Alterra Group Newsletter: February 26, 2010
Alterra Group's newsletter provides insights on how professional services firms can increase awareness of and demand for their services.
Thought leadership continues to gain importance
According to a recent poll by ITSMA, thought leadership development will be more important to 77% of its members in 2010 than in previous years. In fact, its importance is increasing by a greater degree than that of any other marketing tool in the study, including online social networks, client references and testimonials, and relationship management programs.
The latest Alterra Group research supports this finding, revealing that during the recent recession thought leadership has indeed become more important to marketers, while brand awareness has declined in importance. Our study also reveals how some professional services firms have kept their revenue steady through the recession by carefully adjusting their marketing priorities.
The value of thought leadership surveys: Part Two
In our last newsletter, we discussed key success factors for designing and scoping high-value research. In this edition we cover the critical next step: securing participants.
All professional services firms conducting thought leadership surveys face a common challenge: getting enough of the right people to participate. The “right” target is a person who is inherently interested in the research topic, is qualified to answer the questions, and can provide the insights at the desired level of detail.
However, many firms fall into the “C-level trap”: trying (and often failing) to target top executives in the misguided belief that their perspectives are the most valuable. In fact, surveys on business or management topics often are best taken by professionals at the manager, director or vice president level—those who are intimately involved with addressing the issue and can provide the most accurate insights. In addition, such professionals typically are easier to reach than C-level executives.
The next critical consideration is the source of prospective participants. Each source has its pros and cons. For instance, a firm’s own list would likely have targets most predisposed to participate, but few firms’ lists are large enough to generate sufficient results on their own. On the other hand, rented lists can provide an ample supply of names, but their quality can be suspect and the people on those lists may not be as receptive to taking the survey.
Increasingly, we find business networking websites can be useful sources of prospective participants. For example, Alterra Group extensively uses LinkedIn groups joined by legal, consulting and accounting firm marketers to generate survey participation. Not only are such groups typically free to join and access, they also are highly targeted, thus making it more likely our survey topics are relevant to group members.
Finding the right source of potential respondents is only half the battle—those targets still must be convinced to participate in the survey. We have found a combination of personal appeal and business relevance tends to elicit the strongest response: For instance, a chance to win an item such as a gift certificate (the personal appeal) combined with early access to the survey findings or a personalized report (the business relevance).
Firms also can boost participation by teaming with a trade magazine or association that serves the industry being surveyed or is involved in the issue being researched. Such partners bring to the research a large subscriber or membership base of people with whom the magazine or association already has a strong connection, as well as added credibility for the research and visibility for the firm among an audience of potential buyers.
One example of this sort of teaming involves Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) and RIS News, a trade publication targeting heads of information technology at retailers in the United States. CSC was responsible for designing and executing the survey, analyzing the results and writing the research report, and RIS News promoted participation in the survey and distributed the final research report to its subscribers. The arrangement, which lasted for more than a decade, resulted in a thought leadership position for CSC and a new stream of advertising revenue for RIS News.
In the next edition of our newsletter, we will cover the last two steps in creating thought leadership surveys: analyzing the results and building an integrated marketing campaign.
Please visit our website for more in-depth insights on this very important topic. |
