Wednesday, November 3, 2010

The QuestionPro Blog: Real Time Research Using Social Media Tools

The QuestionPro Blog: Real Time Research Using Social Media Tools

Link to QuestionPro Blog

Real Time Research Using Social Media Tools

Posted: 03 Nov 2010 09:42 AM PDT

Trust me.  I can research and analyze anything to death.  What?  You too?  I hear you.  Well read on because today, I’m taking you on a real time tour of a project and promotion process that I’m working on over at DIYMarketers.com.

Objective:

My objective was to incorporate eCourses, webinars and teleseminars into DIYMarketers.com in order to build membership AND to generate revenue.

Deciding on Topics

This is the ideal place to do some market research!

  • I used IdeaScale (the feedback tab) on my DIYMarketers.com site and wrote posts about getting ideas on what people wanted to learn about.  It appeared that social media marketing was ranking fairly high on the list – but these comments were general.
  • I did a scan of re-tweeted articles by thought leaders I follow such as @smallbiztrends or @mashable or simply watching my Twitter stream and seeing what gets passed around my network.
  • I also use a tool called Pretty Link. This is a WordPress plugin that allows me the ability to shrink a link and then track how many people click on it.  Go ahead – give it a try.  Click to read this article and see what happens: Power LinkedIn Strategies for CEOs.  Pretty Link told me that articles about LinkedIn were by FAR the most popular. So that’s what I chose to do as my first teleseminar.
  • I also used MicroPoll to find out what social media tools my audience was most interested in — and LinkedIn came out on top there too.

What Actually Happened

  1. I sent the referral emails as attachments to my personal list of people who I thought would be interested.  They passed those on to their contacts and the results were EXCELLENT.  My response rate (or conversion rate) was about 10%.  Not stellar, but not bad either.
  2. I wrote some blog posts outlining some of the points that would be covered in the event ahead of time with links to the registration form.  This was NOT NEARLY as responsive with about a 2% conversion rate.  That’s about average.
  3. I sent a broadcast message to my list.  This was also very responsive.  About 40% opened the message and 20% clicked through.  But then something interesting happened — I noticed that about 10% went through the registration, but didn’t complete it.
  4. I used my email marketing tool (aWeber) to send a message to those who didn’t complete and asked them WHY?  The answers were very helpful — “they didn’t want to pay for something without a sample”  was the prevailing response.

How I Adjusted My Approach

Now this all happened in a matter of days.  And this is what has blown me away!  I took that feedback and created a WHOLE NEW OFFER – to the list.  I allowed them to listen in on our practice call where we will go over the outline and prioritize the specific issues that we’ll discuss.

I wrote an article about the process – on my PERSONAL blog Strategy Stew – where I shared much of what I shared here — AND I gave them the opportunity to fill out a form to get on the free call.

Now I wait to see what happens.  I wonder if  offering a sneak peak bring more registrations?  I’m following the links and I see that people are clicking and some registrations are tumbling in — but not nearly as many as I thought.

Another terrific opportunity will be to collect the information in all of these events and create new content around it and then measure response to that.

The Lessons I Learned

  • Don’t be afraid to take some risk – you will make mistakes.  But you will make mistakes anyway – this way you have data to fix them quickly.
  • Use the social media measuring tools as research metrics to supplement your overall research plan.
  • Use a low impact, high-value event to test your theories and make improvements so that you’re not testing on something REALLY BIG and important.

If you want to take a sneak peak at how this worked visit these links:

How are YOU using social media to track your success and what’s your experience with this?  Have you been able to make changes on the fly and improve your results?  Leave a comment and let us know.

 

Survey Analytics flexes its muscle to offer clients sampling services

Posted: 03 Nov 2010 12:13 PM PDT

It appears that Survey Analytics is listening intently to its customers and with good reasons. The software firm, which currently offers an array of research tools for conducting market research, including survey design and hosting, reporting, advance analytics and panel management, recently announced the launch of its latest product – MicroPanel.

