Online surveys are an invaluable tool in any marketer’s arsenal. However, because of this, the internet has become saturated with cheap surveys that offer little value to both user and brand alike. This has led to a problem of decreasing response rates, as users no longer see the survey as something special to them. As a website user, my time is limited and unless I have high levels of interest in the brand or I’m going to be suitably compensated I will generally ignore the survey.

So here are some tips on how to make sure that you get the appropriate response rate:

1) Up your sample rate of who gets the survey. But remember, intrusive surveys will impact the performance of your website, so if you are going to show it to everyone, find a way of making it noticeable without obstructing the content that users arrive to see

2) Incentivise your users to complete the survey. Making my favourite brand site better by giving my opinions will make me fill in data. Making some random website I’ve just visited better won’t, but a free iPad draw may do.

3) Run your survey during a time of high traffic. The person who doesn’t want to run the survey whilst all those people are looking at the site is wrong. Run it at a time of highest traffic will allow you to get the required responses quickly and then you can turn it off. If you run it at a time of low traffic you may end up running it for so long that the responses from the people at the beginning are living in a different world to those at the end.

Remember that online survey data is just another data set for your armoury when you do optimisation. Don’t run it once and forget about it. Make it part of your continuous improvement process.

Create Surveys Simply

Developing a useful, well-written online survey that extracts the information you need from your users can be a challenge. In this article, I will review 14 tips for creating a useful online survey.

1) Try to begin the survey with interesting questions. Interesting questions will inspire the respondent to keep reading and complete the survey.

2) Plan ahead of time how you and your company will analyze the information before you send out the final version of the survey. This may affect your questions and format when you realize that the statistical analysis you need to perform cannot be done with these particular question results.

3) Use the simplest language possible and respect the respondent’s dignity when constructing questions. Your survey respondents will undoubtedly come from many different groups, and more often than not, are less expert in the field than you are.

4) Relax your grammar a bit so your questions do not sound too formal. For instance, the word “who” is often acceptable when “whom” is technically correct.

5) Name your survey and write a brief introduction. Providing a survey name and a brief introduction are good ways to give your respondents some background and a frame of reference. It also prepares them for what is to come.

Create Surveys Simply

The internet is flooded with requests for people’s time. Competitions, mailers and special sales are just a few of the things designed to interrupt people’s browsing experience. Due to this, it can be extremely hard to get your online survey to cut through the clutter. Below are a few tips to help you ensure your survey is getting the attention it deserves:

Be clear about privacy protections

The first page of the survey is the place to include information about how you will be using people’s responses. People are more comfortable sharing information on the Internet if they know how it will be used.

Send reminder emails

Some people will take your survey right away. You will get increased responses, if you send follow-up email reminders with the survey link included. It is best not to send more than two reminder emails. Be sure to filter out email addresses of people who do not wish to be contacted again.

Use graphics and Internet features strategically

Surveys generally don’t need fancy graphics, and sometimes graphics can distract from the content of the survey, or influence answers. But there are a few ways to use graphics to improve your survey responses. These include providing an image and web link for a prize or incentive, using a multimedia embedded content survey.

Publish your results online to survey participants

People who respond will want to see results, and getting these results will encourage them to complete the survey.

Create Surveys Simply