Don't throw marketing money away on a hunch! - Research improves your ROI

Using Research to Improve ROI

1. Define your strategy and then conduct research to understand how you can add value to your customers. This need not be hard and you can get some valuable information without it costing too much. Form many small businesses this can involve preparing a simple questionnaire and inviting existing or potential customers to meet up for breakfast, lunch... and discussing it with them. You will often be amazed at what you find out.

For larger businesses studying customers on-line can help. Digital ethnography (studying on line behaviour) now provides a wealth of information and access to customers and is often easier than offline research:

• social networks allow us to visualise relationships,


• people are more honest when they write behind a pseudonym


• respondents have control over what they share


• researchers are less obtrusive and less likely to affect the behaviour of the people they are studying

Strategies need to build sustainable communities rather than sporadic isolated campaigns

2. Too much data is no good to anyone. You need to focus on simple concepts and then build upon them to produce your creative concepts for marketing. Keep it simple, easy to understand and measurable. Test it on a small group of customers get feedback and then scale. Content then becomes relevant and of value to your customers and more importantly has a far higher chance of being shared.

Create relationships, drive conversions and deliver sustainable and profitable revenue growth.

3. Be consistent in how you deploy your communications. Reinforce your communications around your creative concept so that they reinforce your idea rather than dilute it. Make it interesting, an experience and build on the emotions; for it is the human touch that matters the most - this is what we share.

Reinforce and co-ordinate touch points to ensure the sum of the parts are greater than the whole

Linking Research to Value

Ultimately by using research the aim is to add value to a customers experience of your brand. Rory Sutherland provides some humorous insights into how advertising has traditionally gone about building intangible value. The reality for brands now is that value is being reshaped by our relationships and our networks.  (If you only watch one thing see the interviews for diamond shreddies 13mins - very funny)



Change the Perspective

The simple truth is that research allows you to make better decisions about the creative concepts and content that you use to market your brand.

However, many businesses simply throw their money away when it comes to marketing. They certainly don't intend to, but too often many make assumptions about their customers that are simply wrong.

But this is an over simplified explanation of what happens, for quite often there is a recognised need for data, but accessing it and relating to customer profiles is difficult. The reasons for this can be many, not least is the problems of knitting together data from disparate data sources (customer service, promotions, email marketing...) to form some level of customer segmentation.

From the many different views it is hard to pin point who the customer is and how their behaviours relate to your product; in short there is little available data that can form the basis for insightful decisions. The truth is the impact of a poor customer data management strategy goes beyond missed sales opportunities and links directly to the profitability of an organisation.

Taking a Bet



As a result many marketing directors gamble on assumptions that form the basis for creative ideas and concepts; which in themselves might be brilliant but simply do not bear any resemblance to the target customer.Yet most people shrewdly research and investigate suppliers before spending their own money. Why not then apply the same principal to customers.

Why does this matter so much?

Knowing your customer and understanding their needs forms the basis not only for marketing but also product development, customer service...it is at the heart of how well you serve your customers that determines how well you compete.

How and where we tell out stories has shifted, but they are the same stores. We now use our social networks not only to share these stories but to listen and participate in making them. As a result research has never been more powerful or more cost effective and can be used to improve decision making.

We must use new research technologies because technology itself is changing the way people move through life and transact their work. Part of the change involves privacy, mobility, and communications modes. People are harder to connect with, period: less use of land lines, heavy phone screening, growing perceived value of time, and more. In a word, people are more reachable and open if the marketing research technique fits with their lifestyle.

The Purpose of Research

from Tim Stock