An online survey will kickstart your business for 2003 - here's how and why

Online surveys are simple to make, generate excellent response rates and will give you new ideas, insights and directions for your business. Here are 5 essential tips for successful surveys.
How many times have you sat down and thought 'I need more business - should I be offering more products? Are my prices scaring people off? Do I need to do raise my profile?...' etcetera. Rather than getting out your crystal ball, there's only one sure-fire way of finding out what people think of you - and that's to ask them. Before the internet, a customer survey was a pretty tedious task - you had to design your questions, print it out, send the survey to your customers or prospects and hope that they would take the time and trouble to fill it in and mail it back to you. Weeks later, if you were lucky, you would have a little pile of replies to go through and results to collate and interpret. It was more than likely that the sample wasn't large enough to be meaningful, so the time and expense was hard to justify.

With the internet, you now have the possibility of conducting online surveys. And if you're not already, then this is the time to get started. Here are 5 top survey tips to get your business kickstarted for 2003.

1. Design questions carefully around what it is you wish to know

Sounds obvious, doesn't it? But it's easy to be drawn into 'survey cliches' - asking for things such as age and location, just because that's what surveys always seem to ask. Each of your questions should have a rationale - why do you want to know that? To what use will you put that information? And pare it down to as few questions as possible. Finding out 5 key facts is more useful than 20 general ones - and remember the longer your questionnaire the more likely your respondents will be to drop out and leave it incomplete.

2. Unless you are a real techie, use an ASP service

There's no need to sweat over Perl scripts and importing tab-delimited files. There are many services which allow you to create online surveys very simply, store the responses in a database and provide you with the results in user-friendly graphical format. You are given the code to insert into your webpage or email which takes the respondent to the survey. You can usual customise the look of the survey, and set the criteria so that people can only fill it in once, for example. Some of the solution providers are more pricey than others, but one that it easy to use and reasonably priced is SurveyMonkey. Their basic service is free.

3. Online surveys enjoy far higher rates of response than offline surveys

Clicking through an online survey really does only take a few minutes. People are simply more likely to fill it in when it's this straightforward. If you combine your survey with a small incentive or 'thank you', or entry into a prize draw, response rates climb even higher.

4. Send your survey to your email subscribers and encourage it to be forwarded

Permission-only email lists already enjoy higher open and click-through rates than unsolicited email. Utilise the goodwill of your list and encourage (or incentivise) them to forward the email to a friend. That way the link to the survey is likely to reach more people with similar interests/tastes.

5. Remember to thank them - and act on the information gathered

The final question should be followed by a thank-you page. Don't forget to gather respondents' email addresses, and permission to contact them again with future surveys. Survey results should be acted on, not sat on for months. Your customers have gone to the trouble of giving you feedback, so the worst thing you can do is to appear to ignore it. You could mention some of the results in your email newsletter, on your website, or in a press release - together with how you are answering the issues raised. Your survey results may even be newsworthy. But if you do make this information public, be sure to respect your respondents' privacy and not mention individual names.

One thing's for sure - you'll learn a lot, and the knowledge you gain will help rejuvenate your business in 2003. Good luck!

Robin Houghton advises small businesses and non-profits on how to make the most of their marketing budget, specialising in online. With a masters degree in Digital Media, she also writes for a variety of offline and online media.

Forget 'I need hits' and start thinking 'how do I get customers?'Robin Houghton

Why search engine marketing should be about attracting customers, not 'driving traffic'. Includes a case study illustrating how 'visitor hijacking' doesn't work.
I've always had a problem with standard online marketing industry terms such as 'driving traffic' or 'generating hits'. When we use search engines we have a goal in mind. We are looking for an answer and the majority of us don't want to be hijacked, hoodwinked or driven down a blind alley. Think of how you use the Yellow Pages. How would you feel if you called what you thought was a plumber, only to be told 'Sorry, we can't mend your burst pipe - but can we interest you in a swimming pool?'

