You can’t get there without a map — affordable visitor research.
Marketing research is so important (and not expensive, either)
My family will tell you that I am “directionally disabled” - that even with a map in hand, I am bound to get lost. This is generally true for me when moving around in a car, but not when it comes to marketing. I have learned that it is impossible to drive good marketing decisions without a roadmap. And that map most often comes from marketing research. If you don’t gather market intelligence about your audiences or try to gauge the environment in which your organization is operating, you may as well “drive blind.”
So why are so many museums, arts organizations and nonprofits resistant to doing marketing research? My best guess is that the perception is that it will be too expensive. Or there is a fear that the effort will not provide useful or actionable information. Or even worse, it will merely confirm information that the staff already knew. My argument is that despite these objections, marketing research can prove invaluable, is readily at hand and and is free if you know where to look.
Here are Grace’s top 3 tips for how to gather and use marketing research that will ensure you have a roadmap for some of your most critical marketing decisions:
1) Web and email analytics
2) Observation
3) Feedback surveys
1) Web and email analytics
Website and marketing platforms allow you to conveniently track every click an interested party makes in exploring what you have to offer online. Do you use Google Analytics (or the equivalent on SquareSpace called Google Search Console)? Do you check who is visiting your website, what information they are seeking and how long they stay on your site? If not, you are missing a digital marketing roadmap that will allow you to engage audiences or potential audiences. Same goes for the information about the effectiveness of your email promotional campaigns. Your email client generates data when you sent out an email. Who opens it, what do they click on, who is repeatedly opening your emails, or not? Are you regularly testing email content, subject lines, video and photo engagement? This information is at your fingertips and is completely free.
2) Observation
This is a marketing research tool for anyone with a physical site that people can visit in person. When was the last time you stood in your lobby, hall, visitor center or galleries and watched who came in? What did they do? Where did they go? How were they received and served? What questions do you have about your site that can be answered by watching how people actually engage once in your building?
3) Feedback surveys
You do not need a formal marketing research study to get some immediate feedback from your audiences. While platforms like SurveyMonkey are great tools for the more advanced surveys, you can also use a simple and free survey template from Google Forms to get targeted feedback. Keep it short and simple, but ask questions that will give you actionable information that can fuel real marketing planning and decision-making.