I’m wondering how much new business, joint ventures and profits are waiting for business owners ready to serve their markets with variations on this idea?

In considering this from an organic ranking perspective for business websites, social media, press coverage, etc., what would it mean for a business to be considered the ‘expert’ in its field through using a process like this?

And how could this be used interactively with Mike Koenigs 10x10x4 formula?

Imagine the ‘pineappling’ of content into articles, podcasts, videos, audios, blog content, blog curation with other relevant source materials, social media postings, new product, webinars, speaking opportunities…to rapidly add to ‘expert’ status for the author…

Thanks for sharing such exciting, empiric evidence of the indispensable value of professionally done surveys.

Michael

To be frank, a 70% “opt-in” (response) rate is killer in ANY communication medium. This is very exciting and further confirms my belief that offering FREE learning oriented ebooks, white papers and similar offerings for the purpose of building trust and relationships in one’s market are among — if not the — very best way to grow your list and business in virtually any industry.

Just one thing Gail discussed with us confirms for your listeners just how powerful the concept she shares with you in this interview is. In less than five years since beginning her initial survey, she expects that it will be responsible for growing her list by over 10 fold (she didn’t even talk about what that is going to mean for her bottom line!).

The really cool thing is that this one concept is going to have a very long shelf life. I wouldn’t be surprised that over the first 10 years she will easily have a 25-fold to 30-fold return on her initial investment.

So much more I could say, but then people might not listen to this interview, which would be a HUGE missed bet.

Looking forward to your next post!

Joe

Thanks for bringing this excellent interview to our attention. I think he has hit the nail right on the head. And I’ve seen many marketing programs achieve history making results because companies owned their markets’ problems.

There would never be a need for sales professionals or marketers if people didn’t have problems . . . lots of problems.

The key to succeeding in business today is in understanding the problem(s) your prospective market place face(s) — hopefully better than your prospective client does. This is where you have to start in today’s world if you want to build a business that is sustainable and has longevity.

The grandfather of modern management theory, Peter Drucker said, “The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.”

Your best marketers ask their prospective and existing customers again, and again and again what they want, how they want it, and how they’ll know they’ve gotten what they wanted until their product or service fits them and sells itself. And they never stop asking because the target is always moving.

The quickest way to achieving the goal Drucker sets for marketers is to use surveys that have been scientifically designed to elicit information that goes to the heart of the market’s or prospect’s “fundamental human desires,” builds trust, creates a strong relationship, and bonds people to your company because they realize the depth of your caring and concern for them.

As we both know, under the circumstances described in the above paragraph, they’ll be happy to spill their guts to you, and provide you with all the insight you need to dominate your market.

Obviously, you have to be able to deliver; however, fulfillment is never that hard if you understand what your prospect/customer truly wants. And Ranjay Gulati gives us a wonderful example in Apple that virtually anyone can emulate in today’s global market. You don’t have to do all the work yourself, and there is still plenty of money left for the person or company who solves people’s problems.

Looking forward to your next post.

Joe

Apple makes great money!

It never fails to amaze me. Online and offline business owners really can get huge opt-in rates – when they offer people something they truly want and need!

Once again, you give us another gem that shows us how to do just that.

Your four-fold strategy outlined above (surveying your industry, sharing those insights in an ebook, surveying your customers, teaching your customers how to do surveys) is absolutely awesome.

Surveying our niche market to learn valuable insights your prospects are dying to learn, is a really powerful idea for a number of reasons:

• Our prospects will get “insider information” they might not otherwise find online (or anywhere else for that matter).

• We can use this information to more effectively position our services vis-à-vis our competitors. That will undoubtedly go a long way in making our marketing arguments – that we are the most logical choice from among our competitors – very persuasive indeed.

• Sharing the data from our industry survey with prospects will help them learn how to develop effective buying criteria for determining what they need – and the smartest way to get it – and people absolutely love that kind of help. As most of us know, we hate being sold, but we love being taught how to be smart buyers.

• Getting customer satisfaction survey results – especially if they are based on the data provided by the industry survey we share in the ebook – goes a long way to proving our position in the market – and we get that proof in our customer’s own words.

• We will have the pleasure of helping our customers who understand the power of surveys, become more effective in marketing their area(s) of passion and expertise by teaching them how to do their own surveys.

Additionally (since we are all affiliates of MySurveyExpert) we have an opportunity to create another stream of income when we teach our clients and customers how to do surveys using MySurveyExpert.

The really cool thing is that our customers who join MSE can create another stream of income too.

With all the fear and uncertainty about the markets, who can’t use an additional source of income or a larger share of their niche market?

How “jenius” is that!

Jeanne, from the first day I met you, I’ve enjoyed everything you have to share and learned a great deal about marketing effectively in the 21st century. I feel very privileged to be a part of the MSE community and look forward to learning numerous other ways we can use surveys to grow our businesses and help our clients.

All the best,

Joe

Talk about leverage!

This is amazing to me; never knew that surveys, as a tool for marketing, had as much “horsepower” as you are showing us in your recent posts.

Don’t think the idea of using a national survey from someone like Pew or Gallup, as a benchmark, would have ever percolated to the top of my consciousness. And it gives a lot more credibility to us when we share our data with “non-client” folks in the online community who participated in our survey, and the community at large.

Getting to the pain folks are feeling on various topics is extremely powerful and useful information, and not just from a marketing perspective as you clearly pointed out. The ability to truly bond with people, to really empathize and connect with them IS worth its weight in gold.

Additionally, it seems this approach opens up the possibility of learning other very valuable demographic information from our existing clients, stuff we might not have had a clue about previously, which can help us attract even more prospects than might have been the case otherwise.

Frankly, I could go on and on about the ideas you’ve sewn. However, I think I need to get busy and follow your suggestions and create something like this for myself.

Thank you so much!

Joe