How to Use Surveys to Measure Your Exhibiting Performance in 2022

The end of 2021 is quickly approaching, and that means it’s time to start looking back, evaluating your exhibiting performance, and figuring out what you can do better in 2022.

If you’re not sure where to begin when it comes to evaluating exhibiting performance, a great tool to consider is surveys for booth visitors and event attendees. Surveys help you to get feedback on what worked and what didn’t. Then, you can consider these suggestions when you start planning your exhibiting program in the new year.

Benefits of Using Surveys to Measure Performance
In addition to being a helpful evaluation tool, there are plenty of other reasons to consider sending out surveys after attending a trade show. Here are some of the greatest benefits they have to offer when it comes to measuring performance:

Get Honest Responses
People tend to be more forthcoming when they can answer questions anonymously. You’ll often get more honest feedback in a survey than you would if you asked people directly at the trade show.

Save Money
Sending out surveys is a cost-effective way to measure your exhibiting performance and gather useful feedback on your booth. It doesn’t cost much money to send out a survey by email or even to print survey cards and hand them out at a tradeshow. Compared to tactics like A/B testing, the survey option makes a lot of sense, especially for businesses with tight budgets. Platforms like Survey Monkey, SurveySparrow, Google Forms or JotForm are easy to customize and basic subscriptions are affordable.

Simplify Data Collection
Surveys also simplify the data collection process. Once you’ve taken the time to write the survey and send it out, you just have to sit back and wait for responses to roll in.

Collect Data Remotely
Surveys allow you to collect data remotely, too. This is particularly useful when you’re looking to gain feedback from international events. If you want to learn what people from other cities or even countries thought of your booth, sending a survey via email is a simple way to get the information you need.

The Right Way to Use Surveys
To see the greatest benefits from your surveys, you need to make sure you design and administer them properly. Listed below are some tips that can help with this:

Identify Your Goal
Start by pinpointing what you and your team want to learn from your surveys. Do you want to know what people thought about your booth design? Do you want to know how likely people are to buy your products or request your services after visiting your booth? When you write your surveys with a clear goal in mind, it’s easier to get answers that will actually be helpful.

Focus on “Need to Know” Questions
When you’re brainstorming a list of questions for your survey, take time to differentiate between “need to know” questions and “nice to know” questions. If you’re struggling to tell the difference, go back to the goal you set at the beginning. Then, consider whether or not the answer to a particular question will get you closer to that goal.

Keep it Short and Simple
On a similar note, be sure to keep the survey short and simple. Don’t ask more questions than you need to. Remember, the longer the survey is, the less likely people will be to fill it out, which means you won’t get the amount or type of data that you’re hoping for. Effective surveys should take no more than 3 minutes to complete.

Offer Incentives
If you’re worried about people not responding to your survey, consider offering an incentive when you send it out. For example, you could provide a coupon code for online purchases or offer a discount on one of your products. Entering respondents into a larger drawing is also a popular idea companies use today to get attendees to complete the survey.

Send Follow Up Messages
Don’t forget to follow up after sending your surveys. If, after 5 days, you haven’t received responses from some members of your audience, feel free to reach out and encourage them to take the survey. Then, 5 days after that, you can send a “last chance” message to the remaining hold-outs to try and get as many responses as possible. Be sure to suppress anyone that has already completed the survey to avoid duplicates.

Review Data with Care
Finally, carefully review the data you’ve collected from your surveys and use it to make a plan to improve based on the feedback. You’ve already gone through all the trouble to send out these surveys. You might as well utilize them, right?

Send Out Surveys Today
Now that you know more about the benefits of surveys, as well as how to use them correctly, it’s time to send them out and see what kinds of responses and insight you get in return. Remember, the sooner you administer them to the people you connected with at trade shows and other events, the sooner you can start making positive changes and set your company up to succeed in 2022.