Using surveys to make marketing decisions

Businesses are always looking for ways to collect customer information to help them boost their marketing efforts. Collecting customer information can help you determine if you are making the right products and if your customers are satisfied with them. It is common for businesses to send out surveys and other methods to collect customer information. Email marketing is one of the cheapest and easiest ways to collect customer information. To collect customer information, you need to make sure you are using the correct survey questions.

If you aren't asking the right questions, the information you are collecting will not be accurate. This may mean the information isn't even useful for your business and you are wasting your time. To write a survey, you must put yourself in your customer's shoes. You must clearly define the objectives of the survey so you can make sure you will get the information you need from your customers. For example, if your sales have been dismal lately, you may want to write a survey that focuses on your existing product satisfaction. Ask questions that will prompt your customers to respond with some of the things they would like to see from your business. Sometimes changing a simple thing (like a red cover to a blue one) will attract more customers and boost your sales.

When it comes to writing a survey, you want to keep the information confidential. Your customers won't provide information to you if they think you might sell it. It is also important to keep the surveys confidential so your competitors don't know what you are up to.

A survey must be brief or else the customers won't do it. They should always include a brief life or two about what the purpose of the survey is and the actions the company plans to take once they gather the information. If you have some extra cash, include a bonus for the customers. People love to do surveys if they know they will get something out of it.

The survey you create must have a topic. If you don't have a topic, there is no point in doing a survey. Your customers need to feel like they are benefiting the company in some way by filling out the survey. By choosing a topic and creating questions that are unique to the survey, you are helping your customers truly understand the purpose of the survey so they will get a sense of gratification from filling it out.

Each question must be used to help your company. Customers don't like to fill out questions that are too personable, so it is best to stick with some broad questions on a few topics like income and place of work.

When you are writing a survey, keep it simple. People don't want to feel like they are taking a test when they are filling out a survey. Try to keep it under 10 questions and make sure they are brief. Use action words to help your customer get through the survey quickly.

Once you have concluded the survey, make sure you publish the results for your customers to see. Many of them will be interested to see how the information they provided helped you create a new product. Let your customers know how you used their information to create a new marketing campaign and how it helped you fix some of the problems that currently existed within the company.

Don't forget to thank your customers for their participation in the survey. If you don't take the time to thank them, you will have a difficult time getting them to participate in future surveys.