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using online surveys in your marketing

tHe ultimate guide to

How to improve Your marketing with online surveys

a publication of

P

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introductory content is for marketers who are new to the subject.

this content typically includes step-by-step instructions on how

to get started with this aspect of inbound marketing and learn its

fundamentals. after reading it, you will be able to execute basic

marketing tactics related to the topic.

introDuCtory

is tHis Book rigHt For me?Not quite sure if this ebook is right for you? see the below description to determine if

your level matches the content you are about to read.

intermediate content is for marketers who are familiar with the

subject but have only basic experience in executing strategies and

tactics on the topic. this content typically covers the fundamentals

and moves on to reveal more complex functions and examples.

after reading it, you will feel comfortable leading projects with this

aspect of inbound marketing.

intermeDiate

advanced content is for marketers who are, or want to be, experts

on the subject. in it, we walk you through advanced features of

this aspect of inbound marketing and help you develop complete

mastery of the subject. after reading it, you will feel ready not only

to execute strategies and tactics, but also to teach others how to

be successful.

aDvanCeD

This ebook!

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... brings your whole marketing world to-gether in one, powerful, integrated system.

Hubspot’s all-iN-oNe marketiNg software

get Found: Help prospects find you online Convert: Nurture your leads and drive conversions analyze: measure and improve your marketing Plus more apps and integrations

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optimizatioN

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marketiNgaNalYtics

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grequest a demo Video overview

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surveymonkey is the world’s most

popular online survey tool. it offers an

easy way to send free surveys, polls,

questionnaires, customer feedback

and market research. check it out to

get access to survey questions and

professional templates.

Hubspot all-in-one marketing software

helps more than 7,500 companies in 46

countries attract leads and convert them

into customers. a pioneer in inbound mar-

keting, Hubspot aims to help its customers

make marketing that people actually love.

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Contents

ProBlems online surveys Can HelP you solve /8

tHe 5-steP metHoDology to launCHing marketing surveys /22

How to BuilD your survey questions /29

wHat tools you neeD to launCH an online survey /37

ConClusion & aDDitional resourCes /41

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By building more feedback mechanisms and inviting ideas from their target audiences, businesses can improve their marketing messages.

“”

When the Web first became available to users, it was primarily about retrieving

information. as it evolved in the 2000s, it became known as web 2.0 - a platform

associated not only with consumption of information, but also with collaboration and

participation.

this new reality became characterized by a dialogue formation within the community.

the idea of marketing as a two-way channel as opposed to a broadcasting tool is

revolutionary. it represents the potential of building lasting relationships with prospective

and current customers and keeping retention numbers high. by building more feedback

mechanisms and inviting ideas from their target audiences, businesses can improve their

marketing messages and create new opportunities for business growth.

surveys have become strong feedback mechanisms that help marketers draw insights

from their communities and more effective at achieving better results.

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“survey results help us attract a more diverse community, improve our education

outreach program impact, create a more robust board governance structure, inspire staff

development efforts, and target potential donors,” noted sue dahling sullivan, the chief

Strategic Officer at the Citi Performing Arts Center in Boston, Massachusetts.

of course, you can survey your community in different ways: in person, via the phone, in

group settings like focus groups, etc. in this ebook, we will focus on online surveys.

online survey solutions like surveymonkey

enable marketers to quickly develop

questionnaires for online users to fill out. They

offer templates to make the process easy and

targeted. online surveys work for a range of

companies that sell online, and are especially

powerful for businesses with a good-sized opt-

in email list and a large social medial following.

that being said, don’t draw insights about your user base just by looking at surveys.

people often say one thing and do just the opposite. back up your data with behavior-

based analytics. for instance, run a/b tests that look at how people actually react when

provided with a given choice. do they really click on that link in an email? do they really

scroll down to see your call-to-action? find if what they say they do represents what they

actually do.

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CHaPter 1

ProBlems online surveys Can HelP you solve

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Before you start using online surveys, you should know the different problems they can help you solve.“

”marketing professionals love using online surveys to gauge sentiments or prove a point.

Yet, before jumping in and adopting this marketing tool, you should be aware of the

different problems that surveys can help you solve. in this chapter we will discuss a few

of the marketing goals pertaining to online surveys:

market research

optimization of marketing

thought leadership

internal communication

1234

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market research

one of the most popular uses of online surveys

is for market research. as a company, you can

sponsor a market research that brings you

valuable information about the relationship

between your target audience and your service

or product.

a market research survey can serve different

goals, including the opportunity to measure

awareness, make discoveries about your

branding and positioning and understand your

company’s role in the competitive landscape

as surveymonkey noted, “surveying your customers to test branding and naming

concepts will help you understand the attitudes motivations, and preferences of your

customers, especially in relation to your competitors.”

