Survey Monkey is one of the best tools for marketers to get quick responses from their target clients. For a marketer, it’s more valuable than any other software tool because it allows them to ask questions and get answers quickly.
Survey Monkey offers marketers an opportunity to engage with their target audience in a more meaningful way than ever before.
Key Takeaways |
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Utilize Survey Monkey as a powerful tool for gathering valuable insights from your target audience. |
Craft survey questions strategically to address specific marketer queries and gather relevant data. |
Understand the importance of market research in making informed business decisions. |
Implement best practices in survey design, including clear questions and unbiased sampling. |
Leverage screening questions to filter respondents and obtain data from the most relevant participants. |
Analyze survey data to gain insights into customer preferences, trends, and opinions. |
Avoid common pitfalls in survey design, such as ambiguous or leading questions. |
Apply the knowledge gained from market research surveys to refine marketing strategies and product offerings. |
Be Prepared With The Right Tools
Use a computer with a good internet connection. This will help ensure your surveys load quickly and run smoothly, which means you can get your data back to the client as soon as possible.
Be sure to use a computer with a good screen resolution and color quality, so that the colors of the survey questions are clearly visible to users and don’t look washed out or dull.
Find yourself an ergonomic keyboard and mouse that feels comfortable in your hands, along with an ergonomic headset if you plan on conducting phone interviews (or conference calls). A comfortable chair is also recommended!
Finally, make sure that before you start surveying people regularly, all aspects of your environment are set up correctly: desk lamp at eye level; desk mat to reduce wrist strain; etc.
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Be Prepared With Your Documents
Before you begin a survey, make sure that you have all of the documents and information necessary to answer each question. This means that you should bring:
- Your driver’s license or passport
- Your credit card or debit card
- Your car registration (if applicable)
If there are any additional materials required by the survey (such as contracts), they will be provided to you by email. It is important to read these emails before taking the survey so that there are no surprises later on in regards to what documentation is needed for completion.
In addition, check your email often throughout completing the survey just in case any clarifying information is sent back from whoever wrote up this particular project.
When it comes time for closing out surveys, do so promptly after finishing them because otherwise they may remain open indefinitely until completed and even then there’s no guarantee!
You don’t want anything lingering around like unfinished business.
So delete any nonessential emails once finished filling out surveys or other online forms such as those found at sites like Facebook or Twitter where users sign up for notifications about upcoming events/announcements/etcetera..
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Be Prepared To Focus
Focus on the task at hand. It’s very easy to get distracted by your phone or other things, so if you find yourself in this situation, take a break and come back later. Don’t let it take over your life!
Watch out for typos and confusing wording. The last thing you want is to accidentally answer a question incorrectly because of unclear language or spelling mistakes (especially if it’s something like “Do you prefer color green or yellow?”).
Read the questions carefully before answering them! An interviewer will likely ask “Do you have any questions?” before they end the survey take advantage of this opportunity to clarify anything that may have been unclear while filling out the survey itself.
It may also help if they hear their own voice reading through everything again just in case anything wasn’t quite clear enough during first time around..
Answer As Quickly As Possible
We have found that answering questions as quickly as possible is the best way to ensure you are qualified for a survey. If your answers are too slow, you may be disqualified from participating in the survey.
When a marketer asks you a question and there is an extended delay between when they asked and when you answer, it will look bad for them and us.
Also, if our data shows that people take too long to answer on average (over three or four seconds), we may not send out invite emails very often because we don’t want people spending their time waiting on an invitation email when they could be answering surveys instead!
So how can you achieve this speed? The first step is to practice answering questions in your head before answering them out loud so that if someone does ask something that takes longer than expected, there isn’t any delay in getting back with an answer.
The second step is to keep your answers short and try not to say more than three sentences at most! This will help prevent any unnecessary delays while still allowing enough room for thorough response content
Answer In The Exact Words Of The Question If Possible
One of the most common mistakes survey respondents make is answering a question as it is worded, but with assumptions about what the survey creator meant by their choice of words.
