January 2005

Is Anyone Listening?

So you think you're saying the right things to the right people, but without audience feedback, you could be shouting in the dark.

By Celia Canfield

I was recently watching a movie in which a lonely guy sitting in a large telescope installation in some outback location is tasked with sending messages into space. His sole assignment is to wait patiently for any response that would provide evidence of intelligent life. So he waits, and he waits, and he waits. It made me think about how companies sometimes do the same with their marketing efforts—especially with Web content.

I've been on the seminar circuit lately, and I kept hearing the same question, "How do we know if we have the right content?" But unlike the guy in the movie, you don't just have to wait for a response.

So I've decided to make a list of ways to measure audience feedback. Some of them require more investment of time and money, and some of the solutions provide anecdotal, yet still valuable, feedback. Before you choose a method, be sure you know what kind of feedback that method will generate. In many cases, using one or more of these methods together will give you a multifaceted view of your audience.

1. Focus Groups. These sessions can be conducted one-on-one or in a group setting, but the idea is to give your target audience the opportunity to tell you what they think about your content. Focus groups can be conducted online (many services have come up with sophisticated solutions—one we ran across recently was MindClick). But we also believe in traditional one-on-one sessions in which a moderator asks participants to "drive" around a site and give real-time feedback as they visit different sections.


2. Audience Surveys. Send your subscribers a "what did you think" survey. It's a good idea to build in an incentive such as a chance to win free software or a pair of airline tickets. You would be surprised how many of your customers welcome the chance to tell you what they think.


3. Interactive Devices. Quick polls, feedback questions, rate-this-article sections, and other feedback opportunities give your audience a chance to provide you with feedback on content you've invested time in developing. Remember to balance open-ended questions ("What do you want to hear more about") with True/False and multiple-choice questions to ensure you give time-pressed folks a way to respond as well.


4. Segment Your Information. Divide content by topic (marketing tips) or type (case studies) and ask your audience to select the information they find most useful. Their choices will help you allocate resources and budget to the most appropriate content and help you refine your content calendar.


5. Pick Up the Phone. When you have customers' phone numbers, call and ask them if they would take a few minutes to tell you what information they would like to receive. While most of us complain of overexposure to email these days, the phone hasn't been ringing as much and it can be useful in collecting data. While this can be risky, I suspect that many will care that you took the time to ask them what they needed.


6. Readership Studies. Those of us who started in print magazine publishing are very familiar with the methodologies used to assess how people read and retain the written words in a printed magazine. The same devices can be used to measure content within a website. This takes some investment of time and money but can return some excellent feedback.


7. Use Technology. Make sure you have access to your website's usage reports—Webalizer's Web server log file analysis program is free—and check them often to find out which pages on your site are popular and what words users are typing into search engines to get to your site. If you're deploying email marketing campaigns, use software to track who is opening your emails, forwarding them, and clicking through them. (Try What Counts or IMN.) Also consider "pay-per-click" search engine advertising, an inexpensive tool to drive traffic to your site. Monitoring which ads are working for you provides insight into which topics your target audience finds attractive.

The important thing is to make sure that you aren't just sending messages out into online "space." As editors and marketers, we know there are many things you can do before creating content to ensure that it resonates with your audience. As good as we are at matching readership needs to content, however, we still like to check our assumptions and work, and we heartily support any method to gain feedback.

We'd like to hear from you. If you have used successful methods to gain insight into your content, let us know.

About the author:

Celia Canfield is the CEO and founding partner of Tendo Communications. email her with your search successes and failures.