Why Surveys Should Still Play a Big Part in Your Marketing Plan
Marketing, in essence, relies on you making an assumption about a customer. It’s about understanding what they want and coming up with a plan of how to deliver it to them. That assumption has to be based on more than just a hunch, though. Your instincts have to be backed up by data and, in the long run, results.
That’s where surveys can come in. These are a mechanism to help to inform your decision and should be a part of your overall marketing plan. This is why:
Survey2.0
It’s important to remember that the humble survey has moved on. You don’t have to stand for hours on a wet Wednesday afternoon in a town centre with a soggy clipboard. Nor do you have to have the phone slammed down on you by sales call-weary customers. Nowadays, online surveys from the likes of Survey Monkey and SMS surveys, such as those offered by Global Messaging, allow businesses to complete such tasks in a manner more befitting of the digital age.
Insight into your customer
Surveys are important to be able to give you a richer understanding of the people who buy your products and service. Don’t settle for simply knowing who they are. Find out more about their spending habits and what they like to do with their spare time. This will allow you to develop a ‘persona’ of your typical customer and cater for them more closely with content that uses the right tone of voice and platform, for example.
Interaction with your customer
The best marketing campaigns don’t just ‘talk at’ their customers. They should spark a conversation, fostering interaction and – as a result – building a closer relationship between both parties. Surveys are a big part of that. They’re a way of starting and maintaining the conversation and allowing your customer to have their say and feel a part of shaping your output.
Judging success
How do you judge success? Your profits are probably a decent measure but this will just be a black and white fact and won’t help you to understand why you have or haven’t made truck loads of money. Surveys allow businesses to judge their success by asking for opinions on products and services. Organisations can even run repeat surveys over time to judge how views may have changed and track and developments.
Shaping future output
By interacting with your customers and taking the time to work out what they actually think of your business you’ll be able to learn important lessons for the future. The next time you are launching something new – or looking for new ways to market your products and services – you’ll be able to call on the information you have gathered from your surveys to make an even more informed decision. You could also ask customers to have a more hands-on role through surveys. You could maybe even ask them for help with choosing a new logo, for example, or the name of a new product.
The more information you have, the better chance you have of making the right decision.
By embracing modern survey tools, brands can get a better understanding of (and therefore relationship with) their customers, and the success or otherwise of their output.
Category: Business and Politics
