Surveys are a great way to get people’s opinions on an interesting subject or to get people’s honest opinions on your product or service. But do you know the proper way to create and promote a survey? To make your survey successful, follow these twelve tips:
| Takeaways |
|---|
| 1. Understand the psychology of survey respondents to tailor your approach. |
| 2. Craft engaging survey questions that resonate with your target audience. |
| 3. Utilize effective survey distribution channels to reach a wider audience. |
| 4. Offer incentives that encourage participation and provide value. |
| 5. Optimize the survey experience for mobile users to boost response rates. |
| 6. Leverage social proof to build trust and credibility with potential respondents. |
| 7. Implement follow-up strategies to remind and encourage those who haven’t responded. |
| 8. Analyze and act on the collected data to make informed business decisions. |
| 9. Continuously refine your survey approach based on feedback and results. |
1. Be Creative With A Catchy Title
The first and most important step in convincing consumers to answer your survey is making them want to do so. The title you choose will be the deciding factor between whether or not people take the time to fill out your questionnaire.
Make sure it’s catchy and enticing, but also meaningful and honest–this is a fine line that often requires some creativity from you, but with a little bit of effort, you can nail it!
Here are some good examples:
- “100% Honest Reviews Of The Best Bridget Jones Movies”
- “10 Things You Can Learn From Your Dog (When They’re Not Making Messes In Your House)”
- “How To Use A Towel For More Than Just Wiping Your Hands Off After Eating”
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2. State Your Purpose And Make It Clear
The next step is to clearly state your purpose and make it clear.
Your survey should start with a statement that describes the reason for the survey. This can be done in one sentence or paragraph, but keep it short and to the point.
The purpose of this statement is to inform respondents what you are trying to learn from them, so they know whether they should take your survey or not.
3. Give Incentive
To encourage survey-takers to take your survey, you need to give them an incentive. This can be a reward in the form of points or money, or it can be something that’s tied directly to the topic at hand.
For example, if you’re studying the effects of a new medication on patients with asthma and wanted to know what symptoms they experienced during their first week of taking the medicine. You could offer them an Amazon gift card if they’re able to answer all these questions within three days:
- What kind of weather did you experience during your first week taking this medication?
- How many times did your throat feel scratchy?
- Were there any other side effects besides scratchiness?
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4. Make It Easy To Fill Out The Survey
Make sure you have a clear call to action (CTA). Make your CTA clear and don’t use any industry jargon that may confuse or deter readers from completing the survey.
Make sure you have a clear purpose for the survey, including who should complete it, why they should complete it, and what benefit they’ll get from doing so.
This information should be readily available in your introduction copy and throughout the entire questionnaire if possible.
Be honest about why consumers are participating in this research project; if you can’t justify their participation with a solid reason (“to know more about [insert demographic]” doesn’t count), then maybe reconsider whether or not this is the right project for them!
Be sure that all questions on your questionnaire are relevant and necessary to ask consumers before asking them any personal questions like age range or income level.
Because these types of questions can put off potential respondents who don’t want their data shared publicly without their consent first being obtained beforehand;
Think twice before asking these types of questions unless necessary such as when conducting market research surveys instead of general demographic studies which would require fewer approvals.
Since only one company would be using them at once instead of hundreds upon hundreds over a period spanning months into years even decades!
5. Personalize The Questions And Make It About The Customer
Personalize the questions and make them about the customer: To keep your survey short, you need to make sure it’s personalized. This means including pronouns like “you” and “your” throughout the questionnaire.
It also means using the customer’s name in a few places so they feel more connected with what they’re being asked to answer.
You should also include questions that ask about their experience with your product or service and their preferences regarding it in other words, find out how they feel at this point!
Ask them for opinions on things like how well-designed your website is or how easy it was for them to navigate through it so that you know if there are any areas where improvements could be made (or not).
If there were any problems during checkout that caused them headaches (like having trouble entering their credit card info), then asking if these issues were resolved quickly would be helpful as well!
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6. Make Sure Your Questions Are Brief, Not Taking More Than 3 Minutes To Fill Out
When it comes to writing questions, there are a few guidelines you should follow:
Keep your questions short and to the point. Nothing is more frustrating than being asked to answer a question that is too long or complicated.
Your survey participants are likely already busy with their lives and may not have time to finish your questionnaire if they feel like they’re going through an essay exam every time they get back online.
Keeping things simple will allow them to answer quickly without feeling overwhelmed or exhausted from reading several paragraphs of text.
Keep answers short and simple as well. If a response requires more than three lines of text, it’s probably best not to include it at all in your survey questionnaire.
The same goes for open-ended questions; if there’s no way for you (or anyone else) to truly know how people feel about something, don’t ask!
This might sound counterintuitive but hear me out: asking these types of questions means taking away from other areas that can provide useful insight into your target audience’s interests.
Such as why they answered what way or what caused them to choose their particular choices and therefore hurting rather than helping yourself obtain valuable information about them.
This research process would otherwise be a wasted effort on your part since the results won’t be reliable enough anyway due to something like those aforementioned problems mentioned above.
7. Don’t Ask Leading Questions That Bias Towards An Answer
Avoid questions that ask for a yes or no answer. You want to get as much detail from your participants so they can help you figure out your problem and solution.
