Are online surveys dead?

You may have heard that online surveys are dead.

Even though you’re constantly being bombarded with emails and website pop ups requesting your valuable input in the form of an online survey.

How many of them do you simply ignore?

Do you even bother to read what the survey is about anymore before you automatically hit the close button?

Does this then deter you from considering online surveys as an engagement method on your own projects for fear of no one responding?

It doesn’t have to be this way.

Online surveys are very much alive and well at a time when engagement is becoming increasingly digital and the average person is spending much more time online.

The average Australian spends more than 5 hours a day on the internet (We Are Social, 2018).

The key to a successful and highly engaging online survey is the design and execution.

Here are some tips to make your next online survey a raging success:

  1. Make it visually appealing – use a mix of graphics, icons and text. Create a visual theme and use your brand colours and images to make it more inviting and friendly.
  2. Make it highly relevant to your audience with a call to action, humour or hot button question they can’t resist.
  3. Mix up the style of questions to hold the participant’s attention right through to the end of the survey. Use a combination of multiple choice, short answers, yes/no, and scale questions.
  4. Let them know upfront how much of their precious time is required and make sure it’s only 5-10 minutes.
  5. Consider incentivising respondents with a prize or giveaway.
  6. Develop a communication plan that supports the online survey to maximises reach with the target audience.

When designed well, an online survey can be incredibly engaging and yield a high number of quality responses to inform your project and meet your objectives.

Articulous have created a number of highly successful surveys for our clients including tertiary institutions and government departments.

Check out these examples of highly engaging online surveys we’ve designed: