Here’s what interviewing one hundred of your prospects over the phone will do for your content and your brand

The word ‘survey’ doesn’t always drum up positive connotations in the business world—and for good reason. Most survey methodologies fail to highlight the true sentiments of a target population. They don’t capture enough relevant information for immediate business value, either.

That’s because traditional survey formats are based on the ‘customer satisfaction’ query, which depends on direct, firsthand experiences on which customers can reflect. When exploring new markets, customers don’t have a basis for comparing their experiences—they can’t qualify their experiences if they don’t know of anything better. As Forbes observes, “Businesses should not directly ask customers what they want because too often customers do not know themselves the answer to that question.”

Next-Gen Surveys: Scaling Out the Interview Format

So, how do you get the quantitative and qualitative data you need to drive insights into new and evolving markets? And how do you ensure the data is accurate, meaningful, and—most importantly—useful to your business?

Interviews are the answer. Unlike traditional surveys, people love talking about the things that bother them, the things that matter to them, and the things that could be better. Here’s how individual interviews on a large scale contribute to developing customer personas, drive insights into market viability, and contribute to a winning content strategy.

Identify specific nuances and pain points your competitors haven’t identified

Have you ever read the results of a survey and felt like they only scratch the surface? Most surveys can tell you when something is wrong, but they won’t necessarily tell you why. If you’re not talking about a specific experience—as is the case with ‘customer satisfaction’ surveys—it’s hard to hone in on areas in which you can improve.

If you have a fully developed product or service, you already know a little bit about the needs of your target customers. You can start with the specific features and benefits of your product or service to create a new line of questioning. You can use qualitative responses from a voice-response survey format to pick up on the unique pain points on which your competitors are missing out.

Get to know your customers on a personal level

With a combined quantitative and qualitative line of questioning, you can do more than collect abstract data about what types of tools your customers are using, what they’re missing, and how they feel about their progress. You can identify those data points, then ask, “Why?”

In phone-based interviews, there is no character limit to these types of responses. Respondents don’t get ‘keyboard fatigue,’ and when they’re engaged with a real person, they have an innate desire to deliver real understanding—real value—to the listener. You can take that value and turn it into something meaningful for your business.

Identify the narratives that help you position your product or service

As you look to expand on and invest in a new marketing strategy, you’ve got a lot at risk—especially with a new, untested product or service. Are you using the right language to communicate the value of what you're selling? Is it in the parlance of the people to whom your selling, and will they identify with what you do?

In a single phone interview, you open doors to interesting, compelling stories from the very people who need your product. With the right questions, you can find trends and use them to sculpt your value proposition—in the same language and touching on the same points highlighted by your future customers.

Leverage data and stories to drive compelling content

Trends aren’t the only benefits you get from scaling out interviews. Using conditional, qualitative questioning, you can secure any number of topic cross-sections that can drive your future content—almost perpetually.

With the right skillset, content teams can use even just a few narratives and data points to create a wide range of content assets for your website, social media, email marketing, and other publishing and distribution channels. That means countless, value-added content from that initial ‘survey’ investment.

Revolutionizing Surveys and Content Initiatives

Interview-based surveys are the most efficient, most substantial means of getting insights into your target markets. So, join rand&rand as we rethink content and take you one bold step forward towards an ongoing and compelling content strategy—one that improves right alongside your product, your maturity, and your growth.