Disclaimer:  These "Market Research Monday" posts are really just a basic starting point for market research.  There is so much more that can be done-- so much deeper you can go.  It's also a very big subject that, in order to really learn will require a great deal of study, and practice.  By providing you with tools, we hope you'll consider hiring a professional when you realize how much work it is-- that said, we realize not everyone is in a position to hire a professional and some people truly enjoy market research and are perfectly capable and happy doing it themselves...

That being understood, let's delve into this week's topic:  using Google Adwords tool for market research (and a preview of Google's latest toy, just announced today).

You'll want to open the Google Adwords External Keyword Tool so you can follow along.  Just open it in a new window or tab on your browser (in most browsers there is a tiny '+' symbol on a little button at the top of your web pages just below all those toolbars-- hitting that + button opens a new tab).

After opening the Google keyword tool, it should look something like the photo to the left (you need a Google account and you must be signed in order to view it):




There are a couple of options for how to find keyword ideas.  One is the default option: "Descriptive words or phrases."  If you select this option, you'll have to fill in your own keyword ideas in the keyword box (one word or phrase by line) like thie graphic to the right.

You can also filter results keeping out certain phrases, include or exclude additional keyword ideas based on the one you chose, etc.


If you can't think of what to type in the first place, but you have a website (or even a competitor's website), choose the second option over on the left side: to generate keyword ideas from the "Website content." (see graphic on the left)


When you choose this option, a box will open to allow you to type in or copy and paste any URL.  Google will scan that page and use the most frequently used words and phrases to find keyword ideas for you.  Cool!

Now comes the research part!  This is where you find out if there is a market for your business idea or product line... (can't you hear the suspenseful music?)

Once you've got a list of relevant keywords, now look at the columns in the search results (below the keyword entry section).  One of them will say "Global Monthly Search Volume."  This is especially useful if you're an internet business, but definitely useful no matter how big or small or what your locale.  That number tells you how many searches there are for that keyword in a month (average).  The other number you'll want to see is the "Average CPC (Cost-Per-Click)."  The higher the CPC and the higher the search volume, the larger the market.  There are ways to delve deeper into these numbers mathematically, but for our purposes, this will suffice.

If it doesn't show one of those columns, just click on the drop-down menu to show those additional columns (see graphic to the right).

There is a column that says "Local Search Volume."  This is also extremely useful, but don't be fooled-- this is not specific to your state or locale-- this is country-specific.  For our purposes, this means all the searches in the United States.  If you just want to be national, and not global (as if that were a small thing... haha- give me a break, I can be sarcastic sometimes!), then just ignore the Global numbers.

If there are only 6,000 searches, but the estimated CPC is $35.76, that's not a bad market!  That means the advertisers using that CPC are making many times more than $35.76 per click (or they're not very smart)... we'll err on the side of your competition being smart, because erring the other way is often a fatal error in business!

If there are 2 million searches but the CPC is 5 cents, then your market is significantly smaller (dollar-wise).  Just keep it in perspective!  Also, as a note: if there are only a few hundred searches, then this is very likely not a good market to be in (and I've never seen anyone spending a lot of money on small markets like that).

This is a quick and easy way to find out if you are in demand, but DO NOT be discouraged by competition.  Competition is almost ALWAYS a good sign: it means people want and are willing to pay for what you have.

I hope this Market Research Monday was helpful!  Here's a preview of something we'll post later this week:

"Have you heard about Google's latest little toy?  Okay... there are quite a few they have announced in the first 10 weeks of 2010-- I'm referring to the VERY latest!  It's the Google Public Data Explorer.  I know, the names aren't very creative...

"Essentially, it allows you to visualize public data (statistics) and manipulate the data in different graphs for easier digestion.  This is very preliminary, but it could make market research easier (one day)!  It'll be awhile before it's really capable of..."

That post will be up on Wednesday.  Thanks!

This might be a wee bit on the controversial side for a business like ourselves, but we thought it may entertain!  This is about what was then called an "industrial filmmaker," or one who makes "industrial films" for businesses.  This industry is the precursor to the commercial internet video/DVD videography market we know (and love) today.  If you have any videographer friends, they may be able to relate to this very well...

On a side note, we have a policy against meeting with people within a company without meeting with the person responsible for the final decision, so if you'd like to work with our marketing consultants, make sure we can meet with your decision-making party at the first-- otherwise we'll just have to decline.

Enjoy!



If you haven't heard yet, the Riverton Metropolitan Orchestra will be doing a concert tomorrow evening at 7:30 pm, with a pre-concert game for families starting at 6 pm.  2 for 1 discount tickets are available through the Facebook fan page of the orchestra.

