If you still wonder what your customers like or what they’re interested in, you can easily get answers to all your questions by creating a professional-looking online survey using high-end tools. With online surveys, you’re able to know for certain what products or services entice your customers and what they think about your company as a whole.

But like any other facets of online marketing, creating surveys is both an art and a science. To make them a success, you need to find a professional service that shines and that is able to offer you expertise and top-notch solutions in one package. Of course, you can run surveys on your own using free online survey software and questionnaire tools but although they’re rather low-cost, you don’t get all the advanced features, controls and the analytical horsepower that are offered by dedicated professional services.

Generally, there’s a wide variety of online services offering you tools to create professional surveys, questionnaires, competitions, data capture forms and online order forms in a matter of minutes. But how do you know that these tools are the best? You can take a look at the companies’ websites to learn what scope of services they provide and what solutions they implement. Or you can contact them by phone or email and ask for guidance.

Usually, experienced professionals in survey marketing have a large number of digital clients and an established reputation in the industry. Therefore, you can browse through the list of their clients, read what they say about these services or examine the case studies of their major clients. As a matter of fact, the latter is the most useful feedback as you get all the necessary information. Some case studies even contain descriptions by marketing managers who defined the marketing challenge and found the solution to it.

Thinking about which features you want to use in your survey is equally important before settling on a suitable web service. It’s necessary to decide on what questions you plan to ask in your surveys, how many people you are trying to reach, whether you prefer to use your own questions or are eager to take advantage of pre-designed templates, how you want to distribute your surveys and many others. As soon as you make a decision, you’ll be able to figure out which services have the features you need.

As there’s a wide array of online survey services available, it’s no wonder that they might use different methodology to initiate surveys. It can be a good idea to test various methods to see what works best for you. In addition, it’s preferable to integrate online surveys with your web analytics data. That’s why you need an online provider which can plug your data picked from surveys straight into your email database. By doing so, you’re able to know what your best customers look like, what makes them tick and how often they want you to email them.

Finally, if you’re new to the world of survey marketing you might want to find a provider which offers the highest level of support. There are services which come with a certain amount of coaching by web savvy professionals who are able to guide you through writing questions and targeting your audience in the best possible way. Often they provide full guidance concerning key areas to cover in your online surveys, tips for framing questions and collecting customer data.

On the whole, online surveys are the best way to engage with customers and get answers to the key questions that can help drive growth for your organisation. If your service provider is well equipped to turn surveys into a response-boosting tool, you’re likely to get the most of your online surveys.