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For any business that wants to offer products or services that are focused and well targeted market research is essential. Business decisions that are based on good intelligence and good market research can minimise risk and pay dividends. By making market research part and parcel of the business process and conducting market research throughout the life cycle of a product or service market research will bring the following benefits:-

 

• Market research will help you better communicate - Your current customers experiences are a valuable information source, not only will they allow you to gauge how well you currently meet their expectations they can also tell you where you are getting things right and more importantly where you are getting things wrong. By asking the customer you can take the guesswork out of customer services and show them that you care.
• Market research helps you identify opportunities – If you are planning to operate a new service and want to know the preconceived attitudes people have then market research can help, not only in evaluating the potential for a new idea, but also by identify the areas where a marketing message needs to be honed.
• Market research will minimise risk - Market research can identifying what is needed for a new service and product and ensure that the development of a product matches demand.
• Market research creates benchmarks and helps you measure your progress - Unless you measure you will not be able to properly gauge how well your business is performing. Early research can identify flaws in your service or areas where a product needs to be improved, by conducting regular market research it will identify if improvements are being made and, if positive, will in turn help motivate a development team.

Market research brings considerable benefits and it is perhaps surprising how few organizations invest sufficient resources to enable them to gather good intelligence that will help them improve their business. Many may think that market research takes too much time and effort but that is just not the case anymore as through the power of the Internet online survey software is readily available and vital market research data can now be gathered in a quick, simple and cost effective manner.

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Technorati Tags: client, customer, feedback, market research, marketing, Online surveys, research data

It is fairly easy and even free for a webmaster to use tools to analyse their website traffic, monitor the number of visitors, report of the web pages that have been accessed and the length of time each visitor spends accessing the website.

However, despite the vast amount of detailed information that is available what is missing is anything to tell the webmaster what the visitor was thinking. Did they dislike the website? Was the layout easy to understand or just plain confusing? Was it easy to navigate the website and were they able to find the information they wanted?

A website may be generating sales but why are some people that visit the website not buying anything? Was the reason because they didn’t like what was being offered, or was it that they couldn’t find what they wanted even though it was there?

Web based surveys provide webmasters with an accurate method of answering these types of questions. Direct feedback from the website visitors cuts to the chase, no need to guess, just ask the visitors themselves how they found the site and if they found what they were looking for.

With an online survey webmasters can find out:-

• How often do people visit the website?
• How did they reach the website?
• Are they interested in the website for business or pleasure reasons?
• Did they find the information they were looking for?
• How easy was it for them to navigate the website?
• Would they recommend the website to others?

A good website survey will be short and to the point and gather good intelligence that once analysed will help improve the website.

Another alternative to a traditional survey is to embed one or two survey questions within the website after specific procedures. For example, ask visitors at the end of the registration process if they found the procedure quick and easy; or after ordering an item ask if they found the ordering procedure and payment methods straightforward. So that the questions don’t become a nuisance to regular visitors the website can be configured so that the questions are only asked once for every registered user.

Website surveys take the mystery out of working out what visitors think of a website and using Online Survey Software they are quick and easy to design and once implemented will really become the webmaster’s assistant.

To see a sample website survey please follow the link: Sample Website Survey

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Technorati Tags: customer survey, feedback, market research, marketing, Online surveys, visitors, web design, web performance, webmaster

Viral marketing before used to rely on emails but it has developed substantially in recent years to take in many other forms and strategies. According to web entrepreneurs and top seo services,a successful viral marketing campaign can be created in many different ways including:

Email
As I said in the beginning, email used to be the most effective yet simple method of viral marketing and it is still a viable method today. There can be restrictions on email and spam filters can sometimes get the better of you, but the results can still be outstanding often resulting in viral emails being sent all over the world with little being done by you

Newsletters
Newsletters are products of email viral marketing but they allow you to provide even more information to prospective customers. These are generally sent to a group of people with a particular interest, the information you send will be based on that topic therefore capturing their attention A fantastic newsletter can also assist with website traffic.

