Julie's Ocean Writing Consultancy

Surveys have been around forever, and with good reason: they give you direct, immediate feedback from the people you want to hear from. If you’re not using them to gather feedback, you could be missing out on prime opportunities to open new markets, strengthen or expand your product lines, or improve customer service delivery. Here are 5 good reasons to incorporate surveys into your marketing plan.

Why Surveys Belong in your Marketing Plan

Measure your progress

Your efforts may be all for nothing if you can’t quantify results. Surveys are one good way to do a “before-and-after” comparison of whatever you’re trying to measure. They’ll tell you instantly whether your efforts are moving you in the right direction. They can also help you measure changes over time.

Spot market opportunities

Customers will readily tell you what they’re looking for. Surveys can help you find opportunities to serve new customers, or spot changes in their preferences. If you regularly give your customers the chance to tell you how well you’re serving them, you’ll quickly find new ways to meet their needs and earn (or keep) their business.

Assess your customer service

Surveys are a great way to help your customers help you. Customers are usually willing to share their feedback on their most recent experiences with you and your business. Positive feedback is always nice, but negative feedback is a genuine gold mine, if you can bring yourself to look at it that way! You can find and repair the areas of your customer service delivery that fall short of the customers’ expectations. In the process, you strengthen your business and help other customers see the value in what you offer.

Learn about your market

Survey results can help you learn about your market and your current customers. By knowing who your customers are and what they want, you can appeal to others like them, and find new ways to deliver the products and services they want. They can also help you spot changes and trends that signal new opportunities as well as the end of an era.

Gauge interest

Surveys are great tools for hypothesizing. They’re a low-cost way to ask about your customers’ relative interest in changes you’re thinking about. If your survey shows that customers would positively flip for a new product or service, you can offer it more confidently. On the other hand, if their interest level barely registers, you might be better off keeping that idea on the drawing board.

If you’d like more information about how you can incorporate surveys into your marketing plan, have questions about survey design or you would like to conduct them for any other reason, I can help. Please email me at eileen@juliesocean.com

Photo Credit: Yarranz, via FreeImages.com