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Surveys are highly effective instruments for getting inside the minds and understanding the motivations and buying habits of the general consuming public. However, if you are really looking to learn the motivations and triggers that get a specific segment of the population to purchase, a target survey will best address your needs.
What is a Target Survey?
Simply put, it's a survey that targets an audience with specific characteristics, defined by you. For the most part, you want this target audience to be one that is likely to buy your product or service or the people you most want to purchase the product or use your service. They are your target audience and the audience whose thoughts, opinions, motivations, and buying habits matter most.
In other words, you use your survey software to designate your target audience for any particular survey. The big challenge for you, is not in using the survey tool or using the online survey software to establish the appropriate survey parameters. The biggest challenge is identifying the specific market you want to target.
What are Your Target Choices?
The good news is that there are dozens of options for you to use when narrowing down your target audience for any given survey. The bad news is that you may find the refining capabilities endlessly appealing. Don't get sidetracked from the task at hand while working to create the perfect survey audience criteria.
In addition to standard demographics that include the following:
- Country Region
- State
- City
- Gender
- Education
- Age or Age Range
- Occupation
- Ethnicity
You can further narrow your audience according to other issues including, but certainly not limited to any of the following:
Family Relationships:
- Marital status
- Retirement status
- Children in the household
- Number of children
- Ages of children
- Pets in the household
- Number of pets
- Ages of pets
- Types of pets
Professional Information:
- Personal income
- Household income
- Business size
- Industry
- Position
Personal Habits:
- Smoking habits
- Mobile phone usage
- Mobile phone habits
- Motorcycle ownership
- Automobile ownership
- Travel habits
- Travel frequency
- Boat ownership
- Recreational preferences
- Sports participation
Why Target Specific Survey Participants?
The more specific the questions you use the survey software to ask, the greater the odds are that you'll get the specific answers you're looking for. That comes as no surprise to people familiar with online survey software. What you may not realize, though, is that the tighter you can zero in on your demographic audience, the more relevant your response would be.
Say you've developed a revolutionary left handed driver that will make hooking and slicing a thing of the past. Assuming this particular golf club is a man's club, you can eliminate women from the results. You should also eliminate right-handed golfers and focus on people who actively play golf.
You can even further limit your target participants to people who play golf frequently, once a week or more for extremely narrow results or leave it a little broader. Doing this allows you to find out what would motivate these golfers to buy a golf club that will help improve their games.
The bottom line is that a target survey will help you achieve more relevant information from your survey efforts. Consider this when creating your next survey and as you look for new ways to make the results more meaningful and effective.
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