Market(ing) research - how do I do get the answers I want from my survey?
A good marketing and business strategy is about building a simple, accountable plan to get you where you want to go. To do this properly, you need to know where you are starting from.
Most businesses have an idea of what their customers, and the wider industry think of them. While it might dance around the truth, it won’t give you the true insight you need, meaning your strategy is already facing an uphill battle.
Not to worry. Here’s our simple guide on how to make sure you can get the market insights you want with a simple market research survey plan.
The best way to start is like a scientific experiment, with a hypothesis of what you think will happen. Once you have that, then move onto what outcomes you would like to see. Only once you have done those two things, do you start to write the questions you want people to answer.
Before you send externally, we would also recommend putting the questions into a survey and getting someone you know to complete it - this is to make sure the answers they provide test your hypothesis and achieve your outcomes. As commonly what we think we are asking, and what people believe we are asking can sometimes be two different things, so better to find this out early so you get the answers you want.
When it comes to surveys, less is always more. You know yourself, when you have to get through 50 questions, you find it hard and likely won’t finish. Your customers are no different. People are more likely to fill out less questions, and the more focussed you are on topics, the more insight you will get.
We’d suggest a maximum 10 mins to complete, and being upfront in the email to explain what the survey is about, why we want their feedback, how long it will take them, and ideally what they get back in return.
Incentives are important. Reward each response plus offering a bigger prize is a great way to increase response rates and get better insights. We’d also encourage you to think about how everyone who completes your survey get an insight they can take away for their business, so users get an incentive and insight reward for their effort. You can read more about value exchange here.
Lastly, the final thing we’d encourage you to think about is the 'so what?' test. If the hypothesis are proven true/not true - then 'so what?'. What would that mean we do differently? What action would we take from this to help the business grow? Getting your assumptions confirmed is useless, unless you have an idea about what you are going to do about it.
Here’s an example to help get you started when surveying clients. You can then adapt this to survey your wider industry so you learn what prospects and influences think about you also.
Client Survey
Hypothesis (What do you think will happen)
Our company is well liked due to level of knowledge and service provided with positive Net Promoter Score (+ NPS = more promoters than detractors)
Usability, reliability, innovation, support and value/price are the top 5 selection criteria when selecting a software partner/provider for clients
Most clients know us because of product X, followed by Y and then Z
Outcomes (What will you get out of the survey/market research)
Rating score of how well liked your company is by clients (Net Promoter Score)
Comparative rating of NPS by product line
Listing of top 5 most important factors when selecting a software partner/provider
Insight into what clients like about your company and what can be done better (top 3 of each)
Unaided and aided brand recall for all key products (unaided means you aren’t prompting them, aided means you are prompting them)
Quotes to use for promoting your business to prospects about importance and quality of support provided
Questions (What will be in your survey, you want your audience to answer)
What does [company name] do that helps you and your business? (text)
What could [company name] do better to help you and your business? (text)
Thinking back over the last year, how would you rate [company name] customer support service? (scale 0 - 10)
What did you like about the [company name] service? (text response)
What do you think could be done better? (text response)
What do you like about the [company name] products/service? (text response)
What do you think could be better? (text response)
When you are selecting a [company name solution/service] for your business what are the top five most important things you look for in order of importance? (text boxes with ranking selection - can be open text or pre-determined options they rank in order of preference - e.g. price, reliability etc.)
When you think of [industry you operate in] what brands come to mind? (text box - unaided recall)
Have you heard of [product one]? (Yes, No)
When you think of [simplest way to describe what your products do] what brands come to mind? (text box - unaided recall)
Have you heard of [product two]? (Yes, No)
Have you heard of [product three]? (Yes, No)
Would you recommend [company name] to others like you? (NPS - score 0-10)
If so/not, why? (text)
Personal details collection - name, email, business name, [company name] products used (should be known so could be added post survey), tick box if quotes can be used for marketing purposes, and tick box if their name can be included with the quote
This might seem like a lot, but take 30 minutes or so to work through properly, and you’ll be able to get the insights you need to plan a marketing and business strategy that will help you truly grow. Want help getting it done? Get in touch and we’d be happy to help.