1

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BuilDing Buyer Personas

buyer personas are a crucial component of

successful inbound marketing, particularly

for the sales and marketing departments.

after all, the marketing team needs to

know to whom they are marketing, and the

sales team needs to know to whom they

are selling.

You need to ask some key questions in order to build an effective buyer persona, and you

can do that with a mix of approaches, including interviews, existing research and surveys.

(also, former customers are one of the best places to start. if you’re using closed-loop

analytics, you can also reach out to those customers who exhibit the behaviors you are

looking for.)

for instance, some of the questions you can pose in your survey can include

demographic information, what the respondents’ key challenges and goals are, and

what solutions will make a true difference to them. if you need help with the process,

reference Hubspot’s buyer persona template.

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M

2 optimization of marketing

online surveys can help you optimize your existing marketing efforts, especially when it

comes to email marketing, content creation and events. for instance, surveys can play

a key role in identifying good segmentation and targeting opportunities because they

reveal if your audience likes the format of your content, its distribution, etc. survey your

audience to identify their preferences, needs and goals. let’s look at some examples!

email marketing

email marketing is most powerful when

it is relevant to recipients. relevancy is

becoming even more central to today’s

marketing strategy, and buyers have

come to expect personalization in their

communications.

according to a study by marketingsherpa, four out of ten subscribers reported that

they’ve marked emails as spam simply because they were irrelevant. On the flip side,

MarketingSherpa also reports that emails that have been tailored to specific audiences

through segmentation get 50% more clicks than their counterparts.

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the best segmentation tactics are based on true data about your audience. of course,

you can get some of that data by simply asking your audience!

in 2012, Hubspot launched a one-click email survey whose goal was to help Hubspot’s

community in the areas that concern them the most. so the only question in the survey

asked respondents about the topics that interested them the most. the email had higher-

than-average clickthrough rate (ctr), which meant that Hubspot’s recipients appreciated

the content and engaged with it.

4 out of 10 subscribersU

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

Mmark emailas spam

due to irrelevancy?

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Here is the one-click survey email sent to a segment of Hubspot’s email database:

as you can see, this is not an overly complicated email, but simply includes ten links

(calls-to-action) that represent the different categories of Hubspot’s content. this survey

was created, sent and tracked using the Hubspot email tool.

what is truly powerful about using the Hubspot integrated marketing software for this

one-click survey is that the insights emerging from it can flow into the lead intelligence of

the select group of recipients.

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Now the marketers at Hubspot can launch automated follow-up email campaigns based

on these insights and ensure that the Hubspot community is getting the content they are

most interested in. this segmented content distribution can be achieved not only through

email communication, but also through dynamic content like smart calls-to-action.

Content Creation

of course, you don’t have to stop at one-click

surveys. You can craft an online survey with

multiple questions that help you get a sense of

whether you are creating the right marketing

campaigns and launching them in a way that

your audience values. W

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for instance, Hubspot used surveymonkey to launch a content survey that evaluated

Hubspot’s content strategy: what pieces of marketing content (ebooks, webinars, blog

posts, etc.) the community wanted more or less of.

when creating a similar type of survey, ensure it has a clear goal and provides you with

actionable next steps. for instance, some of the insights Hubspot took away from the

survey above included mentions of marketing publications to partner with, an increasing

interest in information consumption on mobile devices as well as an ongoing attachment

to receiving print-friendly resources.

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events

lastly, don’t forget about the huge role surveys

play in event marketing. it’s great to identify

optimization opportunities for your next big

event and make your attendees happy.

You can launch a survey before the actual event: in this

way you can identify preferences for speakers, catering,

programs, music and themes. after the even, you can

use a survey to follow up with attendees: this will be a

great opportunity to find out what you need to focus on

make your next event an even bigger success.

\

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3 thought leadership

besides the insightful information about your audience and the marketing optimization

opportunities this data provides, online surveys also empower you to become an industry

thought leader and generate more inbound leads.