Blogging
Possibly the most powerful of all methods in recent years blogging allows website visitors to interact with your site and you also get to interact with other bloggers so cross promoting is easy and effective. Blogging also allows easy customer feedback through comments, leading to increased word of mouth sales.

Chat Rooms
If you have a chat room in your site then customers can chat in your site, with the hopes of recommending your product. You can also conduct tele-seminars which can attract a lot of prospective buyers. Cat rooms are a great way to build up a great relationship with your customers, resulting in them telling their friends and spreading the word about your site.

Tell-a-friend Scripts
As long as you have some sort of a privacy policy, tell-a-friend scripts are a powerful way for people to quickly and easily pass on information to their friends as a recommendation for your products or services..

Video clips
Uploading videos on sites like Youtube or even on your own site can get the viral machine pumping. People love video as they can digest information easier. If you create a good video it is likely that people will pass this on to others interested in the same topic.

Flash games
Flash games get passed around through email and if you can include a small unobtrusive message in the game about your site, you can literally get thousands of visitors.. You can also submit flash games to big game sites or social sites like Facebook where they can be accessed by millions of people.

Viral marketing has so many possible methods and implementations that it is impossible to ever run out of ideas.. By combining several methods together, your word of mouth marketing campaign is sure to bring results.

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Technorati Tags: Internet Marketing, marketing

Try tapping the keyword ‘ fish tanks ‘ and Google gives you the most relevant sites in a flash. Now, if you are a web-site owner you really want your results to be included in the top half of page one on the left.. There is a very good reason for this because around 50% of people always click on the top left hand corner.. If you have used Google Heat Map the colours of the heat map show where a user looks on the page. The red/orange/yellow areas are where a user looks the most and the dark blue areas are where a user looks least. As the maps shows - it is the top ten natural search results which get the most attention, so even if your site has great website design but is not in the top ten of the natural search results, then too bad.

A purple cross marks where a user makes a click and again, the top natural positions always get the attention from the users and the highest number of clicks. The map confirms that you have to be visible in the natural results in order to get benefits from the greatest volume of visitors.

You’ll be please to know that this, as well as most top seo services,is our long term strategy, to be the site that is in the ‘red zone’ for our chosen keyword.

But just for a moment let’s pretend we have a web-site and we want some quick traffic. One of the main options open to us is to buy that traffic, probably for so much per click. Where am I to go? Probably Google AdWords, the largest seller of advertising space in the market. When you make a search on Google, those are their ads on the right hand side in your search results.. However, don’t bother about them that much as we will talk about them in later modules. For now, I’m just trying to explain how all this works. So, let’s say I went to Google and want to help out some visitors who are looking for ‘ fish tanks ‘.

I would create an ad for ‘fish tanks’ decide how much I want to bid for the keyword and within hours my ad would be come out in the right hand column. But this is also where Google AdSense comes in, because AdSense allows other sites, your sites, to display those Google Ads and receive a slice of the cake. In truth, Google, the king of search engines,keeps the biggest slice of the cake which is about 70%, but enough 30 per cents can quickly add up, especially if we’re not having to do any work for it. Remember, some keywords can pay upwards of $5 PER click (we’ll show you how to find those in a later module). To be honest, I don’t think the big money of old is still there to be made with Google AdSense.

One of the major reasons is that Google now gives advertisers the opportunity to pay a different rate for ads on their search network, as against the ads they show on your sites. Invariably, advertisers choose to pay a lot lower rate and as a consequence, you as the publisher, get the same cut from a much smaller pie. Having said all this, AdSense is a ‘must have’ in every Internet Marketer’s kitbag and I certainly make it a core part of any Internet Marketing strategy, either as a user or a publisher, there are some big numbers to be made, as long as you know what you are doing.

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Technorati Tags: Internet Marketing, marketing

What exactly is word of mouth marketing? It’s simply when someone refers or recommends a product or service.. Having some positive comments about your business can get you faster to success and the best way to have this is through word of mouth marketing, as top seo services would say.

Most current studies reveal that this form of marketing is extremely powerful but is not used to its full potential. When someone recommends a product or service, people actually listen. Never underestimate the power of someone recommending or simple reviewing your product or service as this is very influential, thus increasing your sales.

With marketing online there is no better way to spread good comments about your website or business than through word of mouth marketing. It brings credibility to your business. Each satisfied client will lead to an increase in your business, due to them referring others. Always keep in mind that each satisfied client has colleagues, who they will refer to your business, once you have satisfied their needs. That’s where the true power of word of mouth marketing is unlocked..

Now that we’ve covered what is word of mouth marketing and how it can impact your business, let’s shift the focus on how you can use word of mouth marketing to catapult visitors to your website and build your mailing list..

In most situations word of mouth marketing will be a tool which you will have problems controlling with Other than offering a website that is very exciting and ensuring that your clients are always satisfied, there is little else you can personally do to control word of mouth marketing. For example, you can never control how many word of mouth visitors you’ll recieve, as it is all based on people taking the time to refer someone to your website. You have to hope that you receive a buzz or that your website or service is so enticing that people will pass it on willingly.

The above strategy alone relies too much on hope and not enough on making it as easy as possible for someone to refer your website and increase your web traffic. One of the best and easiest ways to light a fire under your word of mouth marketing is to make it easy for all the people who visit your website to refer it to others.

It’s really that simple if you want to increase your word of mouth visitors, you can always give them access to an easy to use toll that will let them pass on your website to others. Do not rely on them having to open their email client, type a message, copy your website address, and then send it. Instead, why not use an all-in-one tool that will transform your website into a powerful referral machine..

That is the true key to being successful with using word of mouth marketing to promote your website. It’s not only having an awesome website, and satisfied clients. Making it easy for every visitor who browses your site to refer others, will be the key factor creating a successful word of mouth marketing campaign.

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Technorati Tags: Internet Marketing, marketing

 

If you wish to be successful with Internet Marketing then you need to start with the end in mind. Far too often would be marketers have a ‘build it and they will come’ thinking. Sadly, many times ‘they’ don’t come and those ‘would be’s’ end up being ’wannabe’s’ forever Please don’t make the same mistake.

That’s the reason whyany Internet Marketing campaign should begin with proper market research. The good news is that there are plenty of tools available..

I would recommend, aside from getting a professional website design when purchasing a new domain {HINT}.

Just for your information, these are the average fees paid PER CLICK by the top advertisers for the following keywords:

Cheap flight $ 4.00
Credit Card $ 15.45
Holiday $ 15.53
Mobile ring tone $ 5.15
Smoked fish $ 0.20
Vegetable delivery $ 0.05

Source: Sunday Times

So, a rule of thumb is to always know the value of your market before you start investing colossal amounts of time and effort. A broad rule of thumb is the more lucrative the market, the more time and effort you you’ll need to invest and, later, conquer that market. If you’re just starting, much better to find a tiny niche to cut your teeth on. Sure, the rewards wont be as big, but at least the results are postive, which will hopefully drive you onward and upward.

There are lots of sites where you can find the top paying keywords but I suggest you use the free web traffic estimator in Google AdWords as a good starting point.

Another important rule, before I forget:

When a surfer uses 1 to 2 words for general research i.e. digital camera. When they use 2, 3 or more words the surfer is generally looking to buy something as they are further walking down the buying ‘path’ i.e. Nikon digital camera. If they type in the actual product name i.e.Nikon D80 Digital SLR Camera then then most likely, they are already potential customers and ARE READY TO BUY and are usually completing the last stage of price and value comparisons amongst the various sites.

So ideally, you should be checking for business segments that you can wrap up within 2 or 3 words i.e

vintage-engagement-rings.com.

Just a friendly reminder and a really big long word just for caution,

youdonotwanttomakethedomainnametoolong.com

because this will get really, really ridiculouswhen you start to add sub-domains further down the track i.e.

nowwhatyouhaveisareallylongdomainname.youdontwanttomakethedomainname
toolong.com

It is worth taking the time before rushing out and setting up a website. As with most things, preparation is the most important and necessary part.

 

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Technorati Tags: Internet Marketing, marketing

If you market on the Internet, or are thinking about marketing on the Internet, then there are a few home truths then you need to know about….

THE GAME KEEPS CHANGING

For a couple of main reasons, the internet marketing game keeps changing. Get used to it. Google will keep changing it’s ranking algorithm and so does gaining web traffic. One is to keep lowlife scammers at bay and Two, protecting their AdWords revenue. They know that if their algorithm becomes too easy to crack, TOO permanent, then BILLIONS of dollars will be switched from PPC (Spent with Google) to Search Engine Optimisation experts (Spent with other people).

GOOGLE IS THE ONLY GAME IN TOWN (For Now)

Google controls around 60% of the search market. So if you don’t have a strong spot in Google then you have lost the lion’s share of the market. They also have such market charisma that they make you sign ‘agreements’ like ‘Google reserves the right to do anything it wants and you can’t do anything about it’ (or words to that effect). They don’t really care what happens to their customers, they are just looking after their own interests. Get used to it.

INTERNET MARKETING INFORMATION IS LIKE FRESH FRUIT

The market is changing that quickly, internet marketing information gets old very quickly. Yes, there are pieces of advice that will let your ‘ fruit ‘ stay ripe for years ( building a list or having a professional website design, but a lot has a shelf life of literally months. Buyer beware. Do not buy mouldy bananas.

PEOPLE DON”T SHARE INFORMATION JUST FOR $47

They might share a lot of valid, solid information, but they will never share the recipe for gold for $47.00! If the claims people make sound unrealistic or sound too good to be true, then they probably are. (Please note that any recommendations I make on this site means I have purchased and tested the product and found the product to be worth it’s money. Read the product review on Alvin Phangs Atomic Blogging, for example).

Do not purchase Internet Marketing products based on any earnings claim, as you will find them to be, in the main, wildly exaggerated.

You will also find that the time or resources needed to achieve such results are very much underestimated. Instead, value the purchase based on YOUR time. How long would it take you to find the equivalent information for free? How much will it cost YOU if you get and follow the WRONG information? If you don’t have the right blueprint to follow?

Finally, there is a LOT to learn and you can easily be distracted, darting from this place to that in the search for the holy graill. My advice is to focus on just and I mean only ONE aspect of Internet Marketing (list building for example), conquer that and then move forward.

Other pieces of advice include Keep your focus. Be determined. Do not accept failure. Get and read only the latest information, preferably a source that is updated DAILY. Be accepting of change. Change is inherent with Internet Marketing, so. So stop whining and get used to it.

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Technorati Tags: Internet Marketing, marketing

Why should you bother?

Good customer service is the life blood of any business. Although new customers are very important good customer service will help generate customer loyalty and repeat business. With every satisfied customer your business is likely to go on and secure many more customers through recommendations and if you do not take proper care of your customers there is probably a competitor waiting in the wings that will.

A Customer Satisfaction survey will help you not only identify problem areas but will also demonstrate to your customers that you care and are proactive in looking for ways to improve the service that you provide.

 

Where to start?

Objective - Before you start compiling your survey consider what the objectives of the survey are, in that way you will remain focused and find it easier to decide what questions to ask.

Analysis - In addition to the objective consider also how you will analyse the answers having completed the survey.

Keep in mind that ‘closed’ questions (where the respondent is asked to choose from a limited number of responses) are easier to analyse than ‘open’ questions (where the respondent can reply in anyway they want).

A lot will depend on the likely volume of respondents, the higher the volume the more important it is to have an easy method of analysing the results.

Opportunity – As well as obtaining valuable market research data keep in mind that customer surveys are also a good way to advertise areas of your service that your customers may not be aware of.

Before you publish the survey confirm that the questions you have asked will provide you with market research data that when analysed will help you make informed decisions.

Then, from a marketing view point read through the survey, confirm that you have phrased each question so that every opportunity has been taken to promote your business?

The ideal question will perform the following three functions:-

• Market research - provide valuable feedback to help you improve your customer satisfaction levels and in turn your business
• Marketing - promote aspects of your business
• Information/Education - advertise a service that you provide that your customers may not have been unaware of

For example:- Do you find the in-store baby changing facilities useful?

By asking this question not only will the store receive good feedback on the facility they provide but they will also advertise their baby changing facilities and promote themselves as a family friendly store beyond those customers who have a specific need for the facility provided.

Warts and all – to benefit most from a customer survey you need to be prepared to accept criticism.

A well designed customer satisfaction survey will enable you to identify problems so that they can be addressed; regular customer satisfaction will prevent complacency and give you early warning on where you might be losing out to your competitors initiatives.

 

What are the questions you should ask?

Although it is a given that each business is likely to have specific and unique factors that are important in providing good customer services there are common areas that are relevant to all businesses be they a physical store, online internet store or a service industry. The following are key areas to providing good customer service.

Communication - Are you confident that you make it easy for your customers to contact you?

When a customer telephones is the phone answered promptly; are enquiries about products or services properly handled? Good businesses will make every effort to ensure that whatever the customers query it is resolved by the right person, quickly, politely and fairly.

If customers reported problems that cannot be resolvable immediately do you promise to respond in a given time period and do you deliver on your promise?

Use a customer satisfaction survey to check that all your employees are perceived by your customers as being helpful, courteous and knowledgeable.

Location – Do your customers find it easy to visit you, if a physical bricks and mortar store, is it conveniently located with good access?

Making it pleasant, making it easy - For an online business it is important to ensure that your website is easy to use and aesthetically pleasing.

Regardless of the store being a bricks and mortar or purely online web based store, is the store properly laid out and can your customers find what they need and is there sufficient detailed information and help on hand to explain how a particular product works?

The right quality products – In addition to measuring the quality of the service that you provide you should ensure that the products and services that you provide do in fact match your customers’ requirements.

Value for money – Cheap or expensive is hardly ever a good measure, value for money is.

Is your business associated with value for money by your customers, if not, why not?

Speed and attention – No matter what the business, the majority of customers will want to be dealt with quickly but attentively.

Are you doing everything you can to avoid any delay?

Good businesses will try to treat each customer as an individual, does yours? Attention is one thing but only if it leads to a quick and satisfactory resolution to the query.

Demographics and Specific issues – Take the opportunity to profile your customers, for example their gender, age group and where they live?

The more knowledge you have of your customers the better you will be able to target your business.

Within the survey encourage customers to highlight their problems and provide contact details.

 

What is next?

Analyze the results once the survey has been completed.

Trends – Look for common and specific areas where the service needs improving.

Ask yourself if any criticism is valid and is there anything that can be done to resolve or minimise the problem?

Training – Are all employees properly trained and do they have sufficient knowledge?

Where staff training programmes have been implemented have they had a positive impact on the business?

Follow-up – If a customer who has completed a survey has raised a specific issue ensure that they are contacted and their complaint addressed.

Don’t lose an opportunity to resolve a problem and keep a customer.

Continuously Monitor - Make changes based on the survey results and then re-measure by issuing further surveys.

If you are concerned about customer satisfaction and what to view a sample survey for a store that will demonstrate some of the above advice please visit:- Sample Customer Survey

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Technorati Tags: customer satisfaction, customer services, marketing, Online surveys, questionnaires, satisfaction surveys

How to create a survey using Survey Galaxy

Writing surveys is considered easy; but is it? The truth is that writing surveys is easy but writing effective surveys is more difficult. The following are twenty tips that if followed will help you write more effective surveys.

1. What is the survey’s purpose?

Surveys are conducted for many reasons. By phrasing the questions and structuring the answers surveys can be used in a multitude of ways and for a variety of reasons. When designing a survey don’t lose sight of its purpose.

