This morning Kate Tribe of Tribe Research presented a webinar for members of the HerBusiness Network in which she shared great tips and resources on how to use market research in your small business. One of the great questions she asked us to ask our community is: “What three words best describe our business?”. There are a couple of reasons this is very important.
1. It is a focused question so you’ll get focused results [specificity in surveys makes a difference]
2. It asks your audience for THEIR view of you. Sometimes how we think our business and brand is viewed is very different to how a) our customers and b) our prospects see us.
So, go ahead, as your customers:
“What three words best describe us?”
Here are a few more of Kate’s gems:
- When asking: What do we do well? What can we do better? make the question OPEN (i.e. the client can enter their own response) rather than multiple choice.
- Use scale of 1-7 vs 1-5 to get a better sense of where average is. More scale for choice.
- Get the trust of your audience before asking ‘testy’ questions like ‘What is your income?’
- Start with easy questions. Get people answering and ask the harder ones later.
- Feed back to those that take part in your research… it encourages people to participate again!
- Implementing the results of research keeps you in conversation with your tribe. Shows you’re listening.
- Bite-sized, specific research that you can implement works better than a big chunk of information that gets out of date by the time you use it.
Today’s webinar was part of the Know-How Now! series of business webinars, presented by the HerBusiness Network. Members of the network attend free. Not a member? Join today. It’s less than $1 a month to be part of our community and to get education, inspiration and networking.
Oh, and I’d love your feedback too. What three words best describe the HerBusiness Network to you?
