What is the #1 reason that businesses fail? A big reason businesses generally fail is because they don't know what their customers or target audience really want. It's a great idea to know the current digital marketing trends. Still, you also want to understand what your audience is thinking to make those specific digital marketing trends more relevant than others. This can be one of the biggest challenges in getting your business off the ground.
Wouldn't it be great if your target audience told you exactly what they wanted, or how a product could be better? This would make drafting your marketing plan so much easier, right? Well, have you ever tried asking them directly? Creating a quick survey question for your customer base to fill out allows you to do exactly that.
An online survey can help business owners to gain an accurate understanding of their survey respondents, get customer feedback on product development and review existing services. This can be as simple as sending a one-question email survey via your marketing emails or to try and get customer feedback from your social followers using your business social media accounts that have polling features.
Here are our top survey tips for getting answers to questions you have for your target audience:
Create the survey: What exactly do you want to know? Think of asking a survey question like how a product could be better, and why someone might (or might not) buy your specific product or service?
Hit send: Send your newly created survey to a list of people who fit your target audience criteria. Focus on sending it out to people who have purchased services or products from a competitor, but are not your clients already. A wider audience demographic means your results will contain a more representative sample.
Analyze the Results: The top trending goals, fears, and frustrations of your clients are what you want to take head-on and create a digital marketing plan around. Due to the nature of the questions, you'll most likely need to read between the lines to pick up on these trends. For instance, it's important to know when your target market is not motivated to buy versus a lack of time or resources to research and make purchases.
Understanding what they’re saying: An industry expert or salesperson knows their product inside and out, so it's fair to say that they would speak an “expert” language about the product or service they're selling. Generally speaking, your audience won't be experts. So talking to them as if they are is not a good idea, confused people don't buy. They will go in search of content that speaks their language. This is why it is important to use your audience's language in your posts, content, and marketing plan.
Using what you know: Once you have organized the top trending topics or issues from your audience's survey, make sure to cover the topics in your content and use them in your marketing plan. It’s also a good idea to use those topics when doing keyword research and creating your digital marketing strategy. Make sure to use their words so that you are speaking to them and not at them. Repeating their own words back to them is the simplest way to help your audience feel understood.
The best way to market your product or services is to ask the audience what they want, then turn around and give it to them. Creating and utilizing a survey is an easy way to do this, don’t know what to ask, give us a call or send us an email!
Market Research Surveys FAQ
How are surveys used in market research?
Surveys are typically short questionnaires pertaining to your services and current advertising strategies. You use them to gain insight into what your audience thinks about your brand.
What is the best way to do market research?
The key is to ensure that it is as easy as possible for participants to complete - how much can you achieve with a one-click survey for example? You need to think about your goals for your research, what your audience responds to, and then find a happy medium where you can ask your questions.
Why are surveys good in market research?
Surveys are commonly used by companies today because they can easily be created online and shared via a simple URL. This means they can be shared directly with your audience via email marketing, social media marketing, and other mediums without having to do too much work.