JUNE 14, 2024

Welcome to The Tilt, a twice-weekly newsletter for content entrepreneurs.

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Ask, Listen, and React

Have you talked to your audience lately?

They’re the lifeblood of your content business, but entrepreneurs often get caught up in the day-to-day of their content business or become overwhelmed at the thought of interacting on a large-scale basis.

However, getting your audience’s input can help you further differentiate and grow your content business.

As the online survey tool Survey Monkey writes, “When done well, surveys provide hard numbers on people’s opinions and behaviors that can be used to make important decisions,” writes online survey provider Survey Monkey.

They can also make a difference in your business success.

Years ago, ​Harvard Business Review​ published the results of a study of a financial service firm’s clients. One group participated in a 10-minute survey. The second group did not. A year later, the surveyed customers were more than three times as likely to have opened new accounts and more profitable than those who weren’t surveyed.

Based on what we’ve learned from surveying at The Tilt and our years in the business, here are five things you can do with surveys:

1. Assess your market: In the early days, you don’t have a built-in audience to survey. But asking questions of people who could be interested in your content products is a must. It can help you understand the level of interest in what you’re creating.

Publish and promote a short survey for your content business (five or fewer questions) to find out what you want to know the most. Do you want to know the topics they wish to consume? Should you learn about the content formats they prefer? Or maybe you want to assess the level of interest in your tilt? Perhaps you want to know if they already have go-to content sources for your topic.

Go to where your audience is and share the survey link. Ask peers with similar audiences if they will share the link on their social media or other channels.

2. Evaluate THE market: The Tilt has used this ​approach​ to understand the wider market (not just The Tilt readers). These surveys are usually lengthier and cover multiple categories.

You can use the results of market-wide surveys as a public-relations tool. Reach out to the media who cover your industry to share the results – and don’t forget to share with your fellow content entrepreneurs since they’re in the media business, too. (It helps to focus your outreach on one or two key takeaways rather than all the findings.)

3. Test on platforms: Social media and some newsletter formats are ripe for easy, non-scientific surveys. Using the poll feature available on most social platforms, you can ask visitors to vote on topics, visuals, etc. Some newsletter templates include an option to post an emoji or star rating at the end of the newsletter (or after each entry).

While most of the audience probably won’t take the survey, it may give a glimpse into what your most interested/dedicated readers think.

4. Conclude with a survey: Online courses, e-books, webinars, and other content products require an investment of your audience’s time. At their completion, serve up a survey. Ask questions to elicit their feedback about the product they just consumed and what they see as their next need/step for which you can create content.

5. Ask as they depart: While the unsubscribe process should be easy, you can add an optional step. Include a one-question survey with a list of reasons for the unsubscribe. (Don’t forget to include “other” with a fill-in blank as an option.) As you review the collective results, you may see a pattern or trend for your unsubscribes, such as frequency or topics, that can be addressed to thwart future unsubscribes.

Helpful Resource:

​​Survey Monkey’s Survey 101 Series​​

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