MicroPanel is designed to facilitate both Question pro and Survey Analytics customers access to online respondents for survey participation, using one dedicated platform. However, don't let the prefix in the name fool you, as MicroPanel is described as a network that consists of multiple niche panels in various industries, giving their clients access to millions of respondents online. Panel members are rigorously recruited and profile information account for more than 400 data points on each member.  This, ultimately, will provide their clients with a breadth of information and the ability to select richer samples.

Taking this baby for a test drive, I discovered a few things under the hood:

  • Interface – A unified, automated platform to facilitate access to research sample at the click of a button.
  • Specialty Panels – Access to respondents in various sectors: Health, IT, Financial, Mobile, Automobile and others.
  • Reach -  MicroPanel currently offers representative sample from US, Europe, Asia, Latin American and the Middle East.
  • Friends – They've partnered with a few top shelf sample providers that specialize in certain market, to ensure full project feasibility to their clients at all times

Survey Analytics is certainly not new to the data collection arena and this is not their first rodeo. With an abundant list of high profile clients who are conducting thousands of interviews daily on their platform, the company has focused on developing custom research solutions for advance analytics and enterprise feedback management, as evident by Ideascale, Micropoll and a number of other products that fall under the Survey Analytics flagship. The addition of MicroPanel certainly follows that path.

With the rise of social media, combined with more consumers having access to the internet, sample providers are a dime and a dozen. This is good for competition, but can also create confusion for the sample buyer. Simply managing bids from different providers with different prices, using different platforms can be a daunting task and this does not even include sample quality. Survey Analytics bridges the gap by providing its clients with a much needed service, using a unified platform.

By taking a quick peek at the MicroPanel platform, the process of purchasing sample seems very intuitive and user friendly.

1)      Customers must login to their Qpro or Survey Analytics account

2)      Select "Send Survey" from the top horizontal menu

3)      Select "Request A Quote" from the side menu

4)      Complete the quote form, along with any project specification

5)      Submit by clicking on "Request Quote".

After submitting the quote, a summary of the customer's project specifications is immediately displayed, pending review from Survey Analytics. The wait period did not seem excessive, as it only took a few hours to receive a quote for a general consumer study with standard requirements.

MicroPanel certainly appears to be the missing piece that completes the full circle for Survey Analytics and their customers. Judging from what we've seen thus far, they may have a few more tricks up their sleeves.

Free Webinar Tues 11/16/10 at 9:00AM PST: Brand Tracking – Taking the Pulse on Your Brand

Posted: 02 Nov 2010 07:52 PM PDT

Tuesday

November 16th, 2010

9:00 AM PST

Sign up Today: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/702824130

Branding has been around since the beginning of times as a means to differentiate products. Did you know that the term "brand" is derived from the old Norse word "brandr" which means "to burn" and used in the context of marking livestock to identify the owners. Branding in the marketing context occurs in the consumer minds and the "marks" not always come out as marketers intended, hence the need to implement brand tracking studies.

Questions we’ll address in this webinar are:

1. What brand metrics should be tracked?

2. How often should a brand be tracked?

3. Who should be included in a brand tracking study?

4. How to interpret brand tracking metrics?

We will discuss aspects of the implementation of a brand tracking study and how they allow marketers to monitor the health of the brand and provide insights into the effectiveness of marketing programs implemented by the company.

Sign up Today: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/702824130

About the speaker:


Michaela Mora is the president of Relevant Insights, LLC (http://www.relevantinsights.com), and a seasoned market researcher with more than 20 years of experience in industries such online subscription services, software, entertainment, offline and online retailing, automotive, travel, hospitality, consumer packaged goods, non-profit, insurance, and beverage among others. Using an ever evolving toolbox which includes multivariate analysis techniques, conjoint analysis, MaxDiff, latent class segmentation, and TURF analysis among others, Michaela has been involved in many studies including brand tracking studies, concept testing, market segmentation, customer satisfaction, A&U, pricing research, copy testing, PR research and Web site optimization research. She helps clients with all aspects of a research project from design to field implementation, data analysis and reporting. Michaela holds a MS in Marketing Research from The University of Texas at Arlington, a MS in Marketing, Advertising and PR from Stockholm University, and a BS in Psychology from Havana University. She also holds a Professional Researcher Certification (PRC) at the Expert Level, issued by the Marketing Research Association (MRA).
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