How and why to conduct customer research for digital products |
The modern consumer demands a brand that understands them in a person-to-person way. Below are some steps for insuring that your company and products are able to do that.
Think about the last time you were with someone who went extremely good.
It felt as if someone else 'got' the other person, didn't they?
It's as if, even before talking, the person was aware of the thoughts you had as if they were on the exact wavelength as you, perfectly in sync with your wants and requirements from your relationship.
Now, think about when you last interacted with a business that you love.
Perhaps it was the same experience. They seemed to anticipate your needs and offer solutions well before they ever asked. Their goal was to provide an as smooth and seamless experience as possible starting from the moment you found them to present day.
Yes, sometimes competitors will arrive with lower offers, but if you're similar to 70% of the population who are in the 73%, the price by itself isn't enough to sway your favor and cause customers to abandon your trusted name.
As it is in three of four customers , are willing to pay more with a business that has delivered consistently high quality over the duration of your partnership.
Do you want to build that same sense of loyality with your customers? Worried that it might be something that's only known to business professionals?
Take heart, for this isn't the case.
It all comes down to knowing your customer better than your competitors, and this is much simpler than you might think.
This week, we'll be discussing how to do effective customer research on a shoestring budget. But before we dig into that we'll take a look at what's involved.
Once you've got a well-researched product, start offering your digital product for free with !
The importance of customer research in setting firms from the competition
Did you know the expression "it's a buyer's market"?
Commonly used to refer to jobs and real estate market shifts to buyer-centricity where the amount of supply is greater than the demand of the product. In those markets where the buyers are in charge rather than the company, that has their pick of the litter.
In reality, around 380 new websites get created each hour. There's a lot of competition vying for consumers' attention. But while that might sound daunting, it's actually a great idea.
Consumers will appreciate that they don't have to contend with dismal experiences or inadequate product offerings. Businesses, this allows them to set themselves above the ocean of similarity by offering more rich interaction, seamless and smooth interaction with their customers.
In the event that you distinguish yourself by a higher level of engagement, customers are keen to promote them regardless of whether they're part of the B2B or B2C crowd.
As the graph shows, this isn't an objective that many companies succeed to hit.
B2C businesses fare better over B2B businesses however, 47% of people think they wish brands did a better job at improving engagement.
Whatever the case, it shows a huge gap between customer expectations and experiences, which can only be mended with effective customer research.
After all, can you imagine a better method to satisfy the following demands without understanding the person that is behind these demands?
74% of people want you to treat them as individuals, not as niches.
33% of consumers think that businesses must anticipate their needs before they can.
70 percent of your customer base is looking for personalization in your marketing communications to appeal specifically to them and exclusively those who are.
The statistics don't just pertain to clients from the United States, by the way, though they are most impressive across the U.S.
72% of consumers in the UK say they will not look at a brand until they show that they are able to understand and value the customers in a person-to-person way.
So, what's the bottom line?
Whatever the location Customers are not happy with firms that treat them the same way as general invoices.
They are expecting you to get to know them, feel their pain to make products and campaigns which meet their requirements as people.
The best way to accomplish that is to dig in to the depths and research regarding your potential public.
You'll stand in the crowd.
Don't do it, and you'll be blending in.
As for getting started it's possible to use a number ways to study your target audience. However, there's one you shouldn't ignore.
(The first, obviously.)
#1. Note down your research findings and your marketing objectives at the very beginning
The process of recording your goals might seem like a superfluous step, but it's the foundation of your study as well. While different research techniques may be mixed and blended according to your preferences, this one has to be the first step.
Why?
Two main reasons.
The first is an investigation that was conducted in 2005 looking at the connection between goal achievement and whether the goals were written down. Across groups that recorded their goals as opposed to those who kept them in their head, the performance increase was substantial.
Take a look:
The second reason for setting and capturing your objectives is less the research aspect and more about preserving your resources.
If you're clear on the goals you have in mind, you'll shave off waste and concentrate on the most important data you'll need to know about your target audience and their requirements.
When your goal is aimless, you're more likely to spend hours and money trying to filter across the endless sea of information you'll encounter in your search.
