Many of you have asked us,
“how many people do you need for an accurate survey?”
The answer isn’t simple, but I can boil it down for you, with some basic principles that should meet the needs of most businesses.
First, what do you want to do with the data? What questions do you need to answer and how complex do you need to get?
- For certain kinds of data analysis—for example, if you want to do complex analysis and “cut” the data lots of different ways–you need at least several hundred respondents.
- If you just want to look at frequencies, though–in other words, if you just want to know how many people are interested in a particular product or service–100 or so might be enough.
Regardless of how many responses you get, the CRITICAL issue is representativeness.
- That means that you hope the characteristics of the people who respond, as a group, “look” as much as possible like the people in your customer base, as a whole.
- So you hope, for example, that you get roughly the same % of men or women that you have in the customer base, the same age distribution, and so on.
- One of the things we’re going to do in our new membership site is show you how to get this.
Sometimes, though, you don’t want to know about EVERYONE. Instead, you really want to know about a particular group, or segment of our customer base.
- Maybe you want to know if the frequent buyers are interested in a membership site.
- In that case, if you’ve already segmented your list (using surveys and data from your shopping cart) to segment your list properly, you can go in and select that group, then send the survey invitation JUST to that group.
- That’s just one of many reasons that segmentation is so powerful.
The bottom line? Anytime we do surveys, we want to get as high a percentage of customers as possible to respond.
And it comes back to the mantra we give you over and over: The best way to get good information from your customers is to show them “what’s in it for them.”
- You do that by giving them an incentive to take the survey (a free report and a chance to win something cool, such as an iPod, for example) and by
- showing them clearly, in the survey and the invitation, that we’ll use the information they give us to give them more value.
To get a quick, easy SYSTEM for doing surveys this way, go here.
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Success Stories
“A wonderful offering for busy entrepreneurs and business owners” "Jeanne Hurlbert's survey system is a wonderful offering for busy entrepreneurs and business owners who want to be in continual, 'customer-centric' dialogue with their prospects and clients, a systematic approach you can build on for years to come. Even better, Jeanne practices what she preaches — she goes the extra mile again and again to serve us, and I'm confident she'll do the same for you."
Author of Healing the Spirit/Matter Split
~ Saniel Bonder, spiritual author and teacher, Pres. of Extraordinary Empowerments (www.heartgazing.com).
“Jeanne’s Really Been a Genius at Showing Me How Important Surveys Are.” "Jeanne's an amazing gal who truly is an exceptional, unique person who really understands the power of surveys. Surveys are just a different way to talk to people and ask them a little about what they're doing and why they want to do it with you. The more you know, the better you can serve people. Jeanne's really been a genius at helping me realize how important that is. She's helped me put a structure into place so when I'm on the Internet working with people I can find out what they really want so I can do a better job of giving them what they want. That's the key—but sometimes we think people want to do "this," and in actuality, they'd rather do it "this way." Whatever it is you're doing, whether it's finances or dating or relationships or just business on the Internet, and you want to find out how to do it better, Jeanne's programs are fantastic. Anything she does, I'm always dialed into. She's just a genius at taking what you're doing and making it better, so you can do it more effectively and you can reach the people you want to more effectively. If you get Jeanne's stuff, read it, be disciplined at it, it will transform your business, as it has mine."
New York Times Bestselling Author, as seen on The Today Show, Oprah, Regis and Kelly Live
~ New York Times #1 Bestselling Author, Jorge Cruise
"Had I Done a Survey on My Own, I Would Have Wasted a Ton of Time and Potential Opportunity."
- Steve Fultz, Stuph Clothing
"Jeanne’s Really Been a Genius at Showing Me How Important Surveys Are.”
- New York Times #1 Bestselling Author, Jorge Cruise
"…surveys are the newest old way of cutting through the clutter on the Internet and getting the information you need to double or triple your sales"
- Susan Harrow, CEO of www.PRSecrets.com & author of Sell Yourself Without Selling Your Soul