2. Title the survey

The survey title is key and an opportunity to instantly summarise a survey’s objective and grab the attention of invited respondents. Respondents need to invest time in completing the survey so make them feel that their investment is worthwhile.

3. Keep the survey as short as possible

Every question asked should be asked for a reason. Pay attention to the ‘need to know’ questions and minimise ‘nice to know’ information.

4. Use plain English, avoid jargon and acronyms, be consistent and ensure that the questions you ask will not result in ambiguous answers

Be careful when wording the question. If a question is not clear then there is every chance that respondents may interpret the question differently to that intended by the publisher making any analysis of the data meaningless or at the very least misleading.

5. Avoid long questions

Try to use succinct sentences wherever possible. Long questions tend to cause respondents discomfort and can lead to respondents abandoning a survey.

6. Ask only one question at a time

Avoid confusing the respondent with a question like ‘Do you like tennis and football?’

7. Avoid influencing the answer

It is important not to load the question. ‘Should irresponsible shop keepers who sell cigarettes to minors be prosecuted?’ is unlikely to have any value.

8. Ensure that the selected answer format allows the respondent to answer the question being asked

Ensure that the respondent is able to answer how they really feel or they may abandon the survey. As a last resort consider the benefit of including a “No comment”, “Can’t say”, “Don’t know” or similar response option.

9. While you are compiling your survey consider how the survey results are going to be analysed when the survey is complete

When asking questions that allow for a free text open ended response, such as when asking the respondent for their comments, appreciate that such information is likely to be difficult to score and/or summarised. Consider how answers can be grouped. For example “Indicate your length of service?” - ‘less than 2 year’, ‘between 2 and 4 years’ and ‘more than 4′.

10. Try and ensure that the questionnaire flows

When asking questions group the questions into clear categories as this makes the task of completing the survey easier for the participants.

11. Target your respondents

In some cases you will want to target a specific group, in others a cross section. If you can’t easily control the respondents consider including questions/answers that will allow you to filter out respondents who don’t fit your target profile.

12. Provide a channel for your respondents to expand on their answers or make comments

By allowing respondents to make additional comments you will increase their satisfaction level and the comments will also give valuable feedback on the specific questions and/or the survey as a whole. Remember that for large sample collections that free text open ended responses may be difficult to analyze.

13. If you are conducting a confidential survey ensure that your pledge for confidentiality is honoured

If you have made guarantees to the respondents that the survey is confidential you need to ensure that the individual data is not shared with anyone or used for any other purpose. Confidentiality must be maintained at all times and any identifying information destroyed after the survey is complete.

14. Consider the benefits and disadvantages of allowing respondents to be anonymous or identifiable

If your respondents are to be anonymous then appreciate that you will be unable to follow up or match “pre” or “post” surveys. Allowing respondents to remain anonymous will however allow respondents to respond without possible peer pressure.

15. Carefully consider the best response format

It is good practice to maintain a consistency in the format used for responses. When creating your survey keep in mind that when analysing the data single selection radio buttons are easier to analyse than multiple selection check boxes. Do not use a check box if a radio response would do.

16. Advise the respondent as to the approximate time it will take to complete the survey

If the survey appears to be a stream of never ending questions then respondent drop out can occur. It is good practice to give an indication as to how long the survey is likely to take so that the participants can choose the best time to complete the survey.

17. Inform respondents of the survey end date

Encourage your invited respondents to complete the survey as soon as possible but advise the respondents of the survey’s end date so that they have the opportunity to schedule the necessary time.

18. Test the survey

Before publishing a live survey publish a small pilot survey to check for questions that are ambiguous or confusing and to ensure that the survey is aesthetically pleasing.

19. Before publishing the survey proof read the survey carefully

Check more than once that the survey is grammatically correct and makes sense. If practical get a colleague to check the survey before you publish, if you are unable to do this then take a break before checking again.

20. Thank your respondents

To complete surveys respondents need to invest their time and they should be thanked at the end of completing the survey or in a follow up letter. You may even want to consider incentives such as entry into a prize draw or a reward.