Hubspot frequently uses data-driven reports for

lead generation and blogging. Hubspot’s state

of inbound marketing, for instance, is research

getting published every year and is downloaded

by thousands of people. the report covers how

marketers understand and use inbound marketing.

another example of Hubspot’s data-driven

content is the 2012 report uncovering marketing

benchmarks from 7,000 businesses. this report

discusses how you can increase both traffic

and leads by improving a variety of different

marketing assets, including web pages, blogging,

landing pages and social media publishing.

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Thanks to such thought leadership marketers can drive lead generation opportunities, more PR exposure and stand out from the competition.

in 2010, suitcase.com launched a survey asking customers about baggage purchase

influencers, travel habits and other luggage-related questions. “People responded very

quickly to us and told us what they are looking for,” John ebb, the company’s ceo said in

an interview with Hubspot. the survey was administered through an email newsletter and

enjoyed participation from 235 recipients. Having discovered that increased baggage

fees and tighter security regulations impact consumer behavior, suitcase.com developed

a consumer luggage report and blogged about it. “it was picked up by reader’s digest

right away,” said John.

John placed the report on a separate web page, from which visitors could download the

complete file. Needless to say, this page targets keyword phrases highly relevant for the

luggage industry. since its launch, it has enjoyed a +20% conversion rate (20% of the

people who arrived at that page downloaded the report).

S“

”

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4 internal communication

online surveys can also help you with marketing within your sales organization by

improving your internal communication. marketers should think about the sales team as

another customer base, and try to ‘market’ to that internal audience.

for instance, you should develop a quarterly survey that asks your sales representatives

about how satisfied they are with the quality and quantity of the leads they are getting,

which marketing campaigns stood out for them, and if they have ideas for optimization of

the funnel.

often times, these questions can lead to

curious discoveries or help you understand

the real concerns of the sales organization.

in any case, online surveys would

strengthen the communication between

sales and marketing and help you become

more closely aligned as a team.w

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surveys as company-wide toolsof course, surveys can help not only with your marketing activities, but also with

company-wide issues. they are a powerful organizational tool.

surveys are especially helpful in improving the

customer experience as they offer a speedy

way to understand what your customers want

and make actionable changes.

You can use surveys for projects

and activities like:

Customer/suPPort FeeDBaCk

net Promoter sCore (nPs)

Planning ComPany meetings

early ProDuCt FeeDBaCk

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CHaPter 2

tHe 5-steP metHoDology to launCHing marketing surveys

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Adopting the right methodology in creating online surveys will ensure your time is well spent.

“”Now that you know what problems you can solve with online surveys, you should also be

aware of the methodology you need to adopt in order to execute the survey right. that

will make your investment worth it and yield solid results. in this section we will walk you

through our recommended methodology for setting up a successful online survey:

Define Goal

identify segment Define Timing pick the right distribution collect results & analyze

12345

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1 Define Goal

The most important step in setting up a survey is figuring out what you actually want to

know and making your objectives clear and simple. once you’ve set your objectives, you

can determine the data you need to gather to make the right decision.

as with everything in marketing (and life!), fuzzy goals lead to fuzzy results. You need to

be as precise as you can be in order to see reliable results that bring you real benefits.

good surveys are characterized by clear objectives that are easily understood.

spend time up front to identify:

what is the goal of this survey?

why are you creating this survey?

what do you hope to accomplish with this survey?

How will you use the data you are collecting?

what decisions do you hope to impact with the

results of this survey?

sounds obvious, but we have seen plenty of surveys where a few minutes of planning

could have made the difference between receiving quality responses or un–interpretable

data.

?

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2 identify segment

Next step in the methodology is finding the right audience for your survey. Survey

respondents should be a ‘sample’ of a ‘population.’ a population is the entire set of

people who you want to ask. Your sample is the portion of that bigger population that

actually ends up taking your survey.

the great thing about this step is that your

goal (so step number one) will drive your

decision about what audience you need to

reach out to.

for instance, a survey that is trying to

find more opportunities to reengage old

contacts will be different (and promoted to

a different audience) than a survey trying

to find whether your messaging resonates

with your ideal buyer persona.

g

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3 Define Timing

Step number three is figuring out when to conduct the survey. This becomes really

important if you are a seasonal business or if the topic of your survey is related to world

events, such as the olympics or a release of a new popular product.

the folks at surveymonkey tested the effect that response day had on answers to

survey questions. they sent out the same exact survey each day of the week, asking

about a wide range of topics, such as food, cars, movies, and vacation and found that

responses changed based on what day the survey was sent out and what day the person

responded. for example, people who answered the survey on a monday reported taking

fewer airplane flights than people who answered it on Wednesday.

