7 Rules You Must Follow When Creating Lead Generation Survey Questions: Shweiki Media Printing Company Presents a New Article on Conducting Successful, Profitable Surveys

Shweiki Media teams up with Matt Coen of Second Street Promotions Lab to present a must-read article detailing seven tips for writing the best lead generation survey questions.

Uncover New Leads and Collect Customer Insights with Survey Questions

Promotions provide the perfect opportunity for advertisers to survey their audience, since the chance to win a valuable prize incentivizes people to answer the questions.

By adding well-designed survey questions to the registration or entry form, one can help advertisers collect both new sales leads and valuable customer insights they can use for marketing purposes.

What are Survey Questions?

Survey questions are questions on a registration form that are designed to collect data that will help an advertiser achieve their business goals. These are created together with the advertiser during a needs analysis conversation, and are ultimately meant to help advertisers segment an email opt-in list based on specific interests. The real ROI starts coming once one activates these hot leads with great offers.

What Do Survey Questions Mean for Advertisers?

Survey questions allow advertisers to not only define what a lead means for them, but also to collect that information from people participating in the promotion.

Here’s an example: when the team at a newspaper spoke to a local appliance, electronics and furniture store, they found that the advertiser wanted to build up a database of leads and collect data that would allow them to more effectively market their products.

To attract their target audience, they ran a dishwasher giveaway that included the following survey questions:

-Are you considering buying a new dishwasher? (yes/no)

-What products are you most interested in at this time? (appliances/computers/photography/living/furniture)

From just these two simple questions on the entry form, they were able to identify 215 new leads that were in the market to buy a new dishwasher, plus find out that most people who entered the contest were interested in appliances, etc.

Best Practices for Writing Effective Survey Questions:

1. One should talk to their advertiser about what they want to know: During the needs analysis conversation, one should find out what the advertiser’s goals are and what information would help them achieve those goals. Then, one should work with the advertiser to craft questions designed to collect that information.

2. It's important to include no more than 3 survey questions in one form: If the entry or registration form appears too long and intimidating, fewer people will participate in the promotion. A good general rule is that more than three questions will raise the barrier to enter too high.

3. One should make the questions required: Since the survey questions are an incredibly important part of the promotion for the advertiser, one wants to make sure to get as many responses as possible.

4. It's unnecessary to ask for information one will get elsewhere on the form: For example, if there's a field for zip code, it's not smart to waste a survey question asking people where they live.

5. It's best to avoid open-ended questions: The most useful survey questions have a finite number of responses and utilize drop down menus or checklists. This ensures that the data received is easier to analyze and segment for leads. For example, if one were to ask “What is most important to you in a cup of coffee?”, they should provide a dropdown with response options like price, origin, taste, etc.

6. One shouldn't ask questions with obvious answers: If someone is running a sweepstakes with a restaurant known for its buffalo wings to give away a tailgate wing party, they shouldn’t include a survey question asking, “Do you like wings?” Anyone who would go through the effort to enter the contest is sure to answer "Yes." Instead, one should try something more specific, like “What variety of wing flavor is your favorite?” with answers like traditional, spicy, ranch and other varieties from the advertiser’s menu.

7. One should think about how the answers will be used: How will the advertiser be using the results to segment an email list? What offers could be send out to these segments once they are created? Identifying the leads is only the first step – activating those leads with coupons or offers if the real payoff! 

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