Marketing Suveys: The Base of Better Promotion & PR Campaigns

I am amazed on how few people use surveys in their marketing and public relations campaigns. One of the main reasons is, "Where do I start?"



While market research is vast and sometimes a complex subject, one can do something on an immediate basis, and that is to thoroughly analyze what and who is already driving sales. What made the sales in the past is a portal to discovering how to increase those sales even more.



To understand this vital process in marketing and PR, you need to start with an understanding of the word analysis. In short, the word analysis means to break something down to its component parts and to analyze not only each of these parts, but how they interrelate to each other and act as a whole. In other words, what makes this up and how do they work together to bring about the dynamic aspect of the whole.



Marketing surveys and analysis can simply start by looking into the vital aspects of those who have already purchased from you or an industry similar to the one you are in. Such key data to discover would be:



* What promotional action (internet, google ads, networking, referrals, mailers, etc.) originally brought the customer to you?



* What about that campaign was the successful aspect? Was there a particular offer in that campaign that caused their response? What exactly made them respond to that campaign?



* If a referral, why is that they choose you and not someone else to send their friends to?



* Where do they live? What is their income bracket? Age? Profession? Gender?



Well, you get the idea. You want to know their particular qualities and how all these qualities work together. For instance, you may find that those who are referred to you are of one age group and those who respond to your google ads comprise another. This then shows you that you have two different publics. Now you can develop PR and marketing strategies to develop even more leads like that.



I will give you an example. I had one organization that I worked with that found that 85% of their income came from about 20% of their clients. Many purchased their products, but a small handful were heavy purchasers. It was discovered upon thorough research and market analysis that these people: 1.) Owned their own business, 2.) Their business had been established for over five years, 3.) The majority were male, 4.) They were all homeowners, 5.) Their common compliant for purchasing was to develop better skills.



This can then be turned into a mailing list of that public, as well as designing a PR and marketing strategy to join networking groups that have these type of people and targeting this public in their internet ads.



To increase sales, discover who and what is driving them in the first place.

Best, Edwin Dearborn