What should you research before planning advertising and marketing?

Define the business decision you need information for

Before planning your marketing, define the business decision you need more information to make, rather than simply stating a wish for greater visibility. You may be considering offering a new service, changing your existing offer or targeting sales at a different audience whose needs are not yet clear. Each choice requires different knowledge about buyers’ needs, alternatives and barriers to purchase, and may call for a different research approach. Write down what you will decide once you have gathered the information and which options are currently on the table. This sets the scope of your research before you draft questions and helps you avoid gathering information on unrelated topics.

Next, separate the business change you want from the activity you hope will achieve it, because they are not the same thing. Launching an advertising campaign is an activity, while attracting more relevant enquiries or reducing a barrier to purchase describes an expected change. Ask yourself what customer behaviour needs to change and why that matters to your business right now. Clarify the constraints too, such as your capacity to deliver the service, your sales process or your website’s ability to guide interested visitors to the next step. Research is more useful when its findings enable a choice that the business can actually put into practice.

Before collecting data, draw up a brief decision framework setting out your question, current assumptions and the evidence you need. An assumption that buyers consider a service expensive needs to be tested differently from an assumption that they do not understand what it includes. Consider what answer would make you change your initial plan or abandon it altogether before commissioning advertising. If no possible finding would affect the decision, it is worth rephrasing the research question and clarifying its purpose. This preparation helps avoid a situation where you gather interesting information but still have no sound basis for your marketing choice.

• What decision needs to be made?
• What are you currently assuming?
• What information would change your choice?
• What constraints affect implementation?

Distinguish market research from opinion surveys

Market research is a broader process of collecting and analysing information about the market, demand, competitors and buying behaviour. An opinion survey is a way of collecting data to explore people's views, attitudes, preferences or reported experiences. A survey can therefore form part of market research, but it does not automatically replace all the analysis or other data sources you need. If you want to understand a service's market potential, simply asking whether people like it or find it interesting is not enough. You may also need to compare existing offerings, purchasing options and actual needs to assess how well your offering fits.

Start by reviewing the information you already have, so you do not ask people about things you can find out more reliably elsewhere or already verify. Review your sales enquiries, website usage data and recurring questions, if you have them and they are suitable for use. Competitors' publicly available offerings help you compare what their services include, how they present them and what they explain to buyers, but not their sales performance. Public statistics can provide market context, but their scope may not match your target audience. Note what each source shows and which questions it does not answer.

When interpreting survey responses, distinguish between what people say they think and how they actually behave, as the two may differ. A respondent may find an offering interesting but decide not to buy because of the price, timing or another obstacle. Likewise, satisfaction with an existing service does not necessarily indicate a willingness to choose a new solution or change future buying habits. Where possible, compare attitudes with enquiries, purchases or usage data, taking into account the limitations of these sources and the context in which the data was collected. If the sources paint different pictures, investigate the reason for the discrepancy rather than simply choosing the answer that fits your plan.

Choose your target audience and the right research method

Choose your target audience based on the decision you need to make, not on whose contact details are easiest to access or already available. If you are exploring why people decide not to buy, surveying only satisfied buyers will not give you a sufficient picture of potential barriers along the buying journey. If you are considering a new service, you should reach people who have the relevant need and can meaningfully influence the purchase decision. Define your target audience by their needs, buying situation and role in the decision, rather than relying solely on general background information that may not explain their choices. This will help you assess later whose views the responses actually shed light on and whose they do not.

The right research method depends on whether you need a deeper understanding, a comparison of options or an overview of how responses are distributed within a defined target audience. A conversation can help you explore the buying situation and uncover reasons you had not considered when drafting your questions. A survey is suitable for comparing more clearly defined topics, provided the questions and response options are understandable to the target audience and relevant to their circumstances. Observing website usability helps you spot obstacles as people use the site that they may not be able to describe or recall themselves. You can combine methods, but each must address its own question and have a clear role in informing the decision.

Before inviting participants, consider how your recruitment method may affect who ends up responding to your research. A survey shared through your own communication channels may mainly reach people who already know you or actively follow the topic. You therefore cannot automatically generalise the views of voluntary respondents to the entire market or all potential buyers within the same target audience. Explain the purpose of the research to participants, ask only for the information you need and plan personal data processing carefully in line with applicable requirements. Record the limitations of participant selection alongside the results, so that subsequent marketing decisions do not rely on unjustifiably broad generalisations.

