Finding the Right Message

by Jennifer Havice

  “When did you realize you needed a product/service like ours?” This is a question that will help you find out what trigger events motivated people to seek out your solution.

  “What problem does our product/service lessen or fix for you?” Here you’ll be able to find out what your customers consider their problem to be. You may find you’re solving problems you didn’t even know about.

  “Did you consider any alternatives to buying/working from/with us?” It’s always a good idea to know who your customers see as your competition. This will help you build a case as to why they should buy from you.

  “What concerns or hesitations did you have before you decided to buy/work from/with us?” Being able to address any sources of friction in your copy is incredibly important. You can address how you or your business will alleviate these concerns.

  “After you finish your course/working with us/using our product, what personal/professional goal are you hoping to achieve?” This is a good question to help people dig a little deeper into why they sought you out and tap into their feelings behind it.

  This list is just a start. Depending on your circumstances, tweak the questions as needed. Then, test them out.

  Noah Kagan’s e-mail survey story

  In 2013, Noah Kagan of AppSumo started promoting his Monthly1K.com course by e-mailing 30,000 of his most qualified prospects. The response was dismal. Thirty people out of all of those thousands purchased.

  A phenomenally successful serial entrepreneur, Noah knew how to promote and launch a product online and get results. He was more than a little surprised by the 0.1 percent conversion rate. He jokes about the experience in a blog post where he writes, “I’m Noah Kagan, things always work out for me, right?”8

  He decided to send a survey to those people who had opened the e-mail, clicked through to the sales page, but decided not to buy. His goal was to figure out what was holding those people back who were interested enough to consider his offer but weren’t willing to pull the trigger.

  By asking those surveyed to explain why they didn’t sign up even if they were interested in the offer, he received a gold mine of information. It became obvious that there was not enough information on the sales page to alleviate his prospects’ fears about failure in general and using his product in particular.

  What did he do? Noah and his team reordered the page to address the most pressing questions people had first, based on the survey. He pulled out the language his prospects were using to talk about starting their own businesses and used recurring words and phrases directly in his copy. Plus, he added stories from real users about past failures and the ways the course helped them find success.

  The end result was an increase in conversions leading to a spike in sales. By asking the right questions of the right people, the answers shed light on what the AppSumo guys were doing wrong with their messaging and gave them a guidepost to making rock-solid changes.

  You can take a look at Noah’s First Dollar Survey here: http://okdork.com/firstdollar-survey/.

  Getting those questions answered by e-mail

  At this point, you should have a pretty good idea of the types of questions to ask in your surveys. Now the trick is getting your customers or prospects to answer them. One of the most effective ways to survey people is by e-mail. It’s fast, it’s easy, and there’s no awkward chitchat on the phone or over Skype.

  The number one complaint I hear people say about asking their customers to complete surveys is, “I can’t ever get anyone to respond.” Here are a few tips to get more responses.

  #1: Be direct and clear, and don’t ask for anything else in the e-mail

  It’s easy to make the mistake of confusing your e-mail recipients by talking about too many things in the e-mail and then having the call to action for taking the survey feel like an afterthought. If you do this, don’t be surprised if no one answers your questions.

  Make the e-mail simple, short, and to the point. Keep it to only a few lines, and make the survey link highly visible.

  #2: Phrase your e-mail subject as a sincere but small request

  If you have a good relationship with the people in your e-mail list, many of them will be more than happy to take a minute to answer your questions. Structure the subject line of your e-mail as a question, for example, “Can you do me a favor and answer 3 quick questions?”

  By letting people know that your request requires only a small commitment of their time, that it serves a purpose, and that their time is highly appreciated and valued, you are giving them fewer reasons to say no in their head.

  Also, once people agree to a modest request, it’s far easier to get them to accept a larger one. This is considered getting a “foot in the door,” or a compliance/commitment technique studied extensively in the realm of psychology.9

  Go for a small yes, and the likelihood of getting a bigger one down the road increases.

  #3: Quantify your incentive (if you offer one)

  Incentives to take e-mail surveys (e.g., coupons, free downloads, one-on-one sessions) don’t always work. It really depends on your audience. Be prepared for a bit of trial and error.

  If you do decide to offer an incentive, make sure to quantify it. Let’s say you’re offering a free download to an e-book you sell. Don’t just say, “Take the survey and get my e-book for free.”

  If you normally charge $25 for your book, you need to tell your readers the reward for taking the survey is $25. Then, remind them how much $25 is worth—anchor it to something else like paying for a hardback best seller at full price. Finally, hit on their fear of loss and the fact that if they pass this up, they’re essentially throwing away money and the chance to learn more about whatever it is you have to offer.