Labels: marketing, video production

Getting started is the HARDEST part (and isn't that the case in everything we do?).

If it seems overwhelming to you, do NOT fret!  Just take it one step at a time.  Take one thing from the presentation and do it today!  Here are 1 thing you can do today!

Make a list of 5 competitor's with the URL (web address) of their website.


Now go to Alexa.com/siteinfo.  Where it says "Site Lookup," type in the URL of your competitor's websites.

One by one, write down their "Alexa Traffic Ranking."  Their Alexa Traffic Ranking will show up near the top of that page.  The lower the number, the higher the amount of traffic that website gets (Google.com has a traffic ranking of '1').  Each traffic ranking number is unique (no 2 sites can have the same ranking).

Here's a picture of where to find the Alexa Traffic Ranking:

After you've done this with your competitor's sites, try it with your own site.  If you don't own your own domain name (something.com, website.org, yea-nay.com, etc.), then you won't be able to check your Alexa Traffic Ranking.

This is a very basic step in market research, but it will help you get a feel for where you are in comparison with your competitor's websites (and you'll have a sense for how well your online presence is working
for you).

If Alexa says "No Data," that means your website is getting almost no traffic (could be just a few visitors per month).  If your site does say "no data," you'll want to look at some strategies to drive people to your site.  Once you make that determination, there are a plethora of strategies, but before you choose which strategy, you'll want to do more research.  Read up again next week for Market Research Monday.

Alexa is also a GREAT way to see if it's worth your money when someone approaches you about buying advertising space on their site.  If their Alexa ranking says "no data," you can be assured it's not worth the money.  Depending on how much they are charging you, I would highly discourage buying advertising on any sites with a ranking higher than 200,000 (greater than 200,000 or 'no data').  You want to make sure that your ads are actually seen!

Quick tip: to read ALL the blogs you follow in one place rather than having to hunt them down, sign up for Google Reader and add this RSS feed to it so you can get our updates and keep learning!

Below the presentation are some notes that will help. Due to the nature of the subject and the level of interest, we will begin publishing a new blog post about Market Research every Monday (Market Research Monday) indefinitely. Other topics will be covered on other days of the week.

If by chance you can't view the presentation below, you can download it here in PDF format.




Slide 1: Often times we shy away from anything associated with the word 'research.' However, taking the time to do some learning will greatly benefit your business in the long run.


Slide 2: Why do we or should we do market research?


Slide 3: When you learn how to do market research, less money will be spent on guessing and hoping in marketing, and more money can't be invested in marketing, bringing you a greater amount in return.


Do people want what you have? Are people asking for it? Is someone already selling it (and you could do it better)? Is it something people don't know about yet, but you want to know if people would buy if they knew about it?


How competitive are you? Pricing? Quality? Customer service? Trust? These are all VERY important questions that you need to KNOW the answer to AND be able to back it up.


How is your industry perceived? Are people generally mistrustful of people in your industry? Studies have shown that marketers and advertising agencies (which includes YEA-NAY) are extremely mistrusted! I think I have some work to do!


Are you missing any opportunities? Often your research will lead you to gaps in the market that no one is tapping into. These are HUGE opportunites for you to grow your business, virtually without direct competition!


Slide 4: What is your problem? Opportunity?


Are you launching a new product or service?


People have never heard of you or your business before, and you want to know why, or you want to find out how you can find the people who want to know about you.


People aren't buying from you even though they know you-- and you want to know why.


People don't think highly of you or your brand-- OR they don't see you as YOU want them to see you (that's powerful!).


Maybe you wonder why people don't keep coming back to buy from you-- you want to know why, and where they're spending that money instead of at your business.


Slide 5: The key here is to be very specific! With each market research project, keep it to one or two objectives so you can stay focused. If you have a lot of questions, make a list-- but only do one (or two related) objectives within one project.


The questions used here are still pretty generic. You might make them more specific by saying something like:


Will people buy my new turn-key bookkeeping software?


Will my new laundry detergent sell in market segment X?


As a related question: How much will my new laundry detergent sell in market segment X?


You get the idea, right?


Slide 6: There are tons of things you can do for free!


For surveys:


Google Docs (Forms) is my favorite for surveys (convenience). Here's one you can see in action: example survey.


There are others like SurveyMonkey which also has a bunch of advanced features (free and subscription accounts).


For Keyword Searching:


Google Adwords External Keyword Tool. Here you can search keywords related to your business AND see if anyone is advertising for those spots through Google Adwords, and how much they are paying. The more search volume and the higher the cost-per-click (CPC), the more valuable that market is.


There are many other methods for keyword research which we'll have to cover in the future.


