Musings from a VP, Marketing ///
Just because you’re a new company doesn’t mean you’re green. Take Full Circle, for example. We’re young, yes. But our leadership has spent decades in the industry and even helped usher the online methodology into the research world. In short: Full Circle may not have yet hit its first anniversary, but we bring plenty of proven expertise to the table.
Why does this dichotomy matter? Even though we have the chops to back up our work, it’s tough getting potential clients to trust that we can deliver on what we say. And that’s where ESOMAR comes in. Specifically, ESOMAR’s 28 Questions to Help Buyers of Online Samples.
This document provides an internationally approved standard set of questions buyers can ask to determine if an online sample provider’s practices and samples fit their research objectives. The goal is to increase transparency and facilitate smarter, more productive matches between those who want sample and those who collect it. We answer the questions to the best of our ability, and clients get an accurate snapshot of our quality, security and panel and can easily compare us to their current providers. All of this, we applaud.
But doing ESOMAR right—to really make the exercise meaningful—we needed meetings. And drafts And more meetings. And more drafts. Every question receiving an inordinate amount of attention to ensure that our words authentically reflected who we are as a company and how we get the job done. I foolishly thought this would take a day. The final product took months. Months.
Was it worth it? You betcha. Our sales team is already using our PDF to great success. But, as our company’s marketing expert and sole copywriter, I’ve been put through the wringer. So since I’ve done my job of proving it’s OK our age is still green, I’m off to celebrate—with a giant glass of red.