Respondents often think that “yes” means “you are comfortable with something” or “no” means “you are not comfortable with something.”
But this isn’t always true. Survey creators will often use different words because they want the answers to be slightly different than how a respondent might interpret them.
For example, if you were asked if you like seafood and you said yes: would you really mean that you love seafood so much that every meal has fish on it?
Or would a more accurate interpretation be that when given the option between two meals one with fish and one without you’d pick whatever didn’t have fish to stay away from it?
The right answer could actually be either way depending on what information was being asked for by the survey creator!
Another reason why answering questions exactly as written by survey creators is important: if there’s an error in your response then it could skew results!
For example, let’s say I’m taking a survey about my favorite movies and I write Harry Potter instead of Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Part 2 (or vice versa).
Because these aren’t exact matches then SurveyMonkey may consider my response invalid even though I know for sure which movie I prefer more because who wouldn’t rather see Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Part 2 than anything else ever created?
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Review Answers Before You Submit
After you’ve answered a survey, you’ll see a summary of your responses. This is your chance to review the answers before submitting them to the researcher.
You should always have a look at the questions and make sure that you answered in the exact words of the question. (If they ask “How often do you use our product?” don’t answer “Sometimes.” Instead, answer “I use this product every day.”)
A good rule of thumb is if it’s unclear what they’re asking, try reading their question again or rephrasing it in your own words.
If there are any blank boxes on their form or anything else that looks out of place or incomplete, let them know about it ASAP so they can fix it before sending out their results!
Ask For Clarification If Needed
If you don’t understand a question or if it doesn’t seem clear, ask for clarification. If a marketer wants to know how often you use social media, they probably aren’t asking if you spend one hour per day on Facebook.
They want to know how often you visit social media sites in general (which could be less than an hour per day). The same is true of questions that ask about how much time people spend on mobile devices or computers.
They want to know the total amount of time spent using those devices in a day or week, not just what part of their day is devoted specifically toward these activities (i.e., checking email accounts).
To learn more about other ways survey-takers can improve their results and understanding of survey questions, check out our guide: How To Answer Marketers’ Questions Via Survey Monkey Surveys
Get Access To A Computer And High-Speed Internet To Complete The Survey
To complete the survey, you will need access to a computer and high-speed internet. You also need to be able to use a separate browser for your personal emails and web searches.
You must have a PDF reader installed on your device as well, so that you can view attachments in the survey. Finally, it is helpful if you are prepared with the right tools:
- A laptop or desktop computer
- A separate browser like Safari or Chrome (if using Safari, download Night Mode)
- A nitro PDF reader or Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your device if using Acrobat files such as Word documents and presentations in the survey
- Your documents/files that may be attached to some questions (such as resumes)
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Use A Nitro PDF Reader Or Acrobat Reader
Use a Nitro PDF Reader or Acrobat Reader, not the browser. You can find these apps in the App Store on your phone or tablet.
Use a separate browser for your emails and web searches. This will help you avoid sending malicious links to yourself that way they don’t end up on your computer when you click them accidentally from a message from someone else that is infected by malware.
Make sure you’re using night mode when reading at night! That will make it much easier for your eyes to focus on the words instead of getting distracted by all of those bright lights (which is also great if dorm rooms are common here).
Use Night Mode When Reading At Night
Night mode is a setting that reduces the amount of blue light your device emits, which in turn reduces eye strain and allows you to sleep better. Night mode is available on most modern browsers and operating systems.
Night mode can be turned on for all websites or specific websites. This can be done by clicking on the icon that looks like a sun and changing it from white to yellow or red (and vice versa).
It also has a calming effect on your mind, so if you need to concentrate better while reading content online or writing emails at night, turning on night mode will help you do just that!
This tip works best if you use only one browser to do research and another browser for your personal emails and web searches.
Explore an alternative approach to customer targeting by discovering why using SurveyMonkey Audience for targeting customers might be a better choice than Facebook. Learn more about this insightful approach in our article: Why I Use SurveyMonkey Audience to Target My Customers Instead of Facebook.
