The following article first appeared in Tony Rubleski’s Captured Mind print newsletter in 2011.  I am adding some video in part 2 to show you exactly how to create a Google Docs survey form and publish it on your blog.

What could this possibly have to do with marketing your business and attracting new customers?

Plenty!  Why does the Bible tell us to do this?   Because it works!  No, I’m not saying you should pray for more customers, I have a better idea.  Simply put, if you are wondering what your market wants the most, ask them, then give it to them!  Let’s take a look at how to apply it to your business.  

If you think you know what the market wants you are WRONG!
-Dan S. Kennedy

If you’ve been around marketing for any length of time, you’ve probably heard of direct marketing guru, Dan Kennedy.  He teaches the concept of the marketing triangle, which involves getting the right match of Market, Media, and Message.  His best-selling book, The Ultimate Marketing Plan, describes the concept in detail.  If you can get a strong Market/Media/Message match you’ll have a winner on your hands!

What I’m going to show you is how to find out exactly what your market wants, and then how to put a plan into action to give it to them.    Here are seven powerful benefits of asking first:

1. Save time and money in product development so you don’t waste time and money creating the wrong product.
2. Helps you zero in on what your market wants, not what you think they want.
3. Discover untapped niches your customers are already seeking solutions for and are pre-disposed to buy from you.
4. Unearth problems with your product or service you can resolve.
5. Build rapport with your customers. They like to be asked to give their opinion.
6. Stand out in the mind of the customer.  You strike a chord with your concern for their needs, and no one else is probably asking.
7. The results could define an entirely new business!

It is even possible to start out with no product at all and create a completely new business around filling a need in an already hot market!

Here are seven simple steps to put your “Ask Campaign” into action.

1. Create your survey.  There are a number of free and paid tools you can use to create your survey.  The simplest is Google Docs.   Create a simple Google Docs form and set it up to collect your main question, name and email address.  Your question should be something like this:
   1. What is your biggest question (concern/problem/issue) about _______? E.g. “What is your biggest question about Back Pain?”

Keep it simple, and don’t ask more than one or two questions, and no more than name and email, otherwise you may not get any responses.  Here are a few survey tools; www.AskDatabase.com, Survey Monkey and Google Docs, etc.  For more resources: search ‘survey tools’ in your favorite search engine.

1. Post your survey on your website.   Just copy and paste the form on to your website.  Ask your webmaster if you don’t know how to do this by yourself or shoot me an email.
2. Drive visitors to your survey. Here are a few suggestions:
   1. Send an email to your best customers, ask them for help or for their opinion
   2. Keep track of who fills out the survey
   3. Day 2 – Send a follow up email to those who did not respond and remind them of the Day 1 message
   4. Day 3 – Send a reminder to those who did not respond for the last chance
   5. If you don’t have a customer list driving traffic is a little more difficult, but not impossible.  The good news is you can build a list by doing the following:

• Go to forums in your niche, put a link in your signature to your survey (check the terms on the forum for signature guidelines) and get involved by answering and posting questions.  If you contribute value, people will visit your page.
• Put up a Pay-Per-Click campaign and drive traffic to your survey page.
• Post a link on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
• Put a link in your customer service email signature to ride along with daily email correspondence.

Stay tuned for Part Two where I’ll show you steps 4-7, and join me for a video on Google Docs, and more!

Enjoy!

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