Tweet

Six Ways to Boost Response on Your Surveys and Gain More Useful Information

Written by: Shel Horowitz

Article Overview: If you take the time and trouble to do a survey...these easy steps will increase your responses and provide more valid data. So... you spend time and effort putting together a survey, so you can have real information about what your customers and prospects are actually looking for.

Six Ways to Boost Response on Your Surveys and Gain More Useful Information

So... you spend time and effort putting together a survey, so you can
have real information about what your customers and prospects are
actually looking for. And you send the survey to your in-house list--but
the flood of responses you're expecting is only a trickle.

While direct-mail marketing typically enjoys response rates of 0.5
percent to 2 percent for sales pieces, survey responses are often far
lower.

You're never going to get 100 percent participation. People are too
busy, or some of them are simply not your target audience. But still, you
want to do better than a few hundredths of a percent. How can you boost
responses up to meaningful levels of 10 percent or more?

Make it EASY to Respond

The less work your respondent has to do, the more responses you'll get.
One click should go right to the survey form, without requiring
registration. You can easily use software to flag duplicate responses, so
ballot-stuffing is not a problem. And the form itself should be simple,
clearly worded, easy to understand, easy and quick to fill out. Unless
there is a strong business reason for using them, avoid distractions such
as animated GIFs and Flash intros. Depending on your audience, they
could get in the way of the survey or increase the likelihood that the form
will give error messages.

Explain Why Responding HELPS the Respondent

You want this information to better serve your customers--to offer
products and services that more closely meet their exact needs. Use
effective copywriting to convey this point--that not only do you sincerely
value their input, but that their responses will help you bring products to
market that directly reflect their exact needs. Help them to feel
"ownership" of their role in making these new products happen.

This may be the most crucial factor: your headlines and body copy
should convey that you see your respondents as allies in solving their
problems or increasing their convenience together. It's all about them,
not about you.

REASSURE Your Participants

Everybody worries that if they participate in surveys, they're going to be
hounded with high-pressure sales pitches. Do it differently; earn your
prospects' respect by promising them that salespeople won't bother
them. And keep your promise! If you design the entire process properly,
survey respondents will seek YOU out to do some business together.
You will, of course, provide them with every tool they need to follow up
with you.

Provide the Chance for REAL Feedback

Include at least one comment field, where respondents can explain or
qualify their answers. You'll get extremely meaningful information from
this technique--well worth the extra labor in hand-analyzing the results--
and once again, you make your respondents feel valued and important,
so that they have a vested interest in feeling that they're a part of your
enterprise. It may even be worth your while to put a comment field in for
every question.

FOLLOW UP With the Best Respondents

People who make useful comments are prime candidates for focus
groups, beta testing, or simple one-to-one follow-up--focused on
additional research, not sales. They'll be so grateful that you really value
their opinions that they may become evangelists for your company.
Won't they be surprised and delighted to get a telephone call or a
personal e-mail from the president of your company, thanking them for
their response and asking if they'd like to help you refine your research?
(Be sure to present this as genuine; don't wrap it up in a sales pitch.)

Offer INCENTIVES For Responding

Offer thank-you gifts to every entrant, or add all your respondents to a
raffle drawing. The prizes should be relevant to your company--perhaps
one of your own products, or a product or service that complements
yours. At the end of the survey, ask for contact information if they'd like to
receive the gift or be entered in the drawing.

The more people participate honestly in a survey, the more useful your
market research. And if the incentives are strong and relevant enough,
you know that the responses you get will be honest, identifiable, and
useful.

So there you have it: Make your surveys user-friendly, show why
answering the survey benefits the participant, reassure them that you
won't unleash the sales dogs, offer prospects the chance to actually
influence the direction of your products and your marketing, follow up
appropriately, and offer incentives. Then watch your survey numbers
grow, and put all that useful information into practice in your product
development, customer service, and of course, your profits.

This article was originally commissioned and published by
Hostedware.com, a leading provider of web survey and
online testing software for research, education and performance
improvement. Used with their permission.

Related Articles
  How To Work At Home With A Computer Taking Surveys
  Take Paid Online Surveys To Make Money At Home
  Is Taking Online Surveys A Legitimate Way To Earn Extra Income?
  Legitimate Online Business Opportunities - Paid Online Surveys
  Can You Really Make Money with Online Surveys?

Article Tags: animated gifs, business reason, copywriting, direct mail marketing, distractions, error messages, flash intros, flood, headlines, hundredths, likelihood, participation, prospects, respondent, response rates, survey form, survey responses, target audience, trickle



Related Forum Posts
Re: What newsletter program to use? - Like GT and David I use Get Response and have not had any problems with them other than when they were converting to their upgrade. So as long as they continue to give me the service I will stick with them. I know that most people recommend Aweber. MichelleJ
Re: What Sells Online? - I agree with topeyinka, Information products(how to's) are whats selling right now.
Re: Ideas For Business - Stas and lucy, Could you guys give us a recap of your entire business idea as it stands now. Seems like it morped a bit. Let us know: 1. Start date 2. Ways you will Market 3. What you will offer 4. How much will your charge for your offer
Re: Quick Ways To Utilize SEO Effectively - There are many different types of content: blog content, website content, newsletter content, audio & video content, the list can be endless. I'll just list 10 types of website content here: * Index/Introduction * Product Descriptions * Testimonials * Reviews * Resources * How-to Information * Downloads * Contact Information * Navigation/Site Map About/Company Info Anchor text as the others have said is the hyperlinked words on a web page - the words you click on when you click a link. Anchor text is important because it tells the search engines what the page is about. Used wisely, it boosts your rankings in search engines, especially in Google.If you use "click here" as the words people are going to click on, you're telling people the page is about the subject "click here", which is not the phrase you want to rank highly for, the text you need to use is a keyword that you have chosen for your website, blog or article. Take care, Carol
Re: Get Improved Sales Optimization - Great Information Jason! As per the online business perspective, every user looking for relevant information and user friendly website structure. You can also provide 24hr customer support to make your customer reliable and easy.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Why Marketing Outsourcing is Growing So Quickly

Improve E-mail: Avoid the Quicksand

In the Year 2020 . . . Process

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.