Use A Separate Browser For Your Emails And Web Searches
You should use a separate browser to access your emails and web searches. This will help you stay focused on the survey and avoid distractions.
It can be hard to resist checking your personal email or clicking through to an interesting article when you’re working on a survey, but it’s important that you don’t allow yourself to get sidetracked.
If you use different browsers for work-related activities and personal ones, then it becomes easier not to accidentally waste time on non-work related things.
If you have multiple browsers open at once (which is generally not recommended), consider closing all but one of them before starting the survey so that there are no other tabs open in case something catches your eye while answering questions.
Check All Emails From Survey Companies That Offer Interviews
Don’t ignore an email from a survey company, even if you’re not sure you want to participate in the survey.
If you don’t respond, chances are good that you won’t receive another message from them, so it’s best to stay on their radar by responding with “I’m interested” or whatever other response they request.
If they contact you again after this initial response, ask for more details about what types of questions will be asked and how long the interview will take (assuming this isn’t provided in their original message).
If they do provide further information before scheduling an interview time with you, consider asking them why they chose specifically YOU out of all those who responded positively and indicate your willingness to participate again if necessary!
If nothing else happens after responding favorably twice now (that is: no subsequent communication).
Assume they didn’t qualify enough people like yourself who fit specific demographic criteria or otherwise weren’t interested enough people at all times throughout history when surveys were conducted.
Conclusion
Now that you know how to answer a question, let’s talk about how to ask them. The best questions will be those that are easy for your audience to understand and complete in a timely manner.
You can use our Marketing Question Guide as a reference when writing marketing questions:
1. Ask open-ended questions instead of closed ones (close-ended)
2. Make sure that your questions don’t contain any biased language which may lead respondents down one path or another without considering all options carefully;
This is especially important when asking multiple-choice style questions where there might be some overlap between answers such as “none of these.” Consider using “other” fields whenever possible so that they can enter their own responses too!
If you do need to use multiple choice then think about whether it would make sense for the respondent who chose an option from this type of question format.
Before answering any further ones (e.g., if someone chooses one answer but would like to comment on something else related).
Further Reading
Here are some additional resources that can provide you with valuable insights into survey techniques and market research strategies:
Survey Guidelines and Best Practices
Explore essential guidelines and best practices for creating effective surveys that yield reliable results.
A Guide to Using Screening Questions
Learn how to effectively use screening questions to target specific survey respondents and gather more relevant data.
Market Research Surveys: A Comprehensive Guide
Delve into the world of market research surveys and discover strategies to gather valuable insights from your target audience.
FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions about Survey Techniques and Market Research
How can I ensure the accuracy of my survey results?
Survey accuracy relies on various factors, including clear questions, unbiased sampling, and proper data analysis. Following best practices for survey design and employing statistical techniques can enhance result accuracy.
What role do screening questions play in a survey?
Screening questions help you identify specific target groups within your audience. By filtering respondents based on certain criteria, you can gather data from the most relevant participants and obtain more focused insights.
What are some effective strategies for creating engaging survey questions?
Crafting engaging survey questions involves using clear and concise language, avoiding leading or biased phrasing, and using a mix of question types. Open-ended questions encourage respondents to provide detailed responses.
How do market research surveys contribute to business decision-making?
Market research surveys provide valuable insights into customer preferences, trends, and opinions. Analyzing survey data helps businesses make informed decisions, develop effective marketing strategies, and refine product offerings.
What are some common pitfalls to avoid in survey design?
Avoiding common pitfalls in survey design includes steering clear of ambiguous questions, refraining from leading questions that influence responses, and maintaining an appropriate survey length to prevent respondent fatigue.
Costantine Edward is a digital marketing expert, freelance writer, and entrepreneur who helps people attain financial freedom. I’ve been working in marketing since I was 18 years old and have managed to build a successful career doing what I love.