  Say something like, “When was the last time you made $25 for sharing your thoughts in 3 minutes?”

  Take into consideration these tips to improve the success of your e-mail campaign, especially tip #1. Remember that most people are extremely busy. Make your e-mail and survey as appealing and user friendly as possible to up your odds of getting as many responses as possible.

  E-mail script: Get people to respond to your survey

  Here’s a template you can customize and use. I’ve included two subject lines for those of you who enjoy doing a bit of split testing with your e-mails.

  Subject line #1: Can you do me a favor?

  Subject line #2: Do you have 2 minutes to help me out?

  I’m working on [insert whatever types of products you design, services you want to sell, or even content you’d like to write] and would so appreciate your feedback.

  My goal is to create/design/develop the kind of items/services/content that you can’t wait to get your hands on. The best way for me to make sure I’m doing that? Having you answer a few short and sweet questions.

  I know you’re super busy, so this won’t take you more than a couple of minutes.

  Click here if you’re willing…

  Thanks in advance!

  [Your name]

  Online tools for e-mail surveys

  There are plenty of online tools out there from free to paid versions that you can use. Here are a few I like to use when sending surveys by e-mail:

  SurveyMonkey: They have both a free and a paid version. The free version allows for ten questions per survey and one hundred responses per survey. This will not be enough for larger businesses, but if you are just starting out or want to send a very targeted survey by e-mail to only a small segment of your list, it’s a good option.

  Google Forms: They aren’t fancy (although there are some templates to choose from with graphics), but they get the job done. Plus, Google does a very good job of allowing you to synthesize the data/answers into a user-friendly spreadsheet form.

  Typeform: This service has by far the most elegant and versatile types of forms. There is a cost to unlock your responses, unless you use only their core features. If branding and the style of your forms are important to what you’re
trying to accomplish, this may be the way to go. It’s definitely worth checking out.

  Survey Gizmo: The benefit of using this service is that you can send out the same survey to different segments of your e-mail list using unique links. This means you can customize the design of the survey for each segment and easily filter the data later for comparison purposes.

  Just remember, this isn’t about quantity but quality. Ten detailed and thoughtful responses are far better than fifty mediocre ones. You’ll start to understand how important this is once you dive into Chapters 3 and 4.

  A word about segmentation

  Whenever you can segment your e-mail list into clearly defined groups and send your survey to them separately, the better. You’ll want to do this for two reasons:

  It makes comparing responses between groups so much easier.

  You’ll be able to target those people who are the most appropriate respondents to your questions.

  For instance, I recently put together a survey plan for a client who teaches online courses on how to make iPhone apps. He has a large e-mail list that comprises people who purchased on his website, backed one of his courses on Kickstarter, and signed up for his free course. Lumping all of these people together makes it difficult to quickly find out what each group thinks about his courses. Those in the free group will have different expectations of what they should be getting, along with what they can achieve. Not to mention the fact that his paying customers have proven they will pay. Knowing what’s making them happy or unhappy will help us key into the messaging that’s most important to his highly motivated buyers.

  How do you segment your e-mail list? Well, that depends on the third-party e-mail provider you’re using. Whether it’s MailChimp, AWeber, or any number of platforms out there, each will have its own way to go about segmenting lists. Check out their help sections to find out how. The important thing to know is that you can and should be doing this with your list so that when it comes time to talk to different portions of your customer base, you’re sending them the most relevant messages. This includes your surveys.

  The power of web and exit surveys

  Getting feedback from your existing customers is important in understanding why people have bought from you in the past and the value they see in what you provide. But that only tells you part of the story. Knowing why potential customers have chosen not to buy or why they decided to abandon your site is equally important. (Remember Noah’s story?) The reasons given can help you address areas of friction around your offer. One of the best ways to do that is by using web and exit surveys that pop up on your website or landing page, especially when you don’t already have a huge list of e-mail subscribers to tap into.

  What are pop-up surveys?

  Most pop-up surveys are installed by adding a snippet of code generated by a third-party software application to the back end of your website. A small box will pop up either in the bottom corner of the page or as a lightbox over the page.

  They appear based on preset triggers—things such as time on site, traffic source, or activity. For instance, you may find that people are spending a lot of time on your sales page based on your Google Analytics report but then they bounce off the page. Triggering a one-question survey to pop up before they leave gives people the opportunity to tell you why they’re not interested.

  If you’re like most people I talk to, you probably hate pop-ups. Website users complain that pop-ups

  get triggered before they’ve had a chance to read anything on the site;

  show up again and again, no matter how many times they close them; and

  are notoriously difficult, if not impossible, to close on a mobile phone.

