By Karen J. Bannan
I'm not a mind-reader. I tell my husband this all the time. (How am I supposed to know he wanted an egg sandwich from the deli???) You probably aren't either or you'd be appearing on the NBC show Phenomenon. But I'll bet you probably act like you are. When was the last time you asked your customers and prospects about what they wanted to receive from you or what they are most interested in? If you answered more than three to six months ago, you may have a problem.
It's never been easier to send surveys via email. Most major email service providers (ESPs) provide polling functionality. All you need to do is input your questions, decide how you'd like people to respond (multiple choice, prose, or a combination of the two), and you're done. The survey can be automatically sent out to portions of your list--or the entire list.
If you don't use an ESP, you're not on your own. There are many companies out there that exist solely to help you create online surveys. Companies like SurveyMethods.com, Checkbox.com, Zoomerang, and SurveyMonkey, to name a few.
And how do you get people to click through? You'll want to send out an email that explains exactly what you're doing, and what you'll use the survey answers for. People will be more likely to respond if you're asking for the greater good--not just being nosey. Another tip: keep questions to a minimum. Nothing is more off-putting than a list of 30 questions. A good rule of thumb: people probably won't spend more than three- to five-minutes filling out a survey. Finally, provide a tasty carrot; a reward that will act as a motivator. A discount or coupon is always good. It might seem like something like and iPod would be a better choice, but the folks who fill out surveys for free iPods may not be the same people you want as customers.
There are many other tips you can follow, but the folks at market research firm GMI have been nice enough to create a downloadable white paper, which can be found here.
Do you have a survey that's worked especially well? Tell us about it in the Comments section.
