Today’s guest post comes from Michael DiFrisco (a.k.a. The Affordable Branding Guy”  He’s decided not to overwhelm us with too much information and instead, just layout the benefits of focusing on and targeting a specific audience.

Choosing a specific audience for your business is a powerful form of focus. Targeting means you reject the idea of believing the best way to build your business is by hitting every living person in your area. It allows you to focus on the specific customer or client types that are most desirable.

Here are some of the other benefits of targeting a specific core market:

  1. You’ll eliminate the bottom-feeders and those people who will simply not value what you offer
  2. You’ll have more effective marketing spending
  3. You can better focus your messaging—tailored to focus on their needs, not the needs of the entire universe
  4. It’s a better use of your time—more spent serving your best customers and less time spent pursuing low-value prospects
  5. You’ll build a stronger referral base—once you penetrate a target market and educate them on the value of working with you
Now — get out there and start targeting!

 

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Are Market Research Tools an Alternative for Social Media Haters?

Posted on June 3, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Social Media has been around for well over five years, yet many CEOs just don’t see the point.  Most of them leave the social media activities to the marketing folks in their organization.

In a post on DIYMarketers, we explore the idea the some of today’s newest, coolest market research methods can actually be a great alternative for CEOs who hate all the hassle of social media, but want all the results.

Here is a summary of the alternatives:

  • If you hate the idea of losing control of your message, then create your own customer community.  You can create a customer or user panel with whom you are in regular conversation.  Ask the panel questions, via survey, they will give you answers.
  • Still question the ROI of social media?  Create a crowdsourcing space on your site where your customers can tell you their ideas for improvements and new products and you can respond.  Create a real-live brain trust and conversation that gets your customer involved in creating a product they will love and talk about.
  • Sick of people’s stupid updates?  Run surveys and polls on the SurveySwipe mobile platform.  You can blast out a question to our existing community or upload a list of your own.  You’ll get feedback in less than 2 hours!
I was one of the first people in line to criticize CEOs who weren’t taking advantage of the power of social media.  But as I got to really listening to their complaints — I really GOT IT.
The alternatives I’ve described here use the social media platforms, technologies and elements of fun and then target them toward ROI rich, time saving and customer engaging results.
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The Power of Asking “What if” and “So What”

Posted on April 20, 2011 by | 1 Comment
How many times have you run across an innovative product and service and thought “Why didn’t I think of that?!”  Or maybe you’re like me and have these “hairbrained” ideas, decide that they are silly and ignore them only to see them advertised or written about as the next great innovation!

The really neat thing about this interconnected internet and social media culture is that we all have the ability to actually reach out to those people and simply ask them how they got the idea and what they did after that.

One of my new-year’s resolutions was to do exactly that; reach out to people I thought had an amazing idea, product or service and start a conversation with them about what they were thinking and how they made that idea come to life.

And you know what?  The answers I got were not earth-shattering.  They were actually very simple and driven by two questions most typically asked by your average three-year-old: “What if….” And then “So what?”

Here are just a few snippets of interesting conversations that illustrate this point:

Prasad Thammineni, CEO OfficeDrop.  When Prasad graduated from the Wharton School he found himself in possession of thousands of paper documents that contained the sum of his hard work during graduate school.  Inside these paper folders and files was some potentially useful stuff – but it was taking up tons of space.  He asked himself the question “What if ….I scanned all this stuff and made it electronic?”  Not a novel idea exactly, but this got him thinking about the fact that other grad students wanted to do the same thing.  Then he asked “What if there were other people that had documents they wanted to keep, but not in boxes?”  And OfficeDrop, the online document storage site was born.

David Garland is a young entrepreneur who had already sold his successful hockey-themed web site and was on to another entrepreneurial venture.  He and his partner sat in a coffee shop and chatted about Donnie Deutsch’s show “The Big Idea.”  They loved the show but it made them ask the question “So what?”  That simple question started a brainstorm of “What if we did a TV show that focused on young entrepreneurs and provided education as well as entertainment?”  In less than two months David had sponsors and a show.

I’m going to stop at these two very-very brief examples.  But I can tell you that I have at least five more and am averaging at least one per month.   That means that in an economy that everyone says is down, there are people who are choosing NOT to participate.  These people  have consciously set aside their adult mind-set and are asking the “child-like” questions that lead to opportunity.
Asking “What if…” brings out the idea.  But asking “So what?” makes it marketable.  These two simple questions are the root of real, authentic and buzzable differentiation.

I can already hear you saying “If it were only that easy!”  Have you considered recruiting some kids as an advisory group?  I’m completely serious about that.  I’ve heard of large companies recruiting kids as problem solvers and brainstormers because of their un-fettered ability for unconstrained thought.  What have you got to lose?

Kids of all ages (especially elementary school age) love being included in what we are doing.  What makes it boring for them is the cumbersome corporate speak that we use to hide the fact that we are basically unclear about what our value is to customers.
In addition to the personal benefits that you’ll gain by engaging kids in your business, think about what you’ll be teaching them?  You’ll be showing them that their unbridled creativity has value.  You’ll be showing them that just by thinking in a certain way, they can create opportunities for themselves and for others.
And in an economy that has so many people seeing themselves as victims, what kind of a gift would you be giving by creating a new economy of entrepreneurs?

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Turn What You “Like” Into An Opportunity To Get Paid For Your Endorsements

Posted on March 29, 2011 by | 1 Comment

I am always surprised how much free advertisement we as consumers give away! From Louie Vuitton bags to limited edition Jordan shoes, no doubt we are walking advertisements for these brands.

It’s easy for advertisers and marketers to feed us information and collect our loyalty at the cash register so why not turn the tables on them and put money in your pocket?

