What are the two types of data that are collected in Step 3 of the marketing research process?

With constant change being the norm in marketing and business, one thing remains the same: the need for marketing research. Marketing research is a helpful tool for organizations to better identify marketing strategies and evaluate business decisions using data. Just as you wouldn’t go on vacation without making any plans, you shouldn’t design marketing strategies without backing them with research and data. In short, the marketing research process is the backbone of informed business and marketing decisions. 

You might be surprised to hear that marketing research is one of the first things that organizations cut from their marketing budgets because of the high time (and sometimes monetary) investment. This is not the best decision, especially when your company is planning to launch a new product or venturing into a new market. As some savvy startups have learned, marketing research doesn't have to be expensive if you do it right and follow the right process. 

Let’s review best practices when going through the five-step marketing research process:

1. Define the Problem or Opportunity

The most important part of the marketing research process is defining the problem. In order to do any research and collect data, you have to know what you are trying to learn from the research. In marketing research, defining the problem you need to solve will determine what information you need and how you can get that information. This will help your organization clarify the overarching problem or opportunity, such as how to best address the loss of market share or how to launch a new product to a specific demographic. 

Develop questions that will allow you to define your problem (or opportunity), and examine all potential causes so that the research can be whittled down to the information you actually need to solve that problem or determine what action to take regarding an opportunity. Oftentimes, these are questions about who your target market or ideal buyer persona is (for example: “What does our ideal customer look like?”). These might include questions about demographics, what their occupation is, what they like to do in their spare time—anything to help you get a clearer picture of who your ideal buyer persona is. Consider as many variables and potential causes as possible.

2. Develop Your Marketing Research Plan

After you’ve examined all potential causes of the problem and have used those questions to boil down exactly what you’re trying to solve, it’s time to build the research plan. Your research plan can be overwhelming to create because it can include any method that will help you answer the research problem or explore an opportunity identified in step one. 

To help you develop the research plan, let’s review a few techniques for conducting research:

• Interview prospects and customers. Oftentimes, you get the best feedback by using this tactic because you’re going straight to the source. This might take the form of a focus group or one-on-one interviews. Use your defined research problem to help select the right people to interview.
• Conduct a survey using SurveyMonkey or another tool.
• Run user tests on your website or landing page(s). This is a cost-effective approach that can provide a lot of insight and data on how your customers or potential customers behave or respond to something, whether it’s new messaging or branding or a modified product or service you are thinking about offering. Simple A/B tests can go a long way in discovering user behavior. Use heatmapping tools, such as Hotjar or Lucky Orange, and website analytics tools, such as Google Analytics or HubSpot analytics, to track results depending on what data you need to collect.

Oftentimes, we do all of this work and gather all of the data—only to realize that we didn’t have to reinvent the wheel because someone had already run a similar, credible study or solved the same problem. That doesn’t mean you don’t need to do any research, but learning about what other organizations have done to solve a problem or seize an opportunity can help you tweak your research study and save you time when considering all of the research options. In marketing research, this is called secondary data because it has been collected by someone else, versus the primary data that you would collect through your own research study.

3. Collect Relevant Data and Information

In marketing research, most of the data you collect will be quantitative (numbers or data) versus qualitative, which is descriptive and observational. Ideally, you will gather a mix of the two types of data. For example, you might run an A/B test on your website to see if a new pricing tier would bring in more business. In that research study, you might also interview several customers about whether or not the new pricing tier would appeal to them. This way, you’re receiving hard data and qualitative data that provide more color and insight.

When collecting data, make sure it's valid and unbiased. You should never ask a research interviewee, “You think that we should offer a higher pricing tier with additional services, correct?” This type of question is clearly designed to influence the way the person responds. Try asking both open-ended and closed-ended questions (for instance, a multiple-choice question asking what income range best describes you).

4. Analyze Data and Report Findings

Now that you’ve gathered all of the information you need, it’s time for the fun part: analyzing the data. Although one piece of information or data might jump out at you, it’s important to look for trends as opposed to specific pieces of information. As you're analyzing your data, don't try to find patterns based on your assumptions prior to collecting the data. 

Sometimes, it’s important to write up a summary of the study, including the process that you followed, the results, conclusions, and what steps you recommend taking based on those results. Even if you don’t need a formal marketing research report, be sure that you review the study and results so that you can articulate the recommended course of action. Sharing the charts and data you collected is pointless if it doesn’t lead to action. Tools like HubSpot's free blog maker can help you publish the results in an easy way.

Was your hypothesis proven wrong? Great—that's why you do testing and don't run with assumptions when making decisions that could have a major impact on your organization. It’s always better to take the results as they are than to twist the data to prove yourself right.

5. Put Your Research into Action

Your research is complete. It's time to present your findings and take action. Start developing your inbound marketing strategies and campaigns. Put your findings to the test and get going! The biggest takeaway here is that, although this round of research is complete, it's not over.

The problems, business environment, and trends are constantly changing, which means that your research is never over. The trends you discovered through your research are evolving. You should be analyzing your data on a regular basis to see where you can improve. The more you know about your buyer personas, industry, and company, the more successful your marketing efforts and company will be. When you look at it that way, you should start to wonder why so many organizations don’t budget time and resources for marketing research. 

Of course, there is a lot more to the marketing research process than these five core steps, but these are enough to get you started. Good luck, and be sure to share any tips you have discovered for conducting marketing research!

This post was originally published in June 2016 and has been updated.

