When marketers think of using data to come up with test hypotheses, they typically think of digital analytics. Quantifiable data. But qualitative research can actually offer more insight than anything else for coming up with winning test hypotheses. When quantitative stuff tells you what, where and how much, then qualitative tells you ‘why’. The goal of qualitative research is to gather an in-depth understanding of user behavior, and the reasons for that behavior.
Definition:
You have a 4-step sales funnel on your website. Most people have no problems taking the first step, but almost all of them drop out at step #2. Why? This is where analytics data can fall short, and won’t be enough to figure it out. You need to know what your actual users are thinking when they see that page, and leave. And the only way to get that information is through asking your users.
Qualitative research enables us to peek inside the mind of the people we’re trying to sell to. Without knowing what they’re thinking, we’re in the dark. We can speculate all we want, but it’s not going to get us anywhere.
