DIY Marketers

6 DIY Marketing Research Trends You Can Put in Your Marketing Plan

Posted on September 21, 2010 by Ivana S. Taylor

How often do you find yourself wishing you knew what your market was thinking?  Well maybe sometimes you don’t want to know everything that they are thinking.  But you want to know enough to make good decisions about what products or services you’re going to focus on.

Market research or customer surveys are the typical way to collect that kind of information.  In the past, that meant doing focus groups to find out what questions to ask.  Then either calling customers on the phone or sending mail surveys.

Then along came online survey tools like Survey Monkey, Zoomerang or QuestionPro and suddenly what used to cost zillions of dollars became affordable enough for even small businesses to get high-quality information.  And DIY (Do-It-Yourself) Market Research was born.

Interactivity, Collaboration and Open Source Concepts Are Changing How We Collect Feedback. marketing research is evolving.  It’s more than surveys and focus groups. It’s more than those thousand dollar reports produced by Freedonia or The Conference Board.  Today, finding out what your customer is thinking is a hands-on process.

To get ahead of the DIY Marketing Trend Curve — Join me on a FREE Webinar for QuestionPro and Survey Analytics

In this fast paced session, we’ll be exploring:

-       6 of the top research trends that have influenced how we collect feedback

-       Resources where you can see examples of these trends in action.

-       Tools that you can use today to get started

Register today to discover how your peers are leveraging insight into defined opportunities to innovate via today’s technologies for tomorrow’s research!

Name: Ivana S. Taylor

Email: ivana@diymarketers.com

Website: http://diymarketers.com

About: Ivana Taylor is the publisher of DIYMarketers.com – an online marketing publication that provides marketing strategies that help entrepreneurs and business owners get and keep profitable customers. She is the DIY Marketing expert and book editor for Small Business Trends and a contributing author to AMEX Open Forum. Her strategic consulting firm, Third Force specializes in helping companies find their best customers and be the one they choose – regardless of price. Ivana is the co-author of Excel for Marketing Managers. You can find her on Twitter as @DIYMarketers.

  • http://www.FastMarketingPlan.com Sandy Barris

    Hi Ivana,

    Thanks for sharing that a its good to know what you market is thinking, enough to make good decisions about what products or services you’re going to focus on.

    And you are so right on about knowing more about what your market is thinking.

    By the way, if it’s OK with you I’d like to add that no marketing plan or marketing calendar should be set in stone!

    If history has taught us anyting, no matter how effective your plan may be, chances are, it will have to be altered at a given time; due to what your competitor(s), clients, future clients or suppliers are doing.

    Here’s the kicker, don’t feel as if you have to be a psychic. Don’t feel overwhelmed at the thought of needing a business and marketing plan so flexible that it takes away from the overall aim and goals that made you ‘hungry’ to market your particular business, product, service or idea in the first place!

    No doubt about it, there’s an easy way to be sure that you can continue to have success in the future – if you just start off with flexibility in mind! The best way to do so is to have a marketing plan and marketing calendar that is flexible and built to adjust itself when the time comes to do so.

    Dedicated to Multiplying your Marketing Results,
    Sandy Barris
    Fast Marketing Plan.com
    http://www.FastMarketingPlan.com

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  • http://www.e-focusgroups.com/ Qualitative Marketing Research

    After reading your post, I think that its a very important news for everyone.You have define about Qualitative Marketing Research. Thanks for the tips it gives me more information about it, this post is really helpful.

DIY Marketers