One of the best ways to create content is to turn to the people who consume it—your customers, prospects, and other subscribers. In this #ContentChat recap, we share our best practices for conducting reader surveys that help you create content hyper-tailored to your ideal customer. Read on to hear how you should approach demographic questions, the best questions to ask in a readership survey, and pitfalls to avoid.
Q1: Have you ever conducted a readership survey for your website visitors, blog readers, or email subscribers? And if so, how frequently have you done so?
58% of our poll respondents have conducted a readership survey in the past, and an additional 8% plan to in 2020.
Q1: Have you ever conducted a readership survey for your website visitors, blog readers, or email subscribers? And if so, how frequently have you done so? #ContentChat
— Erika Heald | Content Marketing Consultant (@SFerika) December 2, 2019
Those that have done readership surveys follow a regular cadence, often quarterly or once annually, and say that readership surveys are a great way to get insights to guide your future content and potential offerings.
A1: I’ve conducted a number of readership surveys for these audiences. I’ve usually done the surveying 1x per year. #ContentChat https://t.co/jMHZ6WNVUR
— Erika Heald | Content Marketing Consultant (@SFerika) December 2, 2019
A1: This is something that I have liked to do when I was over our eCRM programs especially with email – great to talk with your subscribers but to get more insights that are helpful. We tried to do at least once a quarter. #ContentChat
— Bernie Fussenegger #Digital360Chat (@B2the7) December 2, 2019
A1. At least once a year to different audience. However, in a previous position, there was someone dedicated to it which is no longer the case for me now. So, I need to get more hands on. #ContentChat
— Stephanie Cascone (@SomeSteph) December 2, 2019
A1: Absolutely! A survey can reveal so much about your current audience and shape your future content strategy, as well as potential offerings.
I think they’re great to send out once per year. #ContentChat
— Express Writers | Your Content Writing Team (@ExpWriters) December 2, 2019
A1:
Once a year, I reach out to my community of comic book creators to ask them what kinds of panels they want me to produce at comic book conventions. Google Forms works fine. #contentchat https://t.co/2JheL9PbpY— Buddy Scalera (@BuddyScalera) December 2, 2019
A1: I’ve done dozens of them, and according to the audience, anywhere from quarterly to annually. #contentchat
— John Cloonan (@johncloonan) December 2, 2019
Trust is a foundational element of a successful survey. Your readers need to trust that you will provide higher quality content in return for their time/responses (and a little extra incentive like a gift card giveaway can help, too).
For my nonprofit, I would usually see ~300-400 responses from a membership of 4,000. From my startup with the 10k email subscriber list, we had 1,500 responses thanks to a solid incentive (chance at a $50 Amazon card + the data). #ContentChat
— Erika Heald | Content Marketing Consultant (@SFerika) December 2, 2019
I think in both cases the audience trusted that by helping us out they’d get more content they wanted/needed to do their jobs and advance in their careers. #ContentChat
— Erika Heald | Content Marketing Consultant (@SFerika) December 2, 2019
For folks that haven’t done readership surveys, some have found success with other areas of getting feedback, like Instagram polls.
A1. Not personally, but for a few of my clients have done “mini-surveys” of sorts.
We find Instagram polls quite effective as they’re easy to engage with and allow you to further probe through DMs.— Lizzie | Brand Marketer & Strategist ✨ (@lizziebmedia) December 2, 2019
