Insight Communities Explained | A Market Researcher's Guide

●      Journaling

●      Discussion Boards

●      Photo/Video Uploads

●      Tracking Usage

●      Chat-based Surveys

●      In-Home Use Testing (IHUT)

●      Mobile Missions (Mobile Ethnography)

●      Video Chats (Online focus groups & IDIs

●      Customer and User Experience Testing(CX/UX)

Product Development

Insight communities play a crucial role in the various stages of new product and service development, providing valuable feedback and validation. From the initial stages to the final product launch, insight communities offer researchers and brands actionable insights to enhance their offerings and better serve their customers.

Concept Testing

During the early phases of product development, insight communities offer a platform for understanding customer pain points and gathering feedback on potential new products. Through concept testing, companies can validate ideas and new product or service concepts, ensuring that they align with customer needs and preferences. Concept repository database tools can make it easy to run concept tests in insight communities and compare results historically over time.

Usability Testing

One significant advantage of insight communities is their ability to address questions related to usability and functionality. By tapping into the experiences of community members, companies can gain valuable insights into how their products are used in real-world scenarios. This information is invaluable for refining product designs and improving user experience.

Ideation and Co-Creation

Insight communities also facilitate ideation and co-creation, allowing customers to actively participate in the product development process. By soliciting input and ideas from community members, companies can co-create product specifications and features that resonate with their customers, ultimately leading to more successful product launches.

Pricing Evaluation

In addition, insight communities also play a vital role in pricing evaluation. By leveraging different types of activities and the robust survey question types within community platforms, researchers and brands can gather data on how customers perceive the value of their products and services. This information is essential for setting competitive pricing strategies and optimizing profits. Some pricing tools built into communities include Gabor Granger and Van Westendorp survey question types.

Product/Service Need

Insight communities also help companies understand evolving customer needs and preferences, providing valuable guidance for future product and service development initiatives. By continuously monitoring customer feedback in communities, companies can stay ahead of market trends and deliver innovative solutions that meet changing demands.

In-Home Use Tests

Another use case for insight communities is that they offer a convenient platform for conducting in-home use tests, allowing companies to gather feedback from members in their natural environment. This approach provides authentic insights into how products are used in everyday life, helping to identify areas for improvement, and ways brands can refine their offerings before launching to the market.

 

Product Development Use Cases/Tools:

●      In-Home Use Testing (IHUT)

●      Concept Testing/Concept Curator

●      Pricing Evaluation: Gabor Granger, Van Westendorp

●      Product Packaging Testing

●      MaxDiff Analysis

●      Ideas Sessions (Ideation/ Co-Creation)

●      Integrated Statistics/Banner Tables

●      TURF (Total Unduplicated Reach and Frequency)

Customer Journey Mapping

To effectively market products and services, organizations must gain a comprehensive understanding of their customers' journey towards making a purchase. This involves delving deep into the intricacies of customer behavior, preferences, and decision-making processes. Insight communities are ideal for conducting such research, thanks to their continuous and iterative nature.

Key Purchase Influences

One primary benefit of insight communities is their ability to unveil the key influences that shape customers' purchasing decisions and journey. By engaging members, brands can identify the various factors, such as recommendations from friends or online reviews, that sway customers towards or away from a particular product or brand. Armed with this knowledge, companies can tailor their strategies to effectively target these influential touchpoints.

Social Media Usage

Insight communities also serve as great resources for understanding customer social media habits. Organizations can gain insights into the social media platforms members frequent, the content they engage with, and the trends that shape their purchasing decisions. This information is essential for crafting targeted and impactful social media marketing campaigns and advertising that resonates with customers. Tools for testing content in simulated social media environments are also available in some leading-edge community platforms.

Assess Competitors

Additionally, insight communities facilitate thorough competitor assessments by providing direct comparisons and insights from members themselves. By gathering feedback and opinions on competitors' products or services, brands can gain a deeper understanding of their strengths, weaknesses, and positioning in the market. This enables them to refine their own offerings and differentiate themselves more effectively.

Purchase Process and Journey

Insight communities allow organizations to dive deep into the purchase process, capturing valuable insights at each stage. By engaging customers during their journey, from initial consideration to final purchase, marketers can uncover pain points, preferences, and moments of opportunity. This understanding enables them to develop targeted strategies that address customer needs and motivations effectively for different touchpoints along the way.

