The value of a strong questionnaire design when complemented by the task of high quality sample development is not fully appreciated. Often these two essential building blocks of market research are relegated to the back of the line on research projects.
Research Axiom One: You can never fully recover from a poorly written questionnaire.
• No manipulation of the variables, regardless of how cleverly done
• No amount of analysis, regardless of how brilliant
• No degree of insightful interpretation, regardless of intellectual prowess
Nothing can save you from a poor research foundation. The building will collapse like a house of cards!
If there is one part of the research process that I know, it is questionnaire design. It is a task repeatedly given insufficient time and attention. Clients and research professional alike often underestimate the time it will take to develop a truly well structured and concise instrument.
What amazes me most? Project leaders relegate this task to a status depicted by the attitude of: “Once the questionnaire is done we can get on with the important stuff, like analysis and reporting.” The assumption that analysis work is the essence of the research and the expectation that interpreting the results is where the mastery of research ultimately lies is a mystery to me.
Have we not pounded the concept of garbage-in garbage-out into our heads? Can new internet tools substitute for critical thinking and the hard work of aligning the research instrument to the purpose of the study to answer the business questions that sponsors paid to learn?
If this seems like a bit of a rant, well I guess I am guilty. My own research-on-research including the use of a 25-point questionnaire audit system has shown me that even well healed researchers are less diligent about quality than one would hope. Research is not only science it is a craft [perhaps an art] and if the proper fundamentals are not applied the product is less than artful.
I will end this part of my ranting with an analogy [but don't be surprised to hear more on this topic]. If you have not studied and then practiced writing poetry, would you expect to publish a book of poems simply because your marketing department asked you to? Designing a good quality research instrument probably takes less talent than being a good poet, but it’s close.
Wait, not so fast, we are not done, there is another mistake from which you cannot fully recover. A poor questionnaire design is one possible fatal mistake, but not the only one. Good solid sample development is also necessary. Here is another Research Axiom worth your consideration.
Research Axiom Two: You can never fully recover from a sample that lacks validity; and once again:
• No manipulation of the variables, regardless of how cleverly done
• No amount of analysis, regardless of how brilliant
• No degree of insightful interpretation, regardless of intellectual prowess
Nothing can save you from a poorly developed sample!
The value of sample development is also underappreciated, as are the skills related to creating a valid sample. Project managers, research analysts, and all those who lose sleep over the quality of the sample sources they have available and who work hard to provide the best possible sample for each research project they conduct, are worth their weight in gold.
With numerous challenges to good sample development always hovering over us, if the research team conducting the study does not pay close attention to this critically important task the chances of deriving useful results are likely to diminish rapidly. One of the worst situations to be in, is standing in front of a room full of executives and presenting the research implications when from off in the far corner an executive vice president (EVP) asks you, “Are you sure about that finding? Who were these respondents? They don’t appear to have any knowledge about the market or our products.”
If you can definitively reply, “We believe the respondents in this sample are qualified” and then give a crisp response about the quality control (QC) steps used to verify the validity of the sample, you have saved the day. If on the other hand, you hesitate and cannot defend the validity of the sample, you have lost your audience – there is nothing more they want to hear from you because in their minds the voice of the respondents do not reflect the people they are trying to reach – the day ends badly.
If you do not care about the quality of the research you conduct, well shame on you, but at least recognize that a sample of good quality is a necessity for self-preservation – enough said.
Strategy – and marketing strategy in particular – is one of the most overused phrases in business. But when crafted correctly, your marketing strategy provides powerful direction to your business. For small businesses in particular, a well defined marketing strategy can be the difference between increased profitability and overspending.
When defining your marketing strategy, it is important to be clear on some key points:
1) Your marketing strategy is NOT your business strategy. No matter how big or small your business, you should have strategies (HOW you are going to achieve your overall business objectives) that relate to finance, operations, legal, sales, etc – not just marketing.
2) Everything you do isn’t marketing. This is a common mistake that many small businesses make. Your marketing strategy specifically defines how you are going to spend your time/resources to differentiate your company and products from the competition. Each strategy should be actionable (via various tactics), measurable, and designed to reach your overall business goals. Make sure that your marketing plan is robust, but remember that you need to have time/resources to allocate outside of your marketing plan.
3) Marketing is not sales. I have written an entire article on The Difference Between Sales and Marketing. But as a reminder here – specifically for small businesses – there are many tactical things that you can and should do to close a sale. Let’s face it – if you only spend your time doing brand building instead of selling, you won’t be around for long enough for anyone to care about the brand. But ensure that your marketing takes a longer term view, focusing on building sustainable competitive advantages in addition to short term financial goals.
4) Keep your marketing strategy high-level enough to vary your tactics. For example, one element of your strategy might be to leverage PR to build awareness. That high-level strategy gives you all the guidance you need to then build a workplan of tactics and evaluate the individual tactics without changing your strategy.
5) Most importantly, your marketing strategy not only tells you what you are going to do – it also tells you what you are not going to do. This is one of the most common mistakes that small businesses and entrepreneurs make. They establish their marketing strategy, and yet when a new opportunity comes along that isn’t part of that strategy, they pursue it anyway. And maybe, that is the right decision. But if so, make sure to go back and change your strategy. Because the purpose of your marketing strategy is to decide HOW you are going to spend your time/resources. When it is complete, you should feel confident that you have the time and money to execute that plan. If you pursue each new “shiny object” that isn’t part of your marketing strategy – you will quickly get stretched too thin, likely overspending and reducing your profitability even while possibly increasing your top line sales.
