I know I’m a genius and that the marketing world hangs on my every word, but, and this is a big but, sometimes I’m wrong. There I said it and we can move on.

Marketing in its purest form is simply giving people what they want. Too often, we marketers make wild assumptions about what our prospects or market really want. Then we wonder why nobody showed up for the jello eating contest . . . or whatever other sure thing we plan.

If you want to know what your prospects want, lack, crave, or will buy, just ask. Technology has made this so simple that there really is no reason not to do it.

Two services that offer free survey tools are Survey Monkey and Zoomerang. Each has its own set of powerful features and I suggest you should start to play around with one or the other.

Here is what you do.

Test product names or service offerings. Ask your readers what they want you to write about. Ask your clients what new service you should offer next. Test prices, test headlines, test messages. Oh, and the media loves survey data. Survey your readers on a hot topic or let them vote on some industry issue and then turn the results into a press release.

Now, go ask someone what want.