Are you conducting a survey of your customers and wonder what would best motivate them to take part in your study? A survey is a great way how to collect feedback from your customers or potential users. You can discover many unexpected insights and ideas on how to improve the product.
But the response rates are decreasing year by year. Here are some ways how to attract more people to take part in your questionnaire.

 

Questionnaire length: keep the questionnaire as short as possible

Here is an easy rule – don’t make long questionnaires. Many studies have revealed an increasing drop off with each additional question.

 

Comprehensive questions are the key

Be sure people understand the question in the same way as you. If there are ambiguities in your questionnaire, you will get the wrong results and make wrong decisions!

 

The first impression is super important

You have only a few seconds to convince people to take part in your survey. They need to recognize some value for their participation – an improved service, for example, or the possibility to express their meaning; or an interesting look and feel or reward. If the introduction text or first question is too sensitive or boring, respondents will cancel.

 

Keep respondents awake

If your questionnaire is longer, make it more interesting in terms of content, design, or functionality. Try to be more creative. Nice image, an interesting question, you can also use gamification to make the study more appealing.

These elements will kill respondent’s attention:

• Long and repeating grid questions are killers of any survey. Participants will start to click on any answer just to get through.
• Long texts – people are not willing to read long text paragraphs in the questionnaire; they will skip it. You will need to find a way how to pass the information differently.

 

Make the survey mobile friendly

Your survey will probably reach your respondents on mobile devices. Choose the survey system that supports mobile automatically and deliver the right mobile version to the respondent.

 

Survey incentives

You can add incentives to your survey to increase the response rate. There is not the best way, find a compromise between the effect and costs. Try to be creative.

Incentives for all participants

You can give discounts, credits, free vouchers, gift cards, and other general or specific incentives. If you have many participants, the total costs might be very high.

Raffle winners

In this case, you won’t give incentives to each participant but give a prize only to randomly selected survey participants. Find interesting prizes that are somehow connected with your product and together create an interesting story. Not only material gifts work – you can invite winners to your factory or offer them participation in a workshop, etc.).

It’s also important that your audience is sure that the winners will be chosen in a fair way. For this purpose, we have created a trusted random picker app. