Surveys Can Generate Awareness and Leads

By Bernie Thiel and Susan Buddenbaum

Marketers, business developers and practice leaders at consulting firms face a familiar and increasingly difficult task: how to generate awareness of and demand for their services. Surveys can be an excellent way to address this challenge. A well-designed and well-executed survey can provide not only the content for a variety of marketing activities showcasing professionals' knowledge and insights to prospective buyers but also substantive grist for the media relations mill to entice influential reporters and bloggers to write about the organization conducting the research.

Many consulting organizations know the valuable role surveys can play in their overall marketing programs. In fact, the plethora of surveys currently produced by consulting firms speaks to their popularity. However, quantity doesn't necessarily translate into quality. There are many examples of an organization investing months of time and a lot of money in survey research, only to have it generate little interest in the marketplace.