Hey Rodinhoods
Please find my Problem Statement below:
I am a startup or an SME .
I have some idea in mind – an app concept, a business idea, a product design or something like that. Before I spend my money ,blood and sweat in getting my idea to this world , I want to test it with the suspects/prospects.
How do I do this ?
I need a survey panel of say : 24-30 yrs , male , educated, working in Financial sector, staying in Metro cities, married/single, etc .
I want to approach them and get my product tested.I want to talk to them , ask them to use my product and provide feedback calling spade – spade.
Note: Friends are too kind to be rude , so don’t want to approach them .
Who can help me with a cost-effective solution?
I found some online survey sites such as surveymonkey , but they do not have a survey panel.
There is another site – ResearchNow but too expensive to approach (Rs.70-350 per response).
Can someone please help on this.Also please let me know if its the tool that you used for your business.
Thanks!
Mohul Ghosh
Well, running PPC campaigns on Google and Facebook would be the cheapest solution. Allocate a budget, say, 5k INR and spend it on these ads. Now, thing to be noted is, people won’t respond to your questions by clicking on ads. Rather, collect their email addresses and then ask them to fill your survey. Using SurveyMonkey, you can create your survey. And when a link is generated, pass that around..
Rishad Mehta
http://www.steveblank.com
You can use Steve Blank’s ‘Lean Startup’ methodology to do an in-depth ‘test’ of a potential business you plan to start.
Abey John
Hardik as long as your are questions are well thought out to zero in on the underbelly of your market’s motivations and needs then investing the money in researchnow would be a safe bet. Mohuls advice of google adwords is good but it maybe too expensive for the financial services market. At most you need 100 responses from each Metro. If you don’t have/want to spend the money to do that, then the hard way but definitely with higher utility is to go out there and do the interviews yourself. This will give you direct insight into your market’s pulse which in the long run could be your winning edge.
Rishad Mehta
I really don’t believe surveys are the way to go to assess a business model. Talking to potential customers is far more valuable because it allows you to establish a relationship early. Also since you aren’t going in to ‘sell’ something in these customer development meeting, people will be a lot more receptive to your questions and hopefully will give you good insights.
Mohul Ghosh
It all boils down to the value of time you are giving.. If by spending around 5k on Google, you are getting 100 responses, then its certainly better than spending days interviewing people.. 🙂
And just wanted to add.. this same equation of investing time or money is our principle USP when we pitch our Online Marketing services.. !
Abey John
It is not a straight time and value equation am afraid. Face to face interaction with your potential market will reveal many nuances that can get lost in one dimensional survey questions. The time spent in the research will usually pay itself back in the long run.
Adwords will be expensive, I just checked. The generic “financial services” keyword is about Rs. 25 cpc (broad match). At a conversion rate of 5% (which is highly optimistic) you will need 2000 visitors to get those 100 responses. The price will only go up for more focused keywords.
Abey John
Rishad, surveys are one way to ‘talk’ to potential customers at scale. A good survey needs to ask the right questions. So yeah, Hardik, do a mini survey of about 30 people face to face to understand what questions you should ask then expand that into a full fledged survey.
Himanshu Agarwal
Is it something tangible or untangible (software/app etc). Did you check with moneycontrol.com if they can include a link to your website (if untangible product), in their mailers? Sometime back I read on this form that JustDial sells data…maybe you can check with them and if you get the data, hire a temp staffing agency to send the people to the TG with survey questionnaire…
Abey John
That said, “expensive” is relative. You need to factor in your customer life time value which should guide you in setting your research budget.
Himanshu Agarwal
See if you can lay your hands upon “The Market Research Toolbox: A Concise Guide for Beginners” by
Edward F. McQuarrie, it gives a clear idea about factors that should bear upon a research project and what is the ideal research budget without compromising the goals of a research study. Explains with clear mathematical formulas. It will be a good addition to your collection of books.
himanshu chanda
When asked which Car I would buy I said Honda City. When it came to features, price, brand in a survey I chose Santro or any car from the Tatas. I finally ended up buying Maruti Wagon R 🙂 I hope this answers your question.
Dont survey. Experiment with the crowd. Read Lean Startup 🙂
Hardik Khanna
thanks all for valuable reply . Rodinhoods rock!