Direct Marketing Tip: "Do-Your-Own" Research

Tip: Try "Mini-Survey" Customer Research. It's fast, cheap and easy -- and you can do it within 24 hours to get a quick and rough read on your customers' opinions, attitudes and product interests.

Need some customer research -- but you don't have the time or the budget? Then try the low-tech solution: call a dozen customers yourself.

After the first 6 or 8 calls you'll usually start to sense a pattern. And you'll often be surprised by an easy-to-fix issue that you hadn't anticipated.

Here's a Step-by-Step "How to" Checklist:

1. Identify clear survey objectives. What decisions do you need to make?

2. Build a survey plan. What information do you need to make those decisions in #1?

What target audience or user base do you need to ask? (DON'T survey any "insiders" connected with the business - they're biased. Focus on prospects or users, depending on your objectives.)

3. Develop a short, 8-question script. Make them neutral, short, clear and open-ended.

4. Call or interview 8 people. Have a very organized person who's also a good listener do the asking.

If you're calling customers, assume that you may need to call as many as 16 - 20 to complete 8).

5. Take verbatim notes. This is one of the reasons you need an organized person with good listening skills.

6. Draw conclusions ONLY from the responses that suggest a pattern. THROW OUT the rest of the responses as "noise".

If there's no pattern you need to either redesign the survey or call more people.