You've just hosted a successful live event, and you want to get feedback from your attendees. How do you design and send a post-event survey that gets high response rates and valuable insights? Here are some best practices to follow.
There are many online survey platforms that you can use to create and distribute your post-event survey. Some of the factors to consider when choosing a tool are: ease of use, customization, branding, integration, analytics, and cost. You want a tool that allows you to design a survey that matches your event's goals, theme, and style, and that can be easily accessed and completed by your attendees on any device.
The quality of your survey questions determines the quality of your data. You want to ask questions that are clear, relevant, specific, and unbiased. Avoid using jargon, acronyms, or technical terms that your attendees may not understand. Use a mix of open-ended and closed-ended questions, but don't overload your survey with too many or too long questions. Aim for a survey that takes no more than 10 minutes to complete.
Not all of your attendees have the same experience or expectations of your event. You may want to segment your audience based on different criteria, such as registration type, session attendance, role, industry, or location. This way, you can tailor your survey questions to each segment and get more relevant and accurate feedback. You can also use skip logic or branching to show or hide questions based on previous answers.
The timing of your post-event survey is crucial for getting high response rates. You want to send your survey as soon as possible after your event, while it is still fresh in your attendees' minds. However, you don't want to send it too soon, as they may be busy or tired from the event. A good rule of thumb is to send your survey within 24 to 48 hours after your event. You can also send a reminder email a few days later to increase your response rate.
One of the most effective ways to motivate your attendees to complete your survey is to offer them an incentive. This could be a discount code, a free resource, a gift card, a prize draw, or a donation to a charity. Make sure your incentive is relevant, valuable, and ethical, and that you clearly communicate it in your survey invitation and reminder emails. You can also use gamification elements, such as progress bars, badges, or points, to make your survey more engaging and fun.
Once you have collected your survey responses, you need to analyze and act on the results. You can use your survey tool's built-in analytics features, or export your data to another software, to generate reports and charts that summarize your findings. You can also segment your data by different variables, such as demographics, satisfaction, or feedback, to identify patterns and trends. Based on your analysis, you can identify your strengths and weaknesses, and plan your next steps to improve your event performance and attendee experience.