On the internet, this happens all the time when we follow search engine results that appear to be what we are looking for. Whose fault is it when they are not? The accuracy of these results (or lack of it) is for the most part down to website owners. Whether it's due to stealth tactics or plain sloppiness, we are constantly being misled, and certain industries seem more prone to it than others. I have a particular bone to pick with travel sites. Since travel was one of the earliest industries to embrace e-commerce, researching and booking travel online should be a stress-free experience ... shouldn't it?

Case study: searching for ferry information online

September 2002: We wanted to take the car on a day trip to France to stock up on wine in time for Christmas. We preferred the Newhaven-Dieppe route because Newhaven is only a 15 minute drive from home. We knew that during the winter months the Seacat catamaran didn't run - but we HAD seen a big yellow ferry in port. So all I needed to know was whether there was a ferry operating throughout the winter, and the times/prices of crossings.

Solution: go online and search for 'Newhaven-Dieppe ferry crossings' on Google.co.uk

The first result is: 'P & O Stena Line' - hmm, didn't think POSL covered the Newhaven-Dieppe route? Still, I click to see. I'm faced with a page saying 'Welcome to POSL', a menu of 10 links across the top and 13 links down the side, a large ad for a sales promotion blinking at me plus a booking form centre page. No indication of where I am in the site. After reading all the menu links, none of which appear to be what I'm looking for, I decide to just try going through the booking process and see what happens. The first drop down menu is 'Departing from' - and the choice is Dover, Calais or Zeebrugge. Nul points.

Back to Google - 2nd result: Newhaven to Dieppe Ferry Tickets - http://www.cross-channel-ferry-tickets.co.uk/newhaven-dieppe/

This sounded promising. I clicked on the link and then a second link to 'book Newhaven to Dieppe Ferry tickets' which brought up a booking form. This time, although the route is available, I have to specify an exact date, the make of car and even the registration number before I can get a quote. The result? 'Sorry, we were unable to find any matches for your search, please try again.' Does that mean there's only one ferry a week, and I happened to ask for a day when it didn't run? Does it mean there is no crossing all winter? Or that this agent only deals with Seacat and no other operators? I've no way of knowing.

Back to Google - the next two results turn out to be short break operators selling 3 or 5 day packages - not what I'm after.

Next up was 'Ferry Crossings :: SUSU Travel :: Travel at its finest' - but it brought up only a 'Error 404 - this page cannot be displayed' message. Grrr.

Finally I try clicking on 'Yahoo! Travel Deals Ferry Savers' - this took me to a page with a list of current deals from a variety of operators. One is 'Newhaven - Dieppe, standard return for car and up to 9 passengers - 318 book before 30/9/02' Although this seems expensive, I click on it anyway and am taken to the homepage of Ferrysavers.com. This lack of a specific 'landing page' is particularly annoying since it means starting the search all over again. And, - surprise, surprise - the advertised fare is not to be found.

The result: half an hour later, no one had answered my question, and my negative impression of online travel agencies in general had been reinforced. The internet is my profession - so if I can't navigate my way through the murky online travel waters successfully, who can?

What we can learn from the mistakes of others

In an ideal world, good search engine marketing helps both advertisers and customers. It matches up needs with solutions, it filters out timewasters (from an advertiser's point of view) and it makes searching a simple and fruitful task. Higher standards of professionalism would up the credibility and reliability of the internet for many people. It would encourage more of them to actually use it, more often, and for humdrum, daily tasks.

I can only plea to advertisers: re-craft your search engine key phrases and descriptions so as not to waste people's time. Make sure search results link to the relevant pages on the destination site, not the homepage. Give visitors a site map. It makes sense not only from the customers' point of view, but from a commercial one also.

C'mon, folks - this is 2003! Why are so many websites still applying mediocre and unprofessional tactics? I for one am looking forward to the day when website owners think less about 'I need hits' and more about 'I need customers'.

Robin Houghton advises small businesses and non-profits on how to make the most of their marketing budget, specialising in online. With a masters degree in Digital Media, she also writes for a variety of offline and online media.