Internet Business Consultant

For any of us to communicate with another person, we must get our message across through one of their five senses. Advertisers, of course, know this. At times the sense of smell is used. You walk by a bakery and decide to stop in and find out what smells so good. The taste test is used for soda drinks or pizza ads. Pictures of food appeal to previous memories of its good taste. Touch is the main seller when people are buying a mattress. Consumers want to lie on it to find out if lying on it would be restful for eight straight hours.

Of the five senses, sight takes first place as most important. Researches discovered that 80% of what we learn is received through our eyes. Most of the rest comes through our ears. This means that radio ads must get the consumer to recall a vision, smell, feeling, or taste of the product through audio alone.

Since 80% of what we learn enters our eyes, that means advertisers are smart to center their ads around this gate to the will. If they can appeal by way of sound also, this is even better. Printed ads can be read multiple times and by multiple people. They can last longer and thus potentially influence more people than sound ads alone.

Advertisement using the sight will include either words or pictures or both. Words are rather abstract for the letters represent a reality. The word ‘car’ stands for a vehicle of transportation. Words can also represent products. For example, slogans identify products. One of the must successful was, “Where’s the beef?” as part of a Wendy’s ad. This one phrase sold millions of hamburgers and put the company in the limelight.

It is rarely how many words are used but which words that is important in an ad. People are usually too busy to read a long message and it is more expensive anyway. The message must be catchy yet have content. This balance is hard to achieve.

Sometimes humor is just the ingredient needed to make an ad unique. It generally makes an ad easier to remember. Alaska airlines’ ads did an excellent of portraying their qualities through exaggerating the competition’s weaknesses. Their humorous ads won many awards and kept people watching.

Sometimes the ad is so brief that it only reminds consumers of facts they already know. The colors of Pepsi alone will sell the product. A motto or logo or symbol without words will associate their need with the company’s product. In other words, the picture is all the ad needed.

So, we see that the use of visual and audio, of effective words, and of humor make an ad memorable. This takes time and creativity to achieve. Once this is in hand, the advertiser must choose where he will publish this written message. One creative approach is to fly the ad on a banner over a large group of people. Banner ads have been shown to be effective in taking a message to the public in a memorable way. When you consider that the drone of the plane engine adds an audio attention getter, you understand that this method incorporates both sight and sound to effectively drive the message home.

Once you have followed these principles, it is time to get in touch with an aerial advertising company and get it printed and into the air. It won’t take long before your well planned message will be read by thousands and the result in sales will follow.

Technorati Tags: advertising, advertising appeal, appeal in advertising, eye appeal

How to create a survey using Survey Galaxy

Writing surveys is easy; or is it? The truth is that writing surveys is easy but writing effective surveys is more difficult. The following tips will help you with your survey questionnaire design so you can write more effective surveys.

1. What is the survey’s purpose?

There are many reasons for conducting surveys and questionnaires. By phrasing the questions and structuring the answers surveys can be used in a multitude of ways and for a variety of reasons. When designing a survey don’t lose sight of its purpose.

2. Give the survey a good title

The title of the survey is an opportunity to instantly summarise a survey’s objective and encourage respondents to participate. Respondents need to invest time in completing the survey so you need to encourage them that their investment will be worthwhile.

3. Do not make the survey any longer than it needs to be

Every question asked should be asked for a reason. Concentrate on the ‘need to know’ questions and minimise ‘nice to know’ information.

4. Use plain English, avoid jargon and acronyms, maintain consistency and don’t ask questions that may result in ambiguous answers

Be careful when wording the question. If a question can be interpreted in more ways than one then there is a real risk that any analysis of the survey data will be meaningless or at the very least misleading.

5. Avoid having long questions

Where practical use short sentences. Long questions can cause a respondent to lose concentration and lead to them abandoning the survey.

6. Ask one question at a time

Avoid confusing the respondent with a question like ‘Do you like golf and football?’

7. Avoid influencing the answer

It is important not to load the question. ‘Should irresponsible shop keepers who sell cigarettes to minors be prosecuted?’ is likely to have no value.

8. Ensure that the chosen answer format allows the respondent to answer the question being asked

Ensure that the respondent can answer how they really feel or they may be inclined to abandon the survey. As a last resort consider the benefit of including a “No comment”, “Don’t know” or similar response option.

9. While compiling your survey consider how you will want to analyse the results once the survey has been published

Appreciate that questions that allow for a free text open ended response, such as when asking the respondent for their comments, is likely to be difficult to score and/or summarised. Consider grouping answers. For example “How long have you worked here?” – ‘less than 1 year’, ‘between 1 and 6 years’ and ‘more than 6′.

10. Try and ensure that the questionnaire flows

Group questions into clear categories as this will make it easier for the participants completing the survey.

11. Target your respondents carefully

In some cases you will want to target a specific group, in others a cross section. If you can’t control who responds to your survey consider including questions/answers that will allow you to filter out respondents who don’t fit your target profile.

12. Allow the respondent to expand on their answer or make comments

By allowing respondents to make additional comments you will increase their satisfaction level and the comments will also give valuable feedback on the specific questions and/or the survey as a whole. Remember though for a large sample collection it may be difficult to analyze free text open ended responses.

13. If the survey you are conducting is to be confidential ensure that your pledge is upheld

If you have guaranteed the respondents that the survey is confidential ensure that the individual data is not to be shared with anyone and the information is not going to be used for any other purpose. Confidentiality must be maintained at all times and any identifying information destroyed once the survey has finished.

