Marketing, Lead Generation, and Research: A 3in1

Marketing, Lead Generation, and Research: A 3in1 Solution.

by: Jay Gilmore

I Hate Cold Calls

Long before I started my business, I realized that I wasn’t good at telephone sales and that I would need to generate leads in another way. I developed a surefire way to generate those leads, interest in me, and my business, through the use of telephone market research.

There are many benefits of doing market research including the ability to learn more about my target marketกs behaviors and opinions, honing messages and presentations based on real, first hand responses, as well as, to test out new messages or theories prior to wide release.

As a website developer and consultant, my large market is businesses and my main target group is small business owners. In order to contact these owners I would need access to their contact information.

For my target market, I found a regional business development directory to be very complete including names, addresses, phone numbers and website information. Some of the information was a little out of date but it was going to be far better than just cold calling to reach ‘the Owner or Managerก and get successfully past the front desk person etc. For other BusinesstoBusiness companies I might suggest the local Chamber of Commerce or Business Association. Contact lists may be purchased or leased from outside sources, however, that is beyond the scope of this article.

For a client of mine, who is in the property care and landscaping industry, I was able to suggest hitting the phone book in the areas he wanted to generate business in and call every twentieth or thirtieth name in the book. The only criteria his respondent had to meet, was that they are a homeowner or property owner. In his case, my client is located in a small town and most respondents would be homeowners. If he were in a major city I would recommend that he be calling property management companies and target areas of the city with a high concentration of houses. Most cities still have their phone books broken down by community or borough.

Developing the Survey

The first step in this process was to develop the survey. To do that you first need to determine the subject of the survey. This should also relate directly to the message you wish to communicate to the lead. For my company I wanted to find out one of two things, if the respondent had a website what were the circumstances, experiences and opinions of having it or if the respondent didn’t have a website the circumstances and reasons for not.

Tuning in the Respondent

As you can see, these questions relate to only one specific service websites. This allows the respondent to easily understand what subject area you are talking about so that when you switch to providing your message they are already thinking about that subject. In my case, the respondent could easily tell that I was asking questions about websites, they probably figure that my business has something to do with websites.

Keep Questions Open Ended

The survey questions should be as open ended as possible. This is not scientific, as it cannot be quantified in small sample sizes, but it is the best way to avoid leading the respondent to a perceived answer. They may feel that you are looking for a particular response. This can happen when you use a scaled response survey such as ratings of 1 to 5 or 1 to 7. In my own personal experience this type of survey is best left to academics. In most cases you are looking for opinions and experiences of an individual. Ask questions like, กCould you explain how you felt about the experience when you last purchased a car?ก

Keep Things Brief There should be no more than 10 to 15 questions on the survey. The fewer questions and the more open ended the better the dialogue with the respondent and the more valuable the information.

The Wrap Up

At the end of the survey when I ask if they are interested in more information about my company and services they already have an idea of what to expect and are more likely to be open to hear and receive my message because there is no surprise and I was not beating them over the head with message. I merely made them think about their website or lack thereof.

Script = Professionalism

Once you have developed your survey you should write a script. I know I can hear your sighs now you don’t want to sound like a robot or just another telemarketer but the use of a script will ensure that you sound like a professional. The danger with a script is that it might not be conversational or may not consider the person on the other end of the phone. To avoid sounding robotic and like you are reading a script you should read it aloud to yourself. If you are unsure about how it sounds try it out on someone in your home or office. The worst thing you can do is to call up someone and start in with, กUuuhhmmm, could I speak to uuuhhmmm�ก

Your script should include a brief introduction. In my case my introduction went like this, กHello, Mr. Adams. My name is Jay Gilmore. The reason I am calling is that I am doing some market research for my business services company in your area and I wanted to get some feedback from fellow business owners, like yourself.ก

Note that I didn’t mention the name of my company. This shows the respondent that I am a person calling to talk to another person people like to talk to people and not businesses.

Removing the Common Objection

The next words that come off the script are very important, กI am not going to try to sell you anything, and I just want to ask a few questions to help in planning my business.ก

This has worked every single time to break through the, กIกm not going to listen to a sales pitchก instinct that so many business owners and consumers have developed over the years.

Ask for Their Time

Now that I have broken through their resistance I am able to request permission and their time to do the survey. Be respectful of the respondentกs time by making sure that the survey may be completed in less than five minutes. Tell them how long it will take and be honest. It is not very professional to lie or mislead people about the time you are asking them for.

Once the survey is complete you should conclude by thanking the respondent for assisting you with your research.

The Marketing Starts Now Actually it Already Started

The marketing part is next. In closing you should briefly introduce your company and the service being marketed. An example would be, ก Thank you Mr. Adams for all your help. I would like to let you know that my business, Joeกs Flowers is a local flower shop that specializes in arrangements and designs from North American plants and flowers. Would you be interested in receiving more information about our services and our company?ก

After answering questions in your survey about flowers and their buying habits they are probably ready to find more information about your company and its products or services. Get their mailing address and / or email address and any other information you require to send them the information you want.

What to Send

Sending the information about your business can make or break this relationship. You have already gotten willing permission to send information to the respondent now you have to send them something that will lead them to choose to buy your product or service or refer a friend or colleague.

The contents of the information package be it electronic or print should be a letter of introduction and thanks for the participation in the survey and some free and useful information that they will relate to regarding your product or services.

This information package is a first step to an ongoing relationship that will allow you to nurture goodwill and relationships with people who are actually interested in your business. The respondents will be expecting some form of marketing message but don’t overdo it. Pushing too hard to close a sale at this stage will not work with this piece. This is not a direct mail promotion so don’t treat it as such. That being, said don’t hesitate to place importance and urgency on the message. Use benefit oriented copy to entice readers to take some form of action.

