A recent article in Inc. magazine

Understanding the source: Once you know where your traffic is coming from, you can build strategies to attract even more customers from those sites.  The source of traffic report in Google Analytics can provide great insights into what these users do when they get to your site and the content that is most valuable to them. Moreover, you can begin to understand lost opportunities – sources that provide traffic to you, but also generate high bounce rates (users who come to your site and then leave without doing anything else). Once you understand which sources are generating high quality traffic, you can focus on maximizing volume out of that traffic, while seeking to understand why other traffic has been less productive.

Customer segmentation: The research indicates that poor performers in the retail industry ask for customer segmentation data, but are slow to deliver solutions that appeal to segmented differences in terms of customer preferences.  Google Analytics has pre-defined segments, or you can create your own, so that you can gain stronger insights of how different types of your customers behave and the media sources they use.  This information can be leveraged to create innovative offerings that can foster customer loyalty and increase revenue.

Testing ads and web site layouts: By setting up different landing pages, you can test ads to see which messaging has the greatest resonance with your audience.  Or, you can test web site organization, or placement of elements to see which improves the navigational experience.  Think of it as a digital planogram test – you can experiment with different layouts and placements to maximize sales opportunities.

Mid-level retailers don’t have to settle for mid-level results.  Use customer analytics to develop a better understanding of your target market and their preferences to create a sustainable advantage and improve marketing ROI.

Credit: Google Images

Cyberattack Protection, Appropriate Insurance Coverage, and Managing the End of the School Year

Here are our latest tips for agencies and consultants as they prepare for the summer:

Cyberattack Protection: Nobody wants to think of getting hacked, but we’re all at risk.  Are you coming up with really effective passwords?  Do you have a policy about connecting to internal networks via mobile devices?  What dangerous secrets are you giving away by making common mistakes with social media?  How are your cyber practices not only exposing you, but also your clients to risk?  Here is more information on how you can better protect yourself and your clients.

Making Sure You’re Covered: What additional insurance do you really need? Are you covered by existing policies?  Get the lowdown here.  For additional advice, look to your local Chamber of Commerce, which frequently has insurance agents as members that are truly interested in working with and helping small-medium sized businesses.

School’s Out: But you’re not.  Parents who own agencies and consultancies begin having nightmares about the summer months right after spring break ends.  Not only do they have to worry about how they can maintain their workflow when kids are out of school, but also manage the guilt that often comes with spending time away from kids who are asking for their attention.  Here is a helpful article that illustrates how some parents have successfully managed summers for their kids while still maintaining their businesses and client needs.

Do you have a success story about warding off cyberattacks, making sure you’ve got the right insurance coverage, and managing the stress that can come with the end of the school year?  Let us know below!

Where do you see your business in the next year?  In the next five years?

What you gain: In asking this question, you demonstrate that you’re thinking of the client’s overall business goals, and that you have a long-term view and interest in where they’re going.  It can also give you clues on key skills they’ll need as they attempt to meet these goals, what you can draw upon to guide them there, and what pieces you may need to outsource.

Give me an example of a challenging situation in your business you’ve recently encountered and how you handled it.

Why this helps: You acknowledge that everyone has challenges to overcome, and the answers you get can give you great awareness into some of the internal goings-on that may be help you achieve, or detract from, success.  If you’ve come across similar situations (which you probably have), comparing how you’ve handled it to the way your prospective client did can not only boost your insight into their organization, but also gives you an opportunity to relate to the problem and provide your own success story.

How would employees and competitors describe you?

How this gives you an edge: Knowing how the potential client is perceived can shape the way you deliver your final pitch. Do they believe they’re perceived as a workhorse?  If so, what can you say that will provide assurance that you will always have their business covered?  Do they think their competitors view them as non-threatening?  How do you help them fly under the radar, while also helping them increase market share?

By thinking through these questions before the presentation, and being able to address client answers, can bring you closer to a successful pitch and getting the win.

Have you had a chance to try out this strategy?  Let us know how it’s worked for you!

Frequency: Most organizations find the optimum period of time to survey employees is annually.  However, if a change has been implemented, and enough time has passed for it to have had an impact, a survey should repeated within six months.  Organizations which have tried to implement surveys on a more frequent basis find that employees fatigue, and their responses are less reliable or accurate.

