How to Make the Most Out of Your Lead-Gen Survey

When it comes to lead generations, several forms of it can be found. Some lead gen methods have been found to be really creative, many of which we have seen. Whether it be B2B or B2C, there are multiple other creative ways to generate leads for your business. Be it free-trial, e-book or whitepapers, we provide any means necessary to get the leads and in touch with prospects. One of the way to get leads from potential customers is through lead generation surveys.

What is a lead generation survey?

The lead generation survey is a great way to collect leads because they provide, mostly, tangible benefits for respondents. It is beneficial for both of the involved parties and can be done for either B2B or B2C companies. However, not many businesses reap the benefits of lead generation survey because (1) the surveys are handed out to the wrong people, giving a low response rate, (2) the survey questions are too lengthy so the completion rates turn out to be low. Here’s how you could be better at crafting and deploying lead gen surveys in a much better way.

1. Asking the Right People in the Right Moment

There is no better feeling than receiving promotions whenever we are ready to purchase. It is important for businesses to acknowledge that audiences should only be offered this information once they are ready or more likely to purchase something from you. Therefore, your lead generation efforts should always be aligned with your customer’s journeys. The point here is to see from your customer’s perspective. As for yourself, giving out of any personal information during the first moment of meeting a person will not be necessary. I mean, you wouldn’t ask someone to marry you after just meeting them now would you?

Treat your customers as unique individuals with their own journeys and you’ll get the best out of them. Ask your team, which groups belong to what journey. Do these people only know of your product? Or are they actually aware of it and what it is that we do. Therefore, with the help of aligning your lead generation survey with your customer journey will it greatly improve your survey answer rate.

2. How Do You Ask Your Respondents? Be Personal

The main point here is to craft the right explanations as to why you are asking people to try your product. In asking your respondents’ a favor, not only are you responsible for the outcome, but also in providing them with convincing and persuasive messages. Make your respondents feel special and obliged to answer your survey by creating a meaningful and sincere message to make them feel better after giving you their personal details.

With your customer journey and your customer persona, you should be able to ask them the way they prefer you to ask. If possible, try to differentiate the reasons as to why you are conducting the survey to different sets of audiences. For example - You have opened up a coffee shop and you would like to ask your neighborhood to try your coffee for free, would it be better if you had different types of messages targeted for different people? You wouldn’t ask an 18 year old girl to get their coffee the same way as a 45 year old married man now would you?. By personalising your reasoning of your lead gen surveys will it increase your survey completion rate.

3. Avoid Multiple-Answers or Open-Ended Questions. Be Specific, Be Relevant

Multiple answers give multiple interpretations. Thus, confusing both you and the respondents in giving out answers and interpreting them. Instead, use single-answers for all of your lead generation surveys. In a lead generation survey, brands will be giving out free-trials, demos, even discounts for prospectives in return of a respondent’s personal information. Whilst it is true that incentives will help in getting your respondents to keep their eye on the prize. However, the most important thing still is to give out the surveys to the right people. An example of a mistake that can be made is offering a 10% discount on baby products to parents who have a three year old son due to the assumption that they may be newlywed. Be relevant and specific in order to properly allocate the surveys to your target respondents.

A pro-tip: Use dropdown menus or checklists for easier analysis and segment leads.

4. Value Your Respondents’ Time

Be aware of your survey questions’ time. Do check on how long one would need to take in order to accomplish the lead gen survey. Whatever your objectives and target respondents may be, keep it short, direct and simple. Questions in the lead gen survey should not be made to be time-consuming for the respondent’s to answer. On average, respondents should only spend 5 minutes in answering 10 of your questions. By being considerate of the time that will be taken for your them to fill out the questionnaire will they be more likely to complete them, producing a high completion rate of the lead gen surveys. It is also found that respondents much rather enjoy answering simple, straightforward and clear questionnaires. Getting free stuff would also be a plus for them.

The bottomline is, whatever it is that you are asking your potential customers, ask them in a much more comfortable manner just like you would with either your parents or peers. Taking into account the appropriate time to ask them, the proper phrasing of your speech and the vocabulary usage. It would seem obvious, however, many businesses fail to see that. The purpose of this guide is not necessarily to add to your knowledge, but rather to remind you about something important that you may have forgotten.