“The single most important thing is to make people happy. If you are making people happy, as a side effect, they will be happy to open up their wallets and pay you.” – Derek Sivers, Founder CD Baby
This quotation highlights the importance of checking whether your brand or product’s target audience likes your brand. In other words, are you getting it right? If not, you need to know because product sales will drop if the consumer isn’t happy with your value proposition.
It is also a well-known fact that brand-marketing has moved towards a customer-centric model. In other words, your marketing blub must answer the question: What can your brand do for the customer? Or, how can your brand enrich the customer’s life? If you cannot answer this question, you cannot expect your products or services to sell.
Tips to structure an Internet survey that provides valuable information
Fortunately, there are several tools at your disposal that can be used to create a product or service that answers the questions listed above. One of the best tools available is a free online survey.
Before we look at ways to formulate an Internet survey to produce desired results, let’s look at a succinct definition of an online survey. According to www.techopedia.com, an online survey is a “questionnaire that the target audience can complete over the Internet.” Additionally, an online survey is used primarily by companies and brands to gain insight into their target audience’s opinions, likes, and dislikes.
In summary, it can form a vital part of a company’s marketing strategy. Therefore, here are several tips to help you derive valuable results from the online survey:
Determine your survey’s goal or purpose
The only way to work out which questions to ask is to consider the survey’s aim. Without this information, it will be impossible to structure the survey in a manner that will highlight the rationale behind the survey. Otherwise, you will end up with meaningless information. Thus, it’s vital to spend
Ask relevant questions
Equally importantly, it is essential to note that the questions that the survey poses are critical in extracting accurate information and statistics about the products. For example, if you need to know whether the brand’s target audience likes the product or not, a simple survey asking the following question will suffice:
- Do You Like Product X: Yes/No?
The statistical analysis of the results of this survey will be simple. The underlying probability formula can also be used to predict the outcome of this survey. Succinctly stated, there can only ever be one of 2 outcomes. Consumers will either like the product, or they will not like it. Therefore, the probability that a consumer will like the product is 50% or 0.5.
The total number of participants will determine how much value the product has in the marketplace. For example, if 200 people responded to the survey, there can be 0 to 200 people who like the product and vice versa.
Juxtapositionally, if you only want to know whether consumers like the product or not, asking what consumers think of the customer service or what they think of the packaging will not provide direct insight into the core question. This is not to say these questions are not valid. They are just not valid within the current context.
Use simple, clear terms when phrasing the questions
It’s easy to become verbose when phrasing the survey questions. However, this often results in confusion and skewed results. Thus, it is vital to ensure that the questions are clearly phrased without industry-specific jargon. It is also essential that questions are direct. For example, the following question can be considered simple, clear, and concise:
- How satisfied are you with the customer service response time?
Furthermore, it is equally important to use what is known as “closed-ended” questions. In other words, questions that require a yes/no answer, rating scale, or a multiple-choice answer. These questions are the easiest to analyze.
Open-ended questions are sometimes necessary, especially when determining what the company or brand can do better to enhance its customer experience. However, they cannot be used for statistical analysis purposes.