In-Store Research

Insight communities allow brands to capture customer behaviors and perceptions in-store, leveraging mobile applications for on-the-go research. By conducting in-store evaluations within the community environment, organizations can gather real-time feedback on product displays, promotions, and overall shopping experience. This hands-on approach provides key insights for optimizing retail environments and enhancing the overall customer journey.

 

Customer Journey Mapping Use Cases/Tools

●      Journals

●      Mobile Missions (digital shop-a-alongs)

●      Conversations - Chat-based Surveys

●      Video Chat

●      Social Media Simulation

●      MockShopping

Marketing & Advertising

Insight communities can be used for refining marketing and advertising initiatives through continuous evaluation. In the fast-paced world of marketing, staying relevant is crucial for brands, while customers increasingly seek platforms where their voices are heard. By maintaining an ongoing dialogue with customers, companies can gauge the effectiveness of their positioning and messaging strategies, ensuring they hit the mark.

Brand Positioning

Within insight communities, sophisticated tools are readily available to assess various aspects of marketing efforts, including advertising, promotions, websites, and apps. For instance, when it comes to brand positioning, insight communities offer tools like hot-spot analysis and heat maps.

Refining Messaging

Messaging refinement is a constant process in marketing, and insight communities offer diverse tools to achieve this effectively. By leveraging the feedback and opinions of community members, brands can fine-tune their messaging to better resonate with their customers.

Evaluate Advertisements

For advertising evaluation, insight communities play a pivotal role in optimizing campaigns and budget allocation. Through tools such as dial testing, companies can test ads before launch time, ensuring they strike a chord with the intended audience and maximize impact.

Evaluate Websites & Apps

Website and app evaluation is essential for ensuring usability and appeal. Insight communities provide methods for comprehensive online experience assessments, helping brands to identify areas for improvement and enhance user experience.

Test Promotions

Insight communities enable brands to test different promotional strategies and refine marketing initiatives accordingly. By creating campaigns inspired by community member feedback, brands can increase engagement and drive better results.

 

Marketing & Advertising Use Cases/Tools

●      HotSpot

●      Heatmap

●      Highlighter

●      Whiteboard

●      Markup

●      Social Media Simulation

●      Dial Testing

●      UX Testing

●      MockShopping

Industries In Which Insight Communities are Used

Insight communities can be used across many industries, offering a platform for brands and researchers to collect feedback from members. By fostering ongoing engagement, communities enable the creation of valuable insights, aiding in strategy refinement and product innovation. Through collaboration and feedback sharing, decision-makers are empowered to make informed choices that align with member preferences, driving continuous improvement across many sectors.

Healthcare

Gain continuous access to patient feedback via insight communities, empowering stakeholders to make more informed decisions and improve the patient experience through a consistent and valuable flow of knowledge.

Retail

In today's retail landscape, customers are spreading their spending across a multitude of channels, touch-points, and brands. Insight communities offer a valuable tool for retailers to gain a deeper understanding of these evolving customer behaviors and tailor their strategies accordingly.

Entertainment

With the rise of streaming and online media, customers now enjoy an endless array of content options, placing the future of the entertainment industry in the hands of the audience. Insight communities offer creators the opportunity to experiment with advertisements and content, enabling them to gauge audience preferences and refine their offerings accordingly.

CPG

Customer communities assist consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies in staying ahead by offering an ideal blend of insights to inform product development, test concepts, and conduct in-home product testing.

Consumer Durables

For the consumer durables industry, communities provide a rich blend of customer insights that inform product innovation, enhance user experience, and guide long-term strategic planning. By engaging directly with customers, companies can gather detailed feedback on product functionality, design preferences, and usage patterns. This continuous stream of insights enables manufacturers to refine existing products, develop new features that resonate with consumers, and anticipate market trends. Additionally, insight communities facilitate in-home usage testing and real-world evaluations, ensuring that new products meet customer expectations and perform well under everyday conditions.

Insurance

The insurance sector is experiencing significant transformation due to technological advancements, enabling greater customer involvement in choosing insurance coverage providers. Insight communities have the potential to inform and engage these customers effectively.

Telecommunications

The telecommunications industry extends beyond providing services, actively delivering the latest technological advancements to customers. Insight communities serve as hubs for testing telecom user and customer experiences, enabling continuous improvement and innovation.

B2B

Research serves as the backbone of B2B companies. Businesses operating in the B2B sector heavily depend on thorough research processes that insight communities can streamline. These include conducting competitor analysis, brainstorming new ideas, and staying ahead of industry trends by engaging with community members.

