Building an email subscriber list is one of the most powerful marketing tools you have at your disposal for engaging with prospects and building relationships. What many of the “experts” neglect to mention when they share an online marketing tip is that your list can also be an incredibly valuable resource for developing valuable marketing information.

Really, the feedback you receive from your subscribers may be the most valuable resource you have available, since you already know they’re interested in you and your business – they told you that when they chose to opt-in to your list.

Survey Your Audience Quarterly

Whether you have a massive list or an itty bitty one doesn’t really matter. What does matter is that you need to be asking them a series of questions to get to know your audience better. And, because your email list is something of a captive audience, they’re a great resource for developing high-value marketing information.

Using what they share with you in response to your email surveys will enable you to create more products and services that your audience really wants. This will not only increase your sales, it will also help you to build a stronger social media following and increase traffic to your website. What’s not to love about that?

BTW… Doing this is a different approach than asking for feedback from clients, as we suggested doing in a previous post. There, you are essentially asking about client satisfaction with a service or product they’ve purchased. Here, your goal is to discover the most important issue they deal with, as a clue to how you can help resolve it for them, moving forward.

Survey Questions for Your Subscribers

A well-tested practice for your subscriber survey would be to limit yourself to three to five questions, and to send them out every few months or so. Asking so few questions is a good idea because you really want to respect the fact that their time is limited and, while they will likely be happy to answer, you don’t want to take advantage of their willingness to help you.

For example, you might send an email to your list where you say something like:

“Hello, I’ve reached a place in my business where I really want to make sure that what I’m doing is on-target and that I’m giving you the best value possible. So, I have a few quick questions for you and I would be forever grateful if you could just take a minute or two and answer them for me.”

One of the questions on your survey should always be:

“What’s your #1 most burning question when it comes to marketing your business online?”

Of course, every business is unique so you may have a more specific category that is your most burning question you’d like to ask your subscribers but, you get the idea.

In fact, you can ask them about anything that matters to you, for example:

• Content marketing strategies
• Social media marketing tips
• The value they place on how-to videos and/or tips videos
• Whether they listen to niche-related podcasts
• If they use webinars to build relationships and generate leads, etc.

Whatever you choose to ask about, the most burning question is always a must on your surveys because you’ll quickly begin to realize there are patterns among the answers you receive. This will go a very long way toward illuminating the most common questions people are asking in your niche.

Once you know what matters most to them, you can begin to shift your online marketing strategy to meet that burning need.

Use the remaining questions in your survey to follow-up on the subject you’ve chosen, perhaps with questions they might ask themselves – if only they knew what to ask. After all, you’re the expert, so ask the questions an expert would be best able to answer.

That’s a huge win for everyone – your subscribers and you!

BONUS TIP: You can also use the answers you receive from your subscriber surveys to develop content for your blog, tip videos, and social media posts too. After all, the more people who see you addressing the issues that matter most to your audience, the larger your audience will grow. This will boost your reputation, both online and offline, increase website traffic, expand your email list, and generate more leads.

Remember, the goal of your subscriber surveys is to find out what matters to your audience, without your personal or professional biases (which we all struggle to set aside) leading you in a direction that may not benefit you – or them.

Click here to learn what you should do to follow-up on your survey: What is a Nurture Email Campaign

Looking for more online marketing tips and ideas? Get in touch with the YOMT Team today.