I am fairly surprised by the voting on right. It is close to a 50/50 split on if people would be willing to pay for an annual benchmark report. I suspected that there would, of course, be people who would not be interested in paying for such a report, but I did not expect to be split down the middle. Granted the sample size in not significant for this poll, however you can make a few assumptions or at least I would like too.
First, people don’t want to pay for any insight or advice. Second, the 50% that does not want to pay knows their own benchmarks and does not care what the industry average is.
What do you think? Does this surprise anyone?
On another note, but on the topic of reports. Online Financial Innovations published a new report entitled New Models for Lead Generation. I have not purchased and am not sure I am going to. The list of companies that are covered in the report include: Andera, BancVue/FirstROI (CheckingFinder), Bank of America, Credit Karma, Credit.com, Dow Jones/IAC (FiLfe), eBay, Facilitas (FindABetterBank), FatWallet, Google, Mint, Mortgagebot (Mortgage Marvel), neoSaej (MoneyAisle), PNC Bank, Prosper, Quicken Loans (Quizzle), SmartHippo, WaMu, Zions Direct.
The report analyzes auction base sites, community based sites, financial tools, search based sites, etc. The report claims to review “Auctions, personal finance communities, and tools provide alternatives to Google AdWords.”
Anyone planning on forking out $500 for this report?
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LeadCritic,
It is quite interesting that more people do not want to pay for the report. I wonder for those who said “no” whether this is because a) they don’t want to pay for such a report or b) they simply don’t want a report about common benchmarks to exist. Probably a bit of both.
I think the industry is so competitive that many companies tend to either undervalue or be afraid of transparent and reliable comparisons.
However, there is no doubt that there is a hunger for proprietary data that gives one company an advantage over others. People are certainly willing to pay to have that edge.
Personally I think greater transparency would be a good thing for all participants in the industry, even though it would initially be quite uncomfortable.
$500 is a bit too much, don’t you think, to get a summary and analysis of the above sites? I’m a fan of marketingsherpa’s work, and several years back bought one of their guides (web analytics) which was very helpful in giving me an overview of products, which helped me make a purchase decision for a big company. I think in general, I’d buy a benchmark guide if I’m considering entering a field that is new,but probably won’t feel the need if I’m already entrenched.
I would like to know the make- up of the voters before I offered an opinion.
How many of the voters were advertisers or aggregators versus buyers?
The poll would be more enlightening if you knew what group wanted or did not want such a report.
Correct?
the voters are probably mixed evenly, meaning 50/50, give or take a few votes.
Pek,
I agree..the marketing Sherpa I think provide a little more value than this report.