Surveys have a valuable place in marketing, but not every business is optimizing how they deliver surveys and collect responses from consumers. According to Business Review, companies could leverage their mobile text marketing campaign to drive survey responses and gather much more valuable metrics through a channel that already offers significant value.
As one of the most effective ways to gather useful consumer insight, surveys should be on every consumer-facing business's plate for enhancing marketing and product design. The news source reports that "surveys will give you a better idea of your target consumers' needs, preferences, expectations and perceptions of your products and brand, enabling you to develop the right products and business strategies to attract and convert them with greater success." With SMS, companies gain significant reach and access to the consumer at large, making it the most effective way to get results from a survey.
Here are a few benefits of conducting surveys via SMS:
Faster delivery – SMS delivery is nearly instantaneous, and with a high-quality bulk SMS service, a business can send thousands of messages simultaneously. This ensures a broad user base for any survey and helps optimize the results to ensure accurate data. Consider the optimal time to send these texts, and when users are mostly likely to take a moment to read them, and plan your survey around this strategy.
High open and response rates – SMS has the highest open and response rate of any marketing channel, with a near 100 percent open and 45 percent response rates. This allows for a much broader pool of responses than any other channel and boosts communication across the board with the consumer. Businesses that embrace SMS often see much better performance in customer relationship management and service as well.
Honest responses – The ability to respond in a text helps consumers open up and provides a sense of anonymity that encourages more accurate, honest responses to any survey, well above a phone call. Combined with high response rates and swift delivery, this allows for companies to maximize the value of their survey. Text also allows consumers time to consider their answers and respond at their leisure, which increases the likelihood that they will respond at all.
Low cost – Mobile marketing offers one of the lowest cost points of any marketing channel, ensuring that any survey done via SMS will be as cost effective as possible. A bulk SMS gateway will ensure minimal costs over a large user base as well, to maximize value.
Of course, once you've decided to use SMS as the channel for your survey, you need to ensure your survey is as effective as possible. Consider the questions you ask carefully, the length and response options in relation to the format that you're offering it in — SMS messages. It is important to optimize your survey with the mobile platform in mind and minimize the hassle and maximize the convenience of responding for the consumer to get the most value out of your results.
Businesses are finding that mobile presents the strongest platform for their marketing efforts in general, because it simplifies consumer interaction and maximizes responses. Billboards, web ads and TV spots don't provide the same interactivity that mobile and social strategies do, or level of consumer appreciation, so companies should invest in a bulk SMS service that will help them deliver engaging, actionable texts for their survey needs.
