I know what I believe. I trust my instincts. And, I can quickly survey a dozen people for feedback on an idea. But when I have a big question that needs answering, it helps to know 500 people. Recently, I needed to bounce an idea on a crowd of about 500 people who didn’t know me and who would give me their honest responses to our point of differentiation.
So, I surveyed 6,000 people online.
Over the last six months, I have been working on creating a business for a client. From my original concept to the execution of the plans, I’m up to my ears in work and having so much fun. Being an entrepreneur at heart, this has been an exciting assignment.
I can’t reveal anything about the project today, but I had a core hypothesis that I have been testing with acquaintances. My colleagues and friends all gave me high fives and pats on the back for a novel idea. I’ll share the full story this fall.
But I was not convinced that this was the right path forward. I wanted to prove. Like a detective, I needed something beyond circumstantial evidence.
What’s It Going to Take?
So, I wondered, how many anonymous people, in my target audience, need to say yes to this idea to convince me to keep moving forward. I settled on 500.
If I could get feedback from 500 people, and they overwhelmingly loved the idea, I’ll keep moving this project ahead. Note that I didn’t want 500 people who were lukewarm about the design – they had to rank it against several other hypotheses, and it needed to be first or second in their responses.
We sent a survey of about a dozen questions to 6,000 people who met the criteria for our research. We got 500 responses within a week, and my idea was virtually tied for the #1 spot on the list. But what convinced me even more than the vote was the verbatims. I got over 400 comments that allowed me to gain keen insights into the crowd and to hear first-hand feedback and suggestions.
Lessons about Surveys
- Survey are inexpensive to conduct compared to taking the wrong path. Invest the time to do several studies that can help you get insights from your target audience.
- Let your friends take the survey before you launch and listen to their comments and feedback. I got some great ideas from friends on how to gain deeper insights. Adding verbatims at the end was one I hadn’t thought about at all.
- Survey Monkey was a great tool, although the free version only allows you to get 100 completed surveys. But the cost for unlimited was inexpensive – maybe $50/month and you can do it for a few months at a time.
- Share the results with others to get them equally excited by your direction. Use the findings to inspire your team and benefactors.
- Focus on critical decisions, not minor choices. If you believe there are two or three essential aspects to your project, make sure you ask about those topics in a few different ways.
- Survey early and often. Before your website goes live, why not survey 500 people for input to learn what’s missing and how easy is it to get feedback from consumers. Give them a promotional code to get something of value (20% off/free shipping/extended warranty).
I’m looking forward to sharing the details behind this project as it will be an instructive case study. There are so many lessons I’m learning or relearning about starting a business. Most importantly, I have a clear vision differentiation and some important validation of the idea.
Now, the work begins to get to the next level of testing in the real world.
You can set up a time to chat with me about your marketing challenges using my calendar. Email me jeffslater@themarketingsage.com Call me. 919 720 0995. Visit my website at www.themarketingsage.com The conversation is free, and we can explore working together.
Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash
