8 Tips to Follow Before Planning Online Surveys

The results of an online survey can help you determine the road maps of your products and services, improve customer service, and help refine marketing initiatives.

But you need to know some of the best practices in its realization if you want to obtain useful results in your online surveys.

Here are some things to keep in mind when creating online surveys:

1) Design short online surveys

Most experts in online surveys recommend creating surveys by limiting the questionnaire to the minimum possible, provided it fits the objectives of the survey.

This way, you will ensure that you complete your online survey as many users as possible. It may be tempting to ask about everything you want to know, but it is better to optimize a small number of questions and take advantage of them.

It is not recommended that your online survey requires more than a few minutes to complete.

2) Send the surveys at optimal times

It is convenient to find the most convenient days of the week to send surveys to your audience.

It is also necessary to keep in mind that many online surveys see better response rates outside working hours.

It is an excellent strategy to send a survey at the beginning or end of the workday, which will prevent the survey from mixing with other priority messages related to work.

3) Optimize for mobile

A large number of people usually open their emails on their smartphones or tablets and also want to be able to complete online surveys on these devices.

Make sure your online surveys look good and work well on mobile devices. You can perform tests on your device to make sure everything works as planned before sending it to your list.

Consider the following points in conducting surveys for mobile devices:

• Use mainly multiple-choice questions
• Limit the number of questions on each page
• Keep surveys as short as possible to minimize dropouts
• Only require answers to the most important questions
• Keep the survey format simple: avoid progress bars or logos, since they occupy a valuable space
• Avoid using images: they occupy valuable space on small screens
• Test the survey on different mobile devices
• Keep the survey URL short and easy to read so you can link anywhere

4) Use email to promote your survey

You can post online surveys on your website or encourage customers to complete it using social networks, but email has proven to be one of the most effective ways to get answers.

It is direct, and remains in the client’s inbox, reminding them to do it when it is convenient for them.

5) Use graphics and multimedia strategically

In general, surveys do not need sophisticated graphics since sometimes the graphics can distract from the survey content or influence the responses.

You should always ask yourself if multimedia material is an improvement that solves an information problem or if it is a distraction.

6) Consider offering incentives

These can be gifts, prizes, visibility on the web, etc. Studies show that large prizes or incentives are not necessary to increase response rates.

A small detail, certificate type, or gift coupon, can significantly increase the responses.

7) Publish the results online in view of the survey participants

People who have already responded will be interested in seeing the results. And also serve to encourage participation and complete the survey to other users.

8) Use the appropriate online survey tool

It would help if you evaluated among the varied markets offer the tool that best responds to your expectations, and that enables you to interpret and assess the results according to your objectives.