Planning / Research

4. Conduct Research.

If your time and budget allow, consider conducting market research to fine-tune your communications plan. Though not required to begin your outreach efforts, it can take the guesswork out of planning and tell you important details about:

• Your audience:
  • Demographics.
  • Likes and dislikes.
  • Places they gather.
  • Motivation to use child support enforcement services.
  • Types of messages to which they will respond.
  • Methods of communication that will reach them.
• Your topic:
  • What is already available to your audience.
  • What about it is compelling to your audience.

Budget and staffing resources will dictate the level of your research. There are two types:

Primary: You gather fresh information.
Secondary: You review information from existing research.

 

Primary research may take several forms.

• Focus groups involve gathering eight to 10 people in a room and facilitating a one- to two- hour discussion, using prepared questions, about the topic at hand. A neutral facilitator drives the discussion. In a professional focus group facility, those who commissioned the focus group can watch the discussion from behind a one-way mirror. In an informal setting, the facilitator or a designated note-taker can record the results. Usually these sessions are recorded with audiotape and/or videotape.
  • Advantages: Focus groups generally provide insights and personal opinions about a particular topic. The facilitator can create new questions to probe areas of interest that surface during the discussion. Often, the information offered by the respondents reveals underlying issues that would not be obtained by other research methods.
  • Disadvantages: Group dynamics can sometimes affect the results; some people may not feel comfortable expressing an opinion that runs contrary to the group. Focus groups require a research budget, because the respondents need to be recruited carefully in order to have a representative sample. To use a focus group facility, you may need to pay for a room, a moderator, and a report. If the focus group is in Spanish, you may need to hire a simultaneous interpreter for the benefit of those who watch the focus group.
  • Results: Qualitative research provides information about personal views and opinions, as well as the ideas and perceptions people associate with a topic.
• Individual interviews can allow you to cover focus group questions in a one-on-one setting. Interviews may take place in person or over the phone.
  • Advantages: You receive the individual’s unfiltered opinions. Can be very inexpensive and logistically easier to arrange than a focus group. This is a good method to gain quick, informal information or opinions.
  • Disadvantages: Interviewees will not have the benefit of hearing others’ ideas or a deeper discussion of the topic.
  • Results: Qualitative.
• Surveys are questionnaires designed to elicit responses to predetermined questions. While survey responses may be true/false, multiple choice, fill in the blank or essay style, answers that are true/false or multiple choice are easiest to tabulate.
  
  Surveys may be performed on the phone, on paper, or online. Check your organization’s rules to see which methods you can use.
  
  Several inexpensive online survey tools are available. You may conduct either large, formal surveys or smaller, informal ones.
  • Advantages: They can reach a large number of people. They do not require an in-person meeting. They provide information about “what” people think. You can gather statistically significant results.
  • Disadvantages: The best surveys are short, taking 15 minutes or less to complete, which limits the number of questions you can ask. Response rates may be disappointing. There is no opportunity to revise surveys on the fly to explore interesting findings. They do not provide information about “why” people have a particular viewpoint.
  • Results: Quantitative; they are empirical, numerical results. When you combine them with qualitative research, you can obtain more-complete information.

Secondary research

Involves reviewing any existing information to glean information that is relevant to your project:

• Research reports.
• Survey results.
• Government studies.
• Census data.
• Newspaper and magazine articles.
• Related Web sites.
• And the like.

You also can use research to test and refine your message.