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A monthly report from
FPS President Vince DiPaolo
September 2003
How to Increase Rates
of Response
to Online Surveys
E-mail and online surveys can be valuable tools for marketers—helping shape marketing strategy—if customers and potential customers respond in high enough numbers.
When most newsletters were printed on paper, a readership survey typically generated a response rate of between 2% and 10%. Unfortunately, now that communication has moved online, even
publications that have high open and click-through rates often have low response rates to surveys.
The industry average response rate for customer satisfaction surveys is now a more encouraging 25%, according to Anne Holland, publisher of MarketingSherpa.com, a media marketing company. However, this number can fluctuate considerably depending on factors like how much of a stake customers feel they have in the organization,
and whether recipients are given an incentive to participate in the study.
Common incentives include discounts on purchases and gifts cards. Professional services companies sometimes offer free research reports.
The way a survey is written, designed, delivered and administered can also play a huge role in response rates, Ms. Holland says. “You need to make it easy. Time is the enemy,” she says.
“Anything that takes too much time is going to lower your response rate.”
Tips for creating surveys
- Start with easy questions. Make the first questions “head nodders,” meaning easy to respond to with a click or two of a mouse.
- Put sensitive questions last. Most people are wary of sharing too much information on the Internet. But once you draw them in and they understand the survey’s purpose, they
are more likely to offer sensitive information. So use early questions to get responders comfortable, and then ask for more sensitive information (e.g., sales or budget figures).
- Explain why you want an e-mail address. Again, respondents are wary in general. If you ask for an e-mail address, make sure you post a link to your privacy policy next to the fill-in box.
- Don’t ask too many open-ended questions. Blank spaces where respondents type in free-form answers require a lot of back-end processing time. If you get a thousand responses,
you’re going to have to read them all and sort them into categories that make sense. Be sure your open-ended questions are worth the effort.
- Don’t use “1-to-10” scales. To rank a respondent’s opinion, provide qualitative, worded options like “Loved your newsletter. Please keep sending it to me,” “Read it sometimes,” and “Not worth my time.” These types of responses are more valuable, since when it comes to a 1-to-10 scale, everyone has a different opinion of what the numbers mean.
- Make the survey attractive. Avoid intimidating, drop-down boxes, for example. Such boxes are a sure sign that a database programmer is leading the survey team.
Make
sure the survey form has plenty of open space, and use a colored background and white “fill in boxes.” This adds to readability, which in turn increases response rates.
If possible, get the help of a
professional designer.
- Get technical help, too. Russ Mate, President of Mate Media Inc. (www.RussMate.com), says the best way to get responses
is to set up the survey as a Web page, making sure the programmers handle the technical format questions up front, including how to send the survey, receive responses and compile results.
Nothing
kills response rates like a technical glitch that prevents respondents from either entering answers or returning the survey. Bill Jenkins, National Sales Manager for Xpedite (www.Xpedite.com), recommends sending a text message with a link to the survey. He doesn’t recommend sending a survey that opens up in the recipient’s mail
server, since many of those programs can’t handle tables or other survey elements.
A better indicator?
Your most valuable form of reader feedback on a newsletter program can come from tracking your initial open and click-through rates from edition to edition.
These rates will probably give you a far more reliable and accurate measure of your publication’s effectiveness than any periodic survey.
If you are receiving open rates of 50% or higher, it tells you that recipients are receiving your publication and taking the time to at least skim your message. If you are also recording
significant numbers of click-throughs, that’s an even stronger indication that your communication is generating significant reader interest.
However, if you are going to conduct a survey, your number one priority has to be making it easy for a recipient to respond.
FPS regularly works with financial services companies to maximize the impact of e-mail and online communications. To learn more, contact FPS President Vince DiPaolo at 847-501-4120 or
e-mail him at vince.dipaolo@fpsc.com.
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