Write questions without leading respondents

Start designing your questionnaire by identifying what you actually need to decide based on the answers. If you are considering introducing a service to a new target audience, first explore their needs, previous choices and obstacles. Do not immediately ask whether your proposed solution sounds good, as this wording can easily encourage agreement. Ask respondents to describe the last time they experienced the relevant need and what they did in that situation. This gives you input for shaping your offering and message, rather than general approval. Keep only questions whose answers will meaningfully help you justify the planned business decision.

Keep each question focused on one topic and use words respondents can understand without further explanation. For example, it is worth asking about a service's price and ease of use separately, as the ratings may differ. Where appropriate, the response options should allow people to say they have no experience or cannot make an assessment. Otherwise, you force them to choose an opinion they do not actually hold and get a misleading result. Avoid assuming that respondents already use the service or want to buy it. Also check whether the order of the questions could influence subsequent answers.

Before launching the survey more widely, have people who resemble your chosen target audience and can respond independently test the questionnaire. Ask them to explain how they understood each question and what led them to choose their answer. If interpretations differ, revise the wording rather than simply adding longer instructions. Check the response process on a phone too, as an awkward form can mean losing some responses. Ask for personal data only if you need it to meet the research objective. Explain clearly to respondents why you are collecting the information and how you intend to use it.

Connect research findings to business consulting questions

When reviewing the results, first distinguish what respondents said from your own conclusions about their answers. Interest in a service does not yet prove a willingness to pay for it. Look separately at the strength of the need, barriers to purchase and reasons why the current solution works for the person. Connect these observations to business consulting questions, such as the scope of the offering, the pricing approach and how sales are organised. This makes the research a basis for decisions rather than simply a presentation of interesting opinions. For each key finding, note which decision it supports and what remains unknown.

Alongside your conclusions, always check whose responses you have and whose perspectives may be missing. If you mainly surveyed existing followers, you cannot automatically extend their views to people who do not know you. People who are dissatisfied, highly interested or have time to spare may also be overrepresented among respondents. Clearly note these limitations alongside the decision so that confident language does not obscure an uncertain basis. Where possible, compare the survey with sales data, website usage and publicly available market information. Differences between sources are a reason to investigate further, not to dismiss an inconvenient result.

When making a business decision, also ask whether the company can actually deliver the promised value. Research may point to a need that requires changes to the service, working practices or customer support, rather than just new advertising. Discuss which assumptions must hold true for the proposed offering to make business sense. If an important assumption remains unresolved, run a limited trial or conduct an additional interview before making a major change. Write down what new information would make you revise your initial decision. This helps keep business consulting discussions focused on substance, even when some results do not meet expectations.

• What need does the offering address?
• What stands in the way of a purchase?
• Can the promise be delivered?
• Which assumption needs testing?

Choose your advertising message, channels and metrics

Your advertising message should start with the need described by your target audience, not the company's desire to say as much as possible about itself. Choose a benefit you can substantiate through your offering, and address the main concern honestly and specifically. If respondents value a clear understanding of the service, first explain what the offering includes and who it is for. Do not turn a single colourful response into the voice of the entire target audience or present an assumption as an established fact. Develop message variations for testing that differ in substance, not just in their headlines. Each version should help test a clear assumption arising from the research.

When choosing a channel, ask where people recognise their need, look for information and compare potential providers. These situations may call for different content, so not every ad needs to lead straight to a purchase. In search, you may need to answer a specific question, while elsewhere you may first need to help someone recognise the problem. Compare channels by their fit with the target audience, the content they require and the ability to measure results. Also consider whether the website supports the promise made in the ad and makes the next step clear. A channel cannot fix an offering that visitors do not understand.

Choose a metric based on the business change the advertising should support, not on what the channel displays most prominently. Impressions and clicks help describe reach and interest, but do not in themselves prove that relevant enquiries are being generated. If the goal is to attract relevant contacts, agree on what makes an enquiry a good fit for the offering and how to assess it. Where possible, keep other conditions comparable during tests so that the reasons for differences are easier to understand. Review the results alongside the sales process and website performance. Then decide what to continue, what to change and which question to investigate next.