Landing Page & Pay-per-click campaigns:


Use this concept to see how much interest is generated through an opt-in campaign. This isn't always the best option (depends on your goal), but it can be quite effective because it allows you to calculate a conversion rate-- this is a great way to split-test internet marketing campaigns (there are other methods as well).


Social media monitoring:


There are a ton of free sites to monitor how you and your business are doing on the social web. Don't get discouraged if you don't rank highly-- it's a lot of work over a period of time that will give you higher rankings. Here's an article with a list of sites you can check out.


You can also follow Google Trends to see trends in searches on Google.


Competitor's websites and the rest of their online presence give you a wealth of information. There are a ton of tips and tricks to this which we can elaborate on later.


Other sources (secondary sources now) would be government websites (like the Census Bureau for example), industry and other special interest groups and associations, and database or directory sites like Manta.com, ZoomInfo.com, AboutUs.org, and more. Down the road, Dun and Bradstreet also has a great subscription-based website with a ton of information.


Slide 7: I'll relate this section to surveys, but everything is easily transferable to other data collection methods.


Keep it simple. This goes back to focusing only on one (or two related) objectives. As long as you have that focus, it's much easier to stay on track with your survey questions.


Short questions! If it's too long it can be confusing to the respondents (and thus increase your margin of error).


Begin the survey with the 'general' questions, and become more specific as you move through it. If you start too specific or direct it can often alienate or even offend participants.


Keep it easy to read-- remember to keep it simple with short questions!


Don't use leading questions-- participants should be able to confidently choose any answer without feeling 'pressure' to answer in any particular way.


Always be specific in your questions! Ambiguity could lead someone to choose any answer for any reason, and that gives you inaccurate data.


Don't ask something that has no answer! The corollary to that: don't ask something that doesn't fit with your objective! It confuses the participant when you go at too many angles.


Remember who your audience is: you might ask different questions if your audience is middle-aged women than you would ask young adult men. Keep that in mind!


Slide 8: Carefully and methodically collect your data. Doing this with surveys online is pretty easy-- if you do surveys 'interview' style, be sure you don't inflect your voice or use body language which would cause any of the confusion we just learned about on the last page.


Be careful not to influence your participants one way or the other (unless it's a PPC campaign and you want to see how high the conversion rate can be).


Do your best, and don't be nervous! :)


Slide 9: Organize your data in a spreadsheet if possible. Many software programs have a 'chart' function built in so you can visualize the data as well. The most common spreadsheet software is Microsoft Office Excel. If you don't have Excel and don't want to buy it, there are 2 excellent alternatives available:


OpenOffice Calc
Google Spreadsheet


Look for patterns between various questions. Do people who don't like your product also have less disposable income? Could you reasonably draw an assumption from that (possibly for further research)?


Read between the lines! Do many of the answers have similar themes? There are patterns everywhere!


Be as impartial as humanly possible! When you draw assumptions, look for patterns, etc., don't take anything personally. You can't let personal feelings or emotion get in the way of improving your business (within moral and ethical boundaries of course!).


Slide 10: The MOST important step here is implementation!


If you don't implement, the research is USELESS!!!


SIT every day of your business career:


Strategize
Implement
Track


This is a cycle, so as soon as you've been through it, do it again and again. Each category of your research will be running on a different cycle-- get organized so you stay on track with your research. This is absolutely essential to the long-term (and short-term) success of your business.


Slide 11: This is a cycle, so as soon as you've been through it, do it again and again. Each category of your research will be running on a different cycle-- get organized so you stay on track with your research. This is absolutely essential to the long-term (and short-term) success of your business. SIT every day!


Slide 12: Feel free to connect with me on social media sites or just learn more about what we do here at YEA-NAY... see our vast spread across the internet (okay, there was a little sarcasm there- :D).


Google us! Or Yahoo or Bing us... :)

Labels: market research, marketing

You've been wondering where we've been for three weeks haven't you-- no new posts! wow! We've been thinking very hard, talking about how to serve you better.

We are now introducing a new service, completely designed to get you the biggest bang for your buck using online video. We've talked about the advantages for using video (search engine optimization and otherwise). We really want to make video available to as many people as possible (and marketing in general). We're really pushing to get everything going this year, starting with this new product today.

Here's the skinny: for $119 and anything you can say or do in less than 10 minutes in one location, you get a video with your name, contact info., logo, etc. We then shoot it out to a whole bunch of sites to catch some search engines. That's awesome! We also have plans so you can launch your own web show or video blog and pay even less than that every month to really get some business flowing.

If you've ever thought about video marketing online but weren't sure where to start, just contact us and we'll help you find what fits for your business.

Here's a new guide to our video products. Call or email if you have questions or concerns. Thanks!

Post by Dustin Nay, managing partner

Labels: marketing, video, video promotion