The thing about market research is that there’s always room for improvement in your strategies. While we sponsor many market research events around the country to connect with researchers looking for incentives solutions, we also get a lot out of the sessions at these conferences. Recently we sponsored and attended the DIY Market Research Conference in New York City, where thought leaders shared valuable insights (like the BuzzFeed market research tips in this blog.)
At the event, our CEO, Jignesh Shah, gave a well-received presentation: DIY Incentives in Market Research: Faster, Better, Cheaper. As always, attendees had plenty of questions about how to make the most out of their market research incentives and rewards.
After his presentation, he was able to sit in on some of the other sessions. The event was full of amazingly smart people talking about market research, but one session stood out: Ashmeed Ali, Head of Market & Brand Research at BuzzFeed, gave a stellar presentation called Best Practices for Creating an Agile Team and Fostering a DIY MR Organization. Here are some of the BuzzFeed market research tips we walked away with.
You’d be lying to yourself if you thought your research project would encounter no problems. Every project is unique, and while you might have some of the same issues from one project to another, many times something new will sprout up.
The key is to identify what might slow down your progress from the start. Ali encourages you to ask yourself questions:
You may not have all the answers right away, but opening up these questions can help you go with the flow and pivot when necessary.
Even if you acknowledge and plan for obstacles at the start, you may still encounter pitfalls along the way. There may be a long learning curve, or you may feel like there are too many cooks (vendors or consultants) in the kitchen.
You may plan for the research project to be completed by a certain date, but technical issues or lack of funds may push that completion date back.
Just take each problem as it comes and recalibrate the plan. Agile strategy is, by its nature, highly adaptable, so you have to shift your mindset from expecting concrete results by a certain date and be willing to modify the project as needed.
The people on your research project are, of course, your biggest asset. You want talent that is enthusiastic about learning new skills and ready to contribute. A solid onboarding and training plan from the moment they’re hired can facilitate faster learning and help them be ready to contribute sooner.
Use templates for market research projects so your team doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel for every project. You can use templates for surveys, scales, attitudes and descriptors, and screeners and demos to cut down on your work.
It’s easy to get buried in a project, but keep everyone’s eye on company goals and large-scale initiatives so that what you’re doing aligns with the bigger picture. And cross-collaborate! Your research studies may benefit other teams, so look beyond one department to see where else you can provide value.
If you have ongoing research projects, it can be valuable to develop and nurture a community panel. BuzzFeed has its BuzzKeepers Community Panel, which is made up of 15,000 super fans who provide valuable insight and feedback to the brand.
In exchange, community members are entered for monthly drawings and given access to a members-only online portal.
BuzzFeed market research tips aren’t just empty promises. The brand has had significant results from its efforts. It has nearly doubled the number of annual studies it conducts and increased paid and unpaid sources by nearly 3x (it’s got around 150,000 respondents).
We walked away with greater understanding of the difficulties that a market research project can encounter, and we look forward to the next industry conference to learn even more.
Learn more about how market researchers use Rybbon’s all-in-one platform to organize and track rewards for multiple surveys and studies and eliminate the hassle and expense of manual reward administration. Get started today for free with no strings attached.
Brenda has over 20 years of experience building, selling and marketing products for F100 and start-ups.
Brenda has over 20 years of experience building, selling and marketing products for F100 and start-ups.
