Conducting Social Marketing Research Efforts: A Practical Guide by Nancy R. Lee

After completing a book in 2023 on Success in Social Marketing: 100 Case Studies from Around the Globe, it was clear to me that most of these cases were successful due to marketing research efforts. High-quality research underpins all effective social marketing efforts, but it can be hard for practitioners to find practical, accessible guidance on conducting and applying research, which led me to publishing my most recent book: Conducting Social Marketing Research: A Practical Guide.

This post is a very brief summary of that book outlining[i]

Steps to Develop a Research Plan for a Social Marketing Effort
Applicable Major Research Terminology
For Each of the 10 Steps in Developing a Strategic Social Marketing Plan:
- Research Objectives
- Common Terminology

[i] Conducting Social Marketing Research: A Practical Guide, Nancy R. Lee, Routledge 2026

Steps in Developing a Research Plan

Purpose: What decisions will this inform?
Audience: Who is this research being conducted for?
Informational objectives: What information is needed to inform the decisions to be made?
Respondents: Who do we need this information from?
Technique: What method will provide the most reliable and relevant findings?
Sample size, source, selection: How many respondents are needed to achieve desired confidence levels?
Pretest & fielding: Who will this be pretested with & who will be fielding it?

Common Terminologies

Characterized by data collection mode: Online surveys, mail surveys, telephone surveys, focus groups, mobile technology, online discussion board, mystery shoppers, literature review
Characterized by stage in planning
- Formative research to help form potential strategies
- Pretest research to help choose strategies
- Monitoring research to help determine any needed course corrections
- Evaluation research to help report on outcomes and impact.
Characterized by information source
- Primary research: Collected for specific purpose, first-time
- Secondary research: Already exists (e.g., internal records, publications, prior surveys)
Characterized by rigor
- Qualitative research such as focus groups and in person interviews
- Quantitative research focused on large numbers of respondents
Characterized by respondent profile: Attitudes, behaviors, demographics, geographics, knowledge, psychographics, satisfaction

Common Research for Each of the 10 Steps in Developing a Strategic Social Marketing Plan

1. Determine social issue, purpose & focus
- Most often research will be conducted to select a focus for the effort, one that is most likely to lead to a campaign with the highest potential for behavior change impact.
- Most common methodologies include secondary data, and published research studies.
2. Analyze situation
- Research to identify internal strengths & weaknesses and external opportunities & threats.
- Most often conducted through internal reviews to determine resource availability for the effort; interviews with internal staff and potential funders, and internet searches to identify prior and similar efforts that this effort might “compete with”.
3. Select priority audience
- Research to select a priority audience by: Using secondary data to determine greatest need, greatest readiness for change; review of prior efforts and primary research quantitative efforts to determine greatest readiness; existing studies and internal assessments to determine the easiest and least costly to reach; and internal reviews and data assessments to determine best match for the organization.
4. Determine behavior objectives & goals
- Research to select a behavior that will have the greatest scores on:
  - Impact: Secondary data.
  - Willingness & current levels of behavior adoption: Survey research with priority audience.
5. Understand audience barriers, benefits, motivators, the competition, and influencers
- Mixed method approach with qualitative methods to identify range of potential barriers, benefits, motivators, influencers, competition.
- Then a closed-ended quantitative methods to prioritize using mobile online, telephone or mail surveys.
6. Craft a positioning statement
- Draft several potential positioning statement based on priority audience motivators.
- Then use a qualitative approach such as a focus group or online discussion board with members of the priority audience to prioritize and refine.
7. Develop each of the 4Ps
- First qualitative methods to identify potential products, price, place and promotion strategies.
- Then use close-ended quantitative methods to prioritize and refine.
8. Determine evaluation plan
- Awareness, knowledge, beliefs, behaviors, most often using quantitative surveys, with large enough samples and ideally able to compare pre and post campaign levels.
- Behaviors & engagement: Record keeping, observation research and technology tracking metrics.
9. Set budgets & find funding
- Determining estimated costs for relevant components including research and strategies related to each of the 4Ps, evaluation costs, and staff-time.
- Methods include exploring internal records for prior similar campaigns and estimated costs from campaign partners and suppliers.
10. Write implementation plan
- A major recommended research effort is to conduct a campaign pilot, one that launches a small-scale campaign, but large enough to provide meaningful results, ones that will inform final revisions.

Summary

Overall, the most common research methods used to develop a social marketing campaign rely on a mixed methods approach with existing and secondary data used to narrow scope of primary research; qualitative research to draft potential strategies; quantitative surveys to prioritize and finalize strategies; and a pilot to make final revisions and support campaign funding.

Nancy Lee has more than 30 years of professional marketing experience, with special expertise in Social Marketing, the proven discipline for behavior change for social good. She is currently:

President of Social Marketing Services, Inc., in Seattle, Washington, providing consultations and trainings on developing social marketing programs and campaigns.
Affiliate Instructor at the University of Washington, where she has taught social marketing in the MPA and public health programs.
Strategic Advisor for social marketing campaigns at C+C, a communications firm in Seattle.
Instructor for an online Professional Certificate course for the International Social Marketing Association.
Co-Author of 15 books on Social Marketing, 13 with Philip Kotler. Her most recent book is titled Reducing Gun Deaths & Injuries: A Social Marketing Approach. Available on Amazon.