What media tools are available for research?

Keyword tools, question-and-answer sites, open discussion forums and back link analyzers, are tools designed to help with market research.

Google AdWords: Keyword Tool

This tool shows which keywords are searched more than others based on broad, exact or phrase match volumes. This tool allows you to also view local or global data, which is essential for location-based organisations. Additional data includes local search trends and location and languages for international research. This tool useful for the optimization part of any content marketing campaign.

Quora: Question and Answer Tool

The questions and answers on Quora are reviewed, edited, flagged (useful or not) and organized by users.The site makes a great resource for finding out what type of content could be useful to customers by learning what industry questions are frequently asked.

What technological tools are available for research? 

Online surveys:

Much faster than traditional research gathering,as information is being gathered automatically, there is then no paper questionnaires to come back making response time almost instant.The results of the online survey are ready to be analysed at any time. 

Different research methods

Quantitative research:

ADVANTAGES:

Data collection occurs rapidly with quantitative research. Quantitative research involves surveys, experiments, and real-time data gathering, there are few delays in the collection of data.

Quantitative research uses a randomized process to collect research information, this then prevents any bias from entering the data. This data can then be applied to the rest of the group which is being researched.

DISADVANTAGES:

You cannot follow-up on any answers in quantitative research.

Quantitative research is limited as you cannot go back to participants after they’ve filled out a survey if there are more questions to ask or follow up points. Therefore there is less data points to examine when compared to other methods.

You cannot determine if answers are true or not. There are no face-to-face contacts with this method, which means interviewers or researchers are unable to gauge the truthfulness or authenticity of results.

Qualitative Research

ADVANTAGES:

Qualitative research provides more content for creatives and marketing teams. By going through the qualitative research approach, it becomes possible to congregate authentic ideas that can be used for marketing. It allows for stronger targeting towards a specific group.

Subject materials can be evaluated with greater detail.Qualitative research  centers less around the measurements of data that is being collected and more on what can be found in that information. Because of this the data has an enhanced level of detail to it, which can provide more opportunities.

DISADVANTAGES:

Mining data gathered by qualitative research can be time consuming. A key point is that it’s also a subjective effort because what one researcher feels is important may not be pulled out by another researcher. Making the time consuming effort even longer if groups disagree on opinions.

Qualitative research is not statistically representative.It is a perspective-based method of research only, which means the responses given are not measured.

Skills needed to conduct good research

  • Report writing
  • Data collection
  • Analysis of information from different sources
  • Finding information off the internet
  • Critical thinking
  • Planning and scheduling
  • Interviewing
  • Critical analysis