How to Increase Survey Response Rates and Grow Your Business

There’s nothing more disappointing than creating a survey to gather information from your audience, only to have just a fraction of people responding to it.

It’s a common situation that my team often sees with inexperienced businesses creating their first surveys.

If that sounds like you and you’re looking for ideas to improve your survey response rates, I’ll show you some of the best strategies you can apply.

Create High-Converting Survey Forms Now 🎢

1. Use Fields With Close-Ended Options

When you create a survey form in WordPress using WPForms, you have the option to add any of the following field types:

• Single Line Text
• Paragraph Text
• Dropdowns
• Ratings
• Checkboxes
• Multiple Choices
• Likert Scale
• And lots more.

However, depending on the type of survey form you have, you might want to think about making things as simple as possible. And, this means getting rid of any survey questions that require a written answer.

People are busy and don’t want to waste time typing in answers on your survey form, such as the ones seen here on the Hilton Hotel Service Experience survey form.

In the above example, Hilton Hotel made the right decision to use the paragraph field for the 3rd question about experiences.

That’s because experiences are subjective and can’t usually be described in a word or two with pre-defined options.

However, the hotel could’ve easily used a close-ended field type for the 4th question. I quickly drafted an improved version of the survey using WPForms by replacing the text field in the 4th question with a Dropdown field.

Using the Dropdown field offers two important advantages: it takes less space than the text field and is quicker to answer the question this way.

And if you have to create a form with text boxes, at least create a multi-part form to help avoid form fatigue.

2. Keep It Short

We’ve talked about keeping your WordPress forms short in order to boost conversions. And, the same is true for survey forms.

Vovici, a survey software company, did a study on survey abandonment rates and found that the shorter a survey is, the higher the response rate is.

They also offer the following tips for preventing form abandonment:

• Only ask questions that will help you achieve the goal of your survey
• Only ask the most important questions
• Never ask a question that you or your team can’t address

Along with these recommendations, I also suggest using conditional logic to show certain questions only when they’re relevant to the respondent.

To show you what I mean, let’s take the Hilton Hotel survey example again. What happens if the respondent wants to give an answer other than the available options in a Dropdown field?

I addressed this by adding another Paragraph field under the Dropdown using WPForms, and then applying conditional logic so that the “Please specify if Other” field only appears if the answer to the previous question is “Other”.

This is an impactful way of making your form shorter by default, with additional fields popping out only when needed.

3. Add Images

People are visual by nature. That’s why adding images to your surveys may make it easier for people to complete your survey and click “Submit.”

Here are some ways you can use images in your survey questions to help build your business:

• Ask people which company logo they prefer
• Have people select which food item looks the most appetizing
• Let people decide which mascot your company will use at local events
• Display a product in different colors or sizes and let customers choose which they like the best

If the question you’re asking is particularly difficult, complement the image with some text explanation. If not, simply leave the survey question with simple image answers and watch people respond.

Images also play a subtle but equally important role as a part of your form design. WordPress survey forms tend to be rather plain-looking with just a white background.

But if you add professionally styled backgrounds to the form, it can instantly level up your survey’s visual appeal, leading to higher engagement and response rates.

Ultimately, the options for adding images to your survey questions are endless.

4. Make it Multilingual

If you have a strong international customer base and want to find out how well your business is performing, create survey forms in more than one language so everyone has an opportunity to fill it out.

Don’t think there’s a need to translate your WordPress forms?

Check out these statistics regarding buying behavior, which can apply to form submissions as well:

• Only 18% of people will buy a product from a website in a foreign language
• 45% of people never use a language other than their own when online
• 44% of European internet users feel they’re missing out on important information because many web pages are not in a language they understand

Taking advantage of every opportunity to find out what your customers like and want to see more of is important, especially when you have a global brand.

Offering survey forms in different languages may be what you need to set yourself apart from the competition.

5. Run a Contest

People may be more apt to complete a survey about your business if they know they have a chance of winning something. So, create a contest survey form and give people a reason to click “Submit.”

The great thing about using WPForms when running a contest is that there are several built-in permissions and access controls so your site doesn’t become overwhelmed with survey responses.

Sure, you want to have a sizable amount so you can accurately analyze the data and make real changes to improve your business. But when you add in the aspect of running a contest, you risk getting flooded with too many submissions and too much data.

With WPForms, you can:

• Require a Password. This can be helpful for getting people on your email list involved. For instance, provide a link to your survey with the password details, so they can submit an entry to your contest after filling your form out.
• Schedule the Contest. Set a start and end date for your contest survey form.
• Limit Entries. Limit the number of form entries you’ll allow so you don’t collect too many.
• Restrict Users. Only allow users who are logged into your site to fill out your survey form.

In addition to these access controls, WPForms will let you limit the number of entries an individual can submit.

This way the same person doesn’t continue to take the survey over and over to get more entries into your contest. If this happens, your results will be skewed and compromise the quality of your survey data.

