Time to ask “Why?”
If you’re frustrated by those around you focused on the “what” and “how” of marketing, but not the “why,” read on.
Like you, we see this often, especially in middle-market companies. What often gets unasked, or overlooked, is “Why?” “Why are we not getting the outcomes we want or need?” It feels like we are moving so fast and under so much pressure, there is no time to better understand the forces driving customers’ and prospects’ attitudes and behaviors. No time for Root Cause Analysis (RCA).
And It Doesn’t Have to be Complicated, Either.
It should be structured, but it can also involve simple one-on-one discussions combined with some desktop learning. If you know the outcomes [high defection rates, low conversion, declining traffic levels or donations], it’s fairly simple to design a means of discovering the drivers. The “why” your target does what it does.
The Benefits are Huge.
We worked with a very niche museum in Los Angeles to field focus groups, a mail and online survey, onsite intercepts, and one-on-one interviews with members, defectors and staff. All this with a very modest budget. The insights we gained were invaluable.
It turns out that visitors and members shared common opinions about art and culture, and the role the museum plays. The insights we gained from Root Cause Analysis enabled us to create four distinct personas and highly customized and targeted messaging. It not only made the budget work harder, it also increased visitor-to-member conversion by 18% in 12 months.
One of the world’s largest and best-known human services non-profits asked us to explore new channels to drive donations. Through a deep dive into their existing data, and two rounds of online surveys, we found out why people were – and were not – donating. We uncovered barriers to converting donors to monthly givers, and we uncovered a key insight: the “why” behind people’s belief in the cause.
Turned out the key driver was the universal consensus “everyone deserves a second chance.” This key insight led to a corporate rollout of onsite and online events designed around sharing what you might do if given a second chance. Root Cause Analysis sharpened our messaging, and helped get the entire organization onboard and heading in a singular direction, increasing financial and emotional ROI.
A Final Thought
If you’re working for a company in which the marketing function has become the “Office of Doing Stuff”- ie: writing social posts, producing blog posts, creating emails – one way to change perceptions of your role in marketing is to be the cheerleader for customer or member insights. Or, as we like to say, be the advocate for the one person who’s never in company meetings: your current or potential customer. By becoming the voice of the consumer in your company – you get to be the one who owns the “Why” not just the “What” or “How.”
If you’d like to explore RCA – the “why” your target does what it does – feel free to schedule some time
to talk , call 310-720-2204 or email renee@millergroupmarketing.com
