How Surveys Help You Develop Better Content for Your Audience

From seasoned marketers to emerging influencers, “content” is the word on everyone’s lips. It has a huge impact on how we make consumer decisions, with a solid content marketing strategy being non-negotiable in 2022 and beyond.

Relevant content that engages your target audience can have a significant impact on your brand's prospects. In fact, a recent survey indicated that 78% of companies with successful content have an established marketing strategy.

Extensive knowledge of your audience is key to creating a strategy that delivers results, and there’s no better way of learning who they are and what they want than to ask them directly. That’s where customer surveys come in.

Well-designed customer surveys can get you the all-important business data you need to inform your content strategy. The result is a more engaged audience, improved customer loyalty and soaring sales.

The challenges of content marketing

While it’s true that content is king, many brands fail to reach this lofty royal status. One of the main issues is that too few marketers have a documented content marketing strategy. As indicated by the research above, having one in place has been linked to content success and is therefore a necessary business process improvement.

Another problem is the relevance of the content we view. Consider your own online experience: how much of the content presented to you is helpful? Few of us would answer with a high percentage. This could be significantly improved by better-researched output made with an understanding of the target audience.

The good news is that building a strong content marketing strategy is possible when the right tools are employed. One of the best and easiest places to begin is using customer surveys to gather the data you need.

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The benefits of customer surveys

Understanding your customers is the first step to producing effective content. Knowing who they are and what they want will immediately help you raise the value of your output.

Below are some of the many benefits of customer surveys.

1. Providing insights into your audience and their decision-making

Every one of us conducts some degree of online research before choosing a product or service. Whether picking a new printer for the office or deciding where to convert PDF to Word free online, we weigh up our options before making a decision. Importantly, we don’t choose which businesses we patronize at random.

You can use surveys to easily find out how your customers make their decisions, as well as what’s important to them. This helps lay the groundwork for content that will keep their attention.

2. Understanding how your business is seen

There’s no denying there’s a big difference between opinion and action. What people say isn’t necessarily what they do. However, perception is important, and asking the right questions can be enlightening.

Using customer surveys, you may discover you’re not perceived in the way you thought or that your content isn’t being received in the way it’s intended. This information is useful for improving your brand image, refining your output and making your content work for you.

3. Showing your audience you care

Customer surveys are great for data, but they also show your audience their opinions matter to you. Prove you’re pre-empting their concerns and actively working to improve your service by asking for input. This will build confidence in your integrity as a company and ensure you’re putting out the kind of content they want to see.

4. Developing high-value content

Surveys allow you to gain any manner of data related to your market (no matter how niche). What are people’s habits and behaviors? How do they feel about current events or trends? You can find out this and more via well-worded surveys. They can thus be a springboard for devising unique content your audience will engage with.

5. Encouraging customer loyalty

It’s no secret that long-term returning customers spend more on average than new ones, making them significantly more valuable. Engaging content—i.e. the type you can produce with the help of surveys—is an essential part of retaining their loyalty.

6. Communicating with customers

Alongside a winning chatbot strategy, customer surveys are a great tool for speaking to customers and asking what they want from you. Obviously, this isn’t a replacement for live customer service, but it’s a useful communication medium that can enrich your relationship with your audience.

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Creating a successful customer survey

So, how do you create a successful customer survey? Firstly, make sure you have a goal, and then make a plan. There are several elements to keep in mind when you’re doing this.

1. Choose your subject wisely

Only you know what information will be most helpful to you, but there are a few obvious places to start.

What’s your demographic?

Gain greater insight into your target audience by gathering data on age, gender, income, and location. This will help you build more accurate customer profiles and inform any adjustments you need to make to your content.

At the end of the day, there’s no point in posting videos aimed at young urban singles if your main demographic is stay-at-home mums.

Which channels do they use?

There are many options for viewing content, and knowing where you see the most engagement is essential. Monitoring Twitter metrics, for example, is a great start, but the more information you can glean, the better. Find out if your respondents are on every platform from TikTok to Reddit or if they only get their content from select sources.

What kind of content do they like?

Find out where people prefer to consume their content too. Establish whether you’re dealing with social media scrollers or those who enjoy a long-read blog. This will help you tailor content that’s better suited to their needs.

What are their main concerns and issues?

Proactively find out what their pain points are, and you will be ideally placed to provide targeted solutions. This will help you produce high-value content that delivers a good ROI.

2. Keep it short and sweet

Every business aims for efficient results. Whether that's using automated email marketing platforms or utilizing the proposal generator Salesforce offers, we’re all looking for the most successful route from A to B.

The same goes for your customer surveys. A handful of well-considered questions will provide the best outcome.

3. Multiple choice vs. open-ended questions

Multiple choice questions are typically the preferred choice in surveys. Few people have the patience to spend more than five minutes answering them. If it can be done within a few clicks, you’re likely to get a higher response rate.

4. Offer an incentive

If you want to boost your response rate, consider offering an attractive reward. Prize draws, discounts and exclusive offers will help you hit your target. It doesn’t have to be big or costly; a small gesture for completing a few questions will go a long way.

5. Use survey creation software

You may already use tools like Facebook automated messages for efficiency and convenience in your customer service. The same goes for surveys; there are plenty of platforms available to help you build them with ease. Do some research and find the one that best suits your needs.

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Using your results

Once you have your data, it’s time to optimize your content marketing. Having your own unique data sets puts you in a great position to reimagine your strategy.

Visuals

Start by creating some easy-to-understand visuals, including graphs and charts. These are useful if you want to use the data internally and essential if you want to publish your findings. Graphs, pie charts and infographics are ideal for demonstrating what you’ve learned.

Publishing your data

If you’ve gathered the kind of data that makes for interesting reading, why not shout about it? A good survey can give you the material for several articles, blogs or social media posts. For a broader perspective, consider comparing your findings with other surveys or studies. Then use your visuals and get creative in how you present them.

Customer segmentation

Analyze your demographics and begin tailoring your content to your audience. Breaking down your data will allow you to target your intended audience more effectively. This way, you can ensure relevant content reaches the right people.

Data-influenced content

So, you know what your target audience likes and how they consume content. It's time to give the people what they want. This may mean revising your whole approach e.g. more videos and fewer blogs or vice versa. The result will be more successful content that has a greater impact and can boost sales.

Make it seen

A huge amount of content on the internet generates zero traffic from Google searches. Use SEO and keywords to optimize your content and reach a wider audience. If someone is searching “how to add signature to Word document” and your article can help, make sure it’s easy to find.

Keep it going

Regular surveys are vital for keeping track of your consumer base as it grows and changes over time. Continue to use this sort of information to reevaluate your strategy. A great way to achieve this is to conduct content audits twice or more a year. Being flexible and adaptable is key to maintaining your edge.

Level up your content

There’s no doubt that customer surveys can help you build a robust content marketing strategy. Use them properly, and you will gain insight into how you’re perceived and your position among your competitors. What’s more, you’ll have invaluable and unique data to inspire your content and position yourself for future success.