Keeping customers happy is a goal of every business, regardless of its industry or size. To achieve this goal, it’s important to know what your customers think of your products and services, what they value most, and what they’re willing to pay, among other things. How can you learn this information? It’s simple — just ask your customers directly.
As long as you’re asking the right questions, marketing surveys can help you get the insights you need to serve your customers better and improve your products. In this article, we discuss the various goals of marketing surveys and the types of marketing survey questions they can include.
What are marketing surveys and why are they important?
A marketing survey is a tool an organization uses to pose questions to its target audience. The information gathered can help a business learn more about its ideal customer. Those insights can then be used to stay competitive, grow the business, and increase customer satisfaction.
Marketing surveys are typically done online, though some organizations conduct surveys in person through small focus groups to gather more detailed insights. Online surveys are beneficial because they let organizations survey large groups of people in a short amount of time and on a small budget. Online marketing surveys also make it easier to analyze answers quickly, so a business can start applying those insights right away.
There are different types of marketing surveys, such as customer research surveys, product evaluation surveys, and customer satisfaction surveys. Companies tailor their marketing survey questions to achieve specific goals, which may include:
- Understanding their customers on a deeper level
- Learning what influences purchasing decisions
- Finding out about price sensitivities for specific products
- Getting insight into how to improve certain products and services
- Figuring out the details for a new marketing plan
- Learning customer expectations for specific product functions and features
Regardless of the goal, marketing surveys help businesses make well-informed decisions. This is the key reason to conduct a marketing survey. Whenever a business wants to try out a new product or service, improve its Net Promoter Score®, or launch a product in a different market, surveying its target audience is a crucial step.
Without this essential feedback, a business may end up making the wrong decision, which wastes resources and hurts the bottom line.
Examples of marketing survey questions
The types of marketing survey questions to ask depends on your goal: Do you want to learn more about a new audience segment? Do you want to know why certain customers stop making additional purchases after their first buying experience? Or is there something else you’d like to learn?
Take a look at the types of marketing surveys and sample questions below to determine if they will help you get the insight you need.
Customer information surveys
These surveys are designed to help you learn more about your customers and what they want to see in their products and services. These are sometimes called demographic surveys or market research surveys. Marketing survey questions for customer information surveys may include:
- What is the biggest frustration you have in relation to [x challenge]?
- How have you tried to solve [x challenge] in the past?
- Where do you typically like to shop for this product?
- Where do you live?
- What is your age group?
Customer satisfaction surveys
As the name suggests, customer satisfaction surveys are given to existing customers to learn how they feel about your organization and specific processes within it. This is a great way to figure out how you can improve in the area of customer service. These marketing survey questions may include:
- How would you characterize your last experience at our store?
- How would you rate your most recent interaction with our associates?
- Did our customer service meet your expectations?
- What is your main suggestion for improving our checkout process?
- How likely are you to recommend our business to someone else?
Product research surveys
If you’re considering launching a new product or making adjustments to an existing product, conduct a product research survey before starting work on it. This way, you can incorporate the feedback into your development process. The survey can also be adjusted to learn more about services rather than products. These marketing survey questions may include:
- How often do you use this product?
- What is one thing that frustrates you about it?
- How much are you willing to pay for it?
- How would you rate its ease of use?
- If there is one thing you could change about this product, what would it be?
Brand awareness surveys
No matter your industry, you likely have competitors. A brand awareness survey can help your business determine the public’s perception of your brand in relation to similar brands. These marketing survey questions may include:
- When you think of this product, which brands come to mind?
- How did you hear about our brand?
- How would you describe our brand to someone who has never heard of it?
- Can you identify our logo from this lineup?
- What is the leading brand in this product category?
Churn surveys
Everyone wants to retain their customers for the long term, but sometimes it’s just not possible. A churn survey helps you figure out why a customer no longer wants to do business with you so you can address problems and hopefully retain future customers. These marketing survey questions may include:
- What was the main reason for canceling your subscription?
- What alternative brand will you be choosing?
- Which expectations did we not meet for this product?
- What motivated you to sign on with our competitor?
- Would you consider buying our product if we made [x] improvement?
Content feedback surveys
It’s important to know whether the marketing materials you’re putting out are having the intended effect on your target audience. From webinars to blogs to ads to websites, using content feedback surveys helps you figure out if your marketing methods are effective. These marketing survey questions may include:
- Did this webinar answer the questions you had about this product?
- Were you able to find the information you were looking for on our website?
- How often do you read our blog?
- Where did you see this ad?
- How often would you like to receive our online newsletter?
Contact information surveys
These types of surveys are fairly straightforward, but they’re important. They should be placed on your company website to gather contact details from leads. Having this information allows you to contact prospects later on and nurture them through the marketing and sales cycle. These marketing survey questions may include:
- What is your name?
- What is your email address?
- What is your phone number?
- What is your preferred method of communication?
- Would you like to sign up for our newsletter?
Jotform: The perfect solution for creating and distributing marketing surveys
Ready to learn more about your customer so you can provide them with exactly what they need? Jotform is the perfect solution for creating and distributing marketing surveys to your target audience. Our wide variety of fully customizable marketing survey templates give you a head start on fielding your survey.
Whether you want to learn how likely customers are to refer you to their friends or get more information about customer demographics, you’ll find a Jotform marketing survey template that’s right for you.
Photo by Jason Goodman on Unsplash
Net Promoter®, NPS®, NPS Prism®, and the NPS-related emoticons are registered trademarks of Bain & Company, Inc., NICE Systems, Inc., and Fred Reichheld. Net Promoter ScoreSM and Net Promoter SystemSM are service marks of Bain & Company, Inc., NICE Systems, Inc., and Fred Reichheld.
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