Response Rate: In general, an employee survey which garners over a 50% success rate will generate reliable results.  There are some caveats to this, of course.  Smaller organizations should aim for higher response rates.  Regardless of company size, results should reflect the employee population in terms of such elements as tenure, gender, and experience.

Timing: Coordinate with internal departments to avoid sending out an employee survey at certain times of the year.  It’s best to make every effort to avoid response-killers, such as weeks that conflict with major project deadlines, trade shows, and vacations.

Follow-Up: Organizations should communicate major findings back to employees no later than within 6-8 weeks of when the survey closes.  Both positive and negative results should be shared so that employees know that organizational leadership has heard their feedback.

If you’ve had an experience with employee surveys which was less than stellar, and were able to remedy the problems for a more successful experience, please share below!  Everyone benefits when employees are surveyed with best practices, particularly those driven by previous missteps.

Today we begin a series of posts that brings you great tips for your marketing or advertising agency or firm:

Best laptops:  A post on lifehacker presents a valuable laptop buying guide – some key points to consider before making this investment.   Even tech veterans will probably find some of the points helpful due to changes in technology that have occurred since their last laptop investment, and because there are so many key points to remember.  If you’re in the market for a laptop (or considering one for an upcoming Mother’s Day/Father’s Day/graduation gift), consider printing out this link to take along with you while shopping.

Winning more clients: An investment firm attributes their corporate kitchen’s more relaxing atmosphere (as opposed to a boardroom) to annual sales increases of 30% during the past few years.  The firm’s kitchen also provided other benefits to both clients and employees, finding that it greatly enhanced both internal and external communications.  While such a space may only be accessible to agencies and firms of a certain size, even sole proprietorships can use commercial kitchens to capitalize on some of these benefits.  For example, here is an example of a commercial kitchen in the New York area, and here is one in Chicago.

Making tax time easier:  The digital age has given service providers the ability to electronically scan receipts.  However, there are IRS rules and procedures for using an electronic storage system and this blog entry points you in the direction of guidelines to follow, as well as some organizational ideas. Start planning and implementing now to make the next quarterly and annual filings easier.

If you have other ideas regarding laptops, creative ways of winning clients, and cutting down on tax work, leave them below!

• Custom costs more.  Many of these social media research companies claim that samples are much more affordable using this type of tool.  However, they are almost always referencing the “general” respondent – total US, any age, any income level, etc.  Most clients need something more specific, however – e.g., females, income $50,000+, Dallas metro area, etc.  In almost all cases, the more specific your need, the more expensive the sample will be. Make sure to clearly think through your client’s specifics, and communicate these needs to the sample provider to get a realistic estimate.

• Faster, but only for the basics.  Many of these research companies say they can turn around requests for data in just a few days.  In general, this gets you the raw data, with some topline information.  In order to dig deeper, you will either need to ask the sample company to provide cross-tab support, or dedicate internal resources, both of which will require additional time.  When building the project timeline, manage the client’s expectation that additional work will require a longer timeframe.

•  Expect to pay more for everything but the raw data.  Not only will data manipulation require additional time, but will also cost additional money.  Expect the same for assistance with questionnaire development (crucial to ensuring that the research is valid), analytical planning, production of supporting graphics, etc.  In other words, the fees charged include the sample and the raw results.  Period. You’ll need to increase the client’s budget for any additional work, often necessary to interpret and leverage the results.

When using social media for market research, many consultants and agencies find that when all is said and done, it makes sense to hire a research expert.  These experts usually do not charge additional fees for the sample, and they can efficiently bundle in the additional work to generate higher returns on the project investment.

Be a marketing hero – thoroughly investigate social media for marketing research, and decide if it makes sense for your client.  They will love you for it.

Mr. Merrill makes the following assertions on why focus groups are limited in providing innovative solutions:

People just want to make you happy and will give you the answers you want to hear.  Our experience is just the opposite.  With a well-trained moderator, participants in a focus group tell you what they really think.  Experienced moderators know how to dig beneath surface answers and uncover truths behind customer behavior and attitudes.

