DIGITAL MARKETING

STRATEGY
Research Template

CONDUCTING RESEARCH FOR A DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGY

When conducting research to help develop your digital marketing strategy, there are some key questions that
you should first consider. You may need to consult with colleagues to answer the questions in each of these
areas. It is time well spent, as it will help define your research.

1: What are the business objectives? What’s happening in the business that is driving
the need for research?

These questions will help you to understand the key purpose of the research and it is important to keep this in
mind when developing your research methodology. The following are some examples of business objectives:

a) To determine potential market size for a new product or service;

b) To evaluate the price elasticity of a product or service;

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 c) To ensure a successful new product launch.

Business Objectives Driving the Need for Research:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

2: What are the research objectives? What outcomes are needed from this research?

These keep your research focused and to the point. Sometimes it is tempting to include everything you ever
wanted to know in your research. However, focusing on key objectives will make your research more concise
and useful. Some examples of research objectives, corresponding to the business objectives outlined above, are
as follows:

a) To identify the key target audience for a new product or service, including their buying power and
prevalence in the general population;
b) To measure the impact on sales of changing the pricing of a product or service;
c) To understand the key dynamics of a category for a successful new product launch.

Key Research Objectives:

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1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

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3: How will the research be used?

It is vital to understand who will use the research findings and how they plan to use them, for example to
develop strategy for business, for PR purposes, for operational decision-making etc.

This influences your recommended methodology, for example if the end user wants statistics to back up a
particular finding, then you need quantitative research. However, if they want to deeply understand why
consumers choose a particular brand, you may need a qualitative approach.

These questions will also help determine the recommended sample size or size of qualitative interviews or
groups, for example if the research results are being published, a larger sample size will be necessary, versus
research being conducted to test some internal concepts where a smaller sample size may suffice.

How Research will be Used:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

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4: What key questions need to be answered?

Are they open or closed questions? Open questions such as ‘what’, ‘who’, ‘how’ and ‘why’, may indicate a
requirement for a qualitative methodology. Questions needing hard statistics may point to a quantitative
methodology. A combined methodology may also be appropriate. Often, the end user of the research can
provide an input at this stage, as they may have some key questions in mind for the research. These provide a
useful starting point on which you can build.

List Key Questions to be Answered:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

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5. Who is the target audience? Who do you want to research?

This can include demographics like age, gender, region, marital status, presence of children, as well as other
criteria, for example likelihood to purchase a particular product or service, awareness of particular brands or
companies, willingness to purchase from a particular category.

It is also worth defining who should be excluded from the research, for example those who work in the industry
as they have more insider information than a typical consumer, those who would never buy from a particular
category or rejecters of a particular brand.

The target audience may not be known if the research is carried out to discover the target audience for new
products or services. In this case, you may need to research a representative sample of the population to help
define your target audience.

At this stage, consideration should also be given to how you wish to analyse the results, i.e. whether you wish to
examine differences in results by gender, age group, region, etc. You will need to ensure that your sample size is
robust enough to enable you to cross tabulate your data by any required factors.

Define the Target Audience for the Research:

Who to include: Who to exclude:

1. 1.

2. 2.

3. 3.

4. 4.

5. 5.

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6: What is the timing of the research? How soon are results needed and what is driving
this need?

If a large sample size or large number of interviews are required, this will dictate the time needed to conduct the
research properly. However, sometimes time pressures mean that a smaller scale research project is conducted,
delivering more concise results.

Timing of Research:

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7: What is the budget for the research?

A budget range can be given, allowing for different methodology options to be considered. The budget may
need to allow for venues and participant refreshments as appropriate, such as in the case of face-to-face
research. Incentives may also be paid to research participants and consideration should be given to what is
permissible within the Market Research Society Code of Conduct (MRS, UK) or equivalent code.

Budget for Research:

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