Followup Will Make the Sale Well Some Anyway

As you bring the respondents closer to your businessกs products and or services by providing valuable information and examples of how it can better their lives many will choose to buy your products and services.

Give Up The Cold Call

You have now just read a great way to expose you business to new markets, new people, learn more about those markets and people, and get your message out all with nothing more than a telephone and a list of phone numbers. What is best is that you were able to get people to willingly accept your message without the anxiety and resistance of a sales cold call.

About The Author

Jay Gilmore is a Developer, Consultant, and Author who develops affordable websites and practical marketing solutions for real small businesses. You can check out his website at http://www.smashingred.com .

Jay publishes his articles, insights and resources on Marketing, Website Development, and Small Business at http://www.smashingred.com/resources, whenever he is not helping clients achieve their goals.

Copyright 2005 Jay Gilmore, SmashingRed Web & Marketing. All rights reserved.

[email protected]

This article was posted on August 12, 2005

by Jay Gilmore

Can I Really Make Money At Home Filling In Online

Can I Really Make Money At Home Filling In Online Surveys?

by: Nicole Boles

It’s true, this is a very viable approach to many stay at home moms, and dads, college students, retirees, and you name it. No one really believed you could actually earn a monthly income just from getting involved with survey companies and focus groups. It is a simple approach to earning an honest income at home. Most people who desire to work at home, don’t have 8 to 9 hours a day to devote to working, therefore filling in surveys and participating in focus groups is the perfect job. The reason for this is that you can accept whatever assignments you choose and work on them, whenever you choose. The beauty of this job is that when you put your kids to bed at night, you can actually go sit down at your computer and fill out 2 to 3 surveys and earn about $80 to $100 for your time. To give you more assurance that this is a career you can have at home, take today for example, I got a phone call this morning to invite me to participate in a focus group – the pay is $85 for one hour, when I went to my email I had a consumer review survey, paying $15 for 30 minutes. I also had invites to 2 surveys that paid $5 for 10 minutes each of my time. So for one day, I made $110 for less than 2 hours’ work. It is a beautiful thing!

Companies in United States and Canada spend an average of $250 billion in advertising. These companies need to know what the public wants and what they will buy. They also need to know which of their marketing campaigns would encourage consumers to purchase their products. This is where the survey fillers come in. These companies need your opinion and will pay you handsomely for it. It is imperative to their business to have an everyday persons’ opinion on their products and services. For these companies and for the paid survey filler, it is a winwin situation.

Think you would be interested in getting paid for your time, opinions and observations? Read on…

HOW DO YOU GET STARTED EARNING MONEY FILLING IN SURVEYS?

Letกs get started with how to start an at home career by filling in surveys, to do this you need to follow these steps:

Step1: REGISTER WITH ALL THE COMPANIES: This can seem like a long task, but take our word for it, it will pay off. The more companies you register with the more invites to participate in surveys, and thus…more money for you. Even if a survey only gives prizes as rewards, register with them anyways. You would be amazed how many of our members have earned big rewards by winning those survey draws.

Step 2: BE HONEST IN YOUR OPINION: Companies are looking for individuals from all walks of life to fill surveys, there is not one mainstream demographic that they are searching for.

Step 3: CHECK COMPANIES FREQUENTLY: There are several companies that don’t send out email invites to every survey, make sure to browse these companies often to see if there is any paid surveys to participate in.

Step 4: FILL IN THE ADDITIONAL PROFILES: There are several companies that urge you to fill in additional profiles (i.e.: what vehicle you drive, your spending habits online, etc.) I too, urge you to fill in these additional profiles, as they will qualify you for even more surveys, and you will get more invites.

STEP 5: WORK FOR YOURSELF: You are now working for your own income, and it is up to you how much you earn. Your effort in this process is what will pay off, be determined in your surveys, and you will see the benefits!!!

For more information on working from home opportunities or surveys, please visit us at www.popularpay.com

About The Author

Nicole Boles is the creator of popularpay.com, small businessowner and author of many articles on at home employment, paid surveys, and mystery shopping. She is a professional on กat home employmentก and also publishes a popular quarterly newsletter on working from home. For more information on surveys or more work at home opportunities, please visit us at: www.popularpay.com.

[email protected]

This article was posted on November 30, 2004

by Nicole Boles

Wise Man Marketing

Wise Man Marketing

by: Martin Day

It’s a sunny morning and you’re sitting in your office. With a cup of hot coffee by your side and memories of your last holiday still fresh in your mind, even if you say so yourself, today at least, life is sweet.

You take a sip of new blend coffee and then feel a rush of cool air and a movement catches the corner of your eye. As if from nowhere there is now an impeccably dressed stranger sitting in the chair opposite. Sure you’re surprised; you didn’t hear anyone knock and just as you are about to say something he begins in a calm and measured voice.

‘Hereกs the deal’

‘I am going to advertise your product on a billboard at the busiest junctions in every city of the world.ก

‘I will tell you how many people see this advertisement and I will tell you their age, nationality and gender.ก

‘I will tell you what they think of your product and in many cases I will give you their contact details. While they are reading the billboard I will make it possible for them to view your website and, if they feel the urge, make a purchase.ก

‘I will have all this ready in two days and it will cost you less than a small advertisement in your typical trade journal.’

He pauses. ‘Interested?’

Now you might think that such an offer was too good to be true, you might think that you are going to wake up soon or maybe that it really is time to get a lock on that office door.

But letกs just take a minute. If you are still reading this I am that man who has come from nowhere and offered you a deal.

The advertising site is on the Internet and the billboard Iกm offering is the humble online survey.