the experts at surveymonkey

recommend that you let your

survey run for at least five

days. “patience in surveying

gives you the peace of mind

knowing that you didn’t just

get answers — you got the

right answers,” they noted.

t

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4 pick the right distribution Step number four is finding the right channel to use in the distribution of your survey.

once you build your questions and create a link for your survey (whether you use survey

software like surveymonkey) or create your own form (could be a landing page or just

a simple google docs form), you should think about how this link would spread. for

instance, you can distribute it via email, through paid ads, in social media or show it

during a live event.

the distribution will also be dictated by the

goal and audience of your survey. if you

want to ask your existing audience a set

of question, you can send an email to your

contact database. if you want to reach out to

a completely new audience, you can launch

a paid ad and specify the people who should

view it.

`

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5 collect & analyze results Once you have sent enough traffic to your survey and let it run for at least five days, you

can collect all responses and analyze the data.

Here you also have two options: if you are

using survey software like surveymonkey, you

can do some analysis within the tool itself and

export the charts that interest you the most.

if you are using a different tool to create the

survey (or if you want to slice the data in non-

standard ways), you can export it in excel and

build charts and pivot tables that help you

draw valuable insights.

Just don’t forget to tie the insights you get to actionable next steps and make all the work

around the survey worth your time and effort!

Z

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CHaPter 3

How to BuilD your survey questions

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The questions you ask in a survey impact its completion rate, so get them right.“

”there are different kinds of question designs and factors to consider when launching

online surveys. their design and wording can hugely impact the response rate to your

surveys, so getting them right is really important from a business perspective.

in this section we will cover some general best practices and recommendations when it

comes to posing survey questions.

BuilD uP a Flow

Make sure your survey flows in a logical order. Begin with a brief introduction that

motivates survey respondents to complete the survey. start with questions that are broad

and continue with those narrower in scope.

collect demographic data and ask any sensitive questions at the end of your survey,

unless you are using that information to filter survey participants. Also, if you are asking

for contact information, place that information last.

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keeP it simPle

keep your questions simple,

straightforward, and concise. that

will help your survey respondents

understand you better and will make

it easy for you to analyze your data.

the folks at surveymonkey proved that the more questions a survey has, the lower the

completion rate. for each extra 35 questions, the completion rate goes down by a whole

percentage point. so, don’t ask too many questions.

avoiD DouBle-BarrelleD questions

Did you enjoy our ebook about surveys that you found on our website? is a double-

barrelled question. it has two parts imbedded in it--did you enjoy our ebook and did you

find the ebook on our site--and one can answer positively to one part and negatively to

the other. these double-barrelled questions don’t belong to surveys.

Instead, go with closed-ended survey questions that give respondents specific choices

(e.g., yes or no). these types of questions are great for collating and analysis purposes.

open-ended questions are effective at providing you with qualitative information and

insights. You can use them when you want to see how survey takers will describe

something in their own words.

(

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raNdomize tHe order of QuestioNs

the order questions appear in your survey can directly impact the responses you gather.

priming is the reason behind this dynamic: respondents are primed to think about one

issue while answering the subsequent question.

another reason question order matters

is that survey takers may want to appear

consistent in their responses. for instance,

if you ask a person to put together a

controversial event announcement, then

ask how much they enjoy event marketing,

they may be inclined to rate their interest

lower if they struggled to write it.

response options from previous questions can also impact people’s reaction to later

answers. for instance, if you ask respondents which of the following marketing channels

(email, blog and social media) they find most effective and then ask them to rank the

success rate of all their marketing channels, you may focus their attention on just the

suggested options from question one.

How can you address question order effects in your own surveys? one option is to

randomize your questions so that respondents are not all answering questions in the

same order.

0

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be specific

a question such as: “How happy were you with the quality of information on our blog?”

seems pretty standard. but what does happy mean? or quality? in this context, it might

be more helpful to break up the question and be as specific as possible:

for instance:

“How helpful are our blog posts?”

“How compelling is the information we share on our blog?”

in this revision, “helpful” and “compelling” are two distinct ideas that help you focus on

actionable next steps.

add scale poiNts to specific QuestioNs

Once you have identified a specific idea of

interest, you can add scale points. let’s say

we asked you to rate how helpful this blog

post is. it can be the most helpful or the least

helpful blog post you’ve ever read. we can

safely assume there is something in between—

extremely helpful, very helpful, somewhat

helpful, slightly helpful, not at all helpful.