Page 2

The B2B marketing landscape has changed dramatically over the past few years. Digitalization has taken the B2B journey online and empowered buyers to self-educate and collaborate with their peers before ever speaking to a sales or marketing person. This shift has put increased pressure on B2B marketers to execute a strategy focused on demand generation and growing the lead pool.

As a B2B marketing manager, how do you deal with changing digital trends in marketing and deliver the type of growth your organization expects? The answer: inbound marketing.

An Inbound Marketing Refresher

Just to ensure we’re all on the same page, HubSpot defines the inbound methodology like this:

"Inbound marketing is about creating valuable experiences that have a positive impact on people and your business. ... By creating content designed to address the pain points and needs of your ideal customers, you attract qualified prospects and build trust and credibility for your business."

Now that we’re all on the same page, here are eight inbound marketing hacks your B2B company should be using right now:

1. Give Old Content New Life

Content development should always be seen as an iterative process. Your team has invested valuable time and resources in creating content; don’t let that hard work stop there. Reformatting your existing content is a great way to give your hard work longevity.

Repurposing existing content into a different format (e.g., multimedia, infographics, blog articles, or even stand-alone social media posts) breathes new life into your content and gives you additional opportunities to engage prospects in the format that best aligns with their stage of the Buyer’s Journey.

For example, you may have created a successful e-book last year and are ready to ungate the content by using it to create the basis of a pillar page.

2. Collaborate with Influencers

Reaching out and connecting with industry experts is a great way to boost your authority. Building relationships with influencers not only improves your industry standing but also increases the potential of your business being shared with a broader audience. Some ideas to get started include:

• Inviting an influencer to write a guest blog article
• Hosting a joint webinar where you can both provide value
• Interviewing an influencer for your podcast

And don’t forget about your own subject matter experts (SMEs)! Talk to your sales team, product development team, and other colleagues and become part of the broader conversation in your industry. Position yourself and your brand as thought leaders.

3. Fuel the Buyer’s Journey with Additional Relevant Content Offers

As marketers, we should constantly be thinking about the content we’re delivering at each stage of the Buyer’s Journey and making it clear what we want prospects to do next. Don’t create digital dead ends. Instead, offer your audience the next logical call to action (CTA) to keep them continuously engaged.

For example, if you’re writing a blog post about a specific topic, look to see if you have other complementary resources on a similar topic that dive a little deeper, such as a guide, white paper, or e-book, that you could offer in order to give readers deeper insight and additional value.

4. Take That “Thank You” Page Up a Notch

Traditionally, people see thank you pages as merely the webpage that gives them the offer they requested to download or filled out a form for. However, thank you pages are another opportunity to offer value and engage with customers. Think about including an additional call to action, such as a survey, webinar, event invitation, or promotion—or using the thank you page to showcase new content offerings.

Adding secondary CTAs to your thank you pages will keep your audience engaged and help establish your company as a go-to resource. Don’t forget to add a “P.S.” to your follow up emails for another chance at further engagement.

5. If You Can’t Create—Curate!

There is an endless amount of content in the digital universe. And although it’s important for your company to invest in creating its own valuable content, curating popular content that already exists is a great way not only to save your team time and energy, but it also helps:

• Position your business as helpful industry thought leader
• Increase outbound links to high-ranking pages
• Give you additional content ammunition for other channels, such as your social media accounts

Ideally, you should be part of the conversation. LinkedIn groups are another place to share and cultivate ideas and engagement through curation and commentary.

6. Invest in Your Blog

Blogging should be an integral component of your inbound marketing strategy, period. In fact, B2B companies that blog 11 or more times per month see almost three times more traffic than those blogging zero to one time per month. These companies also saw four to five times more lead volume than those who blogged four to five times per month. So, start creating your content calendar now!

One of the best things about business blogging is that your posts will continue working for you long after they've been published. Producing relevant, valuable content not only does wonders for SEO, discoverability, and traffic—but  it also has the potential to convert prospects into new leads for your business.

7. Use Video If You Aren't Already

Video is the most dominant form of content on almost every social platform. Early adopters discovered it — and platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, Vidyard, YouTube, and a host of others took it to another level. 

More companies are going to invest time into creating huge quantities of video content because social influencers like Gary Vaynerchuk have proven that video content doesn’t need to be high-quality or expensive. Your team should start thinking about how to leverage video now.

8. Don’t Forget About Social Media

Many B2B companies don’t think social media has a place in their marketing strategy and, although platforms like Snapchat or Instagram might not have a place in your industry, other social platforms, such as LinkedIn, might be a powerful place for your business to generate leads.

Social media is also a great place to watch and/or join the conversation about your industry, connect with other industry peers, and see what your competition is up to. If you’re looking for more social media tips, here is a blog with 20 tips on how to up your social game!

Bonus Hack for Lean Marketing Teams: Content Atomization

For those not familiar, content atomization refers to the process of taking one content piece (most often a premium, long-form piece of content like an e-book) and breaking it into smaller, more digestible content pieces.

Content atomization is not only a great way to repurpose content to engage and convert your audience, but it can also bring that content to new audiences by adapting it for different channels and stages of the Buyer’s Journey.

B2B buyers are more informed now than they’ve ever been, and although their path to purchase is often longer, with more people involved in the buying decision, there is an incredible opportunity for B2B marketers to use inbound marketing best practices to win the hearts and minds of their prospects and find new ways to generate leads and revenue.

This blog post was originally written in 2018 and has been updated since.