Make Sure Your Marketing Avoids These Common Online Survey Mistakes

Online surveys have become one of the most inexpensive ways to gather marketing information from a target audience. Whether you are looking to use the information obtained to identify potential prospects or to get key data from existing customers, there is no question that online surveys are a fast and economical way to achieve your marketing goals. When it comes to these online surveys, there are some common mistakes to avoid in order to ascertain the best possible results. Many marketing initiatives that involve online surveys often miss these common mistakes, which can have a fatal effect on the results. The good news is that you can easily avoid these problems by ensuring you take the necessary steps.

1.) Not inviting recipients

Believe it or not, just sending out your online survey in an email blast is not enough. When you want to get enough attention and feedback, you need to make sure that you send out an invitation. Consider an email from the president of the company or marketing director that announces the coming online survey. The key is to personalize the invitation to show that it is not just another automated process to be ignored.

2.) Poor structure or grammar

If you’ve ever received an online survey with grammatically incorrect content or poor structure where the survey doesn’t flow or read well, then you already understand some of the negative impact this common mistake can have. People take the lack of proper grammar and structure as being associated with a high degree of unprofessionalism. If your survey appears unprofessional, it loses credibility and interest virtually immediately.

3.) Avoid overuse of open-ended questions

The object of your survey is to garner information specific to your marketing goals. If too many questions allow for vague or indifferent answers, your results will be less than useful.

4.) Choose the right days

This is equally as important as content since there are days that return less than maximum responses. The best days to send out an online survey are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. If you are considering a different day, postpone to obtain better feedback.

5.) Establish a clear survey objective

You know that you want to send out an online survey but is your objective clearly defined? Even if you feel your survey is ready to send out, take a look at it again. Make sure you can see what the survey is for and that it will achieve the objectives intended. Don’t hesitate to go back to the drawing board if not. A delay is not a denial when you can mastermind the best possible online survey with a competent review.