Focus groups can’t be truly innovative because people can’t invent a product they’ve never seen.  Focus group participants are human and can imagine new ways to solve their products as well as anyone else.  If participants are properly screened for participation, they can bring sufficient category knowledge to the table to come up with solutions to their problems.  If the discussion guide is properly written and executed, participants will reveal emotional-level data regarding these benefits and why various solutions do/do not work for them. So not only do they provide guidance to marketers on solutions, but they provide the “why” these solutions work- information that is critical to properly positioning a new product or service.

Focus groups can certainly be a dragon when not used properly, but can be tamed into an animal that actually lights an innovative fire for any organization.

A blog post this week on Fast Company explores the untimely (or maybe timely, for unhappy consumers)  demise of M&M Kissables.  The post’s takeaways are right on target – that the product likely failed because the reformulation was unsatisfactory, and that it was not perceived as being sufficiently different from others which already existed.

So how does a consultant make sure that his or her client’s product or service does not meet the same fate?

There are three affordable, and easy-to-implement solutions:

Testing: Whether it be product testing, concept evaluation, or some other method, make sure that your client tests any changes in a product or service offering.  It is easy to believe that the change is either insignificant or will have a net positive impact, but these assumptions are often incorrect.

Evaluation of Uniqueness: Whenever a new product or service is introduced, it can’t be properly marketed or positioned until the uniqueness is established.  Think about it – if the problem is already being solved, what would motivate someone to change their purchasing behavior?  Therefore, part of a new product or service introduction should always entail primary research that answers the uniqueness question.

Assess desired benefits:  Most importantly, what emotional-level benefits does this product meet for the end user?  Note that this is very different from features it might have, such as a certain ingredient, or specific packaging (applies to service ‘packaging’ as well).  Features only describe a product or a service.  Emotional-level benefits address how your client’s product or service will improve the end-user’s life.  Note the difference demonstrated in the chart below:

Always identify the emotional benefit the product will deliver and highlight this benefit in product positioning and marketing communications.

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These three steps can easily convert your client’s product or service introduction from a nightmare of failure into a dream of success.

You can learn how to harness customer insights into discovering new products services, or changes to those which already exist, that create a sustainable competitive advantage for your brand. It all starts with asking the right questions, using best practices in market research, to address customer needs:

• Watch your customers interact with your brand.  You’ll learn about how they use it, any difficulties they have with it, and other products which may address problems they have that they haven’t yet found a solution for.
• Learn how they make the purchase decision.  Is it alone, or with others?  Who influences their decisions?  What is the purchase experience like for them, and how can you make it better or easier?
• Talk to non-customers – what are the barriers to purchasing your product?  How can these barriers be overcome? Does the competition currently solving their problem in a way that you don’t?

Most importantly, understand that customers are NOT looking for product features.  They ARE looking for product benefits.  You can learn what these benefits are, and how they can be uniquely positioned, if you ask the question and really listen to the answers.

In a recent post, we described how online qualitative research can lower the cost of some respondent incentives.  Below, we discuss how this same methodology can lead marketers and consultants to a better understanding of market segments.

Segment identification

Many marketers are not sure how to segment their customer base, or potential customers.  Online research allows the moderator to break out respondents into separate rooms.  If there’s a point in a discussion where it appears that respondents are going in different directions, they can be separated into these rooms, where discussion can be conducted that is more relevant to their needs.

Access to Multiple Segments

Other times, marketers and consultants know that there are segments that exist, but can’t find a way to affordably reach each segment.  Online qualitative research often allows more respondents into a group than face-to-face research, facilitating more participation and also the ability to reach multiple segments at one time.  The discussion guide can be set up to allow groups to break off into separate rooms at the most optimal times in the conversation.

In-Depth Need Exploration

Because online qualitative research can span several days or more, the methodology can often yield a more comprehensive understanding of each segment’s needs. It can also result in more clearly defined messages that will appeal to each segment’s motivators and behavioral drivers.

If at all feasible, any qualitative study that explores segmentation opportunities should be followed up with a quantitative survey to confirm the presence of these segments, measure their size, and confirm differences that may exist.  However, an online qualitative study can provide a strong foundation for market segmentation efforts.