Online marketing research can gather data on sensitive topics and reach a wider variety of potential respondents. Employing companies that specialize in online marketing research can be beneficial. Targeted email surveys and online focus groups can be effective, but challenges include potential respondents ignoring requests and increased spam.
Developing and implementing an online marketing research plan is somewhat similar to research conducted offline. The main difference is that online research can be used to gather data on sensitive topics and reach a wider variety of potential respondents. Some potential survey takers may see online marketing research methods, such as email surveys and online focus groups, as less intrusive. This can play to a company’s advantage when trying to locate people who are likely to represent their desired target market.
For an online marketing research plan to be effective, a business needs to know who it is trying to reach and how to reach them. The main purpose of market research is to collect data that will help understand why consumers behave in certain ways. It can also be used to identify who the consumer is, including identifiable attributes such as age, income, and recreational interests. Market analysis is conducted in the hope that a business will be able to find more efficient ways to attract the consumer in order to increase the volume of sales.
There are several companies that specialize in helping other businesses develop and execute online marketing research. Employing one of these companies could be extremely beneficial as they tend to have experience designing surveys and locating potential respondents. When conducting research it is important to consider the advantages and disadvantages of each method. For example, online surveys that appear as “pop-up” advertisements on web pages may not always give researchers an adequate amount of responses.
Targeted email surveys can be more effective as potential respondents have typically already indicated they would like to receive communications. Email surveys can be distributed through market research companies soliciting active survey participants and participants. Many of these companies reward active survey takers with points that can be used towards the purchase of merchandise, or they might even give out small cash rewards that can accumulate in a survey taker’s account. Using these companies to conduct online marketing research may be more effective than attempting to set up an independent, permission-based survey system.
Online focus groups are an innovative use of internet technology that can come in handy. These groups can be used to gather data on more sensitive topics to which respondents are unlikely to provide honest answers in a face-to-face setting. The main problem with online focus groups is finding people willing to participate. Some sort of reward usually has to be given to entice respondents to give up some of their time.
One of the challenges associated with online marketing research is that it’s easier for potential respondents to delete an email or ignore a survey request. Since there is no face-to-face interaction, potential interviewees may feel less guilty about ignoring requests. Additionally, the amount of spam and junk mail checks has increased rapidly in recent years, which could result in the “disappearance” of online communication.
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