View the Audit Process
Digital Marketing Research is led by a senior strategist with decades of applied experience across enterprise, education, and consulting.
This is not outsourced execution or junior-level delivery. It is a disciplined decision system that translates research, data, and AI capability into clear direction.
Research That Drives Real Business Decisions
Research is not a thought exercise at DMR. It is an operating system.
Our research function exists to reduce uncertainty, de-risk decisions, and translate emerging digital and AI capabilities into practical advantage for real businesses. Every research initiative is designed with one outcome in mind: clear, defensible marketing decisions that improve performance.
We focus on applied research, pattern validation, and decision implications. No academic abstraction. No trend chasing. Only insights that can be operationalized.
Our Research Mandate
DMR research is built on four principles:
Applied, not theoretical
Research outputs must directly inform marketing strategy, execution, or investment decisions.Evidence over opinion
Findings are grounded in audits, data analysis, field observation, and real campaign outcomes.Small business reality aware
Insights account for budget constraints, capability gaps, and execution friction.AI evaluated, not hyped
Tools and technologies are assessed for usefulness, scalability, and risk, not novelty.
This mandate ensures our research remains relevant, credible, and commercially useful.
Flagship Research Initiative
The Building Small Business Resilience (BSBR) project examined how small businesses adapt, survive, and grow amid digital disruption.
Research Scope
Surveys and interviews with small business owners and operators
Digital marketing audits across multiple industries
Analysis of tooling, skills, and decision bottlenecks
Evaluation of marketing effectiveness under resource constraints
Key Findings
The research identified consistent structural challenges:
Limited internal marketing capability
Fragmented digital tools and data
Low confidence in ROI measurement
Overwhelm driven by rapid technology change
More importantly, BSBR isolated what actually works.
Proven Impact Areas
Businesses that performed best consistently focused on:
Improving online visibility through fundamentals, not tactics
Retaining and activating existing customers
Allocating spend based on measurable return
Selectively adopting AI tools to remove friction, not replace thinking
Outcomes
BSBR insights directly informed:
Research-driven workshops
Digital marketing audit frameworks
Strategy and prioritization models
Client advisory and consulting pathways
This research remains foundational to how DMR evaluates marketing effectiveness today.
Current Research Focus
AI Tools and the Marketing Decision Stack
Building on BSBR, DMR is conducting ongoing research into how AI tools are reshaping marketing decision-making.
This work is focused on separating signal from noise.
Research Questions
How are businesses actually using AI today?
Where does AI meaningfully improve outcomes?
Where does AI introduce risk, confusion, or false confidence?
Which tools are usable for small teams without deep technical resources?
Areas of Evaluation
Automation and workflow efficiency
Personalization and content systems
Predictive analytics and forecasting
Measurement, attribution, and insight generation
Governance, ethics, and decision control
What Makes This Research Different
We do not review tools in isolation.
AI tools are evaluated inside real marketing systems, alongside strategy, funnels, measurement, and organizational constraints. The output is not tool lists. It is decision guidance.
This prevents teams from adopting tools that look impressive but fail under real operating constraints.
How Research Feeds DMR Services
DMR research is directly embedded into client work.
Research outputs inform:
Digital Marketing Audits
Benchmarking performance against validated patterns and risksDigital Marketing Strategy
Designing systems aligned with proven success factorsWorkshops and Training
Teaching decision frameworks, not just tacticsFractional CMO Advisory
Guiding leadership decisions with research-backed insight
This ensures clients are not paying for opinion. They are investing in tested thinking.
Why This Matters
Digital marketing is evolving faster than most businesses can process. AI accelerates this gap.
Without research-led decision frameworks, businesses default to:
Tool overload
Reactive marketing
Wasted spend
Strategy drift
DMR research exists to prevent that outcome.
We help organizations:
Move from reaction to direction
Adopt technology with intent
Build marketing systems that scale
Make decisions with confidence, not hope
Apply Research to Your Business
Book a Digital Marketing Audit
Engage in Strategy or Fractional CMO advisory
Research is not the end. It is the advantage.
Explore Research
Learn more about the Building Small Business Resilience project
Review ongoing AI marketing research insights
Participate
Apply to participate in upcoming AI research initiatives
Gain early access to findings and evaluations