Canvassing 101: How to Find Out What Makes Sense So That You Can Make Dollars

Does your “brilliant design choice” for your corporate logo actually resonate with your targeted audience? How about your corporate slogan? Does your website design deter conversions (i.e. do you know where and why your site visitors are dropping out before they make a purchase (or respond to your “call-to-action”)?

I’ve lost count of the number of clients who have created the “next great idea” and invested tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars in branding strategies that fell flat, simply because they couldn’t see the trees through the forest and neglected to actually canvass their targeted audience BEFORE committing significant resources to an idea. Leading me to suggest that RJ Metric’s Robert Moore contribution in today’s NYT “You’re The Boss” column is a must read for those who aspire to be true innovators.

The take-away is simple: If you don’t ask, you don’t get. Per Moore’s pointer, conducting a survey to sanity check your idea is critical. Monkey Survey used to be my particular favorite tool because its a simple and zero-cost tool that allows you to canvass those you know.  But those you know, even if completing the survey anonymously, may not be the ones you want to canvass vs. surveying those who are already profiled to have an interest in the type of product or service you are offering.

To reach the latter group, the cost of canvassing is now strikingly affordable, best illustrated by Survata.com . We haven’t tested it yet, but its on our immediate action list.

What about your web site design. Do you really know how your visitors are navigating your site, and which pages prove to have the longest visits and/or the last page visitors viewed before they decided not to buy your product or respond to your call to action? Yes, many of use the free Google Analytics (most of us use only 20% of the features), but because Goog’s tools can prove to be complex to implement, a new entrant, CrazyEgg.com, seems to be a very intriguing and very inexpensive (starting at $9/mo) tool that makes analyzing your web design and the impact on visitors simple and straight forward.

Canvassing 101: How to Find Out What Makes Sense So That You Can Make Dollars