360: The Power of Audience Surveys: How I’m Using Mine to Shape My Content for the Year

[00:00:00] Do you ever feel like you're guessing on what your audience wants? Like you're creating free content opt-ins, maybe even paid offers, but feeling a little unsure, like, is this actually what they need? Maybe they're not responding in the way that you want. Here's the truth. If you are not serving your audience one to two times a year, you are missing out on one of the most powerful tools in your content creator toolbox.

[00:00:25] In this episode, I'm walking you through how I just surveyed my audience, how the results are shaping everything I am creating for the rest of the year, and how you can do this too.

[00:00:38] Welcome to the Thrive Podcast, where we believe creators deserve more, more money, more freedom, and even more love for what they do. I'm Bree p, your coach for content creators, and I know the struggle. The long hours, the endless ideas, the feeling that success is just out of reach. But here's the truth.

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[00:01:21] So why should you send surveys? One of my favorite reasons for this is that I get real words and phrases from my audience, from you guys, and this is gold, both for copy and for ideas and all the things. You're able to use those words and use their words in what you're building, in what you're creating.

[00:01:48] It also stops any content guessing game because they're telling you what they need and you can create what they actually want to watch or download or read or buy your building for your audience. This also is going to help you validate your gut instincts or completely pivot away from what's not resonating.

[00:02:13] So if you're like, okay, this is where I've been going. I feel like this is really solid. Let's make sure that I'm right here, right? Like it's going to instill some confidence there, or it's going to make you realize, okay, maybe I do need to like change this up a little bit. Or, man, that was a really good idea.

[00:02:29] I had never thought of that. We all need to feel. Super solid in the content we're making and we need to feel confidence and hearing from our audience in this way can help with that so much. This is also going to give your audience a chance to feel heard and involved in your brand and when they feel involved with your content, magic can happen.

[00:02:55] Okay? This could even like outside of surveys. This could look as simple as getting them to vote on which piece of content you publish. Next, I follow a content creator who blew up on Instagram, and one of the tactics she did was involving her audience from the get go. She would always be asking us, Hey, which reel do you want me to post next?

[00:03:20] And getting her audience to vote on that, which boosted engagement, and also got us to come back and actually see the content that she posted. So beyond just surveys involving your audience is huge. If you take nothing else away, remember that. And that's why surveys are so amazing because we are not mind readers as much as we wanna think we are and think that we know our audience inside and out, we're not actually mind readers.

[00:03:50] You're not a mind reader, and you need to ask your people what they want. So how do we set this up? And we're gonna set this up in a really, really easy way, and we're not gonna overthink it so that way we actually sit down and do this. Right. Okay. So I used a simple Google form friends. I did not pay for anything extra.

[00:04:10] I didn't use type Form or Airtable or anything else because even though I have the ability to use those tools. I knew that a simple Google form was going to be free, fast, and easy, and I needed to not overthink this, and I needed to get it sent out. Okay? The other thing is when you're setting it up, you want to keep it short.

[00:04:32] Short and sweet. Okay. Five to seven questions max. Don't go overboard because we all do not want to get overwhelming surveys that we have to fill out an answer. That's another reason why I like Google Forms is type forms are cool, but I don't always know like, oh my God, how long is this actually going to be?

[00:04:55] Like, how many times am I gonna have to go to the next screen? Like how many questions are there? And with a Google form you can see it. So they can see, oh, this is super easy and super quick, and. Different types of questions. So some of them are just like yes or no, or Check this box right, or click this dot.

[00:05:14] So have multiple choice answers, have yes or no answers, and then have a couple that they can actually type. That is where like content gold is going to come from. So I try to have like two or three where they can actually type things, but I honestly wouldn't do more than, I really wouldn't do more than three just because we're lazy, right?

[00:05:38] We're lazy, we're overwhelmed, we're busy. There's a million things going on. We don't have time to type a novel into somebody's survey, but we do want people to actually type in our survey. So keep it short and sweet. Then, okay, now it's set up. You got an easy form. You came up with your quick questions, and I do have a tip on one of those questions, and that is before I go to how to share this.

[00:06:00] Okay. Ask them how long they've been following you. This was something that was brought to my attention after I sent my last one, like, like a week later. It, it was very frustrating, um, because I can't wait to send this out next time. I want to know now in my surveys how long people have been following me, because if your turnover is higher than you think.

