There is no shortage of marketing strategies to build and grow a business, but not many of those strategies provide you with information straight from your customer base. In order to really build an effective marketing strategy, it is imperative to know those you are marketing to, so there needs to be a strategy for gaining this important information. A very effective strategy is to include customer engagement surveys throughout the entire sales funnel and beyond. Surveys are excellent for gathering data that you can use to build your business as well as create relevant content to your audience.
Following are tips for using engagement surveys throughout the sales funnel.
Awareness Stage
The key to using surveys during the awareness stage is to grab your customer’s attention long enough to push them to the next stage without bombarding them. Pop up ads when first landing on a website can be rather annoying. Better still would be to have the survey invitation in your header, or delay the pop up for a few minutes. Give them time to decide they like you first before asking for any information or opinions.
Survey questions on your website can revolve strictly around their visit to your site. You might ask why they dropped by, list a few options that relate to solutions you have, then link each answer to related content. This survey is really about starting a conversation and providing them with some valuable content. You might also ask what they are struggling with, and then create content revolving around those issues.
You can also use social media for surveys to gain awareness. Any surveys on different social platforms can be enjoyable topics. For instance, if your service is housekeeping, your survey might ask, “Which Housekeeper are You?” and have choices that then link to your services or content, such as a blog post titled “Housekeeping Tips for the Busy Mom” or a content upgrade for a cleaning routine.
Consideration Stage
You have their attention now- do not lose it. Your goal with B2B surveys in this stage should be to pique their interest more so that they will browse your website, products or services. The consideration stage is a great place to pose questions that ask, “Which of these sound like you?” The choices might be, “I haven’t even begun,” “I started but have not made any progress,” and “I’m on a roll.”
You could link each of those answers to a different page breaking down a feature of your services that will help them in their current phase. Every step in this stage needs to show the audience that you are the right fit for them, and that your product or service could solve their problem.
Decision Stage
At this point, you have their attention, and if they are still on your site, you also have their interest. This is the stage where you need to drive it home. Offer them a free demo, a free consultation, or something similar for taking a more in-depth survey. Or you might do a simple survey that asks something like, “Are you where you want to be in your career?” or “Are you ready to change your life?” That survey should be linked to a landing page with your services, or to a live chat.
If they have not made a decision yet, engage them in conversation by asking a straightforward question such as, “What is stopping you from not signing up with us today?” with common answers. You might list, “I don’t feel like I have enough information” at which point you can answer any questions they have or send them more information.
Action Stage
Your audience is ready to take action, preferably by signing up with you or purchasing what you are offering them. To build good customer relationships, the engagement needs to continue past this point. If they are signing up with you, send them a survey asking what the determining factor in their sign up was, what they feel could be better, and what additional help they might need. If they decide not to sign up with you, you can ask what went wrong, how you could improve, and if they would provide you with contact information to keep in touch in the future.
Customer Retention
Even after customers have signed up and been with you for a while, it is important to keep them engaged to retain them. No one wants to have his or her inbox stuffed, but sending out an email newsletter once a month is a good idea. You might send out a survey with that newsletter asking what new things they would like to learn about or read about on your website. Asking what type of new product or service they would find useful is another wise idea. An important factor in retaining customers is to let them know you still appreciate them long after the purchase is over. By asking them for their input and feedback, they will continue to feel like a vital part of your business.
B2B surveys can be an extremely useful tool for gaining and retaining customers. You can utilize the answers to those surveys to create new content or to send personalized content to each survey taker. Data and feedback that come directly from your audience are one of the most effective ways to run your business or organization. If you are ready to put surveys to work for you, gather your team and create a strategy for implementing them across your platforms.
