Do you think User Research is Expensive? 5 Tips that cost $0
Tip #1 — Talk to your Sales Team
Let’s admit it, the primary goal of any successful business is to generate maximum profits. But in today’s fast-paced digital world, we end up losing focus on the vital component to this process — the end user.
A user-centric marketing approach is the ideal way to reach out to the right customers, offer them the required value, and in turn increase your bottom line.
Access to the internet and digital marketing campaigns has a multitude of benefits to businesses today:
- It has levelled the playing field. A small business can compete with industry leaders for the customer’s attention
- You can edit, measure, learn, unlearn, and relearn all your marketing campaigns
- You can get started for as low as $0
Back in the day, if you wanted to get the word out about your business, you had to print a flyer and insert it in newspapers or get it delivered to all households in a neighbourhood.
You couldn’t get the following details:
i) How many people saw the flyers?
ii) How much time did each person spend on the flyer?
iii) Did anyone make a purchase only by looking at the flyer?
Also, you wouldn’t be able to make any changes if there was a copy error.
Today, you can get answers to all these questions and much more. Yet, the digital campaigns are being treated like a flyer — only to broadcast a message!
The campaigns are not being tested, the data is not being analysed, and the users are not the focus.
Since we’re on the topic of users, the digital revolution has empowered the users too.
Don’t believe me?
Example 1 — A British Airways customer lost his baggage when he landed in London. The process to locate his luggage was frustrating to say the least. He took out a sponsored tweet and let the world know about the issue.
The result? This was a PR disaster for British Airways and they had to quickly fix the matter
Example 2 — A disgruntled Dell customer wrote a blog article about the issues he was facing with his Dell laptop. The comment section was filled with other frustrated customers who explained their ordeal with Dell.
The result? Dell lost almost a third of their stock price that day.
So, today, it is more important than ever to provide excellent service to customers and make them the focus point of most (if not all) your decisions.
I know what you’re thinking, after all this is said and done, the user research is still going to cost a lot of money.
I disagree!
Here are 5 tips for user research that cost $0:
Tip #1 — Talk to your Sales Team
Sales team deals with customers on a daily basis. You can understand the following from them:
- Why do customers buy your product/service?
- Why do customers not buy your product/service?
- Which problem are you solving for the customers?
- What are the customer’s pain points?
- What are the current sales techniques being used?
Tip #2 — Talk to your Customer Support Team
Customer support team deals with customer queries on a daily basis. You can understand the following from them:
- What issues are the customers facing with their product/service?
- What are their struggles and frustrations?
- What are the additional features they wish your product/service had?
- Ask for a database with most common customer complaints/queries
You can answer some of the most common questions upfront in the sales process to shorten the sales funnel and also to provide additional value to the customers.
Bonus — Answering these questions upfront could potentially reduce the load on the customer support team
Tip #3 — Talk to your Social Media Team
The team managing your social media will have access to the following information:
- What type of customers are engaging with your content?
- What are the audience talking about your product/service online?
- Which are the other accounts the customers are following online?
- What are they talking about the competitor’s products?
- What are their main pain points/concerns?
There is data gold available for free online on Social Media. All you need to do is discuss with your Social Media team and mine the gold.
Tip #4 — Talk to your Data Analytics Team
They spend a majority of their time understanding user behaviour and tracking vital metrics. You can get the following information from them:
- Which page do customers spend their maximum time on?
- In the heat maps, which section gets the maximum traction?
- Which page has the maximum bounce rate?
By understanding these details, you can know which topics your customers care about the most.
Tip #5 — Past Surveys
There would be customer surveys done in the past by your organisation lying in a dusty drawer or lost in the sea of emails in your inbox. Dig it up and go through it, that report might also have a few vital points that can help you today.
Also, you can speak to any other team or individual in the company who interact with customers on a regular basis. They would also have useful insights on how the customers think and what motivates the customers.
Remember, these steps are not the only thing you will need. They offer a good start to your user research process.
To summarise:
a) Don’t treat digital campaigns like a traditional marketing campaign
b) Focus on the user — they are vital to the bottom line
c) 5 Tips for user research at $0
Tip #1 — Talk to your Sales Team
Tip #2 — Talk to your Customer Support Team
Tip #3 — Talk to your Social Media Team
Tip #4 — Talk to your Data Analytics Team
Tip #5 — Past Surveys
These lessons are explained in detail in CXL Institute’s Growth Marketing Minidegree. The lessons are crafted nicely with tons of additional reading material that enabled me to understand the concepts in depth.