Do you have a carrot (incentive)?
Whenever you send out a market research survey, the aim is to get people to respond. By offering an incentive to complete your survey, your response rate should increase.
Incentives can be anything from entry into a prize draw, a gift voucher for your business, a free gift or promotion for their business.
Before people start the survey, be clear about what the incentive is. Depending on the topic of your survey as well as the gift on offer, this can help people decide whether or not to open your survey.
Place the sign up form for the incentive at the end of your survey so participants will complete it before you give them instructions on how to claim their gift. Make the instructions clear. It could be as simple as entering their name and email address or postal address so you can deliver the gift.
If you are collecting personal details, let participants know what you do with it. If you are collecting it purely for the distribution of their gifts, say so. If you will be adding their details to your database, let them know that too.
With email addresses, include a box so people can opt in to your email list. If you are entering everyone in to a prize draw, let them know the results will be announced in your newsletter, giving participants an added incentive to join your email list.
Strategic alliance tip:
If you don’t have a product or service suitable to offer as an incentive, speak with your strategic alliance partners. They may be happy to donate a prize or give a gift to everyone who participates in exchange for promotion to your database, or give you a deal so you can purchase one or more of their products to offer as an incentive.