Finance

Financial customers anticipate a smooth digital journey across all stages. Harnessing video chats and user testing within insight communities can generate actionable insights to enhance their experiences effectively.

Technology

Top-tier technology companies seamlessly incorporate innovation into their day-to-day operations. Insight communities can enable technology brands to anticipate upcoming trends in an ever-changing market and industry landscape.

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Part Three: Components of an Insight Community

Targeted Group

Insight communities generally consist of a customer or user base ranging from 500 to 600 members, but they can also scale to include thousands or even hundreds of thousands. It is crucial for brands and researchers to thoroughly consider the objectives of the insight community and then strategically recruit members.

Private Online Environment

Community environments have progressed into robust, yet easy-to-use insight suites with diverse and sophisticated functionalities. Maintained as private and secure spaces, they allow for the research and evaluation of products or campaigns within the community, prior to launching to the general public.

Research-Related Activities

For many brands, insight communities have become a predominant research tool due to their adaptability and range of use cases. While online surveys and polls remain valuable, insight communities now cater to a range of qualitative and quantitative methodologies including general voice of customer (VOC) work, customer journey analysis, concept testing, new product development, in-home use testing, and UX testing. The more advanced insight community tools also seamlessly integrate into the mobile environment, support video, and offer AI capabilities.

Ongoing Basis

An insight community has the potential to transform how research is perceived and conducted.  It offers brands a valuable opportunity to consistently tap into customer opinions and ideas. This continuous access enables swift insight generation and fosters ongoing engagement and iteration.

Actionable Insights

The main goal of many research studies is to offer insights that can be put into action. These insights go beyond simply restating data; they provide decision-makers with detailed information that can be effectively showcased by adding context, depth, and color. This transition involves moving from just presenting findings to making recommendations and highlighting potential results.

Business Decision-Making

Insight communities can inform decision making at every step of a project. Their agility enables brands to expedite decision-making processes and gather a wealth of data, all achieved in a more optimized and cost-effective manner. Companies that incorporate member feedback into their decision-making processes can make customer-first decisions.

Customer Insight Community Research Activity Types

Cutting-edge insight community platforms provide a wide range of activities that seamlessly blend qualitative and quantitative approaches. Here are several engaging member activity types commonly found within communities:

Surveys

Surveys engage members in structured questionnaires focused on specific topics. They are among the most widely utilized activities due to their efficacy in collecting feedback. Through surveys, insight communities can efficiently gather opinions at scale, enabling a comprehensive understanding of diverse member perspectives.

 

Insight community platform survey builders offer versatile toolkits for generating insights. Leading-edge platforms have robust question types, paired with advanced logic functionalities. From closed-ended queries to open-ended prompts, surveys encourage community members to dive deeper into their thoughts, fostering a collaborative environment. With the increase in mobile phone usage, it is vital that the survey platform be responsive to screen size; some companies also provide mobile-first solutions. An ideal situation would be to have both a robust tool and one optimized for mobile as well.

Polls

Insight community platforms leverage polls as a quick, engaging method to gather input from members. By posing a single question to the community, polls offer a dynamic and enjoyable way for members to actively participate.

 

One notable feature is the immediate visibility of other members' responses upon completing the poll. This real-time interaction not only enhances community engagement but also serves as a valuable tool for swiftly gathering different perspectives and insights. Additionally, poll results can be used to guide the development of subsequent activities within the community.

Discussion Boards and Journals/Diaries

Discussion boards are another member activity type offered in insight community platforms. By providing a space for members to both contribute their feedback and engage with the responses of others, discussion boards foster a strong sense of community and can elevate the level of engagement among members. Discussion boards can also function as a diary/journal for members when set to private.

 

This activity type is ideal for questions or prompts that require in-depth responses or encourage members to build off one another's ideas, nurturing a collaborative environment. In addition, the organic nature of these discussions often leads to the emergence of unexpected, insightful, and unique information that might otherwise remain undiscovered.

Customer Co-Creation

Ideation and co-creation activities allow for collaborative brainstorming with members. Community members engage in a dynamic exchange, where they generate, refine, and evaluate ideas. Through this process, members are granted the freedom to contribute to a shared pool of innovative ideas and solutions.

