The Secretto Successful Survey ProjectsDIY Consumer Research: Getting the information you need to make solid marketing decisions

AMA NebraskaAUG 2014

Hi, I’m Brent

• SVP, GM of SurveyMonkey Audience

• @SurveyMonkey since Apr. ’09

@bchudoba brentchudoba.com in/brentchudoba brent@surveymonkey

Agenda

• Introduction (5 min)• Attendee survey (10 min)• The Secret to successful survey projects (45 min)• Live demo (30 min)• Survey creation best practices (15 min)• Attendee exercise (30 min)• Recap (5 min)• Q&A (30 min)

Let’s keep this interactive, PLEASE interrupt with questions anytime

Let’s start with a survey...

Audience Poll: bit.ly/amanb (Results)

Why do marketers LOVE survey data?

To try and understand the public's way of thinking

Often proves a point or opens up a new market

Able to quickly provide feedback to industry decision makers to demonstrate we stay informed and keep them informed

Concrete data to tell us how our consumers think/feel

Narrows down a wide variety of a group's opinions, habits, and preferences to help give you better direction in making marketing decisions and taking action

I like statistics and analytics so when I see numbers, it helps me to make, what I think, are better informed decisions

I love the research and statistics that come out of surveys

It’s fact. You can make decisions

Lets us know what the customer wants, otherwise we are making decisions based off of stereotypes, gut reactions, or the past

SurveyMonkey mission: Help people make better decisions

So let’s talk about how we can help

Question:What is the most challenging aspect of running a survey project?

Let’s see what marketers said…

The challenges

The challenges

• Sign off takes much longer than expected

The challenges

• Sign off takes much longer than expected

• Projects can be costly

The challenges

• Sign off takes much longer than expected

• Projects can be costly• Creating questions that will produce reliable data is challenging

The challenges

• Sign off takes much longer than expected

• Projects can be costly• Creating questions that will produce reliable data is challenging

• Takes weeks (sometimes months) to get data back

The Secret to successful survey projects

The Secret:Write your conclusions BEFORE you create your survey

Write your conclusions first?

• How do you write a conclusion without any data?

Write your conclusions first?

• How do you write a conclusion without any data?

• Couldn’t writing conclusions before questions create bias?

A survey is a research project

Think back to the the “scientific method”

Scientific method

• Make an observation• Propose a hypothesis• Design an experiment• Test hypothesis• Accept or reject the hypothesis• Draw conclusions and/or revise hypothesis• Rinse and repeat…

What usually happens during a meeting…

1. Business question is identified

What usually happens during a meeting…

1. Business question is identified

2. Someone says, “We should do a survey”

What usually happens during a meeting…

1. Business question is identified

2. Someone says, “We should do a survey”

3. Project owner is assigned

What usually happens during a meeting…

1. Business question is identified

2. Someone says, “We should do a survey”

3. Project owner is assigned

4. People start writing survey questions

Now, what SHOULD happen after a meeting…

Observation Topic (business question) identified and study/survey discussed

HypothesisOutline a draft of the “presentation” (e.g., blog post, research report,

memo, PowerPoint deck) and include hypotheses

DesignDesign a survey with questions that ONLY provides the data required to to

prove or disprove they hypotheses

Test Find respondents and field survey

Accept/Reject

hypothesis

Review findings, update draft presentation and determine if additional research is required

Revise/Accept

hypothesisMake an informed business decision

If you start with a hypothesis…

• Your survey projects will be significantly faster

If you start with a hypothesis…

• You will have powerful data in your hands to answer business questions sooner

If you start with a hypothesis…

• You will have more time to iterate and refine your projects

If you start with a hypothesis…

• Your data analysis stage will be simpler

- Succinct surveys = fewer data points

- Questions designed with analysis and presentation in mind provide immediate insights and inherently more effective question structures

If you start with a hypothesis…

• The post survey presentation creation stage will be lightning fast since you’ve already built your framework

If you start with a hypothesis…

• You may be sought out by colleagues and superiors who want your assistance solving challenging business problems

- Promotions, increased social standing, fame and fortune have been observed

- Disclaimer: Results may vary, and SurveyMonkey does not guarantee any of the above results

Let’s give it a try…

Netflix

• In early 2013, Netflix debuted ‘House of Cards” as a blockbuster original series

• How would subscribers react? Would it start a new chapter in content creation and distribution?