For example: “Do you want this product?” No, it’s a yes or no question! Instead, ask them why they would like the product, what aspects of it interests them, and how they think it could be improved.
Avoid questions that ask for a rating of something.
This type of question is more about opinion than fact; therefore it might not provide enough information for you to make conclusive decisions based on the answers provided by respondents in the survey questionnaire itself (i.e., people will often give answers like “3” because there isn’t an option for “4”).
For example: “How would rate this product on a scale from 1-5?” Instead, try asking what aspects of this product are most/least appealing then dig deeper into those aspects with follow-up questions where appropriate (i.e., “why do you feel that way?”).
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8. Ask Open-Ended Questions (E.G.) How Do You Like Our Website? As Opposed To Yes Or No Questions (E.G.) Do You Like Our Website?
It’s important to ask open-ended questions rather than yes/no questions. Why? Because they can be answered in multiple ways, and they will give you a more accurate response overall.
For example, if we asked consumers: “How do you like our website?” instead of “Do you like our website?”, then consumers could answer based on their personal opinion instead of just saying yes or no.
They might say something like: “I’m not sure how much I like the design,” or “I would prefer it if the navigation was simpler.” This gives us a better understanding of what people are thinking about our product or service!
9. Keep The Survey Time Limited To 10 Minutes Maximum
You should keep the survey time limited to no more than 10 minutes. This is not only because it will encourage people to fill out your questionnaire and keep them engaged.
But also because by keeping it short, you are reducing the likelihood that some of those folks will drop out of the survey midway through completion.
When designing the questionnaire itself, make sure that it is not too long or too short. Keep in mind that people will go through your survey at different speeds depending on their interest level in a given topic and how closely related they perceive themselves to be to said topic.
If someone has an opinion about something that doesn’t matter much to them (like whether or not they like eating fish), then they’re likely just going to skim over those questions without giving them much thought;
However, if these same folks feel strongly about an issue (such as climate change), then they’ll spend more time thinking about each question carefully before moving on – even if this means taking longer than usual for them when answering questions!
10. Put More Value In Subjective Questions Than Objective Ones
Objective questions are easier to answer because they’re more specific and require less thought than subjective ones.
However, there’s no reason to sacrifice the quality of your responses by making all your survey questions objective when you could get so much more out of a few good subjective questions.
You can use these to explore customer perspectives and feelings about your business, product, or service and those insights will help you create better solutions for them in the future!
11. Make Sure All Of Your Questions Are Related To Your Subject Use A Separate Survey For Different Topics
After you have read through all the questions and are satisfied with them, it’s time to send your survey out for completion. At this point, you must make sure that all of your questions are related to your subject.
You don’t want to put a question about dog training in a survey about running shoes if there is no connection between these two subjects. The results will not be accurate if they are not related.
Also, do not ask the same question on different surveys, or else it will skew the results as well.
If you need multiple questions answered on one topic then create an entirely separate survey just for this topic.
Instead of using up any space in another survey with multiple unrelated questions that confuse consumers and make it harder for them to answer honestly without thinking too much about what each question means (or even worse: reading each question all over again!)
12. Both Surveys By Phone And Online Are Effective, Just Know How You Want To Obtain Results Before You Start Your Survey!
Before you start your survey, make sure you know what you want to get out of the results. Do you need quantitative data like averages and percentages? Or are qualitative responses better for your purposes?
Make sure you have a process in place to ensure that any information gathered comes back to a company or organization with real accountability. If someone is filling out a survey by phone, they can easily say they’re going to buy something next month and then never do it.
With online surveys, there’s always some sort of accountability involved because people need an email address or some other way of providing their contact information so they can receive their incentive (whether it’s points or money).
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Conclusion
That’s it! You should now have a good idea of how to get more consumers to participate in your survey questionnaire. As we mentioned earlier, companies must create surveys that are relevant and interesting for their target audience.
By following these steps, you can make sure your survey will appeal to the broadest possible audience while at the same time being engaging enough to warrant participation from a high percentage of them.
Further Reading
Here are some additional resources that delve into the topic of increasing survey response rates:
Increasing Survey Response Rates: Discover effective strategies to boost your survey response rates and gather valuable insights from your audience.
Getting More Survey Respondents: Learn techniques to attract a larger pool of survey participants, enhancing the quality of your collected data.
Optimizing Survey Responses: Dive into the optimization of survey responses to extract meaningful information, leading to better decision-making.
FAQs
How can I enhance my survey response rates?
To enhance survey response rates, consider using personalized outreach, optimizing survey length, and providing clear incentives to participants.
What are some effective methods for attracting more survey respondents?
Effective methods for attracting more survey respondents include using multiple distribution channels, creating compelling survey invitations, and utilizing social media engagement.
How can I analyze and interpret survey responses effectively?
To analyze and interpret survey responses effectively, employ sentiment analysis tools, categorize open-ended responses, and identify patterns in the collected data.
What role does survey design play in increasing response rates?
Survey design plays a significant role in response rates. By ensuring a user-friendly interface, clear question formatting, and logical flow, you can encourage more participants to complete your surveys.
What are some common challenges in handling survey data?
Common challenges in handling survey data include data cleaning, dealing with non-response bias, and drawing accurate conclusions from the collected responses.
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.