Stop for one moment and start to associate an online survey not with กmarket researchก but with กmarketingก. Not any type of marketing but กMarketingก with a capital กMก and in flashing neon lights. Marketing that is quick, direct, effective and low cost.

Publish an online survey and advertise it on a website, or via email, and like a billboard by the side of a major road junction, your message will appear in front of people. But unlike a billboard where the number of people that see an advert has to be estimated (based on an arbitrary percentage of total volume of traffic), the online survey records the number of times a survey is started.

Surveys can ask demographic questions such as gender, age and nationality and in doing so you are obtaining metrics about the effectiveness of your promotion and are interacting with the respondent on a oneonone level.

Unlike billboards where the message is often subliminal, or maybe just trying to achieve brand awareness, with online surveys you have the opportunity to connect with the public to find out what they really think about your product, how it relates to them, how it is perceived.

Using a website like http://www.surveygalaxy.com it takes only minutes and hours to create a survey and using the power of the Internet an online survey can reach hundreds of thousands of people on a daily basis.

Throw in a prize as an incentive for people to complete the survey, maybe some Pay Per Click advertising to capture an even wider, or more focused audience and you are still talking low cost effective marketing.

กSo tell me. Do we have a deal?ก

About The Author

Martin Day is a Director of Survey Galaxy Ltd a web site that allows anyone to create, design and publish online surveys. For more information please visit http://www.surveygalaxy.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on August 09

by Martin Day

20 Top tips to writing effective surveys

20 Top tips to writing effective surveys

by: Martin Day

Writing surveys is easy; or is it? The truth is that writing surveys is easy but writing effective surveys is more difficult. The following are twenty tips that if followed will help you write more effective surveys.

1. What is the purpose of the survey?

Surveys are conducted for many reasons. By phrasing the questions and structuring the answers surveys can be used in a multitude of ways and for a variety of reasons. When compiling a survey don’t loose sight of its purpose.

2. Title the survey

The survey title is a golden opportunity to instantly summarise a surveys objective and grab the attention of invited respondents. Respondents are going to invest time in completing the survey so make them feel that their investment is worthwhile.

3. Do not make the survey any longer than it needs to be

Every question that is asked should be asked for a reason. Focus on ‘need to know’ questions and minimise ‘nice to know’ information.

4. Use plain English, avoid jargon and acronyms, maintain consistency and don’t ask questions that may result in ambiguous answers

Care must be taken in wording a question. If a question is not clear then there is every chance that respondents may interpret the question differently to that intended by the publisher making any analysis of the data meaningless or at the very least misleading.

5. Avoid long questions

Try to use short sentences wherever possible. Long questions tend to cause respondents discomfort and can lead to a higher level of incidents where respondents abandon a survey.

6. Ask one question at a time

Avoid confusing the respondent with a question like ‘Do you like football and tennis?’

7. Avoid influencing the answer

It is important not to load the question. ‘Should irresponsible shop keepers who sell tobacco to children be prosecuted?’ is unlikely to have any value.

8. Ensure that the answer format used allows the respondent to answer the question being asked

Allow the respondent to answer how they really feel or they may be less inclined to complete the survey. As a last resort consider the benefit of including a ขDon’t knowข, ขCan’t sayข or similar response option.

9. At the same time that you compile the survey consider, when the survey is complete, how the compiled data is going be analysed

If a question is asked that allows a free text open ended response appreciate that such information is likely to be difficult to score and/or summarised. Consider grouping answers. For example ขHow long have you worked here?ข ‘less than 1 year’, ‘between 1 and 3 years’ and ‘more than 3’.

10. Ensure that the questionnaire flows

When asking questions group the questions into clear categories as this makes the task of completing the survey easier for the participants.

11. Target your respondents

In some cases you will want to target a specific group, in others a cross section. If you can’t easily control the respondents consider including questions/answers that will allow you to filter out respondents who don’t fit your target profile.

12. Allow the respondent to expand or make comments

Allowing the respondent to make additional comments will increase their satisfaction level and will also give valuable feedback on the specific questions and/or the survey as a whole. Remember though for a large sample collection it may be difficult to analyse free text open ended responses.

13. If the survey you are conducting is to be confidential ensure that your pledge is upheld

If you have assured the respondents that the survey is confidential ensure that the individual data is not to be shared with anyone and the information is not going to be used for any other purpose. Confidentiality must be maintained at all times and any identifying information destroyed after the survey is complete.

14. Weigh up the benefits of allowing respondents to be anonymous or identifiable

If your respondents are to be anonymous then appreciate that you will be unable to follow up or match ขpreข or ขpostข surveys. However in some cases allowing people to remain anonymous will allow people to respond without possible peer pressure.

15. Give careful consideration to the best response format

It is good practise to maintain a consistency in the format used for responses. Keep in mind that when analysing the data radio buttons are easier to analyse than check boxes that offer the respondent multiple responses. Do not use a check box if a radio response would do.

16. Give the respondent an idea of how much time the survey will take.

Respondent drop out can occur if the survey appears to be a stream of never ending questions. It is good practise to give an indication as to how long the survey is likely to take so the respondents can choose the best time to complete the survey.

17. Inform the respondents of the survey end date

Encourage respondents to complete the survey as soon as possible but advice respondents as to the surveys end date so that they have the opportunity to schedule the necessary time.

18. Pilot the survey

Before publishing a live survey publish a small pilot survey to check for questions that are ambiguous or confusing and to ensure that the survey is aesthetically pleasing.

19. Before publishing the survey proof read the survey several times

Check and check again that the survey is grammatically correct and makes sense. If possible get someone else to proof read the survey before you publish, if no one else is available then take a break before checking again.

