The Competitive Advantage

August 22, 2012

Don’t Kid Yourself… Social Media is NOT Free

Almost all businesses have embraced social media – at least at some level. Blogging, FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter and the others all represent potential weapons in your marketing arsenal.  And we love them for two primary reasons:

• Reach!  900,000,000 FaceBook users, 550,000,000 Twitter users and so on… the numbers are staggering!
• Cost!  It’s $0.  That’s right… you can jump into social media in a pretty big way and not have to pay anything.

Well… that’s not entirely true.  While there may not be any out-of-pocket expenses, they do require and can take up a lot of your time.  And for very busy or smaller market research firms, time may be even more precious than money.

July 31, 2012

Want to get better at marketing? Become a student of it!

Marketing has evolved and changed as much as any discipline in business.  We used to think about marketing as print ads and direct mail.  Then along came the internet and our choices expanded to include email and banner ads.  And in the last few years, thanks to advances in technology, our choices have expanded further to include social media marketing, search engine optimization and mobile marketing.  And now to tie it all together, there’s Marketing Automation Software (MAS).

With the proliferation of options – where do you turn for answers?  Ironically, to the same technologies that are the cause of this anxiety in the first place… the internet and social media.  There’s enough information available – most of it for free – to make almost anyone a marketing expert!

July 25, 2012

Does YOUR Business Need a Focus Group?

As researchers, you help your clients get feedback and insight on a variety of things – concept development, advertising, product usage and so forth.

But do you do that for yourself, too?  Do you get unbiased feedback on new services you’re thinking about launching, marketing ideas or tough business decisions?

If not, here’s an idea… consider establishing an ‘Advisory Board,’ an outside third-party group that can provide input on a variety of critical decisions.

July 18, 2012

Exhibiting at a conference this fall? Get your event marketing plan in place!

You’ve committed thousands (maybe tens of thousands) of dollars and several days of several people’s time to exhibit at a conference this fall.  The worst thing you can do is just show up and hope it goes well.  As the popular business book is titled, “Hope is not a strategy!”

July 5, 2012

Hiring your first sales rep? Consider these 7 “must-dos” first…

If you’re about to hire your firm’s first sales rep, then let me congratulate you on taking a very big – and vitally important – step for your firm.  Having someone other than the principal(s) of the firm do your selling is an important and often scary thing to do.  You’re letting go and relying on “an outsider” to help make you successful.  But until you do, you’ll never be able to realize your firm’s full potential.

June 27, 2012

Dramatically Improve your Marketing with A-B Testing… it’s Easy and Free!

There’s an old saying that I really like… “That which is easy to do is also easy not to do!”  Evidently, that sentiment applies to A-B testing in marketing, because almost no one does it.

June 21, 2012

If You’ve Got it, Flaunt it… using Case Studies

Do you do good work?  Have some completed successful projects?  Have you helped your clients find insights in new and unique ways?

No doubt, you have.  But are you using those success stories to help build your brand and enhance your credibility?  If not, you should be… through the use of Case Studies.

A Case Study is a fact-based, somewhat ‘clinical’ way to tell a success story.  In fact, it’s a “proof source.”  And it’s because of this approach that Case Studies have a high level of acceptance in our industry.  Do great work… tell the facts of the project… improve the perception of your firm.

June 18, 2012

Do you KPI? 3 Steps for Enhancing your Marketing & Sales Measurement.

One of the great business truisms of all time… “You can’t manage what you don’t measure!”

If you haven’t defined the most important marketing & sales KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) for your firm and monitored them consistently, here are 3 simple steps for getting started.