MARKET RESEARCH...
How To Never Make A Major Marketing Mistake Again
In Napoleon Hill's classic book Think And Grow Rich, he
says one of the major causes of failure is that people prefer to act on
opinions created by guesswork or snap-judgments rather than facts.
Marketing decisions based on what you think will work rather than what the
marketplace wants is the main reason advertisements don’t work. Your
livelihood depends on your ability to determine which messages will
effectively attract new customers and entice your current customers to
come back.
You can make these determinations by putting every important marketing
question to a vote by the only people whose ballots count: customers and
prospects. This type of "voting" takes place in the form of small,
inexpensive tests called "market tests."
Conversely, questionnaires, surveys and focus groups don’t always
reflect your prospects’ willingness to invest their money with you.
Results are usually skewed. Testing, on the other hand, allows you to
unearth which headlines, offers or prices the market is willing to respond
to. So before you spend a fortune on advertising—test the effectiveness of
your ads on small but representative samples of your market. The results
are reliable because each marketing question is answered with cash, check
or major credit card. Ultimately, the purpose of testing is to demand
maximum performance from every marketing dollar spent. You will find that
one approach will always substantially out-perform all others. You might
think that this concept of testing sounds so obviously simple but are you
doing it? The fact is ALMOST ALL businesses haphazardly run whatever
advertisements "seem to be pulling well lately." If you methodically test
and calculate your advertising efforts, you’ll shred your competitors’
advertising to pieces and win their customers in the process. Every aspect
of your marketing can and should be tested — advertising mediums,
placements, headlines, prices, offers, packaging and sales pitches.
You Must First Understand "John Smith" Buyer...
Then Ask The RIGHT Questions
Once you understand your target audience and what hits John Smith's
"hot buttons", you must then draft the right questions for your surveys to
be sure you get the right data from John Smith to further develop your ads
to communicate directly to those hot buttons to get his attention and keep
it long enough to communicate a valuable educational message to him.
Careful testing ensures you will never make a major marketing mistake
again. If an advertisement or promotion fails in a small-scale test, you
either adjust it and test again, or scrap it and replace it. By testing,
you take the guesswork and assumption out of advertising. Be very
scientific with your marketing—keep experimenting until you stumble upon
what really works. By scientifically testing every facet of your
marketing, you’ll find that in the long run your advertising will be more
effective, make you more money, and help your business grow more rapidly.
But unless you test, you won’t know which approach is the best one. These
components are discussed in our MONOPOLIZE YOUR MARKETPLACE CDs—request your copy today.
We provide testing and market research services at reasonable rates for
small to large companies. For more information about our
testing and research services click here -> to contact us.
You can also obtain free information about our services by visiting our FREE Resources page.
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