Ad On: X+1 Biweekly Research Provides Consumer Insights

John-Nardone

Viewing something from a different perspective often brings new insights to marketers looking for incremental sales.  X+1 created a biweekly research survey to give clients such data. The findings, which initially begin with credit card and auto insurance companies, will provide trend data. About 200 U.S. consumers participate in the survey.

The opt-in survey gives X+1 permission to cookie the browsers of participants. The data provides insights to better align campaign messages with consumer behavior from awareness to intent to consideration to conversion.

Most marketers still concentrate on finding consumers that make purchase intent obvious, but after asking X+1 clients how many consumers are actually "in market" for specific products or services, few had the answer.

It turns out that initial results suggest 43% of consumers would consider switching credit cards for a good or interesting offer, although only 10% said they continue to actively look. These findings reveal that when marketers just buy audience segments based on intent, they ignore prospective customers.

For those interested in a new card, 59% of survey respondents in market for a card said they would sign up for one at the company's Web site, compared with 17% through direct mail; 12%, a bank branch; and 11%, telephone.

The study also reveals that the wealthier the respondent, the more open they are to new credit card offers.

The findings point to a need for marketers to consider the top of the funnel, as opposed to the bottom, said X+1 CEO John Nardone. "For credit card marketers, the problem has been the ability to meet acquisition return on investments vs. other marketing channels," he said. "Some spend more than $1 billion in direct mail marketing annually, but it's been difficult for them to scale their online campaign efforts and meet cost per acquisition numbers."

Nardone said marketers can take the general principles gained from the survey findings and apply them to nearly any online area. It provides insight into how consumers think through the buying process and what matters to them along the way.

Similar to credit cards, the company's Web site has become a major part of the buying process. For survey respondents considering new auto insurance, one-third said they visited a comparison Web site, while 40% said they went directly to the company Web site. Forty-three percent said they used an online search engine to find the offer. This validates consumers' use of the Internet channel as a research tool for auto insurance.

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