9-26-13 The most basic marketing research: getting a zip code and finding out how people learned about your business

If you have been following my Blogs, these two topics may sound very familiar.  I talked about each one in the Blogs I posted on June 6^th (zip codes) and 13^th. (asking how a customer found out about your business).

So, I was really pleased when these themes were presented to me twice in the last couple of weeks.

First, I attended the quarterly Langley Chamber Membership meeting on September 12^th.  The new President, David Gregor, talked for more than 20 minutes and several times advised storefront businesses to always get the zip codes of shoppers and ask them how they found out about your business.

Then, I went on the Farm Tour this past weekend, and someone at Whidbey Island Distillery asked me the same two questions.

In case you didn’t read my previous Blogs, didn’t attend the Chamber meeting or didn’t go on the Farm Tour, obtaining zip codes is a quick way of learning if you are drawing business from locals or tourists or some combination, and lknowing the geographic locations that are the greatest sources for your business.  Identifying the ways that people learned about your product or service helps you validate advertising and marketing that is effective  (and remember, this can vary).

These are two simple marketing research tools that take a minimum amount of time for information gathering with data that can easily be tabulated using a simple Excel spreadsheet.

These simple tools can play significant roles in building your business.