Grow your leadership position with surveys - creating your own news stories.

Published 2003

The quest for a leadership position within an industry is something to which many companies devote considerable funds and efforts. And of course the media becomes a key player in attaining any such leadership position. It’s in the media that leaders have the chance to comment on issues and trends.

Surveys are an excellent tool for PR pros to use as they:

• Give you something that is you alone to comment on

• Give the media hard facts and figures - something they are always after

• Position your organisation and spokesperson as an authority on the topic

Surveys are especially useful in industries that are somewhat commoditised, as they position you as the expert company in the area. They are also useful at times when there are few issues to drive publicity.

The use of surveys for PR purposes usually evolves in one of two ways.

1.     You can build one from existing information:

Many companies undertake research (as distinct from surveys) into many aspects of their industry and their markets. The data from this research exists, but the problem is that in most instances it is too hard to turn this material around for PR purposes. Problems include:

• Structure and specific questions are not suitable for public consumption
• Some parts have to be kept confidential which creates suspicion among media

2.      You create your own:

This can initially seem more costly, but there are advantages:

• It can be custom designed with issues and questions geared towards a specific PR outcome
• You have opportunities to either link with others who give it credibility or to include a wider range of respondent groups

The range of survey opportunities is as broad as is commerce itself:

• Financial services organisations - attitudes towards use of credit
• Household hygiene - attitudes towards the use of antibacterials
• Bedding companies - satisfaction with mattresses v pillows
• Employment agencies - experiences at job interviews

If you decide that conducting a survey and leveraging the results could work well for your organisation, then here are a few questions to ask yourself on designing and conducting the survey and pitching the results.

1. Why am I doing a survey? It has to be more than simply to gain media coverage. It must have a business or strategic marketing goal as its main driver or defined collateral uses for the results.
2. When do I want to release the results? You may wish to release survey results to support a product launch or to coincide with a restructure of your organisation. Whatever the date, make sure you have enough time to properly analyse the results to get the most out of them.
3. Will people respond? You can’t survey people just for the sake of it. They simply won’t respond. You have to find a topic that people are prepared to take 10-30 mins to respond to. Choose your subject carefully and test it on a few people first.
4. Do I need to partner with someone? Joining with a partner is important on two counts - it can give you credibility (especially if you do it with an industry body) or it can give you easier access to your target audience.
5. How do I reach my respondents? Are you trying to survey the public or are you aiming at a closed audience? Assuming the later, you need a sure-fire means of the survey questionnaire reaching the most qualified people possible. If you don’t link with an industry body or association you have to make sure you either have a quality list of your own or rent one.
6. What about the questions? This in itself is a vexed question. In structuring your questions you have to keep in mind that respondents are busy people. Too many questions will be ‘too hard’. But too few may not give you the depth of findings that will be of interest to media. Consider obtaining professional help in drafting the questions.
7. What is best way to conduct the survey? There are a number of options when it comes to conducting the survey. You can email it, mail it or, even work with a media partner and have them publish the survey questionnaire (on or offline). Online does give the advantage of having responses entered directly into a database for processing and analysis.
8. Do I need to use a professional research firm? By now it should be obvious that this is an area for specialists. If your audience is the general public then you should be considering an Omnibus survey. And of course use of an independent, and reputable, research organisation will give your findings much more credibility.
9. How can I pitch the results? If you correctly undertook the early steps of defining your business goal and then chose a suitable issue to link the survey to, you will most probably know the answer to this question before you even received the draft findings. However, even if you do know your main pitch angle and target media, look closely at the analysed findings to see if there are any niche media which may find certain aspects of the survey of interest to them.
10. Apply the ‘who cares’ analysis. We all think topics close to our business are of huge interest to others. Regrettably, that’s seldom the case - so make sure you cast a cynical or even dispassionate eye over your survey proposition before you finally push the go button.

Note: The author of this article is a Sydney based senior independent corporate PR consultant who works exclusively with PR Managers helping them with management of the PR Department or their relationship with their PR agency. In addition he provides specialist corporate PR and communications advice where issues or change are impacting on an organisation. He also blogs regularly on PR and communications topics similar to those in this article.