Clear strategy – both overall business strategy and marketing strategy – are critical underpinnings to a successful business of any size. For small businesses, remembering what to include in each, and using them to manage your time and resources, can give you the edge you need to be more competitive and beat the odds.
Anonymous visitor marketing or anonymous user marketing is nothing but changing the content of the website according to the taste of the visitor and thus making the information more relevant. Some kind of data is attached with each user known as metadata or supplemental data that is similar to human sensory nerves and gives an idea about how to react to the approaching person.
Metadata or supplemental data consists of information like the geographic location, IP address, browser languages like English, Chinese, German, etc., and also information about domain extension like .edu, .gov, .mil, etc., internet connection speed, operating system, search keyword or sentence, referring URL and screen resolution.
Graphical location tells about the approximate address of the visitor. By this information, the server can search and display information which is specific for the people of that location. Information like climate, temperature, local happening, and time can be displayed accurately.
IP address or Internet protocol address gives idea of the specific Internet service, company the person is related to. If belonging to an Internet provider the web page displays the speed of the connection and if related to a specific company the website displays the name and logo of the company.
A web page can be formatted in different languages. By analyzing the browser language, the visitor can be can be served with a web page which is easy for him to understand and the visitor is made to feel that the website is centered on his mother tongue which will make him more comfortable.
Different organizations and different sectors have different domain extensions. A website with a .gov extension means that its a government website and a website with .edu extension refers to an educational organization. So the content of the webpage can be changed according to the organization the visitor is related to.
Depending on the Internet connection speed if there are any multimedia downloads the size of downloads can also be managed. There will be different resolution versions of a particular download and if the speed is low, multimedia with the lowest resolution will be downloaded to the visitor’s temporary Internet files. This will not interrupt the normal working of the computer.
Different operating systems have different requirements and their functionality also varies. Some websites provide downloadable software and updates which will not be compatible with all kinds of operating systems. These limitations can be determined without interrupting the user.
Search keyword or sentence can be utilized to apply search engine optimization techniques or SEO techniques to the website to make the matter more relevant. Linking data to a specific keyword, which is displayed automatically making the visitor feel that his query was dealt with effectively, does this.
Referring URL helps the sponsor to compare data with that of the previous page and bring it on the present page. This increases the competition between the websites, the present website will try to prove to be better than the previous website.
If the visitor is surfing the Internet with his hand held device or mobile, the content of the website is trimmed to fit the screen resolution of the device. If the amount of data that is viewed on a normal monitor is displayed over the hand held device, the data will overlap with each other and the content won’t be readable.
Most of the companies around the globe have already been leveraging the outsourcing techniques since 1980’s. Though it is not popular that time, the benefits given to the company is significant enough that it almost becomes a trend to every business sector. Most of the common reason for outsourcing is to achieve lower production cost with high quality result. Outsourcing also helps the company to focus in their core businesses and competences. Since then on, most of the big companies are subcontracting their payroll and benefits and sometimes even the mass production of their products are being entrusted to outsourcing.
This becomes a common practice of most of the corporation that even the marketing side is now shifting to this principle. Although outsource marketing is relatively new, there are many benefits that are already been taken down even before this strategy came out to market. Many questions arise with how and when you should outsource your marketing, but I think this is one of the strategies for a more cost effective and quality advertising.
There are many benefits a company can actually get once they choose to outsource their marketing strategies. Here are just some of the benefits that you can actually get with outsource marketing.
• Juicy and quality content – this is one is one of the best parts in outsource marketing. The company that will be doing the marketing for you can focus on the contents for your advertising. In that way, they will be able to create three times better from what you have in mind. You will be sure that what you will get from them is just quality and juicy content that will surely enhance your advertisement.
• Fresh and Innovative Marketing Ideas – This may seems easy since we have access to different tools for our own marketing ideas but if its not your expertise you will just exert more time and effort but might only come up with not so good advertisement materials. Good thing about outsource marketing is that they have pool of talents who are expert on this field. Their experience and expertise will surely lead them to more innovative and fresh ideas to satisfy their customer. Most often than not, they are aware if this marketing materials will work for your company or not.
• Customer Leads – This is also one of the good things about outsource marketing. One of the most disappointing parts of advertising is when you really have a good materials but nobody seems to care about it. The very main reason why we do advertise is to attract people to buy our product and it became so frustrating when you invest so much and no one seems to notice. With outsource marketing they will help you lead the way to the right people who will need your products. Good materials plus the right people to see it will surely be a hit!
• Access to talent – outsource marketing companies has pool of talents dedicated for marketing. Once you get their service you will have unlimited access to their talents. You can get the best guy to do the marketing materials for you without adding to the cost.
• Cost Saving – this is the best benefit you can get and this is the very first reason why companies do outsourcing and this is no difference from outsource marketing. You will get someone else service, and then get the results you want in much cheaper price.
What I mentioned above are just some of the benefits of outsource marketing and there are still a lot more. But of course, just like any other things, outsource marketing also have disadvantages. Some of the common disadvantages I seen is the fact that marketing company maybe bias during their research and company who are doing outsource marketing might lost their personal touch which might affect their customers’ retention.
There are always pros and cons in everything that we do and so we also need to balance our judgment before doing so. Look in every aspect and if you think outsource marketing is for you then do it.
