Tips To Leveraging Google Surveys In Your Marketing Efforts

If you're running a small to medium-sized business, market research is often a luxury. Traditional surveys and focus groups are simply not in the marketing budget, so many business owners end up making critical decisions based on speculation, advice from friends or purely their gut feeling. Eureka! In walks Google Consumer Surveys, an incredibly useful tool that makes market research affordable – only 10 cents per response for standard subjects in the general population category. And, you get to choose the number of responses you wish to collect, which allows you to spend a fitting amount of money to get the feedback you need. Now that's personalized service!

The way it works:

1. You simply create online questionnaires/surveys about your products, services, packaging, brand identity etc. You can even ask a threshold question, such as "Do you visit dog parks regularly?" or "Do you bring your dog to work often?"
2. You specify your target demographic or allow users from all walks of life to participate
3. Your questions are asked on Google's publisher sites, who then get paid for their visitors' responses to your questions
4. You receive answers back through a clear and organized set of charts and graphs

You may be asking, "What is the incentive for the respondent?" The answer to that is premium content, such as news articles, videos etc. Visitors must answer questions from your survey, one at a time, in order to have access to these novelties.

At only 10 cents per response for a general population sample – or 50 cents per response if you choose a target demographic such as gender, age and/or geographic location – the host sites get paid for featuring your survey questions and the visitors get free, nearly instant access to the premium content after giving their answer. Google states that reasons for the one-question-at-a-time approach include higher response rates and more accurate answers, as opposed to other research providers who tend to fancy the 10 or more minute-long questionnaire.

Once the answers start pouring in, Google automatically categorizes the responses for you and features captivating insights regarding the collected information, even the raw data is available for nerdy types who might want to generate their own reports. You can then customize the charts and use the Google insight tool to separate and organize the information to better understand key differences.

In our opinion, Google Consumer Surveys is a great tool worthy of consideration. Whether you do it yourself or hire a pro, set up is less time consuming and less labor intensive than you might think, compared to traditional survey research providers, thus saving both time and money. Moreover, results appear almost instantly in an online interface that is surprisingly easy to use, and the publisher network of host sites used by Google allows you a diversified response from visitors of many different online news sites, video sites and the like.

To learn more about Google Consumer Surveys, watch their short video explaining the process and advantages here: http://www.youtube.com/embed/90MIiBvXYcw. Or, if you\'re in the mood to shop around, take a look at other survey options, notably SurveyMonkey and FluidSurveys. Both services offer free basic plans to get you started, as well as several monthly payment plan options if you choose to upgrade to a premium account.

"Have a Pawsitively Tail Waggin' Good Day!"

P.S. This information was provided by Ruff Haus Design - Your Loyal Marketing Companion. Established in 1997, we are a special breed of full service graphic design company that works with a premier pack of clients. We bring a fresh outlook and tail-wagging enthusiasm to your marketing program. Learn more about how we can help improve your brand management and support your marketing needs at www.ruffhaus.com