Speed
The most obvious benefit of quick-hit research is the timely return of research data. Traditional custom research comes with a pretty serious time commitment, as most projects take anywhere from 2-3 months to complete. Quick-hit research, on the other hand, can take you from survey development to reported results within as little as two weeks.
This time difference allows companies to utilize marketing research more frequently in the product and service development processes. Receiving feedback from their customers, clients, or patients on a more frequent basis allows for evidence-supported adjustments to the offering or marketing. All of which helps to ensure product success.
Focus
Traditional custom research is expensive and takes a significant amount of time, so in order to get the most “bang for your buck” many companies try to answer as many lingering questions as possible within a single study. It’s a very common practice and it has worked in the industry for many, many years. However, there has developed a fatigue to this particular method because it requires more of a respondent’s time, increasing sampling and respondent compensation costs and leading to lower-quality, burned-out responses.
As a solution to the fatigue, researcher-assisted, quick-hit research aims to answer only questions relating to a single-objective. This means surveys are shorter and more concise. It also means that when the data is returned in your report, you won’t have a million pages of data to sort through, instead receiving only the targeted answers you need without all the extra stuff you set aside for ‘someday’.
Affordability
More than a time commitment, traditional custom research also requires a financial commitment, with most price tags sitting well above the $20,000 mark. Quick-hit research, in contrast, offers a serious discount. Fewer questions equates to less time required from respondents, and in turn, more respondents are willing to complete the survey. As a result, sampling becomes more feasible, lowering both the project fees and respondent compensation. Shorter surveys also mean less data to sort and analyze, which saves you both time and money.
One of the great benefits attached to affordability is again the ability to do more with your marketing research budget. Instead of one massive survey that takes months and all your budget, to complete, you now have the ability to perform multiple studies that answer specific questions when you need them answered.
Professional
An alternative to researcher-assisted, quick-hit research is the online self-survey tool. I’m sure you can think of one or two of these platforms. They allow you to create a survey and then invite respondents to take it. You receive all respondent answers directly within the platform.
While there are obvious advantages to this type of research solution, it also presents several disadvantages. Self-service survey tools require you to correctly craft the correct survey questions to glean answers, to properly identify and locate the best respondents for your survey, and then analyze and report on the raw data.
Researcher-assisted, quick-hit research addresses all of these issues, and more.
Survey Crafting
A professional researcher aids you in developing the questions you need to ask, ensuring that the line of inquiry is unbiased as well as insightful, and in a way that encourages respondents to complete the survey.
Sampling
Sampling with professionals opens your potential respondent list not just to your current client base, but also to your potential customer base, and helps to ensure you weed out seasoned survey takers seeking survey compensation who cloud your data with nonsense answers.
Analysis & Reporting
Analyzing your own data can be challenging too. The analysis of professional marketing researchers is unbiased, as they have no stake in the outcome, and is backed by years of industry experience.
Disadvantages
We can’t ignore that even with all these advantages, quick-hit research is not right for everyone. This model won’t work for every company or every project. And, of course, there will always be a place for traditional marketing research.
Speed
The speed of quick-hit research is partially dependent on the speed of the company commissioning the study. It requires the company to be ready to make decisions, sign contracts, and stay on top of the collaborative survey development process. Once the study is ready for the field, it’s all in the hands of the researchers. But until that time, stakeholder participation is essential.
Focus
If you have a list of goals and objectives to accomplish within a single study, quick-hit research won’t be for you. Your project would be suited for a traditional, custom research study. Quick-hit research is possible for focused, targeted, single-objective studies.
Audience
If your audience is very specific, with a long list of screeners, quick-hit research won’t be for you. U.S. dentists? Yes, absolutely. Rural female U.S. dentists aged 35-45 who see 22% of their elderly patients for implant placement procedures? No, not a quick-hit audience.
Both the focus and audience components influence the cost factor of quick-hit research. Rather than overpaying for less, if you fall outside the boundaries of the quick-hit research scope, it’s better to seek out traditional custom research.
Actionable Research: Your All-In-One Research Partner
The great news is that Actionable Research offers both researcher-assisted, quick-hit research, in the form of Insight Streamer, and traditional custom research under the Actionable Research brand. Our goal is to offer you the research solution that’s right for you. Whether you’re interested in quick-hit or custom research, feel free to contact us today. We can help determine which options are right for you, your objectives, and your marketing research budget.