And this isn't just supposition in any way.
The process of establishing and capturing the goals, procedures, research, and the strategies that arise from those are crucial to a successful operation of a modern-day product. Marketers who have goals set are significantly more likely to report success than those who leave their goals to the wilds.
Which is probably why among companies that hire marketers , the top abilities that prospective employees will demonstrate are managing projects as well as data analysis as well as the capability to draw insights from data about customers.
In terms of how you can set those goals The framework SMART continues to be the best option for defining and checking your objectives.
If you've not been aware of the acronym this acronym, let us explain how it is broken down:
Let's look at a brief example.
It is said that the first goal is to understand your viewers. This is in line with the primary metric of preciseness, it's still unmeasurable, time-based or achievable without more details.
If you go back to drawing a new plan You could change the goal you have set to be something like this:
You'll understand your audience's main three issues using online marketing tools prior to creating your latest ebook.
This is a fantastic goal because it helps us:
Limit the scope of what we're looking for in our research
Identify the relevance of the research findings to what the company needs
Choose a date and time to finish the job
Use the information in a meaningful way in order to develop new products
The system addresses the questions posed in the SMART system through providing specificity as well as measurability, accuracy, the ability to be relevant, as well as time restrictions.
If you prefer a more visual method, the graphic below provides a good overview of each part and other points to keep in mind while you work through your goals.
It's all good. Now that you're armed with your objectives and know why customer research is so important, it's time to move to the next step.
Spying on competitor products.
#2. Spy on product reviews for high-level summary
Let me explain.
If you want to learn more about the audience that will benefit from these books, you can look at existing products in the marketplaces. Particularly, you should look at books that are successful in the same area to gather useful information. .
These are reviews for a book with high ratings from Amazon, UX Strategy: How to Design new and innovative Digital Things that Customers Want . At a glance, check if there are any themes in these reviews.
What I observed was:
Every review mentions the ease of access it provides for newcomers.
Two out of three of the reviews focus on how examples and demonstrations relate to actual situations.
Every review points at the depth of the text and also the detail level of the concepts in the text.
Based on this I'm guessing that the audience for the same book would be looking for something accessible to new readers that connects concepts with real instances, and provides a wealth of details.
Let's see how it holds up when I check out another book that is in the same style with equivalent number of reviews. The Design of Everyday Things Redesigned and expanded Version .
In these reviews, we might be able to observe:
Customers are critical of this book's layout and organization. Many users have criticized its ineffective (if ironically so) layout choices that may indicate problems with organizational that are not well-known to newcomers.
While the book's first reviews pointed out the author's use practical examples and insights, the reviewers weren't as receptive to similar elements in this book.
Inattention to specifics ruined the credibility of the author to the customers.
The second point is especially intriguing because it offers us an the chance to go into the depths of our research -- provided that it's in line with the objectives we have set and to compare different items. Which book did well and the other didn't?
And, moreover, how can we ensure that our offerings are in the right place on this spectrum?
In this moment, we do not have enough data for us to create any material because all our information is purely interpretive, but we do have an idea of what we should look at when creating our product and a great supplement for the time we find quantifiable information.
Which is, incidentally that's what we'll do next.
#3. Use keyword research to guide your search
They will help you to reach out to the public and comprehend your potential customers by analyzing the amount of traffic as well as the click-through rate (CTR) behind key words.
The company has made a visual which shows how they perform against comparable SEO suites , and while anyone is treated with caution. salt, I've been able to confirm my experience with each of these tools and their respective scores.
So, why does keyword research make a perfect way to get customer insights?
The volume of interest tells you how many people are interested in this topic The way you phrase it will tell you what they are searching for in different phases of the buying process, their most frequently asked questions have about the subject, and the kind of content that is popular with them.
While you're at it, however, there are two things that you must remember when doing keyword research:
Volume isn't an accurate measurement to measure actual SEO but it is helpful for customer data as it reveals how people look to find what they're looking for.
Keywords are matched and filtered based on the perceived purpose of the person who is searching. "Rankbrain" , the AI behind the process of determining intent, actually quite good at what it does and is better than human beings -- so you can put stock in its suggestions.
