If you’re looking for ways to peek inside your customers’ brains, there are few better options than focus groups. But if you’re going to go through the process of launching a focus group, you better do it right!
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Why Focus Groups?
Focus groups are something that massive corporations invest millions of dollars into each year. But you don’t have to run a billion-dollar company to benefit from focus groups.
“In-person focus groups allow an organization to gain valuable insight into how their customers think about various topics, products, services or the brand in general,” Poppulo explains. “A well-planned group discussion, led by a skilled moderator who creates as natural an environment as possible, gives organizations a window into their customers’ heads.”
While focus groups aren’t cheap, they can be highly lucrative when executed correctly. And in order to generate a positive return on your investment, you must get serious about the details.
6 Tips for a High-ROI Focus Group
A disorganized focus group not only wastes your time and money, but it also leaves you with inaccurate insights that could damage your brand moving forward. As you look for ways to generate maximum return with focus groups, please consider the following tips and pointers:
1. Set the Right Objectives
Specific and articulate goals will significantly improve your chances of holding a successful focus group. And this goes for both internal purposes, as well as the group.
Internally, your team must have a very clear idea of what your focus group objectives are. In other words, what do you want to uncover?
Likewise, it’s critically important that you set the tone for the group by letting them know what you’ll discuss and what you expect from them. Please note: You aren’t telling them what to say or what your goals are – you’re simply laying the groundwork so that they know what’s expected of them.
2. Recruit the Right People
Not every customer or member of your target audience is ideal for every focus group. Be meticulous in your screening and only recruit the right people. The best way to do this is by creating an objective series of questions that you can use to pre-screen candidates over the phone. You may have to mix in some irrelevant “filler” questions to avoid tipping the individual off to your internal focus group objectives.
3. Use the Right Technology
While live observation and note-taking can be insightful, most of the value is extracted from reviewing the focus group afterward. And in order to take full advantage of each session, you’ll need the right technology. Consider investing in a video recording system that’s specifically designed for focus groups.
4. Choose the Best Moderator
So much of a focus group’s success hinges on the moderator. You want someone who understands your goals and is able to facilitate natural conversation by getting people to open up. The moderator should be smart yet warm. Select someone who has experience and consider adding an assistant moderator to serve as a second pair of eyes in the room.
5. Select a Good Environment
It doesn’t matter if you’re talking about potato chips or sexual health, you can’t have a successful focus group if the environment doesn’t feel safe and conducive to being open and vulnerable.
The proper focus group environment often depends on the company, audience, and purpose of the group. However, you’ll most likely find a boardroom or other contained room to be your best option.
6. Keep the Conversation Flowing
You have a very concentrated window of time to gather insights from the participants in the group. Attention spans are short and you’ll get less information as time passes. So it’s absolutely imperative that you keep the conversation flowing.
If you have strong personalities and people who like to talk, you can always blame it on the clock. For example: “That’s super interesting, Tom. I hate to interrupt, but we have a limited time, so I need to move on to another topic. I’d love to hear more about that afterward.”
Constant and Never-Ending Improvement
Consistently conducting high-ROI focus groups takes a lot of work and effort. You aren’t going to get it perfect the first time. You must remain committed to constant and never-ending improvement – something many business leaders call CANI.
Over time, your attention to detail will pay off in valuable insights that transform your business from the inside out.
