Wednesday 24 December 2014

How To Create An Online Customer Survey


With the wide range of free online survey software available today, you will have no trouble finding something to help you gauge the priorities or satisfaction levels of your target customers. But finding the software is the easy part: what matters is that you spend time designing it carefully in order to obtain the most accurate market research possible.


In order to do this there are several steps you can follow, for example:

Define Your Goals: Before your write the questionnaire itself it’s a good idea to do some preliminary research. Be clear about the kind of information you want from your survey: are you testing the market for possible new areas of product development, for example, or are you looking for a more general picture of how your company is perceived and what customers want? What will you be doing with this information once you have it? Once you know the answer to these questions you will find it easier to target your survey accordingly.

Finding Your Target Audience: One you know what you’re looking for, it’s time to identify the target audience for your survey. If you want to know how you have been performing over the past year, then you’ll probably want to contact existing customers. In this case, you can use your mailing list. If, on the other hand, you want to test the market for future development possibilities then you will have to broaden the scope a bit and find other ways of getting your survey out there. You will also need to know the age and demographic of your audience as this will determine how you word your questions.

Writing Questions: It’s important that the questions you use are straightforward, unambiguous and encourage concise answers. This is for two reasons: first you want them to be simple for people to answer so they are more likely to complete the survey; secondly, you want to make it easy to analyse afterwards. Bear in mind that you are looking to produce some usable data, not gather a series of carefully-written essays on your company’s strengths or failings. For this reason, questions should also be organised in a logical way; for example, you can group them around specific themes if there are a lot of them. Also, people prefer to answer questions about their own experiences so your survey should always be relatable if possible.

Simple Layout: It is not just the questions but the formatting of the survey itself that needs to be clear and simple. Most free online survey software will allow you to customise the look of the final product so you should make the most of this feature. Leave plenty of white space between each question so they don’t run into each other and don’t be tempted to use too many colours.

Thursday 20 November 2014

How To Increase Newsletter Subscriptions From Your Website

Publishing a regular newsletter is a great way to keep customers updated on the latest events at your company. It can include any new products, special offers or recent achievements. But more importantly, every time you get a new subscriber to your newsletters you have also gained a new contact. And getting contact details from website visitors is crucial for any business. It’s not enough just to get them to visit your site: you have to turn them into proper customers.



But how can you modify your website to help ensure you get these all-important subscriptions?

Use The Top Right-Hand Corner: In case you didn’t realise it, the top right-hand corner of the page is the prime position to place any kind of call to action. Visitors seem to be programmed to expect an option to be available there, and it’s the place to which the eye is naturally drawn. If you place it right next to the main menu it makes it even more accessible.

At The Bottom Of Posts: Having a blog section on your website is a great idea. For one thing, publishing well thought-out pieces on the sector in which you operate sets you up as an expert in your field. It helps visitors to your website to see you as trustworthy and that is sometimes half the battle. But it’s also an excellent way to get newsletter subscriptions – but you should always put this at the bottom of the post. Why? Think about it: if a person has been interested enough to read all the way down to the bottom of the post then you have grabbed their attention. They may well be hooked. What better time, then, to ask them to sign up for future news or posts from your company?

Pop-Up Notices: Some companies don’t like to use these but they can really be very effective if you don’t overdo it. And there are several ways in which they can be employed. Some websites like to use a pop-up notice when visitors go to leave their site. This has the element of surprise to it and allows you to make one last-ditch attempt to reel them in with something new and fresh, or a particularly tempting special offer if they sign up to your newsletter. Pop-up boxes for first-time visitors are also becoming increasingly popular. These can redirect them to website content prepared especially for beginners.

Header Bars: Finally, you should always be trying to make the best use of your header bar to increase newsletter subscriptions. After all, this is probably the most prominent section of your website and it can now be made to float down as the user navigates the site – meaning that it’s always visible. Always have a special ‘newsletter’ section on your header toolbar and, once the user has clicked on it, make sure the text on your sign-up page emphasises the benefits they will gain from subscribing.