14. Weigh up the advantages of allowing respondents to be anonymous or identifiable

If your respondents are to be anonymous then you will be unable to follow up or match “pre” or “post” surveys. In some cases allowing people to remain anonymous will however allow people to respond without possible peer pressure.

15. Carefully consider the best response format

Maintaining a consistency in the format used for responses is good practice. When creating your survey keep in mind that when analyzing the data single selection radio buttons are easier to analyze than multiple selection check boxes. Do not use a check box if a radio response would do.

16. Give the respondent an estimate as to how much time the survey will take

Respondent drop out can increase if there is no end in sight to the survey questions. It is good practice to give an indication as to how long the survey is likely to take so that the participants can choose the best time to complete the survey.

17. Provide respondents with the survey end date

Encourage your invited respondents to complete the survey as soon as possible but advise the respondents of the survey’s end date so that they have the opportunity to schedule the necessary time.

18. Test the survey

Before publishing a live survey publish a small pilot survey to check for questions that are ambiguous or confusing and to ensure that the survey is aesthetically pleasing.

19. Before publishing the survey proof read the survey carefully

Check more than once that the survey is grammatically correct and makes sense. If possible get someone else to proof read the survey before you publish, if no one else is available then take a break before checking again.

20. Remember to say thank you

Respondents invest their time when completing surveys and should therefore be thanked at the end of completing the survey or in a follow up letter. You may even want to consider an incentive such as a reward of some sort.

To get started there are numerous survey software websites to choose from.

Technorati Tags: advertising, customer services, employee surveys, employer, feedback, market research, marketing, Online surveys, promotion, questionnaires, satisfaction surveys

Your customers are tough cookies. They are extremely media aware and increasingly cynical and it is a clever marketeer who can get through to them. Online surveys reinvent the traditional format and offer a unique way of interaction – all the benefits of the internet without the programming. Here are ten reasons why they may be the silver bullet marketeers’ need, complete with examples supplied by Martin Day, managing director of Survey Galaxy – one of a new breed of websites making online surveys quicker and cheaper

1. It’s cheap as buttons
Select the right survey website and creating surveys can be free of any charge and the cost to publish is minimal.
Useful information harvested from surveys can be reused and repackaged in other marketing and PR for use in press outlets making it a very efficient form of information gathering.

2. It’s easy peasy
Anyone can create, design and publish an online survey. Using an online survey website only basic browser skills is required to create professional looking surveys that when published ate simple to comcomplete.

3. Deployment options
Once the survey is online it is a simple step to promote it the most popular methods being either through email (with a link enclosed) or via a link from a website. Anyone who has the link can be connected instantly to the survey, at a time that’s convenient to them, 24×7.

4. Everyone has got an opinion – and likes to give it
The majority of customers do not view surveys as spam and will in fact welcome the opportunity to voice their opinion and have the chance to make an impact on a brand. They can be particularly good for change management projects; a survey asking a workforce on their opinion of change allows the key issues to be raised in a positive manner and encourages employee participation. Online surveys allow the message to reach each individual and invite feedback in a manageable form.

5. Get inside their heads
You can lead a customer to an advertisement but you can’t make them think. Surveys actively engage the respondent, who read and then think about the question before giving their response.

6. Building relationships
It needn’t all end at the end of the survey – while you have their attention and are in the mood you can ask if they want to sign up for more information or a regular newsletter – making the most of the window when you have their interest.

7. Have you also seen….
One of the most important benefits of a survey is the ability to make inspired or useful connections instantly to other areas. By embedding links within the survey you are able to reinforce the marketing message.

8. Subtly rules
Surveys can associate a product with a number of positive attributes. By listing the many features of a product and asking the respondent how important they are, regardless of their response, the product will be associated with the features; if they are rated as important the positive impact is endorsed by the customer.

9. Not just selling
A survey is an effective, easy and quick method to promote and gain acceptance for a difficult proposal; for example a public body trying to gain acceptance and support for a particular scheme.
For example take a city trying to gain support from the general public for their bid to host a future Olympic Games. A survey can explain each benefit putting the respondent in a much better position to appreciate what the real advantages are that might just combat any negative headlines. As well as promoting the cause, useful feedback is gained that can be used to fine tune the overall marketing strategy.

10. Engage interest
Think laterally and a lively and imaginative approach to surveys can provide a ‘hook’ to engage respondents. The survey subject can be targeted towards a particular group on a subject close to theirs hearts. A survey’s marketing message can take the form of a simple brand awareness message by stating that the survey is being sponsored by brand name, or by finding a link from the subject matter to the product – something that is surprisingly easy and highly effective.

Discover the benefits of including in your website a Public Survey section as many people who enjoy completing crosswords and doing word puzzles enjoy completing surveys. Having a public survey notice board as part of a website is a cost effective and automated method that will help increase traffic and establish a loyal and returning following. No need for moderators as unlike discussion boards there is no opportunity for people to disrupt the site by inappropriate remarks as the survey results can be displayed in summary form.

Customers do not often view surveys as spam and the majority welcome the opportunity to make their voice heard and a chance to have an impact on a brand.

Many of the techniques and a few more are contained in the following Sample Marketing Survey.

Technorati Tags: advertising, market research, marketing, Online surveys, promotion