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Aug
27
Using Surveys to Build Points With Small Businesses
August 27, 2006 | Anita Campbell
Surveys about the small business market have become an ever more popular way to gain PR visibility.
A company conducts a survey about small businesses, usually asking questions about small business’s need for or usage of the company’s products or services.
The company then gets the word out about the survey, typically by issuing a press release.
However, I have often felt that companies miss opportunities to really leverage surveys and use them to advantage in the small business market, for two reasons.
(1) Many surveys do little to help the small business customer, because they are usually about small businesses, not designed for small businesses. The surveys may bring some media attention. But if the goal is to get the attention of small business owners, many surveys miss the mark.
(2) Most companies give out very little information in the survey press release. Amazingly, some companies do not even put the press release online. Companies will hire PR firms to pitch the survey but then not offer a source with meaningful statistics or additional information online – a missed opportunity if there ever was one.
Recently, however, someone sent me a link to a survey that is so well done, I feel it is worth spending some time on here.
UPS recently did a survey about opportunities for American small businesses to sell in China to Chinese consumers. Everything about this survey is quite interesting. It is a lesson in how to do a survey to catch the attention of small businesses.
First, instead of doing a survey about small businesses, they did a survey on a subject of interest to small businesses. In this case it was about what Chinese consumers want. It signals opportunities for small busineses in the U.S. that may have interest in reaching Chinese consumers. If you are trying to impress your small business customer base and win goodwill from them, right off the bat it is a winner when you give some research that will help them. Instead of dissecting them.
Second, UPS set up a dedicated minisite just for the China survey results. The survey results are nicely packaged up for UPS’s small business customers. The minisite is much more user-friendly than simply sending out a press release or a bare PDF report. And great for search engines, too.
Of course a PDF report with the study results is available. But the report is simply one additional piece of information.
An especially nice touch is the section of the minisite with statistics and industry information. What a great resource should a small business customer need to pull together a business plan in order to apply for a loan for expansion into China.
Another interesting section is “What Others Had to Say.” In this section they include quotes from small business experts and even Chinese consumers. It helps humanize the survey.
All in all, a job well done, UPS.
See also my post over at Small Business Trends entitled Selling to the Chinese Market, containing additional observations. Hat tip to Laurel Delaney for pointing out this survey to me.
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[…] I even wrote about UPS’s survey site last year, when I first learned about it, because I was so struck by it as a best-practice example. […]