6. Explain Why It Matters

If you really want to increase survey response rates, let people know exactly what the survey is about and why you’re asking them to fill it out. And don’t forget to tell them how their feedback will be used.

• Can they expect to hear from you after the survey regarding their answers?
• Will they be able to access their answers after submitting the form?
• Is there an incentive for filling out the survey?
• What is the exact purpose of the survey?

Answering questions like these on your survey form, like Telstra.com does, will help encourage site visitors to fill out your form.

Notice how they tell people about how long the survey will take to finish. Plus, they add what the feedback will be used for and an example of how previous feedback was used to improve the user experience.

If people feel their feedback is important, they’ll be more likely to submit the form. That, and knowing it will only take a little bit of time to finish.

7. Offer Anonymity

You might consider making your online survey forms anonymous in order to increase survey response rates.

After all, site visitors are more likely to answer honestly if they know they don’t have to disclose their names. And, you want the most honest responses possible so you can take action to improve your business and bottom line.

Sometimes, people don’t want to give up their personal information, even if it’s just a name. Not to mention, there will be those people who feel you are only after an email address so you can fill inboxes with what they consider spam.

Creating an online form that eliminates the need to enter a fake name or email puts site visitors at ease from the very beginning. This in turn will help boost the number of survey entries you receive.

8. Offer an Incentive

Giving people a reason to fill out your survey by offering an incentive is a great way to boost your survey response rate.

In fact, according to PeoplePulse, survey response rates jump an extra 10-15% when an incentive is added, no matter how minor the reward.

Here are some of the best incentives you can offer:

• Samples. If you have the right kind of audience, sometimes giving away a sample product or service is a better idea.
• Coupons or Discounts. People love a good deal and are more likely to complete your survey form if they know they’re getting free shipping on a purchase or a coupon to use on their next visit.
• Charitable Donations. Your target audience may be more willing to submit a survey form if they know you’ll be donating to a charity.
• Host a Giveaway. Another great incentive is to enter people who fill out your survey into a drawing, raffle, or free giveaway.

If you’re worried that people will only fill out your survey for the incentive, don’t worry. It’s been shown that 94% of people still give honest answers, even if they just want the reward.

9. Use a Progress Bar

If you know your online survey is going to be on the longer side, make it easy for people to gauge how long the survey will take to finish.

One effective way to indicate the length of your survey and allow respondents to track their progress is by using a multi-step form. Several years ago, I came across a Netflix survey that used a progress bar as a strategy to drive up completion rates.

Adding a progress bar, or at least giving people a heads-up on the length of the survey shows respect for your site visitors’ time. People will appreciate this and it will help boost your response rates.

Plus, adding a progress bar makes people feel more committed to finish, and gives them a sense of accomplishment as they complete the survey.

Did you notice that Netflix also used a matrix question? That really helps to make the page as compact as possible.

10. Send Reminders

Don’t hesitate to send a reminder email to people who haven’t yet clicked through your original email announcing the survey.

Everyone’s busy with their lives, so it’s very common to have people who never saw your email in the first place or simply forgot about your survey.

Make sure to include the survey link in your reminder email as well and emphasize why the recipient’s participation is important and meaningful.

This is a practice that my team employs as well. Besides, as a participant in many customer surveys I get sent from services I’m subscribed to, I can attest that reminders have absolutely led me to complete some surveys I’d have otherwise missed.

So there you have it! I hope the tips I shared in this post prove useful to you when the time comes to create your next survey.

FAQs on Increasing Survey Response Rates

Here are some questions we frequently receive about survey response rates:

What are the key factors that influence online survey response rates?

The factors with the greatest influence on survey response rates include:

• Survey length: Shorter surveys require less effort to complete and usually see higher response rates.
• Structure and organization: For longer surveys, using a well-organized layout can make a strong impact, such as breaking down your survey into multiple pages, arranging fields into a concise and logical layout, and applying conditional logic.
• Question complexity: Every field should be focused on a single specific question and written with clarity.
• Style and design: Surveys that appear professionally-designed with good styling naturally tend to earn the participant’s trust, leading to higher engagement.

How often should I send reminders for survey participation?

If you’re planning to run a survey for a week, you should aim to send one reminder email that’s evenly spaced between the survey launch and survey end. For surveys running over multiple weeks, you can send two reminder emails. Sending more reminders could annoy the recipient, and they’re unlikely to participate if they’ve already ignored your previous reminders.

How does the timing of survey distribution impact response rates?

It’s important to avoid conducting a survey if there are other important events affecting your business or your audience at the same time. Consider avoiding conducting a survey during a holiday or when you’re expecting to make another important announcement related to your business.

For the best response rates, aim to time your survey distribution when you expect no other communication vying for your customer’s attention during the survey period.

Next, Create Polls in WordPress

If you’re looking for another way to quickly get feedback from your site visitors, that doesn’t require a ton of in-depth questions, take a look at how to create a poll form in WordPress. You could also make a request a call back form to make it easy for people to reach out for help.

And don’t forget, if you like this article, then please follow us on Facebook and Twitter.