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The
Benefits of Mail-Based Research
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First,
for the vast majority of the studies that business marketers wish
to conduct, mail-based research is significantly less expensive. The
cost of the mailman is always less than the cost of a personal interviewer.
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Second,
mail questionnaires reach the engineering and technical community
with less distribution bias. Attempting to conduct phone interviews
with business buyers who travel frequently and are shielded by secretaries
and voice mail systems is difficult. So the people you do reach via
phone interviews may not be an accurate representation of the audience
you want to measure. |
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Third,
there is no interviewer bias with mail because there is no interviewer.
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Fourth,
it is possible to canvass for larger numbers of people in a timely
fashion. This results in much higher confidence levels, particularly
when dealing with a multitude of market segments for the typical business
marketer. The tabulation base is much more stable for cross-tabulations
and special analyses, greatly increasing the flexibility and usefulness
of the survey. |
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Fifth,
and critically important, is the issue of anonymity. Respondents by
mail have been proven to provide more truthful answers because they
believe the promise of anonymity is honored. |
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Sixth,
mail-based respondents tend to provide more thoughtful answers because
they do not feel time-pressured as in a phone interview. They respond
at their convenience, not yours. |
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Seventh,
mail-based methodology is certainly not always the answer. However,
it very often overcomes the special obstacles facing the business
and technology marketer. |
