Secret Sauce to Effective Marketing

I recently came across a blog post by Strong Social. It didn’t necessarily state anything new or revolutionary. It did however bring attention to something simple and obvious that is extremely critical to anyone who works in communication: It is about the role of research in designing winning marketing strategies.

As someone who has spent the bulk of their professional life doing consumer research, I was naturally very intrigued about what this blog had to say. Let’s face it. In the world of marketing, researchers are seen as the nerds. While PR professionals, marketers and advertisers are out socializing and selling the big ideas, researchers are the ones quietly working in the backrooms, slouched over their computers and stacks of data, writing reports.

It has been my experience that research is usually viewed and judged through a very narrow lens. Depending on whom you ask, research could be described as a tool for testing concepts, it could help optimize messaging and creative, it may be used for segmentation, or it can measure customer satisfaction. But regardless of how it is thought of, it is usually seen as the nice-to-have.

Every time budgets are cut, the first thing that goes out the window is research. This is in part because some (most) CMOs use research as validation for their recommended strategies. Meanwhile, marketing teams’ interest in research can be summarized into single metric (KPI) that justifies their bonuses.

Yet research is much more than a validation or optimization tool. Research, when done right, is highly strategic. The Strong Social blog clearly outlines the depth and breadth of different research methodologies. More specifically, it highlights the unique value that different types of research when it comes to guiding and informing creation of strong marketing campaigns.

“Research when done wring, is highly strategic.”

I highly recommend reading the original article as it is very comprehensive, filled with lots of great information and tips. That said, for those who like to say “TL;DR”, I have outline three key takeaways:

• Content strategists rely heavily on research. They use the insight to decide on messaging, medium, and placement.
• Copywriters, get their instructions from the content strategists. Consequently, copywriters don’t always have direct access to the research. Why not give them access to the audience research? Copywriters need research to know their audience and their lingo.
• Qualitative research methodologies are particularly useful – think beyond focus groups. Examples include ethnographies, user diaries, customer reviews, UX research, social content analyses, etc.

Tell me…

Do you use research for your client projects? What types of research do you typically use? How much value does research bring to your job?