9. Data Collection Tips

Keep this in mind when you are collecting any type of data...

 

Garbage in...

 

... garbage out!

 

In the case of your survey, follow these important tips…

 

1) Duplicate reality as closely as possible…

 

Follow one key rule and you’ll be fine. Let’s call it “The Golden Rule”...
Duplicate reality.

 

A survey is not reality. A customer buying your product... that’s reality.

 

So your survey should mirror reality as closely as possible. Two examples...

 

• show and tell your actual target market... i.e., genuine prospective customers

 

• show and tell your prospects in the same way that they will actually learn about your products.

The closer your process duplicates what will actually happen, the better. If you break the Golden Rule, do it only after careful consideration. Do it only if you know how to factor the difference into your final pricing decisions.

2) “Show & Tell” the right people…

 

Show and tell your prospective on-target customers. Obviously, that’s the best way to duplicate reality.

There will be times, however, that you use an off-target group of respondents. For example, suppose that you’ll be direct-selling via your Web site. But you want to keep your site and product confidential until launch. You can “distort reality” in several ways. Two examples...
i) Hire a consultant to select customers to do focus groups.

The consultant can either show and tell, in the company’s offices, via a temporary, password-protected Web site. Or she can do a person-to-person demonstration of the product’s features and benefits -- she would ask the six questions during these sessions and then input the data into your survey later.

Either way, reality is distorted. You’ll still get solid, useful information, of course. But do consider whether you have duplicated your true Web-buyer’s situation sufficiently -- if not, do the results need to be adjusted up or down, and by how much, to compensate?

ii) Send your sales affiliates to the site (if applicable).

For example, SiteSell is well-represented on the Net by thousands of “5 Pillar” Affiliates. (For information on SiteSell’s affiliate program, please click here.) In past situations, we have generated a lot of responses in a hurry by asking them to complete a survey (generated by MYPS!). We use this feedback strategy because it’s fast and news about the upcoming release stays confidential until the full product launch.

Of course, we recognize that the affiliates do not represent our exact target market. Normally, the affiliates send other people to SiteSell’s sales sites.

Overall, however, we consider the pricing answers of 5 Pillar Affiliates to be only a few percent higher than the typical customer -- affiliates are slightly less targeted, but somewhat more enthusiastic. We adjust results accordingly.

Allan Gardyne of AssociatePrograms.com (the leading affiliate expert on the planet) ranks SiteSell’s 5 Pillar Affiliate Program as one of the best on the Net. SiteSell products overdeliver in quality and expectations so affiliates are proud to represent and promote them. That’s what makes them so enthusiastic!

For example, Allan is especially proud to promote Site Build It! on his AssociatePrograms site. However, before putting up that recommendation, Allan had asked his employee, Rupert Farrow, to thoroughly test SBI!.

SBI! passed with flying colors! Rupert now has two successful SBI! sites that are attracting lots of visitors… and generating substantial income.
Read about Rupert’s site-and-business-building experiences (for both sites), written in his own words…

 

http://buildit.sitesell.com/case-studies/affiliatemarketing-1.html http://buildit.sitesell.com/case-studies/affiliatemarketing-2.html

 

Take-home lesson?...

As much as possible, show and tell your actual prospective customers. If you have to vary, do it in a way that deviates from reality as little as possible. And factor that difference (for example, the enthusiasm of your affiliates) into your results.

3) Show & Tell in the right way…

 

How will your real customer buy your product? That’s how to show your survey!

If your customer will review your Web site presentation and then buy via the Web, show and tell your prospects by using the exact site that will be doing the selling.

If, for example, your customer will see a TV ad and then go to Wal-Mart to buy, hire a researcher and do an offline survey.

No matter how you show and tell, do not explain that this is a pricing survey -- if you do that, you bias the respondent. So don’t call attention that you want to use this to price your product.

Think of it this way... When a customer is on the verge of buying your product, she is actually being price-surveyed, except it’s “for real”! She has to decide whether it’s “worth it.” But she does not know (or even consider) that she is being pricesurveyed. Nor should your respondents.

Again, the bottom line is...

 

Duplicate reality.

 

4) Take your time…

Read your survey to make sure that there are no typos and that the language is smooth -- will your typical respondent understand? If not, go back and adjust. To maximize response rate, really aim for perfection on your survey.

5) Write a good introduction…

The introduction is critical. Its Most Wanted Response (i.e., what you most want your visitor to do) is to get the response. It must persuade your prospective customer to complete and submit the survey.

Let’s say you are about to launch a new e-good. Your survey is ready. Here’s how to get your MWR…
STEP 1) Create a new site, or a new addition to your existing site, that is dedicated to selling your new product to customers.

STEP 2) Do some light marketing (through e-zines, a small percentage of your affiliates, ads, etc.) to drive some targeted traffic to the site. Remember, the goal is to attract respondents that are as close as possible to your typical prospects -- recreate reality.

Site Build It! builds traffic… high volumes of targeted, interested, willing-tobuy traffic… on a continuous basis. Take SBI!’s “Get to the Alexa Point” test and see how your traffic results compare.

http://traffic-test.sitesell.com/

 

STEP 3) When your visitor clicks on the Order button, she instead goes to your Survey page. Now it’s time for your introduction to go to work.

 

STEP 4) Welcome her to your pre-launch. Explain that you will be fulllaunching in a week. Right now, you need her help...

If she can spare a minute or two to answer a few short questions, (remember the more questions you ask, the less likely you will get a response about your product), you would be delighted to offer her a 20% (or whatever maximal number you can afford) discount. That discount will be a sure-fire way to generate some early sales as soon as you launch!

In the final part of your introduction, just before you get to the survey, explain exactly what it is that is being offered in appreciation for their time and effort. “Give then take.”

And, as we’ve already said about your introduction, one key last point...

 

... Keep It Short and Simple.
6) Test your survey…

 

Check off your “to do” list...

 

You’ve written the introduction. You’ve incorporated the html of the survey into a company template. And you’ve uploaded it all to the Net. Great!

 

Ready to launch to thousands of people, right?

 

Nope! No way! STOP!...

 

... Arretez-vous!

Test it now to save embarrassment and lost sales later. It’s easy. Just ask a few folks to pretend that they are customers. They visit the site and complete the survey. Even do a small usability test and actually watch two people as they do it -- it only takes two to get decent feedback.

Make the adjustments and then do another small test. Stop testing when all seems to work well.

 

Your survey is ready to go “live”. Now you what you need is enough interested people to respond because…