Old-fashioned Research

By Kris McDermott, Account Strategist, Client Services

It’s no secret- doing research is a cornerstone of any serious marketing strategy. We want to know what people are thinking, how they are feeling and what they want to buy now . We are a data driven industry.

But I think that search marketers can get a little closed minded about research sources.

We all have the standard places we go- comScore, Keyword Discovery, Google Insights & Trends, Yahoo Buzz, etc. These are tools created specifically for the digital marketer- and some specifically for search. They are incredibly useful. But very often, we search marketers don’t take other peoples’ insights into account enough. It’s what I call the “data snob” phenomena- tracking people’s behavior in digital marketing is much more robust, accurate and easier than in offline media, so we assume we know best.

Speaking of we know best… remember books? There’s a lot of information that hasn’t been put online yet – psychological studies, social science research, you name it. Can’t find anything online about moms’ shopping habits? Go to Google Books and search – it’s essentially a card catalogue but you can preview the content. Use free academic resources. You may just get some valuable insights and be a leg up on your competition.