• Our customer found out way before everyone else

Observation & Hypothesis

• Observation- House of Cards, and original content may be a big deal and no

one knows the impact yet- An analysis of House of Cards viewer opinions could provide

very interesting, publishable research content• Hypothesis

- People are consuming House of cards differently (binge watching)

- Viewers appreciate this content and it will impact how they value their Netflix subscription

Drafting our blog post/memo/research report

Netflix launched ‘House of Cards’. Netflix will provide metrics on viewership in several months. In anticipation, we talked to [XXX] Netflix subscribers last week to predict ‘House of Cards’ viewership and how important original content will be to Netflix subscribers.

We found that [XXX] of Netflix customers surveyed had watched ‘House of Cards’. Of those who had watched the show, viewers reported watching [XXX] episodes on average.

How will this impact Netflix? [XXX] of the ‘House of Cards” viewers indicated that original programming was [XXX] important as a subscription retention driver for Netflix.

The questions

123

Collecting respondents

Hi, we can help with that…

SurveyMonkey Audience

• Millions of people ready to share their opinions

• Recruited from SurveyMonkey• Rewarded with charitable

donations• Trustworthy opinions• Dozens of targeting options• Global respondents

Example Audience project summary

1

2

3

Let’s revisit our draft…

Filling in the blanks

Netflix launched ‘House of Cards’. Netflix will provide metrics on viewership in several months. In anticipation, we talked to over 150 Netflix subscribers last week to predict ‘House of Cards’ viewership and how important original content will be to Netflix subscribers.

We found that 20% of Netflix customers surveyed had watched ‘House of Cards’. Of those who had watched the show, viewers reported watching nine episodes on average.

How will this impact Netflix? 26% of the ‘House of Cards” viewers indicated that original programming was extremely or very important as a subscription retention driver for Netflix.

Making better decisions

• Does this replace the need for a research department? Or your research agency?

- No, but this process empowers everyone• Test out concepts, campaigns, and use data to make more decisions be great decisions

• At today’s speed of business, you can’t afford not to incorporate data into your decision making

Top use cases for marketers

• Message testing• Creative testing• Product research• Brand research• Segmentation studies• Persona development• Competitive research• Content generation

SurveyMonkey live demo

SurveyMonkey Audience example

• Key Objectives• Understand the relevance of our product to a target

functional area• Identify key customer segments to assist with our go

to market strategy for different products• Create statistics we can use internally (product

research and executive education) and externally (customer facing marketing and sales content)

Hypothesis 1

• Hypothesis: Access to targeted survey respondents is important to professionals in Advertising/Marketing and Public Relations functions

- Statistic: [X%] of professionals in Advertising/Marketing and PR job functions find access to targeted survey respondents to be extremely or very important

Hypothesis 2

• Hypothesis: Senior and middle management professionals are the target customer base for SurveyMonkey Audience

- Statistic: [X%] of professionals are extremely or very interested in purchasing targeted survey respondents identified as senior and middle management, and senior and middle management professionals represented [Y%] of total respondents in our sample

Hypothesis 3

• Hypothesis: Concept assessment is the most popular use case we can address for advertising/marketing and PR professionals

- Statistic: The most popular use cases for the respondents we sampled were [X, Y and Z]. Respondents also reported that [Q] studies were a need for their business in addition to the study types we provided

Live demo

• Walk through survey draft• Input survey draft into SurveyMonkey• Go through survey setup checklist• Launch survey project

- Advertising/Marketing professionals (income $25k+)• Review survey writing best practices• Review results

- Fill in hypothesis data points

Survey writing best practices

Survey best practices

● Great survey projects start with a hypothesis and then great survey questions

● Check out our SurveyMonkey Audience Survey Writing Guide to learn many of our best practices

● In this session we will cover:● Providing examples (Page 4)● Setting a time period (Page 4)● Scales (Page 7)● Ranges (Page 11)

Back to our demo...

• Walk through survey draft• Input survey draft into SurveyMonkey• Go through survey setup checklist• Launch survey project

- Advertising/Marketing professionals (income $25k+)• Review survey writing best practices• Review results

- Fill in hypothesis data points

Now it’s your turn to try...

Test out the process (Part 1)

• What data holes do you need to fill in to help your business?

• Exercise:- Write out a hypothesis that includes no more

than 2 data points (which will be blank)

Test out the process (Part 2)

• Questions should fall out of the data points from your conclusions

• Exercise:- Write out questions (should be 4 questions or

fewer) that can help fill in the holes in your hypothesis statements

Key takeaways

Key takeaways

1. The secret to successful survey projects: it starts with a hypothesis

2. Test, learn, repeat: incorporate data into your decision process early and often

3. Customer/audience segmentation: deep knowledge of your target market is one survey away

Thank you!