3 Ways to Use Research to Improve Your Marketing Creative
NOTE: THIS BLOG -- BY COWLEY CREATIVE DIRECTOR, JOHN HOESCHELE -- WAS ORIGINALLY FEATURED AS A GUEST BLOG FOR OUR FRIENDS AT DRIVE RESEARCH, SYRACUSE NY If you subscribe to the belief that a marketer’s ability to evoke a positive response from a consumer happens more readily, efficiently, or consistently when a legitimate consumer need has been identified, it’s self-evident the marketer must first know – and, if need be, ascertain – what that need is. This, in a nutshell, is the power of research: Consciously accumulated, accurately interpreted, and adeptly used by content generators – research can have a profoundly positive impact on marketing communications Whether the data you’ve amassed is derived from an online survey, mall or trade-show intercepts, analysis of genuine online reviews, focus groups, or any number of other techniques (a firm like Drive Research can help you choose the right methodology for your goals, resources, and reach). Here are three ways insights gleaned from that information can add "oomph" to your messaging. 1. Let your customers speak for themselves Instead of spending hours and dollars creating a clever headline, visual, or copy – consider turning your customer research into customer testimonials. Ideally suited to print ad campaigns, homepage sliders, social media videos, and much more – testimonials essentially ‘channel’ your customer feedback, stories, and reviews to, in effect, sell your product, service, or value proposition for you. As such, not only does testimonial-based creative achieve added credibility (who better to pitch your story than someone who’s actually benefited from it?) this sort of marketing has time and again proven to be a powerful way to move needles, whether your goal is to increase sales, boost awareness, or change perceptions through educational messaging. Here are some nice examples: Notre Dame, Capital Campaign Video: In this Cowley-created video, we let alumni spotlight the school’s advantages vs. using actors. Love Yer Dog, Friendly Dog Wash Commercial: This real-life success story taps into the whole ‘dog-returns-to-health genre’ on YouTube.
Any CMO, product manager, or executive director worth his or her salt can readily recite the benefits list associated with their offering. But when space is limited – say, within a 30-second commercial, trade ad, or outdoor campaign – knowing which ones are the most compelling or salient can help determine which ‘make the cut’ and which can be conveyed in some other context where real estate is so scarce, such as a website landing page. If your research involves identifying and prioritizing the many benefits of your product or service, this exercise can not only help with actual improvements to, say, your next-generation offering – they can help you narrow in on and dramatize the most valuable benefits you currently provide.
While some marketing practitioners loath to include numerical data in their creative communications – preferring clever wordplay and visuals, propelled by a slavish devotion to ‘emotional’ appeals – the kinds of statistics, facts, figures, and financial insights made available through research remain a powerful way to help articulate complex ideas and compel action.
Just don’t think data – as expressed in pie-charts, bar graphs, and Gantt charts – has a place in most marketing communications? When health care professionals, politicians, and the media needed to quickly engage and inform today’s stressed, easily distracted, and the info-barraged public on the dangers of the coronavirus, what data-driven and graphics-based tool did they resort to? A chart (aka: “Flatten the curve”). Now, to be sure, there are plenty of caveats that go with building the entirety of your marcom program on research. (Someone like George Kuhn, here at Drive, can help you navigate those.) Most notably:
But, in the right hands, research can fully inform and strengthen your marketing – making them powerful partners in your organization’s success. ~ John Hoeschele, Creative Director -- Cowley Associates |
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