Survey your readers about the usefulness of your publication, and of your competitors’ publications, and use the results to win over advertisers.

By William Dunkerley

The role of audience research in the advertising sales process is simple: to collect information about your publication that will facilitate closing sales. That may seem obvious. But not all publications have that in focus when they design a research program. They miss the mark.

Hitting the Mark

What is the mark? Actually, there are several marks. Let's look at them one at a time:

1. You need data in order to do a self-assessment. It is important to find out how good your publication is as a vehicle for advertising. Will ads in your publication pay off for the advertisers? Research data may tell you that your publication is in good shape for that, or you may discover deficiencies that will be important to address to increase your attractiveness to advertisers.

2. How well does your publication compete with others in making ads pay off for the advertisers? There are multiple facets to that. You may be running behind in some areas while excelling in others. It is important to have evidence of areas in which you are superior so you can highlight them to your advertiser prospects.

3. Is your publication well received by its audience? How does it fare compared to your competitors? Positive results here can help make your publication look like a better choice among competitors.

To provide practical examples I'll use a fictitious magazine called "Solar Business Insider," a B2B monthly serving those who have various roles in that industry.

SBI has four primary competitors (also fictitious): "All About Solar Business," "Solar Business Success," "Alternative Energy Future," and "Off the Grid Business."

Now let's design a research project for SBI. The subjects of the survey will be readers of SBI. The best mode of questioning readers will depend on the nature of information you have on your readership. If you have postal addresses, sending a questionnaire through the mail is an option. If you have only email addresses, you will have to use that list. The latter approach would provide the fastest results.

It would be desirable for you not to be identified as the conductor of the research to avoid biasing results. The questionnaire should be identified as coming from someone or some firm that is "conducting research in the solar field." A PR company, consultant, or university could collaborate with you on this. Responses from questionnaire recipients should likewise not be directed to you. Request that recipients respond anonymously.

We won't go into questionnaire design here. Instead I'll illustrate a few of the kinds of questions that usually yield useful results.

Questions to Ask

1. What publications have you read for detailed information about solar?

(List each publication, including yours.)

2. Which publication is your first choice for detailed information about solar?

(List each publication, including yours.)

3. When it comes to making solar-related purchases for your business, do you:

--Make the decisions yourself
--Participate in the decision making
--Make recommendations
--Provide input or information
--Play no role

4. Which publication does the best job of giving you information helpful in making your judgments regarding purchasing?

(List each publication, including yours.)

5. Have you ever responded to an ad in ... ?

(List each publication, including yours.)

6. What is your approximate annual solar business volume?

(List five ranges appropriate to your field.)

7. Which publication do you enjoy reading the most?

(List each publication, including yours.)

8. Please rank from 1 to 7 (using each number only once, with 1 being the highest ranking) the type of articles that interest you the most:

--Solar technology
--How to promote or merchandise products or services
--New products
--Industry controversy
--Sales data
--Regulatory issues
--Business trends

9. Which publication is your best source for information about:

--Solar technology
(List each publication, including yours.)

--How to promote or merchandise products or services
(List each publication, including yours.)

--New products
(List each publication, including yours.)

--Industry controversy
(List each publication, including yours.)

--Sales data
(List each publication, including yours.)

--Regulatory issues
(List each publication, including yours.)

--Business trends
(List each publication, including yours.)

The foregoing questions are offered just for illustrative purposes; the questions appropriate for your publication won’t necessarily resemble these. There are many other areas that you could include.

The next step is to consider what to do with your survey results. We'll look into that next time.

William Dunkerley is principal of William Dunkerley Publishing Consultants, www.publishinghelp.com.

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