 

Visualizations of idea ratings in charts can reveal the most promising concepts, encouraging further discussion and collaboration. Overall, this activity type allows members to exercise a higher degree of creativity while cultivating a sense of community engagement.

Online Focus Groups and IDIs

Leading insight community platforms provide tailored activities specifically designed for hosting video focus groups and in-depth interviews (IDIs). These activities provide capabilities beyond traditional video conferencing such as advanced moderator tools, the flexibility to include observers, and seamlessly integrated video clip editing suites for crafting compelling highlight reels of customer feedback. These sophisticated features not only enrich the research process but also amplify the impact of presenting insights to stakeholders. Additionally, these platforms often include robust analytics tools, allowing researchers to easily digest and delve deeper into the data and transcriptions gathered from video focus groups and IDIs. Screen sharing functionalities also enable moderators to share their screens with participants and/or allow participants to share theirs, enhancing the depth and interactivity of video focus groups by facilitating real-time feedback on digital content, products, and other visual materials.

Online UX Testing

Conducting usability testing empowers organizations and brands to test their products or designs, evaluating them for user-friendliness and ease of use among customers. This type of activity can reveal invaluable insights crucial for enhancing user experiences.

 

Within a community platform, usability testing activity types can be used for many applications such as website/app testing, evaluating navigation/purchase processes, and online shopping.

Mobile Ethnography

With the rise of mobile, understanding the factors driving customers’ digital and real-world decisions is critical. Ethnography has long been integral to market research, though traditional methods can be time-consuming and inefficient. Mobile ethnography has advanced research practices through capabilities such as photo/video upload, location check-ins, and more, allowing researchers to gain deep customer insights in a much more cost-effective manner.

 

Mobile ethnography activity types not only provide a more comfortable experience for customers compared to traditional ethnography methods, but also allows them to offer feedback without any external pressure. My-Take's mobile application 'Missions' enables organizations to leverage mobile ethnography within their communities, tracking real-time emotions to better comprehend motivations and purchase triggers.

Collages

Collage activities within insight community platforms offer members the opportunity to visually express their feelings and perceptions. Through a series of provided images and an interactive canvas, members can engage in a hands-on experience, dragging and dropping images to depict their thoughts and emotions. This interactive approach enables brands to delve deeper into customers’ thought processes. By observing how various images influence the perception of an idea, collages provide insights into the intricacies of customer behavior in a visualized format.

Qualitative Deep Dive

Some community platforms offer activity types for facilitating deep dive qualitative research by homing in on specific subjects with a select group of customers. This focused approach enables members to engage in interactive discussions, and participate in polls, surveys, and various qualitative and quantitative question types. Additionally, these platforms offer advanced moderation and control features, ensuring a structured and well-managed research environment for all stakeholders involved. The My-Take platform has an activity type called "Topics" specifically tailored for this purpose, offering enhanced tools for in-depth qualitative exploration.

In-Home Use Testing

In insight community platforms, In-Home Usage Tests (IHUTs) play a pivotal role in gathering valuable feedback from a curated group of participants who engage in testing current or potential products within their own living spaces and natural environment. IHUTs serve as a central hub for various activities, primarily consisting of surveys, scheduled throughout the testing period. Through this method, researchers can closely observe and analyze how the product is integrated into the daily routines and lifestyles of members. This approach not only provides insights into the product's functionality and usability, but also offers a comprehensive understanding of its real-world applications and potential improvements.

Mobile-First Chat Surveys

Mobile-first research and surveys in insight communities allow researchers to engage members in a user-friendly format. Embracing an interactive, mobile-first strategy, chat-based surveys create a relaxed atmosphere that mirrors the everyday communication style of members with their friends and family via mobile messaging. Chat-based surveys prompt members to share their thoughts and emotions freely, increasing engagement levels, particularly among demographics that can be more challenging to reach, such as Gen Z.

 

Beyond capturing in-the-moment feedback, mobile-first surveys can also be sprinkled in as relief from lengthy studies, offering an engaging and streamlined experience. In addition, they can be valuable in retail settings, facilitating real-time feedback from shoppers. Mobile-first surveys are also ideal for on-the-go professionals, such as contractors, as they offer a convenient means of participation, enabling them to share insights effortlessly while navigating their busy schedules.

 

My-Take has recently launched a mobile-first survey activity type called “Conversations” to the platform.

Innovative Insight Community Features and Tools

As the demand for more innovative and effective methodologies grows, insight communities continue to evolve, incorporating new features and capabilities to enhance member engagement, streamline insight delivery, and future-proof market research efforts.