Rankbrain is a reliable source of information because it measures keywords the same way we were measuring reviews. Based on the level of level of satisfaction the user has .
Combining the suggestions of its authors together with the knowledge we gained through product reviews gives the best of both -organic and inorganicmind.
Integrating your insights from qualitative sources with Rankbrain's quantitative insights is not just an easy approach to working. By the way, it's also an effective form of marketing that relies on data.
A solution that accomplishes both of its top goals -- giving you the capability to take more informed decisions on data and enriching your data with the most complete information to help professional marketers.
No matter what instrument you employ, however, the key is to look for patterns in the data, and draw insights from it based on the qualitative information you gleaned from the prior section.
For instance, if users are consistently seeking free solutions to the issues that you're trying to address and have complained about price in the review of the product, this niche may not be lucrative enough for you or it could require you to overcome additional objections in order to convince customers to buy.
If they're constantly seeking easy solutions or praised competitors solutions for convenience there's the opportunity to supply customers with the same product with a small cost and with a thoughtfully designed product that can meet their demands.
Of course, there's only one method to ensure that your marriage of quantitative and qualitative data is that is perfect after you've created them This is the last tip.
#4. Use surveys and real conversations to wrap it up
All of our work up to this point has been about constructing and proving our assumptions.
This last step, however, is about making them more difficult and breaking them.
Simply put, if you would like to dig deeper into your audience research -- and you should have a go -- there's nothing better for real conversations and interactions with them.
Surveys can relieve some stress off by collecting all the information for you. They're also one of the simplest and higher-value means to have the interactions you need.
Tech companies are more aware than other companies. According to Research Now, now Dynata has 76% of technology companies say insights gained from survey research were extremely or very valuable to their projects.
They're not just great for conducting research with customers before creation, either.
Polls and surveys are suggested by industry experts to keep customers satisfaction high following the launch of your website, too.
You show that you care.
They can provide insight unlike any other type of research could.
Just asking for feedback can make customers more likely to remain faithful to your brand.
Other significant positives from using surveys to conduct market research is the ability to determine the sentiment of consumers, create lead-generating original research and gauge the demand to your goods.
Just make sure that your survey is short and straight to the point. It is a good idea to make the survey you conduct of market research ought to last less than 15 mins The shorter the survey the more likely to get people to complete your survey.
Better yet, if you would like to push your research to a higher stage and achieve higher completion rates, you shouldn't submit surveys via email.
Do it either in person or via a web meeting. The average response rate for surveys conducted in person is almost double the average response rate of online or email surveys.
It's beneficial for a few motives, but the most crucial is when you ask questions via webcam or face-to-face in person, you'll be able detect clues that you would normally miss out on in an online survey.
It is true that just 7% of communications can be dictated through actual words spoken. The other 93% is from nonverbal cues like facial expressions, body language and voice tone.
Furthermore, when you meet someone face-to-face, you'll have an opportunity to dig deep into their issues and emotions than an answer box would allow.
The more you dig to understand your customers, the closer to truly understanding your customers as individuals -- which will, in case you're not aware that it's nothing less than what the modern consumer demands.
So research them and then meet with them.
There's only one way to satisfy their -- and your business -demands.
It's a long journey, however it's an enjoyable one.
Knowing your customer is the key to building an enterprise that stands out from the competition and delivers better customer experiences.
But while it's not a quick process, it's not difficult, either.
The steps are pretty simple, actually:
Begin by setting your objectives and capturing your goals. This process is important higher than most people give it credit for.
Read product reviews of competitors to identify patterns and opinions about your prospective customers.
Use search engine research to discover the things people are looking for in your field and what they are looking for it.
Then, use surveys to find out the reasons customers are searching for these similar things. The more specific information you get from customers, the better.
Better yet, add real conversations. It will give you more information and higher rates of response, and that much closer to knowing your customers.
Doesn't sound difficult, does it?
This is because it is, which makes it an unanswerable reason why brands don't capitalize on the research of their customers.
Then, the loss is your opportunity.
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