Tracking surveys are invaluable to any major marketing operation. They allow you to keep tabs on brand awareness and product usage, and see changes in behaviors and perceptions over time.
The most well-known form of the tracking study is the “Awareness, Trial, and Usage,” or ATU. These are long-term studies that track detailed and granular information about a given product or suite of products.
But what happens when you think of a new question, need to take a deeper dive into one KPI, or want to quickly follow-up on a learning from an in-flight ATU?
New real-time tracking software allows you to do just this, with two added benefits of modular question design and on-demand wave-over-wave data.
Our clients are already reporting saving as much as three hours per survey through such automation and data visualization technologies. These tech-enabled strategies not only introduce efficiencies into your survey process, but they also are proving to be important complements to the traditional ATU.
Here’s what you need to know about these two must-have tracking strategies:
Modular Question Design: You’ve left the detailed queries about market share and usage to the ATU. But you really need to hone in on one marketing campaign in particular, or quickly understand the pre-product launch landscape, or gather insights on uptake.
Real-time tracking let’s you do all this and more, by letting you cut out all the extraneous details, focus on a few core KPIs, and address immediate concerns as they arise. Because, in reality, a strong real-time tracking project is asking just a few questions, with the ability to insert one or two questions wave after wave.
This is where real-time tracking studies start to gain their real power—modular and flexible question formats. Now you can dive deep into issues you noticed in a different survey or tracking project, or react to market events that might not be captured in an ongoing, long-term study.
Combined with the ATU, suddenly real-time tracking surveys allow you to get immediate feedback, and conduct any triage or direction change that might be warranted.
On-Demand Data: Good question design also gives you high-quality results and a wide range of ways to see and understand your data.
Real-time reporting means you don’t have to wait months for a thick powerpoint presentation. On-demand data visualizations let you filter data by a specific target audience, and by waves. This means you can see exactly what one or more groups was thinking at one point in time, or compared across multiple points in time. In some cases, real-time tracking software also lets you sort by a single question.
For example, how did just oncologists using your drug answer a certain question, versus another physician specialty?
If you’re in a competitive space, or have a lot of marketing activity around your product, maybe you’re tracking on a weekly basis. That’s a lot of data, very quickly. So what should you consider when reporting? Real-time visualizations open up a world of options. Start with the current and previous wave. This will give you a picture of how things are changing, if at all. You can also pull up an average of all waves to date and get a nice baseline to see how things have changed overall.
Real-time tracking research is effective because it provides a pulse on your audience, and a much-needed, immediate feedback loop in addition to your ATU.
With real-time tracking studies, market researchers suddenly have a wide range of flexibility and insights. It’s a matter of designing strong questions that complement your ATU well and honing in on those few immediate needs, made possible by the combination of strategic thinking and technology.
InCrowd has pioneered real-time micro market research for healthcare and life sciences companies, and recently launched its new MicroTracker product. Find out how MicroTracker can help you. Click here to request a demo.
