Is your library planning upcoming services, programs, or events? They'll be more successful if you know what sorts of things the people in your service area truly want and need. Great marketers and planners don’t guess what people want, and they don’t presume to already know. They ask!
Still, doing a “simple survey” isn’t all that simple. If you don’t know exactly how to write and ask the questions, you may find out later that you didn’t get any actionable data. Marketer and wordsmith Kathy Dempsey can prepare you to avoid survey pitfalls. Listen to learn these tactics:
- Every word you choose matters.
- Beware of open-ended questions.
- Always avoid library lingo.
- Never ask about “interest.”
- Write, test, tweak, repeat.
- What makes people take surveys?
This webinar will also touch on how to distribute surveys to get good response rates.
How to Write Effective Survey Questions to Get Useful Data
Kathy Dempsey wrote the popular how-to book The Accidental Library Marketer and founded her own marketing consultancy, Libraries Are Essential. Her work is dedicated to helping librarians and information professionals promote their value and expertise in order to gain respect and funding. Kathy has been the Editor of Marketing Library Services newsletter for 27 years, and was formerly Editor-in-Chief of Computers in Libraries magazine. She's Founding Chair of the Library Marketing and Communications Conference and serves on the Executive Board of LibraryLink New Jersey, a statewide cooperative. This writer, editor, and marketing maven has been giving presentations across the U.S. and Canada for 25+ years, always sprinkling them with humor to make marketing concepts more interesting and accessible.