[00:06:24] Like I, in my head, imagine that everybody has been listening and following and learning from me for like at least two or three years, and that very much may not be the case, especially since my audience is changing and growing and I. Content creation isn't the easiest business to go into, so people may jump in it for a little while and then jump out, so ask that.

[00:06:48] Um, I, I think it's really good because imagine all the content you can repurpose and share. Again, if you do have a higher turnover, like if people haven't been around for over a year, you've got a lot of content that you can repurpose and share again, without feeling like you're being redundant. So we've got our survey ready to go.

[00:07:09] Now what? You're going to share it to your email list. They're your warmest audience. I also shared mine in Instagram stories. Use that link sticker and then I also shared it in our Facebook group. So whatever forms you have. So if you have Facebook, if you have YouTube, you can post it in the community there.

[00:07:34] If you have threads, post it on threads, like wherever your audience is following you post it. Get as many responses as you can if you want. You can also offer a little incentive, um, maybe like a $10 gift card or even just like, Hey, you're gonna be the first to see what's coming next can really just like boost responses.

[00:07:55] Like, Ooh, I wanna be the first to know, okay, let me fill this out really quick. Like. Any type of little incentive like that is really gonna help you get more responses and sharing it in multiple places. So just, you know, don't wait until you've got thousands of followers to listen to them. Okay, listen now and you're going to grow faster.

[00:08:15] So we send this out. I've convinced you, you are ready. Okay, Brie, I'm going to send out a survey, but what do I do with the results? What you're gonna do is you're going to first look for common language. Okay? Anything where you're saying like, okay, a lot of people keep saying this. They're saying it in this way, or they're saying, this is something they want me to create content around, or this is something they need help with.

[00:08:42] You're going to be able to pull all of that into a word bank and into this content bank. I like to throw mine into a Google Doc and have it broken down by different sections. Because you're going to be able to pull those words. So this is where you are taking the language that they actually typed. Okay.

[00:09:00] So not necessarily like the multiple choice or anything. We're gonna get to that. That is important, but this is the stuff that they actually typed because those words, when you use them back to them, are going to be so powerful and effective and create engagement. You're gonna use these words in Instagram captions, in blog post topics, in opt-in titles, even email subject lines.

[00:09:26] And if you have digital products, this is perfect for sales pages. Okay. Then you're gonna look through some of those pain points, and you're gonna use that to validate things that you have on the docket to create. Okay? So if you're like, I need to make a new opt-in, or maybe I do wanna create my first digital product, you're going to use this to validate those.

[00:09:49] You're going to use them to also make sure that the next content series that you focus on is something your audience wants to see. It's also gonna help you know, what not to make. So, you know, maybe they don't want another Amazon find, maybe they're tired of it. Maybe they wanna know how to use what they already have, right?

[00:10:07] Like how we don't know these things about our audience until we ask and until we listen to what they're saying. The other thing you can do with the results is take this to the next level and build segments in your email list based on interests. So for example, if you're like, oh my gosh, like half of my list is really interested in shopping sales, right?

[00:10:31] Like they love a bargain. And the other half just wants styling tips for what they have. So I'm going to CR start to create more emails targeting those specific things. Or maybe they really want meal plans versus cocktail recipes versus group meals. And you can segment them into three different segments on your email list and send them specific things to your content.

[00:10:53] So if your audience is telling you what they want, here's the thing. If you're ignoring it after they've told you. Don't be surprised if your content isn't performing the way that you want it to. And we all want our content to perform great. And yes, sometimes it's an algorithm thing. Sometimes it's the a time of day that you posted it.

[00:11:16] Sometimes it's your email subject line. Sometimes your click click-through rate sucks. Like, yes. But one thing we can control is the content that we're actually putting out and we can control whether or not this is something our audience is asking for by listening to them. So if you have not sent out a survey yet this year, I.

[00:11:40] Now is your sign. We're about halfway through the year. It's time. Open a Google form, type up five questions and send it to your list. Even 10 responses are going to give you insight. You don't need hundreds. On my last one, I think I had 31 and I was like blown away by how many of you responded? Thank you so much.

[00:12:01] If you were one of them, that was a ton for me. I was literally hoping for like, you know, hopefully like 10 and so. Because 10 is so valuable. So send it out. Just do it. Add that to your list today. Send it out, and if you want help turning your results into strategy, that's literally what we do inside of Bold Fluence, and you can check that out in the description below.

[00:12:25] See you next time.

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