For more information please visit Survey Galaxy

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Technorati Tags: advertising, customer services, employee surveys, employer, feedback, market research, marketing, Online surveys, promotion, questionnaires, satisfaction surveys

Customers are tough cookies. They are extremely media aware and increasingly cynical and it is a clever marketeer who can get under their skin. Online surveys modernizes the traditional format and offer a unique way of interaction – all the benefits of the Internet without the programming. Here are ten reasons why they may be the silver bullet marketeers’ need, complete with examples supplied by Martin Day, managing director of Survey Galaxy - one of a new breed of websites making online surveys quicker and cheaper

1. It’s cheap
Select the right survey website and creating surveys can be free of any charge and the cost to publish very reasonable.
Information harvested from surveys can be reused and repackaged in other marketing and PR for use in press outlets making it a very efficient form of information gathering.

2. It’s extremely easy
Anyone can develop and publish an online survey. Survey sites allow people who are interested in the benefits of surveys, rather than technicalities, to side-step the required programming skills and create relevant up-to-the-minute surveys, instantly – surveys that are even easier to complete than they are to make.

3. Canvas the world
Once the survey is online it’s a simple step to promote it, either through email (with a link enclosed), via a link from a website or referenced by other forms of advertising. Anyone who has the link can be connected instantly to the survey, at a time that’s convenient to them, 24×7.

4. We have all got an opinion – and we like to give it
Customers do not often view surveys as spam and the majority welcome the opportunity to make their voice heard and a chance to have an impact on a brand. They can be particularly good for change management projects; a survey asking a workforce on their opinion of change allows the key issues to be raised in a positive manner and encourages employee participation. Online surveys ensures that the message reaches each individual and the feedback is compiled in a manageable form.

5. Get inside your respondent’s head
With traditional advertising you can lead a customer to an advertisement but you can’t make them think. Surveys engage the respondent, who think about the question before giving their response.

6. Building relationships
It needn’t all end at the end of the survey – while you have the respondent’s attention and they are in the mood you can ask if they want to sign up for more information or a regular newsletter – making the most of the window of opportunity where you have their interest.

7. If you like this, you’ll love…
Maximise the interest of those responding to your survey by referencing related information. By including links within the survey to websites that offer detailed information you are able to reinforce the marketing message.

8. The soft sell
Surveys can associate a product with a number of positive attributes. By listing the many features of a product and then asking the respondent to say how important the features are to them, regardless of their response, the respondent will associate the product with the features.

9. Not just selling
A survey is an effective, easy and quick method to promote and gain acceptance for a difficult proposal; for example a public body trying to gain acceptance and support for a particular scheme.
Take the example of a city trying to gain support from the general public for their bid to host a future Olympic Games. A survey can explain each benefit putting the respondent in a much better position to appreciate what the real advantages are that might just combat any negative headlines. Unlike other forms of marketing as well as promoting a cause, useful feedback can be gained that can then be used to fine tune the overall marketing strategy.

10. Fresh topics engage interest
Thinking laterally a lively and imaginative approach to surveys can provide the ‘hook’ to engage respondents. The survey subject can be targeted towards a particular group on a subject close to theirs hearts. A survey’s marketing message can take the form of a simple brand awareness message by stating that the survey is being sponsored by brand name, or by finding a link from the subject matter to the product – something that is surprisingly easy and highly effective.

Attract traffic by providing a Public Survey section as many people who enjoy completing crosswords and doing word puzzles enjoy completing questionnaires. A public survey notice board is a low cost and automated method that will help increase traffic and establish a loyal and returning following. No need for moderators as unlike discussion boards there is no opportunity for people to disrupt the site by inappropriate remarks as the survey results can be displayed in summary form.

Customers do not associate surveys as spam and most welcome the opportunity to make their voice heard and a chance to have an impact on a brand.

Many of the techniques and a few more are contained in the following Sample Marketing Survey.

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Technorati Tags: advertising, market research, marketing, Online surveys, promotion