 

Here are some of the most cutting-edge features that are driving the evolution and innovation of  insight communities in leading platforms:

AI Theming

AI theming saves researchers time by automatically and efficiently processing open-ended answers and providing a summary of the main themes with cited customer verbatim, reducing the hours spent and effort required for manual coding. Additionally, AI theming can enable quick initial insights and the potential to expedite reporting. By automating this process, researchers can dedicate more time to interpreting data, conducting deeper analyses, and crafting compelling customer stories.

Chat-Based Surveys

With chat-based surveys in insight communities, brands can tap into the power of mobile customer research. The interactive mobile-first approach of chat-based surveys fosters a comfortable environment and mimics how members communicate day-to-day with their family and friends through mobile messaging. Chat-based surveys encourage members to express their opinions and feelings openly by meeting them where they already spend their time in a familiar format. This can lead to higher response rates among harder-to-engage demographics such as Gen Z.

AI Discussion Engagement

Engagement tools powered by AI, paired with the human touch, can effectively optimize the process of eliciting additional information and insights from members' posts on community discussion boards. These tools automate the process of responding to member comments, with automated responses undergoing review and approval before posting.

AI Survey Writing Tools

AI survey writing tools can assist in rephrasing questions and answer options. When a question's wording feels off, an AI question rewriter tool can provide alternative phrasing suggestions. Similarly, if answer options feel incomplete or when uncertain about where to start, using AI to propose and inspire ideas can prove beneficial.

Social Media Simulation

Social media simulation tools place insight community members in a simulated social media feed environment where they can engage with content. This can provide valuable insight into how posts or advertisements may perform in a natural social media setting. Within the simulated feed, posts compete with unrelated content, giving a realistic gauge of effectiveness in grabbing attention. For instance, members might see an advertisement alongside other unrelated posts. They can then engage with the content in the feed through commenting, liking, sharing, and more.

Mockshopping

Mockshopping allows members to participate in a simulated online shopping scenario. When mockshopping, insight community members can browse product listings within a virtual store and select items they would hypothetically purchase, revealing how a product or offering might perform compared to others within an e-commerce platform environment.

User Experience Testing

Insight community user experience (UX) testing tools allow researchers and brands to observe how members assess websites and applications, and progress through the purchase process. The user experience is analyzed by tracking participants as they complete various online tasks. This approach supplies research teams with valuable data and customer feedback used to improve online user experiences. These tools can record participants' desktop or mobile device screens and guide them with instructions and questions.

Video Focus Groups/IDIs & Editing

Unlike video conferencing tools, leading insight community platforms provide specialized video chat features tailored for market research focus groups and in-depth interviews (IDIs). These platforms offer advanced moderator tools, the ability to have observers, and video clip editing suites designed for creating highlight reels of customer responses.

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Part Four - Best Practices & Decisions for Insight Communities

Insight Community Best Practices - Member Engagement

Active participation from members is crucial for creating a strong community over time. Engaged members not only contribute to higher response rates, enhancing the quality of insights, but also reinforce the value of them. Ultimately, the involvement and responsiveness of members are fundamental elements of thriving communities.

 

Here are some best practices for maintaining member engagement in insight communities:

Consistently Post Content

It's important to maintain a consistent schedule for posting content to ensure that members can log in regularly and find activities to engage with. It's essential to avoid overwhelming members by posting too much at once, while also preventing disengagement by ensuring that there are regular activities available. The most frequent and most reasonable range for posting can range between 2-4 activities per month.

Various Activity Types

Incorporating diverse activity types, both qualitative and quantitative, provides members with fresh experiences each time they participate in an activity, sustaining their interest in future participation. It's crucial for this content to hold significance for members, ensuring that the questions or tasks presented are engaging and relevant to their interests. This involvement in the research process encourages continued engagement from members.

Close the Loop

Fostering a sense of community is vital for engagement, ensuring that members feel they play a meaningful role in the studies they're involved in. It's crucial to communicate to members that their contributions are valued, which, in turn, encourages their active participation in activities.

 

My-Take employs three key strategies to enhance member engagement. First, we ensure consistent content by offering various low-priority research activities such as polls or short discussions between high-priority studies, keeping members engaged even during lulls in activity. My-Take also provides a diverse range of content types, including 13 different activity types and more than 30 question types within surveys, to maintain member interest and offer variety. In addition, the platform builds a sense of community through features like point systems for frequent participation, discussion boards for member interaction, and share-backs of key findings to demonstrate the impact of member feedback, ultimately encouraging sustained engagement in projects.

