Small Business Internet Marketing: Creating Surveys

Most small business owners find themselves thinking about surveying their customers or target market at some point. Some will use them to get customer feedback on products and/or services. Others will use them as a tool to start conversations with prospects and discover new selling opportunities.

Although most of my business focus is writing and editing web marketing copy, blog posts, newsletter articles and social media content, I do occasionally create or edit surveys for clients.

This week I once again found myself knee deep in survey methodology. If you’re planning to use surveys as part of your small business Internet marketing, here are a few tips:

1. Be clear on your objectives

What are you trying to achieve with your survey? Be sure you’re clear on your purpose before you start compiling questions.

2. Keep it as short as possible

The longer your survey, the fewer people will respond. It’s tempting to ask every question you’ve ever wondered about, but try to keep a tight focus. If it helps, tell yourself you’ll do more surveys in the future.

3. Know how you’re going to analyze the data before implementing

Survey software has made data analysis much easier than it used to be. Survey Monkey, for example, has built in tools for creating surveys, collecting information, and analyzing data. Having your data analysis plan developed up front will help you identify problem questions before you implement.

4. Be careful when creating multiple choice questions

When creating multiple-choice questions, make sure you’ve provided all possible response alternatives. This may mean including “I don’t know,” “other,” or “none of the above” as an option.

In addition, make sure each multiple-choice response is unique. Avoid overlap between individual responses. You see this often with numeric responses:

How many donuts did you eat this morning?
a. 0-1
b. 1-2
c. 2-3
d. 3 or more

If I ate 3 donuts this morning (and I’m not saying I did), then should I check “c” or “d”?

5. Test, test, test

Test your survey before implementing, preferably on someone representative of your survey target group.

Have you used surveys as part of your small business Internet marketing? Was it useful? What would you do differently next time?