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In marketing, a survey is a way of collecting information that proportionately represents the views of your target audience. When used effectively, surveys are a valuable tool to gain audience insights, gather feedback, and make data-driven decisions. You can learn a lot about your audience through surveys, but there is a time and a place for how to best utilize them.
A Brief History of Marketing Surveys
Surveys were around long before the internet era, they just looked a little different. Even voting is a survey of sorts, and that’s been going on since the first democracy in ancient Greece. From questionnaires to interviews, surveys are a big part of our lives whether we realize it or not. From market research to social sciences to academia surveys provide valuable quantitative data that answers qualitative questions.
In the pre-digital era, marketing surveys were conducted through mail or in person. Companies would send out paper copies to customers, asking for their feedback. As you can imagine, they often had big limitations in terms of reach, cost, and response rates. The rise of email and the growth of the internet combated these issues beautifully. As the landscape of survey research transformed, email surveys became a popular surveying method. Businesses could send questions directly to their audience’s inboxes, making insights easier to obtain. In the late 90s, the E-commerce boom gained momentum and furthered the use of surveys in marketing. Surveys became an essential tool for understanding audience behavior, preferences, and satisfaction. Online companies began to capitalize on the value of using customer feedback to improve their offerings and user experiences.
As technology advanced, online survey platforms emerged, making it easier for businesses to create, distribute, and analyze surveys. The global revenue of the market research industry exceeded 76.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2021, growing more than twofold since 2008. With the integration of surveys into CRM systems, collecting feedback and data can be done directly within one database. This allows businesses to analyze their data points from a holistic angle. CRM integration enables targeted and personalized marketing efforts across platforms. Most recently, through the growth of online platforms and social media, surveys have expanded beyond traditional email-based methods, with businesses leveraging various channels to collect customer feedback and gather audience insights.
Benefits of Leveraging Surveys in Marketing
The technology behind surveys has evolved, but the longstanding benefits in marketing have influenced businesses of all shapes and sizes. The valuable and direct insights surveys provide help businesses shape the future. Surveys are aimed at understanding customers, refining strategies, and enhancing performance. Surveys help businesses provide a next-level experience for their future audience base.
Understand Your Audience
When you survey your audience, you learn what they like and don’t like. Listening to your audience’s input is what drives success. After all, your clients are the heart and soul of your business. Implementing surveys into your marketing strategy allows you to nurture your leads by developing a better understanding of your audience and what’s important to them.
Audience Segmentation
Conducting a survey allows you to collect meaningful input from your audience and use it to provide a better, more personalized experience for them. Collecting survey data lays the foundation you need to segment your audience effectively, so you can share relevant content with them.
Brand Image
Surveys show you how your audience perceives you. Knowing the way your audience views you as a business will help you make better decisions about which way to take your strategy from your product offerings to marketing. You will receive valuable information about your brand through your marketing research survey.
5 Tips for Creating Valuable Surveys
Surveys are an efficient method to collect data across a wide audience. This research method is a great tool to use when you're looking to evaluate any part of your operations. From market research to customer feedback to product development, surveys are a versatile tool for discovering outside perspectives. When done effectively, surveys capture insights, inform decisions, and enhance the customer experience across your entire business.
1. Set Goals
Before jumping in head first and conducting a survey, identify your goals and what insights you are working to gather. Get specific about what data you are trying to collect, i.e. preferences, satisfaction, buying behavior, or trends are a few common themes. This will help you design targeted questions and gather relevant data.
2. Define Your Audience
Based on your goals, decide who you want to survey. Think about whose opinion, feedback, or information you want. Is it your current clients, potential audience, or a particular segment? Once you define who you are trying to reach, you are one step close to gathering meaningful insights from the right people.3. Find a Method
Don’t just find a method, find the right one. Surveys are conducted through a variety of mediums and methods, such as digital forms, email surveys, or over the phone. Find the most appropriate method based on your target audience, the level of insight you need, and your budget. Online surveys are often budget-friendly ways to reach a wide audience.4. Design Questions
Develop questions that are easy to understand and get straight to the point. Keep things interesting by using a mix of closed and open-ended questions to gather both quantitative and qualitative data. To receive the most accurate responses, make sure the language of your questions doesn’t influence responses. Good surveys are designed to produce data you can use to strengthen your marketing.5. Analyze
All your survey results mean nothing unless you take the time to evaluate them, so remember to measure and analyze your results. Once you've received survey responses, it's crucial to analyze the data to identify trends and patterns. Use spreadsheets and analysis software to visualize the data. Find a few key takeaways that can be implemented into your future strategy.4 Ways to Enhance a Survey
Good surveys find a balance between the need for comprehensive data and the willingness of the target audience to complete the survey. With that being said, surveys are not a one size fits all scenario.
1. Communicate
Let your audience know what’s expected of them. Tell them how long it will take to complete and how many questions they should expect. Articulating what you're asking from your audience before they commit to opening your survey gives them clear and accurate expectations so they can do it when they have time.
2. Compel
Offer a targeted incentive. Rewards are always going to be the most effective way of convincing someone to take your survey. To increase participation rates, consider offering incentives such as discounts, freebies, or prizes. Incentives can motivate respondents to complete the survey and provide valuable insights. According to AI Multiple, incentivizing people with vouchers can increase the response rate by 7% without any decrease in data quality.
3. Condense
As a general rule of thumb, try to keep the completion time to around 5-10 minutes (10-20 questions). Respect your audience's time by keeping the survey focused. People are more likely to complete a survey if it doesn't require a significant time investment. Prioritize essential questions and avoid unneeded ones to secure higher response rates.
4. Convenience
Timing is everything when it comes to surveys. Make sure you're sending your surveys out at a convenient time for your target audience. Surveys are usually something people will complete during downtime, if they are busy with work, or family, it often gets pushed to the back burner and quite frankly, forgotten about. If you're surveying existing customers, consider timing it after they’ve interacted with you.
Surveys are great for learning more about what’s going on outside your bubble. But the insights you gain need to be acted upon to be worthwhile. The true value of surveys lies in using the insights to drive meaningful changes. Apply the findings to refine strategies, improve experiences, and develop new offerings.
