Why is Research the Heart of Marketing?
The magic of astonishing research that leaves most people speechless
Have you ever wondered what are the most remarkable content that people are most looking for?
Before anything else, coming up with valuable and intriguing content aiming your readers’ best interests is pretty much the number one reason of providing material. But what are the biggest concerns people are always looking forward to understanding and applying in their lives as a way to enrich their existences?
In one of Gary Halbert’s Seminars (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6grSm7q1A8&t=1052s), he mentions an astonishing book regarding what people most read about. If you don’t know, Gary Halbert is considered by many people a legendary figure in copywriting making millions and millions through copies of his own material or of his clients. So, why wouldn’t we consider reading up some of his recommendations? The book is The First One Hundred Million by Haldeman Julius, published in 1928.
As I was going through the first chapter the first question came along: where’s the value, why is it valuable and how can I apply this material not only for my own good, but for other’s growth too.
To make a point, the author wrote that book after 9 years of marketing, writing down and compiling all the results which paved the way for a huge deal of data and understanding about human wants and overall reading subjects from a national perspective. Little Blue Books were the products sold, embracing many areas of life, each book was marked and put into a group along others to find out which ones were sold the most and so reflected the desires and craving of Americans when the subject is reading. To give more details about the author’s approach, the books had the same size (3 1/2 x 5 inches) fitting easily into a pocket providing 64 pages of content on average. It was nothing fancy, which means that if people were buying, that’s because they really wanted to know what’s inside.
By presenting the books at the price of 5 cents and having people decide which ones caught their eyes, the Julius warded off potential misleading data which could happen in case people were asked to choose which books they would like to buy. Since they could choose certain books over others to come off as a person of admirable character and not naughty or weird.
Julius made a comparison for books sold per year. In 1927 the sum of sold books was 20,700,000. Below you can see the number of copies for some titles based on reader’s choices:
This means that per year there are 112,000 potential readers for a book of authentic sex information in the American public in 1927. There’s also the next list:
In other words, these are the topics most chosen by readers. To help you have a feeling for the numbers, the following table informs copies for self-improvement books:
So, what does it mean in terms of marketing? Hary Galbert said in that same conference that he likes to sell something that’s been already proven to sell. That’s when he comes with a greater copy to increase conversion rates.
Knowing what most people are looking for has a strong influence on how well your sales or content distribution will reach your customers while you’re putting out there your value.
People have the same psychological behavior as they’ve always had since a long time, which means that it’s not going to change so soon. Now, how can you turn it into a practical action to reach more leads effectively?
The numbers above are somehow the picture of human interests from a wide perspective, touching on the inner motive and curiosities. This is a reliable way to take the baby steps of your campaigns to consider the value you decide to bring to the marketplace’s atmosphere.
Research is the biggest ally that shows what are the values most sought in the marketplace, what are the most common problems and what people are actually looking for.
You might be wondering if research is always a wise decision. Yes it is, simply because that’s how you get to understand your customers and leads. Take the following example as proof of this. An e-commerce site had an area for the client to create an account after filling the shopping cart and it seemed just usual or not wrong, to say the least. However, when doing research on the customer’s experience they noticed something: that very registration request was keeping the soon-to-be customers from carrying on with their order. In fact, one even said “I’m not here to be in a relationship”. That’s when they opted to replace the button by a “continue” button giving the client a choice to register later on. In the end, this simple research about the customer skyrocketed revenues by $300 Million. Here you can read more about it: https://articles.uie.com/three_hund_million_button/
The main takeaway is to not think of research as a plus, but as the guide of your efforts towards the most likely road to positive change. It can be the turning point of your project if taken seriously.
What does it all boil down to? I cannot tell you what is the most efficient research method for your project, simply because projects are no the same. But choosing your research method is really just a by-product of your thinking, and that was my utmost intent, to inspire you to think of how research and the way your audience interact with your content intertwine and what it means. There’s no way someone can learn all the branches of knowledge from someone else, but once the thinking process is taken care of, we all eventually unveil the rest on our own.
