I’ve been espousing the importance of research and insight in marketing for the past 13 years.

In this age of social media and online PR, fully understanding the marketing environment your business operates within is not just vital but now much more possible to do – and less forgivable if you still cut corners.

In the past, research for many clients was almost a dirty word. “Why should I pay to find out what I already know?”

Well it’s different now. The digital landscape is complex but it provides a mine of invaluable information, sometimes (at a basic level) at the touch of a button. The web offers us a vast ‘universe’ (in research speak) and therefore much larger sample sizes – this is good!

It also enables us to go down to levels of detail that often we couldn’t before. Through a defined approach we can fully research brand(s), audiences, products, competitors, channels, conversations, sentiments and so on.

This insight is crucial in order to create a social media or online PR strategy (or any marketing strategy for that matter) that is going to achieve your business objectives.

And it’s not just about upfront research and insight either. We are able to monitor and measure campaign results much more intricately than we could before. This means we can react quickly to market changes or under-performing marketing campaigns (both offline and online). Keeping the focus on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), we can fine tune ROI as we go.

Over the past few years, and in the past 12 months in particular, I’ve noticed an explosion in the number of web-based social media analysis tools that help us do this. I could write a book about all of them but for now there’s a great comprehensive list courtesy of Business Week.

I’ve used many of these – both free and paid for – and have my favourites but am always flexible, combining and switching between tools depending on which client I’m working with.

The important point is that one solution on its own is far too limited. Using Google alone to search the web is not enough from a social media and online PR perspective. And simply paying lots of money for the likes of Techigy or Social Radar is a good start but needs to be part of a toolbox – not the toolbox itself. Searching the social web demands a different approach.

And beware – you’ve also got to apply sound marketing and market research expertise to the process too – the information/data is one thing, how it’s organised, interpreted and presented is a whole other ball game.

The good thing is that smart businesses can more and more see the value of sophisticated online research and insight. So I’m still banging the same old drum but it’s a lot more satisfying these days.

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