A great way to get product ideas is by conducting surveys. The problem is, very few people know how to go about doing this. What questions do you ask? Is there a particular order that they should be asked? How many questions is too many, too few? How do you even get the survey out there so that people will see it? This article is going to try to answer some of these questions so that you can get a head start on your first survey.

For starters, you need to have some idea of what it is you want to offer your target market. Just asking the question, “So, what would you like?” is not going to cut it. You’re going to get so many different answers covering so many different bases that you’ll never get a firm foundation to begin with. So, for example, let’s say your target market is the Internet marketing crowd. You want to focus on one specific area of Internet marketing, such as SEO, article writing, pay per click and so on. This eliminates a lot of requests that you’re going to get.

You will probably want to start out with something like, “What about SEO is most confusing to you?” You might want to also ask, “What do you find too little of in the way of information regarding SEO?” You want to get into the heads of people. You want to know exactly what it is that they’re thinking. Also, you want to find out just how important the topic is. So you might ask, “How important, to you, is learning about SEO?” You also want to ask questions about pricing such as “How much do you think a comprehensive course on SEO is worth?” Notice I did not ask how much they’d be willing to pay. You don’t want to plant seeds in their mind that involve taking money out of their pocket.

What about the number of questions you want to ask? This is tricky. Truth is, most people hate taking surveys and if they’re really long ones, they’re not going to bother. However, you want to ask enough questions so that you get all the information you need. This is why the way your word your survey questions is so important. I have found that a survey of about 8 to 10 questions usually does the trick. If you can do it in fewer, all the better. The fewer the questions, the more likely you are to get a response.

As for where to offer these surveys, the best places are forums that specifically relate to the niche you’re targeting. Now, some forums will not allow you to directly allow you to post surveys there. So what you need to do is participate in the forum itself and have a link in your signature pointing to the survey page. Make sure the description in the signature is enticing enough to get people to want to take the survey. Maybe offer a free report to anybody who does.

If you’re going to do an off site survey, it’s best to put one on your blog. There is plenty of software available, much of it free, that will easily allow you to post a survey on your site.

There is no better way than to directly ask the people you’re targeting what it is that they want. By doing so, you give yourself the best chance of coming out with the best product for that target market.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

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