A big part of my process is research. What research I do changes with each type of project, but regardless I’m always doing some. In all my years of helping businesses with their graphics, and oftentimes giving them communications or marketing tips, I’ve learned that not many businesses start with research. They seem to groan when I mention it. The type of research I’m referring to is usually made up of audience information and competitor information. Today let’s have a really quick chat about why research is important.
First off planning is crucial to making sure your graphics do their job. After all graphics like brochures, postcards, and the like are meant to be supportive of your goals and promotional plan, which is why I started calling them Support Graphics!! The other crucial bit to a plan is, you guessed it, research!
Research into what your competitors are doing well and poorly at is a great way for you to determine what your next move should be and how you can stand out amongst your competition. For example, if your competitors don’t do a great job at showing off how real customers use the product, you might want to showcase your similar product by using photos sent in from happy customers, which let future customers see how people actually use the product.
However, before you even have happy customers you first need customers and that’s where research comes in handy again! This time its audience research. This type of research answers the question of “what problem does my product/service solve, who has that problem, and what do they look, act, and think like?”
Once you have these two nailed types of research nailed down, you can make a plan for advertising, for graphics, for actually selling more!
Here’s the bottom line. Research helps you make decisions. If you don’t know what is going on behind the scenes, your decision-making power is limited because you don’t have a grasp on what options are available to use. Give yourself and your business the best chances for growth that you can give it – do your research so you can make good plans that you fill will good content and graphics!
By-The-Way, if you’re ready to take your business to the next level through clear and unified branding book a 15-minute no pitch consultation call today by clicking here