Years ago, website owners were happy to have people visiting their sites, even if they had no idea what those visitors wanted. Things have changed. The online landscape - and the technology at your disposal - looks completely different today. The number of people who visit your site is far less important than what they do while they're there. Depending on your objectives, you might want visitors to sign up for a free newsletter, download a white paper, or purchase a product. The challenge is to identify what motivates your audience.



Successful business owners realize that the most effective way to meet the needs of their audience is to ask them what they want. One of the easiest ways to do that is by leveraging online surveys. In this article, we'll describe how using online surveys can give you direct access to your customers and help you dig more deeply into the triggers that motivate them.

Direct Access To Customers

Businesses have traditionally relied upon third-party polling companies to contact their market and determine their needs. In fact, many organizations continue to do so today. It is far more cost-effective to take advantage of online survey technology. Not only does it reduce the costs associated with hiring third parties, but it provides your company with direct access to your audience.

That allows you to ask them about the products they have purchased in the past, those they might purchase in the future, and the reasons they chose not to buy certain items. Plus, with skip and pipe logic, you can further customize your online questionnaires to make the experience easier and more fluid for respondents.

Digging More Deeply Into Your Audience's Needs

One of the limitations of conventional (i.e. paper-based) surveys is that they offer very little design flexibility for surveyors. This affects more than mere aesthetics. It prevents website owners from drilling more deeply into the triggers that motivate their visitors. For example, some of the people who visit your site will be more interested in product-related information (white papers, special reports, etc.). Others will want to purchase specific items that offer solutions to their problems.

Online survey technology allows you to develop targeted questionnaires for specific segments of your market. You can easily create and launch surveys that are designed to address your customers, leads, and even readers of your company blog. What's more, with skip, branch, and pipe logic, you can streamline the questionnaire, thereby reducing your abandonment rate. This level of flexibility helps you to identify your website visitors' needs and desires more effectively than would be possible with conventional surveys.

Taking Action On Your Data

If you create your online questionnaires properly, they will yield invaluable data that you can use to expand your business. Your visitors will tell you what products they want to buy, the types of information they want to consume, and how you can streamline your shopping cart. In effect, their responses to your surveys will provide a blueprint for growing your sales and profit. But, you must be willing to take action on the data.

If you fail to take action on your website visitors' responses, they will begin to feel that your questionnaires are a waste of time. Eventually, they will choose not to respond, depriving you of valuable information regarding their needs.

Surveying the people who visit your website is an investment. Like all profitable investments, it will yield dividends over time for your business. If you take action on your visitors' responses, you can expand your sales while improving their overall satisfaction.