20. Remember to say thank you

To complete surveys respondents need to invest their time and should be thanked either in a covering letter, at the end of completing the survey or in a follow up letter. You may even want to consider incentives such as a prize draw or reward.

For more information please visit http://www.SurveyGalaxy.com

About The Author

Martin Day is a Director of Survey Galaxy a website that allows anyone to create and publish online surveys. For more information please visit http://www.SurveyGalaxy.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on September 01, 2004

by Martin Day

Make Money Online Taking Free Surveys

Make Money Online Taking Free Surveys

by: Brandy Latshaw

Is it really possible to make money taking free paid online surveys? The answer is a resounding Yes!! As a stayathome Mom, taking surveys was one of the first things that I decided to try. I currently am making an average of $100 to $200 per month, not including any prizes won, and Iกd be happy to show you how.

The first thing you should know is that you should never pay money to join any survey company. Any legitimate survey company is free to join.

Survey companies will compensate you for taking surveys in several ways. Most initiative include entries into drawings for cash, free products, gift certificates, points redeemable for various incentives, and cash via check or paypal.

You should sign up for several companies in order to maximize your profits. I am currently signed up with all 200 free online survey companies listed on Melodyกs Mommy. You can view this list by going to Melodyกs Mommy http://www.melodysmommy.com and going to the section called Paid Surveys. This gives me an average of five to ten surveys to fill out per day. It takes me approximately a half an hour per day to respond to all the surveys. The more surveys you take, the more invitations you will receive, and the greater the incentives become. It is very similar to building a business.

Filling out the initial questionairs on each of the websites can be time consuming. In order to cut down on your time you can use a free form filler to process most of the work for you. One that I personally use and recommend is Roboform. It is free and very easy to use. You can download your free copy at Roboform.

Once youกve completed the initial surveys for each website, the surveys will start rolling in. You want to check your email as often as possible. The reason for this is that you want to respond quickly to the ones that offer higher incentives. These invitations sometimes are limited to a select number of responses. If you scan your email frequently, you will ensure that you don’t miss any of these opportunities.

About The Author

Brandy is the webmaster of Melodyกs Mommy and is committed to helping Moms and Dads work from home. She lives in MA with her daughter Melody and is a successful work at home Mom. This article may be used on any site or in any newsletter as long as it is not altered in any way and this signature line remains intact. http://www.melodysmommy.com.

[email protected]

This article was posted on March 08

by Brandy Latshaw

To Survey Or Not To Survey

To Survey Or Not To Survey

by: Dave Weeks

I have learned over the years that when it comes to online marketing as I know it, itกs not about what I want in my business.Itกs really about what people who visit my website want. For awhile I didn’t understand that philosophy. How do I find out what people want?

Finding out what people want is not something you, I or anyone else for that matter can pull out of thin air. If we are going to be successful online, even offline in the brick and mortar world, we have to take our eyes off of ourselves and put them onto our potential customers.So how do we do this?

The answer is quite simple yet complex.That is to conduct a survey or surveys.Conducting surveys is simple.On your website you can create forms for people to fill out. If you are going to put a form on your website, I would limit only one form. You do not want to bombard people with forms.Keep it simple as the saying goes.

Do not get too personal in your form.In other words only ask for first name and email. That is it when it comes to their personal information.

Now, from their you can use your own imagination on the rest of the form makeup. Whatever it is you want to sell, make your survey easily accessible on your website. The number of visitors visiting your site will determine the number of surveys filled out and sent to your emails inbox. Its all numbers anyway….whether its marketing a product or service and conducting surveys. This is an excellent way of building lists specific to what people want to buy.

Notice how I said whatever it is you want to sell. What that means is, you don’t know yet if you have what people really want. That is the purpose of the survey. To find out if they want what you have. Once you collect the data and you are ready to sell, you have in your hand a ready made list of names specific for that product or service you are offering.

Not too long ago, this year as a matter of fact (2004 currently), I learned what not to do in a survey. I will give you my experience of what not to do and how to remedy this situation.

I recently got married and five of my family and friends took me to dinner two days prior to the wedding. As we were finishing our meal, the manager came to our table and told us that we have been selected to participate in a survey. She told us that if we participated, we would receive $3 off of our next meal. Come to find out, our bill which totaled over $120 collectively, the $3 off was for the entire group at the table. Ok, I think its nice that they offered this, but lets look at the reality of this situation. First of all, $3 off of over $120 does not get anyone too excited nor does it want to make anyone go through the hassle, yes hassle of filling out a survey when they are enjoying a night out with family and friends. Secondly, the odds of us getting together again and eating at this particular restaraunt are slim to none. So what does that tell me? That tells me one of two things. Either someone did not take their eyes off of themselves and put them onto their customers or, they knew the odds of us coming back as a group were slim and it works completely in their favor.That is disturbing to me. Now for my input on a remedy.

What would I do in this situation? Well first of all, everything I stated in the above paragraph, all of my family and friends after we were กselectedก kind of looked at each other in amazement and disbelief. We all knew that it was a silly thing to do to come up to us and play us like we were born a few days ago. First, If I am going to get a group to fill out a survey, especially if I have been กselectedก, and I am going to give them something in return to do so, I would offer the table, say, free desert now. Why do I say this? remember, you are marketing your business….make it work.Make people who just enjoyed the meal and the service go out and tell someone else.Stand up and believe that the way you are conducting your survey is for your customers, not just you alone. Don’t try and fool people, were not fooled.If you are going to have a couple fill out a survey, how about buy one meal get the second meal half off. After all, it appears this is a random selection. Not everyoneis doing this. Now, I am not looking for free handouts. As a matter of fact, I would have rather given the manager (and no disrespect to her) $5 to leave. Itกs obvious to me in this circumstance that this particular establishment does not want to give away anything. They want it to only benefit themselves.But if you are a business and you want true success in surveys, do it right.

