Direct Marketing (DM) and Customer Relationships Management (CRM) work hand in hand in keeping marketing costs down. Targeted executions constantly build relationships with your customers and, at the same time, measure the returns per DM expenditure.

Customers move up a loyalty ladder, depending on how effective your DM-CRM campaign is. Below are the 4 rungs of the loyalty ladder, from the lowest rung (least loyal) to the highest rung (most loyal). Paid surveys can help you tweak your DM-CRM materials so that you can move up from one rung to the next with the least amount of spending.

1. Prospect

People who belong to this rung have not yet purchased your brand—ever. Prospects are the people whom companies spend the most on. Generally, it costs brands more than twice the amount to attract new customers than to maintain the ones they already have. However, if you’re seeking to stretch your market, then paid surveys can already give you an idea how to do the initial communication with your desired market. (more…)

Market positioning refers to how your niche or target market differentiates your brand from your competitors. Your positioning could rely on a unique product attribute or an emotional benefit or reward that they cannot get from other brands in your category.

Using paid surveys

Armed with the right questions, paid surveys can help you determine how to best position your brand. There are 3 main factors to consider:

* Your product/service

Paid surveys can help you know your product and your competition inside-out. Based on the responses, come up with a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis to figure out which aspect of your product you should highlight. (more…)

Having determined you niche and having tailored your marketing mix for them definitely increases your bottom line. It doesn’t mean however that you can stop looking around to see how else your brand can profit.

If you give some of your time to do regular market research, you might widen your Blue Ocean and create more opportunities for your brand. Most likely, there are segments within or close to your niche whose needs aren’t being addressed by anyone, including your competitor.

Paid surveys can help you do your research. You can come up with different sets of questions and have different aggregates respond. This way, you can get what you need from the right respondents. Below are the 3 aggregates with their differences and how paid surveys can help you find opportunity in each of them. (more…)