Online Surveys have become a popular tool to determine such things as customer satisfaction, learning about the demographics and psychographics of your customers, determining your audience interest in your new product, how your brand is perceived and determining what media is most effective. Surveys are a primary form of research that provides information that should help marketers to better solve marketing problems.

Surveys address the following issues:
Usage and attitude
Segmentation studies
Advertising Research
Name testing
Brand Research

Before designing your survey you will need to define your research objectives follow the four step process given below:

1. State the marketing problem eg. Sales are not going up

2. State the factual information implied in the marketing problem

3. State possible causes that might of led to this problem

4. List what you would like to know about the market.

 Interpretation of research is usually done using quantitative techniques. Quantitative studies use large numbers of respondents, questions allow one to two word answers rather then several sentences. The interpretation of the results is based more on the numbers obtained.
Quantitative studies are used for investigating and exploring.

 Respondents to Surveys

When targeting respondents to your survey you must first define the population you are targeting eg. Adults 19 and over. Your respondents can be obtained from many sources such as various types of lists, computer records, telephone directories, associations and census. 

 

Finding Information

Secondary resource can also be used to find information about your customers or more about how your products are perceived is through secondary research.
The best secondary data comes from the following sources web statistics, company records, information collected from large organizations eg. Statistic Canada, Commercial Directories and The Globe and Mail.
 
 
 To avoid misunderstanding and misinterpretation listed below is things to avoid when designing a questionnaire:
 
Avoid instances of two questions presented as one using the    word “or”

Using too complex wording

Questions that conclude with a qualifying clause or phrase

Questions with multiple subjects

Questions that contain too many instructions

Questions with a negative element

Questions that include the term “if any” or “if at all”

Questions that are very long .

Want to know more about your customers demographics and psychographics? Let me assist you by developing your online survey.

Visit The YP Publishing info@theyppublishing.com
http://theyppublishing.com
T 905-359-0863

 

Why do we use Social Forums for business?

 

Social Forums is a great way to to meet people, share interests, find your niche market and advertise your business. The old term “Word of Mouth” still applies face to face and especially with internet Social Forums.  Listed below is the pros and cons to the most popular social forums.  Please feel free to add your comments on what you think of the Social Forums listed below.

Twitter

Twitter is a great way to expand your online reach. Twitter is like a online business card. You can use twitter to advertise new services that your company may have, advertise your blogs and create awareness of services you offer.  Your profile can be customized with various backgrounds and you can summarize your available services on your profile. This is definitely a modern word of mouth tool.

MySpace

MySpace is a great place to meet and business network. If your target market is people working in Creative industries such as Entertainers and Authors MySpace is the place to be. Finding friends seems to be the main way to connect with people who work in industries that may need your services now or in the future and make them aware of your service offering. Your Myspace profile is a advertisement of your business.  Compared to other social media, MySpace allows for more creative control of the design elements of there profile. Unfortunately MySpace group selection is limited and so is its blog utility.    

Linked In

The biggest disadvantage of Linked In is the profile. You are very limited in the information that you can provide in your profile. The template offered is very plain. The opportunity to comment is a great way to build relationships with other business owner. There are some wonderful groups to join.

Facebook

Facebook started out as a social networking website for students. Facebook is a entrepreneurs dream. Facebook is an excellent place to post your blog. Your blog can quickly be picked up by the search engines and be listed under your company name. Facebook is a great way of advertising events. This allows the opportunity of meeting individuals in your target market face to face. This feature replaces the old fashion joining of business networking groups in your area.  You can join the groups that have interests that match the services you provide.   

Building relationships offline and online is still paramount to your business success.  Please provide feedback about your favourite Social forum on my survey page .  

 

 

 

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