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Online Survey Blog
Published by SimplyCast
One of the golden rules about marketing is that pretty things attract customers. Poorly designed promotions, online surveys and emails turn people off and show how unprofessional you are.
With the extremely competitive nature of marketing today, the best and most intriguing design always wins out over something that was half-assed (pardon my French). Even with a zero budget to develop, create and send out an online survey, great design just takes some creative muscle.
Here are some more tips to create a “winning” online survey.
Website-Based Surveys
Surveys that pop-up as floating windows on home pages are a great strategy. You engage with your customers immediately and implore their good nature to help you improve your service.
In some cases, company’s keep a floating, generic survey on their website at all times.
Published by SimplyCast
How will you ever get a sense of how your customers are feeling unless you ask them? Customer satisfaction surveys are key at the very least, get a general idea of how a new product is doing or what your clients don't like about what you are offering.
You have to keep things set in a positive light while still getting to the bottom of negative aspects. It can be tricky but it is all about how you word your questions.
Also, for every question give the option to your customers to “not answer.” This covers all of your bases. Perhaps the customer didn’t purchase a product you’re referring to and so that specific question is “not applicable.”
On the other hand, if you’re asking your customer to provide their name or any other private information, give them the option to “rather not say.” Never leave an opportunity for your customer to skip over questions. By not answering, they’re still answering.
Published by SimplyCast
Learning about your customers beyond their spending habits and product history actually has more impact on your overall marketing strategy and growth opportunities than any other data available.
Though it is atypical to send out a strict market research survey, what many marketers do is include personal questions.
For this blog post, we’re outlining some relevant and useful market research questions that can be included in your next online survey.
Some of these questions may seem a bit intrusive and out of left field (“Do you watch television?), but it does paint a clear picture of who your customers are. What it does is shed some light onto their habits. If they’re on the Web more than watching television, then logically, they prefer to receive advertisements and promotions in that manner.
For example, let’s say that one of your responders is a 30-something, married woman, who owns a home and has a combined annual income of $80,000. She prefers to read her daily paper online, regularly exercises and has achieved a Masters. Surely, you’re not going to offer her a promotion for fast food or get-rich-quick schemes. Based on her personal information, she probably would be interested in healthy living or organic products.
See what information comes in: you’ll never know how similar (or even diverse!) your clientele actually is. Also, this sort of data is key to understanding what demographics may be your next great group of customers.
It is critical that you include an option for your customers to not answer any personal questions. Some people may choose to offer their information, provided that you use it internally and it’s not up for sale for the lowest bidder.
Published by SimplyCast
Though it may seem challenging, developing an online survey is actually quite easy. If executed properly, the survey will provide you incredibly useful information about your business, customers and areas that may need improvement.
What are you looking to learn?
Be specific in your goals. Narrow down your ideas from the grandiose to the practical, achievable and most importantly, the information that you need to very most. If you hedge about including a specific topic, then shelve it for a future survey. Remember: this isn’t the first and last survey you’ll ever conduct (we hope not).
Putting all of your eggs in a single basket will dilute your data and you’ll come away with information that’s unusable.
Whom are you asking to fill out your survey?
If you’re thinking of answering, “Well, everyone,” then stop, and take a minute to consider this: depending on the targeted information you’re after, then you need a targeted customer base to ask.
Especially if this online survey is the first one you’re doing or the first one you’re doing in a while, then its best to limit those that you ask.
Consider these targeted groups:
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More Tips on How to Design Your Survey
Even with a zero budget to develop, create and send out an online survey, great design just takes some creative muscle. |
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Survey 101: Sample Customer Satisfaction Survey
How will you ever get a sense of how your customers are feeling unless you ask them? Customer satisfaction surveys are key to growing your business. |