The final approach? Instead of offering anything, put surveys out on the table and let people make up their own minds. People like to be left alone and not annoyed. Its ok to ask for the sale, but no means no. If you continue to push someone, they won’t come back. After all, would you?

About The Author

Visit Dave Weeksก website at http://www.etypewriter.com or write to [email protected] for any comments you may have.

This article was posted on February 02, 2004

by Dave Weeks

Online Surveys Financed My First Website!

Online Surveys Financed My First Website!

by: Jason Glicken

Online surveys alone financed my first web site. Getting paid to take these online surveys is a winwin situation. Large companies want your opinion on their products and services and they are willing to pay you for it. These online surveys give them good insight into their target market, people like you, so they win. You win by getting paid for your time.

It all started about 5 months ago when I had finally decided I wanted to start my own online business. I have a full time job, a stay at home wife, and a 15 month old baby boy. I had no extra money, as you can imagine, and didn’t want to risk my hard earned salary without knowing if this venture would work. With no idea on how to go about starting an online business and with no startup capital, I did what all web surfers do; I surfed, and I surfed, and I surfed.

During the course of my research I ran across some ads for taking online surveys and getting paid for it. I was skeptical at first, but when I researched the companies that offered online surveys I found a few that were for real. So I signed up with 3 of the sites.

Once you sign up you fill out some easy questionnaires about yourself so the survey company can match you with one of their clients looking for your demographic profile (e.g. age, sex, where you live, what you do, etc…). Easy enough, still free, I filled out my profiles and that was it, they let me know that they would contact me when a survey that fit my profile was available.

Without skipping a beat I went back to my research. It was becoming more and more evident that I would need to learn a lot more before starting my own internet business. I decided that for any business venture you should be as prepared as possible. And I still had no extra money to even give it a try. I was still in my hunting and gathering phase.

Then one night while surfing the net, I got an email telling me that a $10 survey was waiting for me. Great! I logged into my account at the survey site and clicked the link to start the survey. It took me about 20 minutes. This particular survey company pays directly to your PayPal account (it took a couple weeks to see the money, but I did see it.)

I was hooked. Over the next several months I received more surveys. There are times when you don’t qualify for a survey. This could even happen a couple times in a row. Don’t worry they will keep sending them and you will qualify for a lot of them.

About 4 weeks ago I decided I knew enough about web sites, web site hosting, web site promotion, newsletters, and most of the basics of starting my own site. So I logged into my PayPal and found $32 (all from surveys), and logged into my other 2 survey sites, $20 dollars in one account and $45 in the other. I had my startup money!

Taking these surveys enabled me to start my own business online using only the money I made online. No out of pocket money was needed to set up my site, get my domain name and start a hosting plan. In reality this is more than enough money to start a website backed business. I used only my PayPal money to set up my web site, and not all of it. Yesterday, I deposited $40 of survey money into my checking account and then transferred it to my PayPal account. I now have a little war chest for financing my online business.

Online survey companies (the real ones) don’t charge you to join, don’t spam you when you do (I only get invitations from them, nothing else), and pay you when your done. It can take up to 4 weeks to get paid (sometimes less sometimes more). For me this was not a problem since I was not yet knowledgeable enough to start my web site.

I still spend most of my time surfing and learning but I also understand the concept and dangers of procrastination. I did take my time getting started based solely on financial reasons, now that I have the money to get started that is exactly what I am doing, getting started!

I want you all to know that making money online is a reality. Surveys will make you money, I still take them as soon as they hit my inbox, but you will not be able to quit your day job. If you don’t give up and hang in there you can start your own web business without touching any offline money. If you don’t want to start a business then buy yourself or someone a gift with the money you earn. It truly is easy money!

By: Jason Glicken

About The Author

Jason Glicken Editor The Affiliate Journal

Copyright 2005 All Rights Reserved.

Create start up capital completing FREE surveys online.

http://www.theaffiliatejournal.com/sparechange.php

Better to be a doer than a dreamer…

[email protected]

This article was posted on January 19

by Jason Glicken

Making Customer Satisfaction Surveys Work

Making Customer Satisfaction Surveys Work

by: Martin Day

Why bother?

Good customer service is the life blood of any business. Although new customers are important good customer service will help generate customer loyalty and repeat business. With each satisfied customer your business is likely to win many more customers through recommendations and remember, if you are not taking care of your customers, your competition will.

A Customer Satisfaction survey will help you not only identify problem areas but will also demonstrate to your customers that you care and are proactive in looking for ways to improve the service that you provide.

Where to start?

Objective Before you start compiling your survey you should first consider what the objectives of the survey are, in that way you will remain focused and find it easier to decide what questions to ask.

Analysis In addition to the objective consider also how you will analyse the answers having completed the survey. Keep in mind that ‘closed’ questions (where the respondent is asked to choose from a limited number of responses) are easier to analyse than ‘open’ questions (where the respondent can reply in anyway they want). Much will depend on the volume of respondents, the higher the volume the more important it is to have an easy method of analysing the results.

Opportunity – Keep in mind that as well as obtaining valuable market research data customer surveys are also a good way to publicise aspects of your service that your customers may not be aware of. After you have drafted your survey read through the survey from a market research view point and check that you are asking the right questions in the right way and that with the feedback information you will be able to make informed decisions. Then, read through the survey from a marketing view point, check that you have phrased each question so that every opportunity has been taken to promote your business? The ideal question will perform the following three functions:

Market research – provide valuable feedback to help you improve your customer satisfaction levels and in turn your business

Marketing – promote aspects of your business

Information/Education – advertise a service that you provide that your customers may not have been unaware of

For example:

Do you find the instore baby changing facilities useful?

