The Power of A Survey

Marketers are always talking about customer engagement, or creating a two-way conversation or relationship between a customer and a company or brand. While engagement sounds like a high-end application for big-budget marketers only, a survey is one simple way to engage with customers in a mailing or e-mail communication. Whether it's three short questions with blanks for write-in responses or 20 multiple choice questions, a survey can help your marketing in several ways. Below are four reasons why you should consider adding a survey to your marketing communications: Reason No. 1: Surveys flatter the customer. By soliciting customers' opinions and feedback about yours or your competitor's products, you are letting customers know they're important to you and that you're listening to their valuable perspective. Reason No. 2: Surveys keep customers looking at your mailing or website longer. If the customer becomes engaged in filling out your survey, he or she will remain with your mailing on your website for a few minutes longer. Additional time spent with your company's logo and branding can be crucial in helping your business become top-of-mind and increasing customer loyalty. Reason No. 3: Surveys Provide Valuable Feedback. While reasons No. 1 and No. 2  do a lot to massage the customer's ego, surveys are also positive for marketers. The feedback provided in a survey can help you gather ideas for improving your products and offerings. Invest a little bit of time in reading through your responses and you will have a list of ideas to improve business. Reason No. 4: Surveys Can Help Sell. Smart marketers will include just the right amount of promotional questions in a survey. For example, this question doubles as promotional copy, because it reminds customers of all a product's benefits, "Which of our product benefits do you value the most, our free shipping, money back guarantee or 15% savings for repeat customers?"