What Makes a Remarkable Insight Community Researcher

There are various skills and traits that make a great community researcher. Here are 10 elements that make a top-notch insight community manager:

Passion

A great community insights manager is passionate about insight communities as a research tool and, more importantly, about helping clients succeed in the marketplace through better and faster decisions enabled by the voice of the customer.

Client-Focused Responsiveness

Traditional research can often move slower than the needs of the client. A great community insights manager not only responds quickly to requests but also anticipates clients' needs in advance.

Inquisitive Nature

Naturally curious individuals with a desire to learn bring higher quality insights to the table. This curiosity is crucial when designing and analyzing different research activities.

Research Expertise

A background in marketing or market research is beneficial. A strong community insights manager has experience in both qualitative and quantitative research, familiarity with community research, and exposure to the newest research tools and techniques.

Agile Approach

Clients need technology and personnel that enable agile, iterative, and flexible actions. A community insights manager should embody these qualities.

Interpersonal and Community Engagement Skills

Acting as the liaison between the community supplier, the client, and community members requires extensive communication. Ensuring continuous and meaningful engagement within the community is key for fostering active participation and valuable insights.

Organizational and Project Management Skills

Strong organizational and project management skills are essential for establishing a solid foundation during the initial client onboarding process and maintaining consistent, timely execution, which are crucial for sustaining long-term success.

Analysis and Market Research Tech Tool Skills

Proficiency in using analysis tools and interpreting information is critical for delivering great insights. This includes experience with analytic and market research tools, critical thinking abilities, and the ability to deliver compelling insights.

Writing and Storytelling Skills

Writing is essential to accurately and powerfully expressing ideas and information. A great community insights manager should excel in crafting narratives that convey insights effectively.

Actionable Client-based Recommendations

Ultimately, clients seek actionable insights that will drive their decision-making and company results. A great community insights manager finds meaning in raw information, understands the implications, and provides strong, customer-inspired recommendations.

Choosing the Right Service Level for Your Community

When selecting the right service level for your insight community, it's crucial to align the level of support with the complexity of your research needs.

SaaS DIY

For researchers seeking a self-managed approach, SaaS (Software as a Service) models offer a DIY solution. These platforms provide the necessary research technology for managing online insight communities independently. Ideal for companies confident in their research capabilities, SaaS allows for full control over community management and research activities.

Full Service

Full-service providers offer a comprehensive solution, combining both technology and full expert professional services. These providers leverage their expertise in community research to deliver tailored solutions for complex research projects. Ideal for organizations seeking hands-on support and guidance throughout the research process, full-service providers ensure a seamless experience from setup to insights delivery.

Hybrid

Hybrid models bridge the gap between self-management and full-service support. This flexible approach caters to organizations requiring some assistance with community management or specific research tasks while maintaining a degree of autonomy.

How Much Does It Cost to Run an Insight Community?

While it is generally agreed that insight communities provide a very good return relative to the spend, they do represent an investment or commitment to capturing the voice-of-the-customer on an ongoing basis. Because of the range of options available it is difficult to provide a definitive annual cost, or even a range.

 

Industry sources indicate a very broad range of community costs. Clearly there are SaaS/DIY solutions that are modest in cost. There are many examples of communities that are obviously more expensive due to certain factors such as extensive consultation, extremely large number of members, or multiple brands that exceed the top of the range. What may be more helpful in trying to understand numbers is to talk about the factors that impact the ultimate cost. Those include, but are not limited to, the following:

Objectives and definition of the community

The purpose and definition of the community can certainly impact price. It is not difficult to imagine that a community leveraged throughout the organization for higher stakes decisions would require more capability, communication, and support. In addition, the community may encompass several brands or businesses.

Degree of professional services

Community objectives would certainly impact the desired professional services attached to the platform. A company could choose a DIY option, select services (Hybrid), or full-service including administration, study creation, analysis, and reporting.

Technology platform

There are varied levels of technology capabilities within the market, and understanding what functionality is desired is important. The increased capabilities might cost more, but they offer huge savings in automation. Additionally, there are direct, but usually modest, costs associated with leveraging AI, and specifically large language models.

