3 Tips for Writing A Captivating Survey

Surveys are one of the best (and inexpensive) ways to gather data about your target customers. When done correctly, surveys can provide you with a broad set of useful data that allows you to move forward with your marketing objectives. Whether you want to know if your customers were satisfied with your services or find out the likelihood of them purchasing a product, surveys are able to supply you with what you need.

Unfortunately, surveys are also vulnerable to non-response. This means respondents may not be too thrilled with providing you with answers. Some respondents may respond to a few questions, making the entire survey useless. Other respondents may refuse to take part in your survey.

To encourage your target audience to fill out responses, you need to create an effective survey. In this post, we will explore three useful tips that will help you write a survey that’s worth filling out.

Try to use closed-ended questions.

The most important tip to writing surveys is to use close-ended questions. Close-ended questions are quick and straightforward, which is how your survey should be. Open-ended questions are longer and require more thinking from your respondent. Most respondents do not want to spend more than 5 minutes filling out a survey…and you shouldn’t force that from your respondent either! As such, remember to reduce the usage of open-ended questions in your survey.

Avoid leading your respondents.

As a marketer, you may be tempted to put a leading question in your survey. A leading question is like placing an opinion in the form of a question to influence a response from your respondent. Some examples of leading questions include:

• Our customer representatives are so good at what they do. How great do you think they are?
• Your experience with our product was great, wasn’t it?
• If you enjoyed our services, would you recommend them to others?

Any questions like the above convey implications and opinions that encourage a particular response from your respondents. This can lead to biased responses that make your survey data useless. Make sure to steer clear of leading questions when creating your survey.

Test out your survey.

During the survey creation process, it can be easy to overlook potential mistakes or areas of improvement. It’s highly important to run a few tests runs of your survey before you send it out. Send your survey to your friends, coworkers, and family members. Ask for their opinion on the survey questions and what improvements you can make. Having a fresh pair of eyes to review your survey makes all the difference.

Writing a captivating survey takes a lot of effort, especially if you want respondents to provide honest answers. Make sure to consider each of these tips while designing your survey. By taking time to write a good survey, you can gather the best information from your customers that drives your goals and provide respondents with a pleasant experience.