Sometimes all you have to do is ask customers and prospects what they think about your brand, and you’ll likely get some valuable information on how your brand is perceived. Over time you will be able to track trends worth following.
Online brand surveys are an excellent way to do just that.
Unlike more traditional mail-based and telephone surveys, online surveys are relatively inexpensive, less time consuming, and offer more flexibility in changing your survey questions as needed.
In most cases, you can conduct an online survey for specific geographical areas and define audience demographics, such as age or gender. Once completed, you can download your results into a spreadsheet.
If you do conduct a brand-oriented survey, keep it very short, perhaps three or four questions. That will help improve response.
Your first survey question should probably ask the respondent if they’ve heard of your brand. There are generally two different types of questions you can use – unaided and aided.
Here’s the difference between the two: Let’s say you own an automotive repair shop called “Bob’s.” One question to ask might be, “Which companies in this area are you aware of that repair cars?” That’s an unaided question because respondents aren’t provided with possible answers.
Another question might be: “Which of automotive repair shops in this area are you aware of – “Mike’s,” “Steve’s,” “Joe’s,” or “Bob’s”? That’s an aided question because respondents are given some hints.
Unaided questions provide more revealing information on brand awareness, but if your initial brand awareness is poor, you may need to start by asking an aided question.
A few additional questions you may ask in this example might include:
- Which attributes respondents consider most important in selecting a repair shop, price, reputation, location, etc.
- How often respondents need to have their cars repaired.
- What resources respondents turn to when selecting a repair shop, such as the Internet, online review site, or recommendations from friends and family.
When creating your survey, you can write multiple choice questions, short answer questions, and other types of questions.