By asking this question not only will the store receive good feedback on the facility they provide but they will also advertise their baby changing facilities and promote themselves as a family friendly store beyond those customers who have a specific need for the facility provided.

Warts and all – to benefit most from a customer survey you need to be prepared to dig deep and accept the worst. A customer satisfaction survey should be designed to highlight problems so that they can be addressed; regular customer satisfaction will prevent complacency and will also give early warning on where your competitors initiatives may be loosing you business.

What to ask?

Although each business is likely to have specific and unique factors that are important in providing good customer services there are common areas that are relevant to all businesses be they a physical store, Internet based or a service industry. The following are some key areas to providing good customer service.

Communication Do you make it easy for the customer to communicate with you? When a customer telephones is the phone answered promptly; are enquiries about products or services properly handled? A good business will make every effort to ensure that whatever the customers query it is resolved by the right person, quickly, politely and fairly. If a problem is not resolvable immediately do you promise to respond in a given time period and do you deliver on your promise? Use a customer satisfaction survey to confirm that all your staff are perceived by your customers as being helpful, courteous and knowledgeable.

Location – Do your customers find it easy to visit you, if a physical store, is it conveniently located with good access?

Making it pleasant, making it easy For a virtual business it is important to ensure that your website is aesthetically pleasing and easy to use. Physical store or website, is the store properly laid out, can your customers find what they need and is there sufficient information and help on hand to explain how a particular product works?

The right quality products – Not only should you measure the quality of the service that you provide but you should check that the products and services that you market are what the customer wants and closely match their expectations.

Value for money – Cheap or expensive is not always a good measure, value of money is. Do your customers equate your business with value for money, if not, why not?

Speed and attention – No matter what the business, the majority of customers will want to be dealt with quickly but attentively. Are you doing everything you can to avoid delays? Good businesses will try to treat each customer as an individual, does yours? Attention is one thing but this has to be hand inhand with a quick and satisfactory resolution of the query.

Demographics and Specific issues – Take the opportunity to profile your customers, for example where do they live and what is their age group? The more you try to understand your customers the better you will be able to target your business. Within the survey allow customers to highlight specific problems and provide contact details.

What next?

Having completed the survey analyse the results.

Trends – Look for common and specific areas where the service is failing. Ask yourself if the criticism is valid and is there anything that can be done to resolve or minimise the problem?

Training – Are the staff properly trained and do they have sufficient knowledge? Where staff training programmes have been implemented have they had a positive impact on the business?

Followup –If a customer who has completed a survey has raised a specific issue ensure that they are contacted and their complaint addressed. Don’t loose an opportunity to resolve a problem and keep a customer.

Continuously Monitor Makechanges and then measure by issuing further surveys.

The following sample customer satisfaction survey for a store demonstrates some of the areas discussed please visit:

http://www.surveygalaxy.com/surPublishes.asp?survey_id=1140

About The Author

Martin Day is a Director of Survey Galaxy Ltd a website that allows anyone to create, design and publish online surveys. For more information visit http://www.SurveyGalaxy.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on September 17, 2004

by Martin Day

Tips For Developing An Effective Questionnaire

Tips For Developing An Effective Questionnaire

by: Nick Hill

Developing the questionnaire is undoubtedly the most important part of conducting a survey. The quality of the questions will determine the quality of the results and the effectiveness of your survey. Here are 12 tips for developing an effective questionnaire.
1. Write a good introduction The beginning of your survey should have an introduction of the survey. It should state your objective in a way that grabs the attention of potential respondents and encourages them to take the survey. Also, since it is easy for online survey respondents to abandon your survey, you should include instructions on how to complete the survey and an estimate of how much time it will take.
2. Ask questions that provide the information you need Always keep your objective and the information that you need to gather to achieve it in mind while asking the questions. Also, it is best to avoid the temptation to gather กextraก bits of information that are กnice to knowก but irrelevant to your objective.
3. Ask important questions first, demographic questions last Since it is very easy for online survey respondents to abandon your survey, always ask the important questions first and the demograhic questions last.
4. Organize the questions in logical groups Always organize the questions in logical groups. It makes it easier for your respondents to understand and answer the questions, thus increasing the quality of the results.
5. Use plain, easy to understand language The most effective surveys always use plain, easy to understand language. Using unclear or ambiguous language will give you misleading results. So test your survey thoroughly to ensure that it is indeed easy to understand.
6. Avoid technical terms, jargon, and acronyms If you use technical terms, jargon, and acronyms, your respondents might not understand them, get frustrated, and abandon your survey. So strictly avoid them.
7. Use even number of responses Whenever possible, use even number of responses for multiple choice questions. That way the respondents have to give a positive or a negative opinion, they can’t give a กneutralก answer.
8. Randomize the responses Whenever it makes sense, randomize the order in which responses are displayed. This removes กorder biasก from the responses.
9. Avoid unnecessary graphics and embedded components Although it might be tempting to use graphics and embedded components, their use increases the time it takes to download and display your survey. So use them only when it is absolutely necessary and certainly don’t overdo it.
10. Be sensitive to the feelings of your respondents Always be sensitive to the feelings of your respondents. If you offend them, they might abandon your survey. So test your survey to ensure that it is not offending to any group of people.
11. Thank the respondents Your respondents spend the time to take your survey. So never forget to thank them for completing the survey.
12. Keep it short As a general rule, keep your survey short, simple, and to the point.
© Web Based Survey Software (http://www.webbasedsurveysoftware.org) 2004

About The Author

This article has been copyrighted and has been reprinted with the permission of Web Based Survey Software (http://www.webbasedsurveysoftware.org). If you want to reprint this article, please send an email to [email protected] to inform us and we will grant you the permission. But please ensure that this message appears at the end of the article and proper credits are given.

