Incenting for Survey Participation Is a Must

A common question I’m asked by small businesses and nonprofits that are looking for feedback from their customers and members is: “Should I offer an incentive with my online surveys or not?” I think we can all attest to having plenty to do and no time to do it. So the answer I always give is, “Yes. If you want a good response rate, then there should be an incentive for taking your survey. The real question is what your incentive should be.”

Finding the right incentive depends on a few things:

• The length of your survey. The longer the survey, the more of a perceived value the incentives needs to be.
• The topic of your survey. How much impact will the topic of the survey have on respondents’ lives? If the survey is for feedback about a service that respondents use regularly, less of an incentive is needed.
• Who you’re asking. The relationship your audience has with you or your business will make a difference. If you have a close connection with your customers, your survey will require less enticement than a business that has little or no interaction with their customers.

So what kind of incentives should you offer and in what instances? Here are the three most popular types of survey incentives, advice on when they are appropriate, and tips for using them effectively:

Material goods or a discount -- The most obvious type of incentive works best when you don’t know the respondents well or they don’t have a vested interest in the information you are obtaining. For example: a gift card to Amazon or Starbucks, a discount for your business, a raffle entry for an mp3, money, free t-shirt, etc.

When to use this as an incentive:

1. If the audience doesn’t know you or your business well (you haven’t built a relationship with potential respondents)
2. If the survey covers a topic in which your audience is not really interested (it’s not a topic that will get them excited to offer input)
3. If your survey is longer than 10 minutes, which is the longest the majority of online surveys should be

Tip: Consumers tend to respond well to guaranteed incentives or prize drawings. Research shows that a higher number of lower-value incentives are more effective than a smaller number of higher-value incentives. (A $2 cash reward for everyone works better than an entry into a drawing for a new IPod, for example.) Not only does a higher number of lower-value incentives give respondents a better chance for reward, but the lower-value also discourage people with no real opinion from participating just to get the reward.

Opinions -- You are giving people the opportunity to have a say in what you provide and how you run your business. This can definitely be considered an incentive; you just need to frame it that way in your survey invitation: “We’re sending this survey to you because we want to understand how well we’re meeting your needs and where you would like us to improve. We hope this helps us meet your expectations and improve our services.”

When to use this as an incentive:

1. If you have a close relationship with the audience
2. If the survey covers a topic your audience has a vested interested in, many would jump at the chance to have some input

Tip: The real key with this incentive is that when that survey is done, you need to follow up with respondents to let them know what you learned from their opinions and also what actions you’re going to take as a result. That is what really lets them know that their opinions matter and that you’re listening to what they have to say.

Information -- This is a truly underutilized incentive. People don’t always consider the sharing of survey results an actual incentive, but it certainly is. We are all curious what other people think. Respondents will wonder how others answered. Offer insight and any practical learnings gained from the survey results that apply to their world as a thank you. A whitepaper sharing some expertise also falls in this category.

When to use this as an incentive:

1. If you know the audience is interested in the topic
2. You have expertise you know the audience is interested in

Tip: Sharing survey results is usually most effective for business-to-business research and employee surveys.

Once you determine what an appropriate incentive is for your online survey, make sure you clearly state the incentive (and what is required to get it) in your survey invitation subject line and the main body copy to see if it has a significant impact on your survey completion rates. Constant Contact tested a few survey subject lines, and the winner was: “You could win a gift card - just for taking our survey.”

Have a question about this or other aspects of online surveys? Feel free to click the comment link below. Until next time, happy growing!

Your vote:

Average: 1.5 (33 votes)