  You very well may be cursing them as I write this. Which begs the question, Why bother adding a pop-up if so many people find them annoying?

  The simple answer is, they get the job done.

  Learnings from a page bounce

  A simple pop-up question asked at the right time on one of my client’s web pages delivered a key insight into why their product wasn’t selling. The client brought me in to rework the sales page for one of their longtime courses. The first thing I did was dive into their customer research. They had implemented a pop-up survey on this page a few months prior during another product push. As soon as visitors moved their cursor to exit the page, a small box appeared on the screen with the message “Tell us why you’re leaving.”

  The client received forty responses. Almost every one of them mentioned price as the biggest roadblock to purchasing the course. Many people talked about their budget being too small or not being able to see the value the course would bring to their businesses.

  Ouch. People weren’t buying because they didn’t think the course was worth the price. This meant the existing sales page wasn’t doing its job giving visitors all the reasons why the course was an investment in their business they couldn’t pass up.

  One little pop-up survey gave us a big why behind people leaving the page. We used that information to dig deeper, sending out an e-mail survey to recent customers to get their feedback on why they found the course valuable.

  Bada bing, bada boom. We got a list of benefits straight from the customers to weave into the sales page. The best part was these benefits came in the customers’ own words. In the following chapters, you’ll see how you can pull out those words to make your copy perform a whole lot better.

  Questions to ask in your pop-up surveys

  Like any survey, the key to success is knowing the goal you want to achieve before asking questions. To write better-performing copy on your websites and landing pages, you’ll need to answer the following questions:

  Does your website meet your visitors’ expectations? That is, can they easily locate what they’re looking for? Have they landed in the right place?

  Are there any impediments to your visitors taking action? That is, are there any sources of undue friction, such as being asked to give too much information in a form or not understanding the offer?

  In the case of my client’s sales page, the goal revolved around determining why visitors weren’t buying. We already knew these people qualified as a good source of traffic. We simply needed to know what stopped them from moving to the checkout page. That’s why we asked them their reason for leaving.

  There are a number of questions you can ask in your pop-up survey to get the information you need. Consider them variations on the same theme.

  When you’re interested in identifying who is coming to your site and why, ask one of the following questions:

  What’s the purpose of your visit today?

  Were you able to find what you were looking for? (If the answer is no, then ask them to tell you what they were hoping to find.)

  When you need to know what sources of friction people are encountering on your site, ask one of the following questions:

  Is there anything holding you back from purchasing today? (If the answer is yes, then ask for an explanation.)

  Please tell us why you’re leaving today.

  Can we answer any questions before you leave? (If the answer is yes, then ask your visitors to list them.)

  Getting your pop-up survey questions answered

  Response rates for on-site pop-up surveys can be abysmal. Qualaroo, one of the leading companies offering on-site surveys, says that broadly targeted surveys have an average response rate of 1 percent. Highly targeted surveys (page-abandonment surveys) should be in the range of 4 percent.10

  If you have very low traffic numbers, these percentages may seem daunting. Fear not, there are a few things you can do to increase your chances of getting people to respond. Follow these guidelines when setting up your survey:

  Keep the survey simple. You’ll want to go down one of two routes: either ask one open-ended question or ask one yes/no question that will lead to an open-ended question asking for an explanation.

  Ask the right question at the right time. Think back to what your goal is for
this survey. If you want to find out why people abandon their purchases on the checkout page, place your “Why are you leaving?” question there. That may seem like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised by how many sites ask this question on the home page.

  Test how you phrase your questions. What works for one site may not work for another. Your visitors may respond to a question asking essentially the same thing as another, but the way you’ve worded it is different. The only way to know is to let a question run for a few weeks and see how many responses you’re getting in.

  A few words about asking one question versus two

  You may be wondering about the advantage of asking a yes/no question followed by an open-ended question versus simply asking the open-ended question. Psychology comes into play here. When people take action in a series of steps, they are far more likely to continue down the path they are on. The psychologist and researcher Robert Cialdini dubbed this “commitment and consistency.”11 Persuade people to answer yes to a request, no matter how small, and their need to finish the path they’ve started on kicks in. Giving your visitors an easy yes/no question that requires little thought can be enough to pull them into your survey and get them to provide you with all the details you’ve wanted to know.

  Popping a question after purchase

  Consider placing a question on a thank-you page your visitors are directed to after they have purchased something from you or even signed up to your e-mail list. You’ll be getting them at the peak of engagement, which makes them primed to answer a question. Here are a few questions to test on your leads and customers:

  What almost stopped you from buying today?

  What convinced you to purchase from us?

  What persuaded you to buy/sign up/join?

  What are you most looking forward to learning in this course/newsletter/ upcoming e-mails?