Companies are very aware of the power of social networking and have made huge strides by jumping on YouTube, MySpace, LinkedIn, and of course, Facebook. They’ve created pages and built online communities to advertise simply from getting you to “like” their page. As a result of “like”ing them, you are also creating a free advertising avenue for these brands to reach your community of friends and family you’ve built on your own.

Endorsement deals aren’t just for celebrities anymore. You should get paid to promote the brands you truly enjoy and want to share. Some of you may have participated in a focus group or usability discussion and have gotten paid for you opinions. Others may have answered a few questions via an online survey. The main reason companies are heading to the web is to save cost and take a DIY approach on market research, however, this does not mean they can simply take a way the respondent incentive ($$$$).

When you click “Like” on xyz’s Facebook page you are telling everyone in the community that you support that brand or product and that they should potentially do the same. In that very moment you have now become xyz’s promotional engine, giving them free marketing PR , and can now be used by them as a research participant. Yes, a research participant! The simple click of the “like” is now attached to any public data you have available on your page such as demographic information, other likes / dislikes, and more. This is all very valuable to xyz company and guess what….you did it for free! Think of it like this: When Kim Kardashian goes out and does an appearance to support a product or brand such as Quick Trim or even $10K per tweet. She is paid big bucks because she is an influencer very much the same way you are of the community you built.

 

 

 

 

 

So what is my point? Well, I think it pretty clear. It’s now time we are compensated for handing over our thoughts, opinions, and built social communities by the simple click of the “Like” button.

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Will Video Make Focus Groups Obsolete?

Posted on March 21, 2011 by | 2 Comments

What if you could actually watch consumers interacting with your brand in their natural habitat?  That is what a new application, Qualvu is offering brand managers and marketers.  In the video explanation on their home page, they show how their platform allows you to target consumers all over the world and get video from them as they interact with your brand.

What do you think?  How would you use this new tool?

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Business to Business Marketing Trends for 2011

Posted on January 19, 2011 by | 1 Comment

2011 is here and that means B2B marketing professionals are in the final stages of evaluating plans and have allocated budget for the year. Each company has unique goals as well as challenges, and what works for one company may not for another—there are no universal marketing solutions. However, the same key trends will impact every company, and marketers who capitalize on these trends will be better positioned to achieve their objectives.

Buyers Crave Content

Buyers crave useful, relevant content to help build their internal business cases and justify buying decisions. It’s up to you to provide valuable content to help buyers make informed purchase decisions and help your company earn new sales.

Take stock of your existing content and match it to your audience needs. Then fill in any gaps. Maybe you’re short on content aimed at the economic buyer. In that case, create an ROI calculator. Maybe analytical buyers don’t understand your novel approach to solving a problem. That might call for a case study. If you need more visibility and authority in the market, launch a blog.

Also, you don’t have to start from the beginning when developing content. Often you can re-purpose existing content for use across several media. For example, the white paper that becomes a Webinar that becomes a video. Or the technical article that becomes a presentation at a conference that becomes a series of blog entries.

Users Want a Multimedia Experience

As with audiences everywhere, professionals are now reading and watching and listening online. This year is a perfect time to take advantage of this trend by offering more than just words on paper or screen. Thanks to inexpensive technologies and high bandwidth, media such as video is simple to produce and easy to deliver to your audience.

There’s plenty of source material to create videos. You can record interviews, product demos, presentations—delivering anything from expert analysis and advice, to product announcements, to quarterly business results. You also can use videos to promote events before they occur and to record and archive them for future consumption.

Don’t forget to promote your videos everywhere you can: on Web sites using links and banners, in blogs, through e-mail, and via social media tools.

Social Media Requires Your Attention

Many marketers are not sure what commitment they should make to social media right now. While there is a great deal of buzz and noise surrounding social media, adoption in some business sectors remains low. It’s important to understand how your prospects and clients are adopting social media, and ensure that your level of investment matches your audience’s use.

Your first task is to understand how your target audience uses social media and what platforms they prefer. You may want to survey your own base for their usage.

Once you understand how your audience uses social media, you can develop an appropriate social media strategy. Remember that social media doesn’t take the place of other marketing, but is a complement to other marketing efforts. You’ll need to place someone in charge of social media efforts, integrate social media into your existing marketing program, and establish success metrics to measure ROI.

New Marketing Channels Await

With the near universal adoption of the Internet by your customers and prospects, you now have more marketing channels than ever to choose from to reach your target audience. From search engine optimization and paid search, to online directories and searchable catalogs, to social media and e-newsletters.

One marketing channel that’s experiencing significant growth is the online event. These virtual tradeshows offer a complete interactive experience for both suppliers and attendees, with features such as live chat, virtual booths, discussion panels, keynote presentations, content distribution, Q&A and more. Plus, no one has to leave their desk or incur travel and other related costs.

It’s important to integrate all of your online marketing channels into a cohesive program that can become more than the sum of its parts. Work with media partners who understand your needs and can help you pull together the right programs designed to meet your goals.

Maintain Focus on ROI

The requirement for marketers to demonstrate ROI is a trend that is here to stay. This year, choose measurable marketing programs and define your objectives and the success metrics against which you will measure your success. It’s an old saying in the business world, but it never really grows old: you can’t manage what you can’t measure.

By completing your marketing plans for 2011 with these trends in mind, you will put your company in position to gain advantage, because the decisions you make will help you become highly visible to, and discovered by, more potential customers.

About the Author: Chris Chariton is Vice President of Supplier Marketing and Marketing Services for GlobalSpec, the leading specialized vertical search, information services, e-publishing and online events company serving the engineering, technical and industrial communities. Chariton oversees many of the company’s marketing initiatives including e-mail marketing, demand generation and social media, public relations and advertising, and product management.  She can be reached at cchariton@globalspec.com.

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