[email protected]

This article was posted on June 24, 2004

by Nick Hill

Are Paid Surveys a Waste of Your Time?

Are Paid Surveys a Waste of Your Time?

by: Robert Thompson

Recently ,while visiting one of my favorite business forums, I ran across some interesting comments concerning paid surveys. The gyst of these comments was that taking online surveys is a waste of time. Here is my answer to those comments…

…. Just because you didn’t earn any money with surveys, that doesn’t mean that they are a waste of time.

Like any other online opportunity, it takes time and effort to build an income with surveys. Many people who have failed, say the same thing about SFI, Goji, Empowerism, and dozens of other online stay at home job opportunities. But, thousands of members of these same companies are making good money every month. Try to convince them that they are wasting their time, and they will laugh at you. Meanwhile, their bank accounts just keep filling up with cash!

Survey takers can earn a solid second income. It may not be more than a few hundred dollars each month, but itกs enough to pay the light bill or the phone bill, or maybe both. It takes time to build up a steady stream of business, but the same thing applies regardless of what business you choose to pursue.

The biggest downfall that new survey takers face, is a lack of knowledge of the activity itself. Hopefully, the following will give you a good starting point.

To earn money with surveys, you consider doing the following:

1. Study. Don’t expect things to be all rosy just because the ad looked good when you signed up. Take the time to learn the mechanics of the survey business. This will allow you to identify your particular niche.

2. Continually update your registrations as your survey company updates their data base. New marketing firms are looking to test their products all of the time, so the data bases will constantly grow.

3. Create a seperate Email account just for survey business, and make sure that you turn off all of the spam filters for this account. Often, surveys will trigger a spam filter, and you will never even know that someone wanted you to take part.

4. When you fill out a questionaire for a potential survey, you might find out that you don’t qualify for that particular survey. Send a thank you note and ask to be considered for future surveys.

The magic words, กPlease and Thank Youก never go out of style.

5. When you are offered surveys that result in points, coupons or drawings, fill them out! These are often used as qualifyers by different companies. By completing them, you show that you are serious about participating, and as a result, you increase your chances of being contacted with cash offers.

6. Be truthful and give complete demographic information when applying. Don’t pretend to be a 24 year old woman, when you are actually a 35 year old man. These companies have junk filters too, and they can see through this nonsense in a New York Second.

7. Search for forums that concentrate on surveys. You will be pleasantly surprised by what you find. There are folks out there who are willing to share what they have learned. Take advantage of that help to refine your survey skills.

One of the keys to running a successful stay at home job, is to establish multiple streams of income. Each of these streams might only provide a few dollars each month, but with enough different sources, you will find that you are able to earn a substantial second income. Paid Surveys can provide a terrific income stream, that will continue to grow as you become more knowledgable and experienced with them.

You may not get filthy stinking rich by completing surveys, but if you follow these seven steps, you stand a good chance of earning enough to pay a couple of extra bills each month. Besides, its fun!

About The Author

Robert Thompson is retired from the United States Air Force. He has owned many successful businesses, and is a proud Team Leader with SFI. He enjoys helping others to create wealth from the comfort of their homes. To learn how to share in the multibillion dollar home business industry, visit http://www.stayhomeandearn.com

To get the Stay at Home Jobs Newsletter, send an Email to [email protected].

[email protected]

This article was posted on April 02

by Robert Thompson

Comprehensive Marketing Details Not Found in Begin

Comprehensive Marketing Details Not Found in Beginner Books

by: Joy Gendusa

If this is the first marketing article you are reading, go find some other more basic articles that I have written and then come back. This data is for the intermediate to advanced marketers.

I want to go over a threestep outline for your marketing which are:

Surveys

Getting Attention

Postage

Marketing surveys save you from flying blind in your business marketing strategies and are the best way to find out what you should be offering, to whom and how. When you don’t really know what to put in your direct mail marketing itกs because you haven’t done your research.

In order to get the response you would like on your direct mail marketing campaign, one area you need to look at is whether or not you are using a survey to find out what to say to your public. You may immediately answer ขNo – I don’t survey.ข But truthfully, it’s very possible you do and just don’t realize it….read on.

You know your market quite well because you already sell to them. You’re unwittingly surveying all the time. Take this example:

An optometrist has an optical boutique. He knows that the biggest market for his eyewear are women from the ages of 40 to 65 years old. How does he know that? His frame inventory is constantly being restocked fives times more than his men’s frame stock or even children’s. And the types of women’s frames are ones compatible with noline bifocals. Interesting! Let’s look at what else this optometrist knows. He knows that these women pay a higher price point for their eyewear because the products he keeps reordering are from the more upscale designers so these women probably have more discretionary income. That is what I mean by surveying unwittingly.

Now letกs take an example where you are sure you have no data:

You are a mortgage broker and you don’t know what to say to people to get them to refinance their property, yet this is the area you specialize in. You assume that the best deal will attract more customers. You conduct a marketing survey, or get a marketing survey conducted for you that asks people indirectly for their attitudes and emotions concerning refinancing and what would be the advantages and disadvantages. You find the majority of people would like to refinance but think it is a very complicated procedure and so they never try. From this information you are able to determine what the tone and message of your advertising should take.

So, what should your promotion say? How about กWeกll take the hassle out of refinancing for you. Find out how.ก You will get a response. You could send out thousands of promotional pieces telling your prospects that you can get them the lowest rate, but that isn’t their concern. Their concern is that itกs too complicated. Do you see how you could miss? A survey is the answer.

