Whether its flowers, chocolates, or a night-out, Valentine’s Day is about celebrating and expressing the love you have for the special people in your life. When designing a survey, then, why not take all of the qualities people love about Valentine’s Day and inject them into surveys like Cupid shooting his arrows?
There are a number of ways you can get people to take and finish a survey, but one of the best (and most enjoyable) techniques to use is survey incentivization. When a respondent knows that there’s a box of chocolates waiting for them at the end of your survey, they’ll not only be more compelled to finish it, but also more excited to take any future surveys you send their way.
If you are not sure whether or not you should offer an incentive, ask yourself these 5 questions and then keep reading to see what kinds of incentives you can take implement into your surveys.
1) Monetary Rewards
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In a perfect world, where every day is as joyous and rife with roses as Valentine’s Day, your survey respondents would be regularly and emphatically excited about taking your surveys. However, the reality is rarely that rosy, and getting people to fill out an entire survey is often tricky.
Thankfully, small monetary rewards can be just as effective in convincing people to take a survey as larger rewards. If you need respondents, but don’t have a budget that allows for significant cash rewards, then something as simple as $5 or even $2 can still be the incentive someone needs to take your survey.
Gift cards and gift codes are another useful and motivating incentive you can make use of. Where cash can sometimes be hard to distribute to respondents, a gift card or coupon code can be immediately redeemed. This gives the respondent instant gratification and saves you from needing to invest more time in a delivery process.
Monetary rewards can be tricky for smaller companies, but sometimes a single rose can be just as effective as an entire bouquet. Most respondents may not be expecting you to reward them at the end of a survey, so if you surprise them with something as simple as a $5 coupon then you can delight them and help incentivize them to come back.
2) Valuable Information
There is a certain romanticism and charm to a lovely handwritten note. Even if someone is expecting a bombastic bouquet of flowers, surprising them with something you wrote just for them can be even more valuable and memorable.
This is an idea you can embrace in your survey incentives. If monetary rewards aren’t realistic for you, then try offering a free downloadable how-to manual or eBook that speaks to the unique hopes an dreams of your targeted audience. This way, you’re providing your respondents with the kind of material you know they’re interested in while also saving your company money.
3) Free Samples or Coupons
If you’re hoping to encourage a respondent to come back to your brand in the future, then try offering them a free sample of your product or service. You could also offer them a coupon towards your product or service, so they’ll have a tangible reason to come back and make a purchase with you, ideally kickstarting what will become an ongoing business relationship.
The goal of a survey is to collect data from your respondents, but the benefits don’t need to stop there. As a business, your goal should always be to grow your clientele and encourage the continued flourishment of your clientele’s happiness. With free samples or coupons, you’re not only thanking your respondents for completing your survey, but also incentivizing them to keep the dialogue going.
4) Sweepstakes
While offering everyone who takes your survey a reward is proven to be the most effective way to get higher response rates, offering respondents a chance at a prize can also earn you more responses. This is what Survey Monkey does with their surveys, and it involves putting everyone who contributes to your survey into a “raffle” of sorts and then picking a single winner. This approach also enables you to potentially offer a higher reward, since you’ll be giving out just one instead of many.
5) Donations To Charity
If you’re already familiar with the kinds of people who are taking your surveys, then using a charitable donation to an organization in your industry can be another great incentive for respondents. Let each respondent know that when they finish your survey you’ll donate a certain amount to the charity, which will make them feel like they’ve contributed to something bigger than themselves.
Love (and Incentives) in the Air
Preparing a survey is like planning the perfect Valentine’s Day evening. You want your survey to be appropriately dressed up so it can attract its respondents, but you also need to make sure there’s an eventful evening and dinner planned as well, as a lack of substance in a survey can take the wind right out of its sails. And, of course, you want to have some fun surprises in store as well, as it’s those sweet incentives that show your audience that you really care and hope to see them again.
