When was the last time you completed a survey?

Another major tool employed by lead generation marketing efforts is the use of the online survey, as it's a great way to collect valuable marketing information. First of all, it allows a business to collect statistics on particular issues that can help focus marketing efforts. An online survey or questionnaire also offers considerable cost and time advantages. Once a survey has been created and published you are able to monitor the activity of respondents in real time and view the latest summary results.

Here are some keys to consider when employing a survey for lead generation marketing purposes.

Offer an Incentive

• Give the user some sort of incentive to complete the survey. Take caution however, as an improper incentive can have a negative affect. You not only want to generate a lead, but the right lead. People who complete surveys solely for the incentives tend to leave answers that negatively skew your results and are also not really interested in your products or services. But with an incentive related to your product or service, you increase the chances of hitting a good lead.

Keep it Short & Sweet

• Although you want to collect as much marketing information as possible, be considerate of the users time. Getting them to agree to the survey is half the battle. If they agree only to find out that the survey is extremely long, there is a good chance they will opt out, leaving your marketing information incomplete. Keeping it short and to the point will ensure the survey completion and that lead will return and respond to more surveys, offering up more valuable marketing information.

Be Relevant

• For accurate marketing results, ensure your survey is relevant to the overall theme of the website. By doing this, your lead will not wonder, “why are they asking me this?” and opt out. This could potentially leave a good lead with a negative feeling towards your website.

Share Your Results

• Let the user view the results of the survey. If they were interested in completing it, they are most definitely interested in the results. Giving them the option of receiving the results via email is another form of lead generation marketing as you are able to gather their contact information.

Today, you see many websites using this form of lead generation marketing. When administered properly, it has the potential to capture great leads for your business while gathering other pertinent marketing information on a real-time basis.