22

<

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If you decide to use rating scales (e.g., from one to five), keep the numbering consistent

throughout the survey. use the same number of points on the scale and make sure

meanings of high and low stay consistent throughout.

fully labeled scales are an added measure of stability that will help your respondents

focus and thus help you make better decisions from the feedback provided. also, here

is the moment to mention that if you decide to use numbers as your scale points (e.g.,

rank this blog post on a scale from one to five, you need to be clear and descriptive about

what one and five represent).

nuVerY

HelpfulNot

Helpful

xvl

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coNsider offeriNg rewards

a large number of survey researchers try to boost response rates by offering some sort

of reward for completing a survey. academic research suggests that offering some sort of

reward can initially increase completion rates.

Yet, once you reward people for a task, they

often won’t do the same task in the future

without a reward. in other words, rewards can

help the first time you ask, but may hurt during

later attempts to interview the same people.

use rewards when you need a one-time survey

fielded quickly and avoid rewards when you

expect to interview the same people with any

sort of regularity.

lastly, some psychology literature shows that incentives, particularly cash, can reduce

people’s intrinsic motivation to do things, leading to more careless responding and that

can mean potentially poorer quality data.

%

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test Your surVeY

once you have gone through the creation of

your questions and planning of your survey,

ensure that everything is working as designed.

make sure you pretest your survey with a few

members of your target audience and/or

co–workers to find glitches and unexpected

question interpretations.

!

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CHaPter 4

wHat tools you neeD to launCH an online survey

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Take a look at the different components you will need to execute an online survey. “

”there are different tools you can use to launch successful online surveys. rather

than exploring the software solutions you can choose from, let’s take a look at the

components you will need for the execution of a survey.

form

after you put together a list of questions, you

will need a system that enables you to build a

form with these questions. at the end of that

process, you will need to get a clean link (url)

that points people to the questions you want

them to answer. l

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to create that form, you can use survey software like surveymonkey, Questionspro or

murvey. they make the process of creating the form easy by giving you templates to

choose from. another option for creating the form is to simply use a web form on one of

your landing pages. for instance, you can do that with Hubspot, wufoo or a google doc.

so how do you make the right decision on what tool to use for the creation of your

form? consider what integrations matter to you the most. for instance, if you launch

(or plan to launch) a series of surveys, it makes sense to use an online survey software

for the management of all your results. if you would rather see the survey answers

get incorporated into the lead intelligence you already have collected about your

respondents, go with a marketing software platform like Hubspot.

promotioNal tools

Now that you have created the form with all

the questions you would like to see answered,

you should start thinking about how you will

spread the word about your survey. going back

to the methodology of creating your survey, you

will first need to decide what sample you are

trying to reach. then, consider all the different

distribution assets you have access to: email,

social media, calls-to-action across your

website, paid ads, etc.

"

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aNalYsis tools

lastly, once you get the form out and start

collecting responses from it, you can start

thinking about the way you want to analyze

that data. as mentioned earlier in the ebook,

most online survey programs offer automated

analytics tools that create charts and graphs

based on the information your survey

gathered. so with just a few clicks you can get

a pretty good picture of the attitudes emerging

from the survey.

and of course, there is also always excel to help you dig deeper into the data and make

curious comparisons. once you export the survey responses from your form, you should

be able to open them in excel and slice the data in any way you want to, building pivot

tables and even customizing the look and feel of your charts to match your company’s

branding.

Y

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ConClusion & aDDitional resourCes

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Now go identify a problem you want to solve and use a survey to tackle it in a smart, data-driven way.

“”

online surveys serve as powerful marketing tools: they can help you build up your buyer

persona, optimize your marketing assets and channels, grow into a more influential

industry thought leader and even become better at lead generation. Not to mention

how beneficial they are as company-wide feedback mechanisms: they can help you find

customer pain points, evaluate if your product and service is moving in the right direction

and even organize employees across different departments.

Yet, before you jump into online surveys, you need to make sure that you are using the

right methodology: know your goal, target sample and timing. most importantly, always

look for actionable next steps that emerge from your survey.

we hope this ebook helped you understand the fundamentals of using online surveys for

marketing. Now go identify a problem you want to solve and use a survey to tackle it in a

smart, data-driven way.

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make your marketing surveys aCtionaBleincorporate the insights you get from online surveys into your marketing database. use it for better segmentation. find out how Hubspot can help you make your surveys actionable: get a free demo today.

http://bitly.com/Hubspot-Demo