At AITOM, we start our projects from the end. By clearly defining where we want to take the online project. And by identifying the paths that lead to that goal. We call this the initial study.
This has its own rules and proven procedures, upon which we build every collaboration with a client. We know why we do it. It takes a little extra time, it’s more demanding, but it yields excellent results: long-term benefits and the highest return on investment.
In tenders, we’ve come to expect that every agency starts from a different angle:
- Some start with great design. That’s appealing.
- Some start with plans for expansion and portfolio growth. That’s ambitious.
- At AITOM, we’ve been starting with a preliminary study for many years. That’s the most advantageous approach. And great design and expansion will follow 🙂
Why do we start with an initial study?
When you launch an online campaign or start building a new website, a key investment lies ahead. You’re making long-term decisions about how successful you’ll be in the online world, who you’ll reach, and whether they’ll buy from you.
Especially in recent months, conditions in the online environment have been changing, and it pays to get a clear picture. Even if you’re doing well at the moment, with sales growing and you’re struggling to keep up. It’s only a matter of time before data-driven answers to the following questions could be the key to your further growth:
-
What do you want to achieve? What are your goals and why?
-
Why are people buying less from you? What are they currently considering when making a purchase?
-
Why are they buying more of certain items, and how can you maintain those sales?
-
Where exactly are your customers coming from?
-
How can you further develop your online offering?
-
How is the competition responding to market changes, and what can you learn from them?
I WANT AN INITIAL STUDY
The dilemma of an attractive offer
With a high-quality initial study, you won’t be tempted to settle for a perfect agency presentation based solely on images and catchy slogans. Going through a detailed initial study will bring you much more than meets the eye:
-
Definition of your online goals and needs & analysis of target groups
-
Competitor analysis
-
Analysis of marketing activities
-
Telephone surveys with users
-
User testing with real users
-
Proposal of a strategy and website concept
-
6-month marketing plan
-
Website structure design with a description of the content of individual subpages
-
Wireframes
You can use it as a brief for campaign planning, website development and, most importantly… you’re building a house on solid foundations rather than on a sandy beach. After all, you’ll get tired of the sea view after a few days, especially when it’s slowly sliding towards the ground 🙂
Real-life stories
At AITOM, we hear stories every day from clients whose investment in a preliminary study has paid off many times over.
-
A start-up for cyclists
Based on a recommendation, the enthusiastic founders of a start-up came to us with 250,000 CZK they’d saved up. They wanted to give it to us for website development and a practical app that would help cyclists on the road. Their decision to launch the business was based on great enthusiasm and demand from their close cycling community. They were absolutely certain of the commercial potential of their idea.
We were a little less so :-). We managed to persuade them to first invest 10% of the target amount in a thorough initial study combined with user testing. And we took great care with it.
Thanks to this, we discovered that:
- their plans have a payback period of 15 years, or…
- they would need CZK 1,000,000 for the first year of marketing
Oops. The data and analysis helped them get their feet back on the ground and save 225,000 CZK!
What’s more, armed with the initial study, they were then able to present a revised proposal to investors and become a potentially relevant business partner for them.
-
An established construction firm
A supplier of low-energy timber-frame buildings has been our client for several years. Beautiful, high-quality and exceptional. Our collaboration began with the question of how to increase the value of the website and online marketing for their business.
And the path to the answers once again led through an initial study. This revealed how we needed to guide visitors through the client’s website differently in order to achieve our goal. Through user testing, comparison with competitors and careful analysis of the website, we realised that the barrier was caused by a few minor details that would have remained hidden from us without the initial study. After all, some things simply can’t be figured out from behind a desk.
Although the absolute number of enquiries fell after the website went live, their relevance rose sharply. The client thus achieved their goal – they gained a website and a campaign that increased their specific orders for house builds. We succeeded in building an online marketing machine that made the most of the funds invested in marketing. We grew the client’s business and saved them from investing in avenues that would not have led to the goal.
-
Specialist in fire and light shows
Our next client also has an interesting story – an operator of shows based on fire and light effects and a seller of professional equipment for professionals and hobbyists of lighting and pyrotechnic ‘toys’. With this company too, we first carried out an initial study before launching the marketing campaign. Thanks to its results, we separated the campaigns for the shows from those for the products. For the latter, we redefined several distinct target groups that the brand’s marketing had not previously addressed systematically. For each target group, we prepared more personalised marketing communications and decided to launch campaigns for new products. The entire process, from the initial study to the campaign’s implementation, was all the more interesting as it focused primarily on the US market, where this Czech brand is commercially successful.
Without the initial study, we would not have the data on which we can now base our marketing and deliver a return on investment that satisfies the client.
How to go about it
At AITOM, we have several sound principles that bring success to both our clients and ourselves. Above all, we never promise what is unrealistic. We play fair and want to make the most of our specialists’ skills for you. That is why we will never claim that we can create a completely new website in 14 days that will double your sales. Nor will we promise the moon from an online campaign devised on a whim. However, you can trust us to always seek out the most effective path to your goal. We have proven time and again that the first step to success is a preliminary study. And that’s where we’re true experts.
Do you need to get your own project off to a good start? Let’s meet up!
You can find more practical inspiration at www.vstupnistudie.cz.