Email marketing is more than a way to boost the profits of your company and sell more products. When used properly, email marketing is also a powerful tool for soliciting customer feedback and improving your operations. No matter what the nature of your business, knowing what your customers are thinking and catering to their needs can help you be more successful.
Understanding the importance of customer feedback is only the first step. In order to use your email marketing to collect customer feedback, you will need to look at your list carefully and create the kinds of surveys that will get results.
The importance of customer feedback
It would be hard to overestimate the importance of customer feedback. If you never ask your customers what they are thinking, you will never know how you are perceived, what users think of your products and what you could be doing better.
Finding out what your customers are thinking is easy – all you have to do is ask them. You can use your existing email list to survey your customer base, using it as a way to find out what you are doing right and where you can improve. Armed with that information, you can make changes that can lead to improved sales, increased profits and an even better business model.
Why email can be a great solution for soliciting feedback
Your email list is the perfect starting point for any type of customer survey or feedback solicitation. You already know the people on your email list are receiving, reading and responding to the messages you send. Taking the additional step of asking them what they think is only natural.
You can use your email list and the surveys you create to find out why customers are buying your products, which products they like best and what additional products they would like to see. Perhaps even more important, you can use your surveys to find out why potential customers choose not to buy your products. The information you receive can help you with everything from setting the right price point to designing the right mix of products.
How customer feedback can help your business
No matter how well you think you are doing, there is no substitute for direct customer feedback. Understanding how your customers view you and how your company is perceived is an invaluable part of running your business.
Large multinational companies spend millions of dollars soliciting feedback from customers, often designing elaborate social media outreach programs and marketing campaigns to gauge their brands and make adjustments. You do not need the resources of those large multinationals do get the same results; everything you need is already in your computer. The email lists you already possess are powerful tools for assessing the success of your existing business and looking for ways to do things better.
Some practical examples for success
There is no one right way to use your email list for customer feedback purposes. Like so much else in the world of email marketing, you can tailor your feedback solicitations to the needs of your customers and the goals of your business. These are some real-world examples of how successful companies have used their email lists to gather feedback and improve their firms.
- Use a survey to collect case studies or testimonials. Customers who respond get visibility and a chance to express their opinions, while you gain a powerful marketing tool for future campaigns.
- Offer entry into a free contest in exchange for customer feedback.
- Keep the survey short and engaging. Put the most important questions first to gather the best information.
- Use multiple-choice questions to gather information about the quality of your products. Use open-ended questions to solicit specific feedback from customers.
- Drive more traffic to your website by including a survey link in your regular email messages. You will get more customer traffic and potentially more sales, as well as valuable information about customer perception.
What tools can I use to collect customer satisfaction surveys
You can use any tools you are comfortable with to conduct your surveys and solicit customer feedback. Services like Survey Monkey and others make it easy to create professional-looking surveys right from your own computer. One good choice is Google Forms. It’s free, easy to use and it allows you to create unlimited surveys. Simply, open your Google Drive account, click on “Create”, and select Form. You will be able to create new forms in few minutes and collect the responses in a Google Docs spreadsheet.
No matter which tools you use, the customer feedback you obtain will be invaluable to your business.