Communities as a source for market intelligence

December 1, 2009

Editor’s note: This post is sponsored by PartnerUp.

Understanding what’s really on the minds of your customers is important to business owners. Customers expect you to know them well and comprehend the issues they face, which causes companies to spend massive amounts of money each year on market research efforts to obtain intelligence about their audience. They know that accurate intelligence information is paramount to helping them better serve their customers.

Accurate information on your customers’ thoughts and opinions can come from many sources, but the most useful information will come from having meaningful conversations with them and listening to what they tell you they need.

Bringing customers in from time to time to chat can be a great way to do this, but it’s only going to give you a small sample of your customer base. If you want a truer reading across a wider area of industries or locations, you have to think differently about the way in which you interact with customers to get market intelligence.

Privately branded online communities can provide a venue for all of your customers to gather around a common interest — your company or your brand — and exchange ideas they have not only on your specific company, but also on the general climate of the industry you represent.

These kinds of communities can also conveniently give you ears and a front row seat to listen in on and participate in the relevant, meaningful conversations that are taking place. A few even have tools built into the community that allow you to survey and poll your customers. With the information that these kinds of conversations can provide, you’ll have the groundwork for creating a better strategy to meeting the needs and wants of your customers.

This post was written by Megan Dorn, who manages the PartnerUp blog, newsletter, member communications, content and small business community as the Communications Manager at PartnerUp, the first and largest online community for small business. She also manages PartnerUp’s public relations efforts.