By Tracy Twitchin of TLC PR - We have lost count of the number of times we have suggested that a potential, or even existing client, conducts a customer or industry survey as part of their marketing strategy. It’s not unusual for many businesses to think they know how they are regarded by their customers, their competitors, and their trade media. But the surveys we have managed to convince them to conduct have mostly shown quite the opposite, much to their chagrin.
The more pragmatic of these potential/existing clients have recognised that their fledgling marketing strategy might require a little (at best) amending to cater for the survey’s findings, while other clients have ploughed on regardless. And yes, that decision inevitably stirred up some, at best, inappropriate and ineffectual marketing, and at worse, bad feelings among their customers and business partners. Surveys don’t just tell you how your customers feel about your products and services.
They can also help you identify issues with production or packaging, discover a gap for new products, carve out whole new markets, and clarify what media your customers engage with. It can sometimes be worrying to what extent these factors are realised by surveys and not the businesses themselves. We understand some businesses may not want to spend a percentage of their marketing budget on a survey but in these days of online models such as Survey Monkey, the costs can be negligible, and the return on investment easily justifiable. We’re not saying that clients should go the whole hog and bring in a specialist survey provider or redirect some of their own staff to conduct a qualitative model face-to-face or over the phone.
Few customers or influencers will have the time for that these days. But asking the right kind and number of questions to the right kind of people, to get the basics right in a business environment is, or should be, basic hygiene. This should come before marketing strategies deliberately designed to flatter a potential client’s ego and fancy creative that can sometimes go completely over the head of the audience, risking alienation in the process.
Investing in a survey will identify whether a potential or existing client needs to focus more on building the right brand rather than generating leads from one that is having to fight misconceptions instead of finding its USP. TLC pr is a dedicated PR agency that specialises in building clients’ reputations in the built environment www.tlcpr.co.uk