Tell me a little about yourself...

The Hunt
OK, I admit it; I'm a sucker for an online survey. I'm not sure if it is the diversion, the "you could win' proposition or simply being able to give my two cents...I love'em. While sorting through my inbox during my morning coffee I was excited to spot a survey from one of my FAVORITE magazines, Bon Appétit - I sure that it needed my immediate attention. Note: The publisher should be happy to know that flipping through every new magazine is a little bit of heaven and I'm usually on their website looking at recipes at least three or four three times a week.

The Skunk
The email was legit and contained all the introductory pleasantries that one would expect in the set-up; "since you are a valued reader," "we value your option” etc. We were off to a great start! The thing about online surveys is that even though it is a fun diversion, not informing me of how long it will take before I click on the survey link doesn’t help me determine if I should start now or save for a time that I'll be able to really focus. I started anyway.

The questions start off as usual and there was even a note on the first survey page that mentions that you don't need to complete the survey to enter the contest? Advancing page after page, I couldn't help think that some sort of progress tracking icon would have helped me determine just how many pages I had left to go. At a certain point, the thought of abandoning the survey or checking any random box was becoming more of an option but I didn't want to offend the survey gods that might perhaps be tracking my progress and retaliate in a next life. About 50 "Nexts" later, I was finished.


The Resolution
I don"t profess to be an expert on how to execute and administer surveys but as an email marketer, I do like to give recipients as much information as possible when I"m requesting some sort of interaction with them. Yes, I completed the full survey but as I got deeper into the questions, it became more of personal test to see if I could make it to the end. Who knows, maybe that was part o the strategy? Be careful with really long surveys, you may compromise the data you are collecting if recipients don't take the time to accurately complete. Here's what I would have done:

• Clearly noted in the initial email about how long that it would take to complete once I start
• Stated if it was possible to leave the survey and pick back up where I left off
• Placed some sort of completion status bar on each page to let me know how far along I was in the process

Incorporating some or all of the points above should be pretty easy to accomplish based on additional copy and making sure you are using the right survey tool for larger surveys. The same set of rules that we apply to setting expectations in email need to be applied those call to actions that we include within in the content; clear, relevant, informative and effective. My best advice with surveys is to take a step back and consider the surveyee. Make sure they know what they are getting themselves into.