Aug 21, 2008
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There are a lot of businesses that do all types of marketing: direct mail, fliers, billboards, newspapers, and obviously the internet. Yet there are a lot of businesses that do not actually know where there customers are finding them or coming from.The best way to understand your customer base is to know where they heard about your company. This will help any business owner do a better job at marketing. If you have a lot of customers that keep coming from the internet and found you somewhere online then you want to put more resources into that marketing arena.
As I have talked with businesses I have found that they have marketing budgets in various forms. Yet when you ask them what is providing the best results they don’t know. So how can a business owner more fully undertand their customers.
Ask them questions. That is the best way to get information from people. If you don’t ask then you won’t get any information. A simple question when a customer comes through your company is: How did you find us or hear about us?
This will open up a big insight for a lot of companies. As a test if a company was to do this for even 2 weeks they would understand a lot more about their marketing and what is doing the best. After this test then a company can sit down and re-evaluate where they are spending their marketing and cut out what is not providing the best results while boosting what is pulling the most results.
Performing surveys online and offline is the best way to get information about several questions. When having surveys they have to be short and to the point. 5-10 questions max. Write the questions in a way that is does not need a long answer. This way the person taking the survey can take it in a very short period of time.
Making an incentive along with the survey is even better as there is something for the person who is filling out the survey. Everyone listens to WIFM radio, Whats In It For Me. When people are asked if they will answer some questions or take a survey they always want to know WHY?
Tell them why and also offer them some type of incentive that they cannot refuse. By doing these things a company will better understand the market and where to spend more time and money.