Community composition (members & activities)

The variables that most commonly have a significant impact on cost are the number of members, which is derived from the desired number of responses, and the volume and type of activities. First, the number of members in a community impacts management, moderation, and, in some cases, analysis. The other factor is the number and nature of studies going through the community.

 

Other costs (setup, recruitment, and incentives)

There is also generally a setup fee to establish the community which includes site design and community parameters. In addition, there is the cost of recruitment if using external sources. Any budget should also include refresh recruitments for future years, although these will be much smaller. Also, a community member incentive plan should be established as well. This will likely be viewed as a much lower cost per participant than traditional market research.

Selecting an Insight Community Platform or Provider

Selecting an insight community provider involves careful consideration and asking the right questions. It's crucial to ensure you choose a provider that aligns with your organization's needs and goals. Here are some key questions to ask prospective insight community providers:

 

Platform Source & Capabilities

With technological advancements expanding the breadth and depth of capabilities, and also delivering huge time savings through automation, the platform continues to grow in importance. Further, companies who are able to deliver enhancements, innovation, and have a deep understanding of the technology offer a big advantage. It is important to ask potential suppliers the source(s) of their technology and platform. Some important aspects to look for in platform capabilities include video abilities and analysis, mobile friendliness, scalability to any member count, and robust tools for qualitative, quantitative, customer experience (CX), and user experience (UX) research. Additionally, learn if the platform integrates AI tools such as open-end theming, member engagement tools, and dynamic survey questions. Understanding these capabilities helps ensure the platform is future-proof and can meet your evolving research needs.

 

Platform Security

Ensure the platform has strong security measures and handles Personally Identifiable Information (PII) with the utmost care. It is crucial to understand the provider's data protection protocols, compliance with industry standards, and their approach to safeguarding sensitive information and ensuring participant trust.

 

Multilingual Capabilities

Many platforms now offer translation features that allow activities to be conducted in multiple languages. Members can participate in their native language, while the insights gathered are translated for the report viewer. Look for a platform that provides language overlays, ensuring that all elements of the community interface, such as instructions and navigation, appear in the member's native language. This approach not only enhances participation but also ensures that the insights collected are more reflective of a diverse customer base.

 

Understand the Client’s Business

It is essential for the community provider to have the ability to effectively inquire about, and understand, the client's business. This includes connecting business objectives to insights and leveraging storytelling to present findings in a compelling and actionable manner.

 

Research Team Expertise & Continuity

Who will manage my account, and what experience do they have? Understanding the team's capabilities is essential for ensuring successful community management. Some of the qualities of great insight community managers include proficiency in both qualitative and quantitative research, strong project management abilities, and a “Can Do” mindset. Look for a team that is genuinely invested in your company and its products or services. It’s also important to understand the tenure of the individuals with whom you’ll be working to gauge stability and consistency. In addition, the ability to maintain high levels of community engagement is also essential for successful community management.

 

Brand and Segment Handling

How can the community be configured to accommodate brands and segments? Assess the provider's approach to segmentation and brand management.

 

Member Engagement

What strategies do you use to keep community members engaged? Look for providers who prioritize member satisfaction and interaction. Keeping members engaged is essential for retention.

 

Cost Structure

What are the major cost parameters, and are there additional charges? Understanding pricing and potential extra fees is crucial for research budget planning.

 

Data Analysis Capabilities

What segmentation and filtering tools do you offer? Ensure the provider can analyze data effectively and provide relevant insights.

 

Project Execution

How do you handle different project types? Assess the provider's experience and processes for executing various studies.

 

Reporting Timeline

How long does it take to receive final reports? Establishing reporting timelines is vital for meeting project deadlines. Look for an insight community provider that can meet your reporting turnaround needs.

 

Reporting Capability

What reporting outputs and export options does the provider have available?

 

Client Involvement

How much time and commitment are required? Understand your role in ensuring the success of the community.

 

Flexibility

What happens if I need to run more activities than outlined in the contract? Seek providers who are flexible and adaptable to changing needs.

 

Community Setup

How long does it take to launch a community, and what are the key steps? Evaluate the provider's efficiency in setting up and launching communities efficiently.

 

Differentiation

What sets your company apart from competitors? Assess the provider's unique strengths and how they align with your organization's goals.

 

Platform Roadmap

What new capabilities are scheduled to become available over the next 12 months? How is the company integrating AI?

 

By asking these questions, brands can make informed decisions when selecting an insight community provider, helping to ensure a successful relationship.