It is smart business to design a survey (or have one designed) to send out to your past customers that will keep you in the know, and not in the dark.

Now let’s go into the next logical sequence of how to break the first barrier of getting attention, so the ขbuttonข you found from your survey hits them before they throw away your promotion before ever even reading it.

Ditch the Envelopes!

The most common question that is asked when dealing with direct mail is กHow do I get their attention?ก This is a major problem because, no matter what you do to them, most envelopes look basically the same. Print on them in color, make a window, stamp it urgent your customers have seen all these tricks before. They get thrown away before they’re even opened. They can tell from the outside that it is a sales pitch and they just get rid of it. This causes you to lose sales because of assumptions made before you even try to get your message across, when if you had the chance to let the customer know what you were offering they might have gone for it. Plain and simple, the easiest way to get around this is by using postcards.

Not only does the full color aspect of postcards attract more attention than all of the envelopes in any given day’s stack of mail, but it will allow you to get your message across while recipients are making the decision of what to read and what to throw away.

Let’s use this example:

You are sitting on the subway and the guy next to you leans over and says กI have something I would like to sell you and it’s under my trench coat, are you interested?ก So as any sane person would do, you move to the furthest seat from him so not to be bothered.

As you now sit in the farthest seat from the untrustworthy freak in the trench coat you are approached by a smiling little Girl Scout who holds out a box of cookies and says กWould you like to buy a box of cookies? Everyone loves the ThinMints!ก So this time you pull out your wallet and plunk down the $3 for a box of delicious cholesterol and sugar.

See the difference? Don’t hide your message behind a trench coat. For all we know the กuntrustworthy freakก, as I have affectionately named him, could have had a box of ThinMints under there.

We may never know, and neither will your customers if you don’t stop stuffing your promo into bland looking envelopes.

Now, make the final step easy and take out the hassle of direct mail.

It’s one thing to get postcards designed and printed. It’s another to get them into the hands of the recipients rapidly, efficiently, as inexpensively as possible and without too much hassle. You have the choice of doing it yourself in house or getting someone to do it for you.

The apparent advantage of doing it yourself is that you don’t pay someone else what they charge to do it for you. The disadvantage of doing it yourself is that it’s going to cost you more in the long run.

Why?

Normally your postage for a 4.25 x 6ก postcard is 23¢. Direct mail companies can lease special software from the USPS which reads the addresses and barcodes them. The post office gives a significant discount for barcoded mail. Updating this software often (every three months) ensures that the addresses you are mailing to are good. If the person is not longer at that address then it’s a waste of your money to mail to them.

Because of the high tech equipment and software direct mail companies use, you can sometimes save as much as .04 cents per card. And you don’t have all the hassle of getting the mailing out yourself.

I call it a nobrainer: a technical term for saving money and hassle by getting someone else to do your mailing for you. If you have been doing it the hard way, switch over to a direct mail marketing company. I am sure they will be glad to help you save money, time and trouble.

About The Author

Joy Gendusa founded PostcardMania in 1998; her only assets a computer and a phone. In 2004 the company did close to $9 million in sales and employs over 60 persons. She attributes her explosive growth to her ability to choose incredible staff and her innate marketing savvy. Now she’s sharing her marketing secrets with others. For more free marketing advice, visit her website at www.postcardmania.com.

This article was posted on March 03

by Joy Gendusa

Conduct Online Articles Or Be Left Out!

Conduct Online Articles Or Be Left Out!

by: Nick Hill

In a world where websites and email have become ubiquitous, conducting online surveys has become so convenient that everybody is doing it. Are you? If not, here are 10 reasons why you should.
1. Develop quickly Most survey softwares have a sample survey library, question library, and a response library that enables you to develop surveys quickly. You can also develop surveys from scratch very quickly.
2. Present the best way possible You can use a dropdown list for questions with many responses, or you can also use audio and video where it is appropriate. Online surveys allow you to present your questions in the best possible way.
3. Prepopulate with data You can prepopulate your surveys with data that you already have about each respondent.
4. Distribute easily You can distribute online surveys very easily, and in many different ways: link on website, entire survey on website, link in email, entire survey in email or newsletters, or handheld devices.
5. Skip questions You can skip questions based on the answers to some questions. The logic to determine whether to skip or not can be simple or fairly complex.
6. Personalize your surveys You can use answers of questions in the following questions. This allows you to personalize your surveys, like saying ‘thanks Steveก instead of only ‘thanksก. You can also ask questions like กWhy do you like most about Coke?ก if the respondent selected Coke as his/her favorite drink in the previous question.
7. Validate the responses You can validate the responses given by respondents thus ensuring that they enter valid data. This increases the quality of the results.
8. Eliminate errors associated with manual entry With online surveys, respondents take the survey themselves. This eliminates the need for manual entry and its associated errors.
9. Get fast results With online surveys, you can begin to accumulate responses in hours rather than days, and complete surveys in days rather than months.
10. Save time and money You save lot of time developing surveys due to the timesaving features that survey softwares have. You can also save money compared to the traditional method of conducting surveys since you have to send out postal invitations, hire call personnel, hire data entry personnel, and generate results manually.
© Web Based Survey Software (http://www.webbasedsurveysoftware.org) 2004

About The Author

This article has been copyrighted and has been reprinted with the permission of Web Based Survey Software (http://www.webbasedsurveysoftware.org). If you want to reprint this article, please send an email to [email protected] to inform us and we will grant you the permission. But please ensure that this message appears at the end of the article and proper credits are given.

[email protected]

This article was posted on June 24, 2004

by Nick Hill