Build a campaign with the right marketing research in just 3 steps

Every marketing campaign needs a plan, that is supported by marketing research. Creating a marketing research should be the first step in every project you take.

Also, although the research that you’ve done for other projects can be helpful, in most cases every new project needs its own research. So, let’s start! In this article you will find an outline for every marketing research, organized in 3 effortless steps.

The audience research

Know your audience. The golden rule that isn’t so easy to follow. Before starting a campaign and creating any type of content, learn anything you can about your audience. After forming a plan that should be your next step.

The information that you need to collect:

• basic information of your targeted audience: age, education, job positions, demographic information

This will help you set the right tone of your message. It will give you insight in the language and vocabulary you should be using. You will understand if your message should have a professional, business tone, or if you should take it a bit low key and relaxed.

• their hobbies and interests: find out about how they are spending their free time.

This can be helpful in creating the right message and approach. It can give you inspiration how to approach your audience, from the right field. It will make them feel connected with your company, product or service. Like they know you and you, most certainly know them.

• the media they use

I am sure you already know this, but if not, every marketing campaign has its own marketing channels to use. So for some campaigns that can be Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, for others Google Ads, Banners, YouTube Videos, or a combination of any of those. The important thing is to find out where your targeted audience is.

How do you get this information?

Well, there are always studies, specially for countries. If you search the web a bit, you can find real scientific studies showing how much time people spend online, when, where and on which channels. You can also find studies about age groups, how are they spending their time online and where.

Also, there is always the option of creating an online survey. Use different social media channels, and different accounts and find out where people are spending their time. And the last option, that will take more time and patience, but will give you the first-hand results is testing. Just test two, three versions on different channels, track the results and see which the most successful ones are.

The competition research

Competition can be good, for motivation and for learning purposes. Let’s say you are creating a campaign for a client or a product, that you are not that familiar with. What can you do?

Of course, first you learn and research everything there is about the product and then you turn to the competition. Unless you have an invention to promote (if you do, lucky you!), the chances are high that someone is already promoting something similar.

So get all the information that you can on how they are doing it:

• Which approach do they have with the audience? Is it causal or professional?
• Which social media channels are they using? When and how often?
• Which content are they providing? Video, pictures, ebooks, ads, banners?
• How are they responding to comments and questions? Do they answer them? Do they have contact forms and/or surveys?

All this information gives you great insight. You know what you are against to and have you can start.

The culture research

Considering that more and more companies have worldwide projects, and don’t operate only in their own country, learning about the country is a vital step in a marketing research. Why? Every country has different norms and traditions.

Many things that are ok in your own country, can be a taboo topic in other ones. The language barrier is also there. Although you can translate your message correctly, there is always the question of context. There have been many successful marketing campaigns, that prove to be very offensive, or cause a big misunderstanding, in some parts of the world.

A good example proving that culture research should be on your to do list, is the story of Pampers (Proctor & Gamble) in Japan. The ad shoved a stroke, carrying a baby. For western cultures, the story of strokes delivering babies to the parents is a well known one. But in Japan, customers where confused and didn’t engage with the campaign in the right way. Why? Because in Japan, the babies are delivered by floating peaches. May seem weird to us, buts its totally normal to them.

Conclusion

This 3 steps can help you start your marketing campaign. This marketing research is great for making an outline. After that you can evolve your marketing plan, with detailed information and tactics. If you have any questions about marketing research or marketing plan,feel free to contact us!