Email Marketing by the Numbers: How to Use the World’s Greatest Marketing Tool to Take Any Organization to the Next Level

How Can You Develop an Effective Survey?

An effective and compelling survey does not take much more time to prepare than a poorly structured survey. Let’s start with the basics:

• Pay attention to sponsorship. The person behind the survey is one of the most important factors determining success. You’re working on a relationship, meaning your constituents should know who’s on the other side of your questions. In email marketing, the “from” side should be the one making the appeal.

• Invest in preparation. Invest the time and resources needed to structure the survey correctly. You should be able to answer this question before you start: What are the goals and how will the data be used? I know this is review, but it’s important to the success of your survey.

• Ensure that the data doesn’t exist elsewhere. You wouldn’t want to deliver the same constituent the same exact email message five times in a row, would you? And you probably wouldn’t want to ask the same 10 questions five times in a row. Before getting too far down the path on your survey, you should see if the data could be found elsewhere. It may exist internally or externally. Asking the same thing over and over again shows that you aren’t listening, or that you may even be lazy. Don’t make your constituents do your work for you. Two of the most common causes of repeat questions are lack of segmentation and blanket surveys. It’s a recipe for repeat. It’s critically important that you segment and ask only the questions you don’t ...