HOW TO … put leftover marketing budget to good use

If you are approaching your year end with a marketing budget surplus then how about spending it on market research?   Here are 3 projects you could commission –

Customer satisfaction

When was the last time you spoke to your customers?   Not just those who have given you great reviews, but all of them?

Do you know if you are charging the right price for your products?

Are people put off purchasing because you are charging too much, or too little?

Are your products doing what you promise?

Do you answer the phone quickly enough?

Does your brand convey the message you intend?

Are you living your brand values?

A well executed satisfaction survey will give you a wealth of insights into your customers, and will enable you to tweak and adjust your offering to best match what your customers want and need.

Employee check in

An employee questionnaire could help you to address areas of concern that you didn’t know existed.

Do you have an established employee engagement survey?

When was the last time you checked in on your team in a way other than “how are you doing”?

Does everyone still have everything they need to perform at their best?

For those working at home, are all the temporary workstations still appropriate?

How do people feel about returning to the workplace?

Distribute the survey to all your employees and encourage them to respond in an anonymous way so they feel that they can answer honestly.   And then most importantly, listen to what is being said. An employee questionnaire will help you spot problems and enable you to address concerns quickly.

Competitor research

When was the last time you checked what your competitors were doing?

Do you know where you sit in the marketplace?

Do you know why people choose you over your competitors?

And why they choose your competitors over you?

If you commissioned a piece of research to look at how you sit in the marketplace then you would be going into the new financial year from a place of knowledge, ready to ensure that you are clear about the value you offer and what differentiates you from others.

So if you are in the fortune position of ending your year or even just this quarter with some spare marketing budget then please consider a research project.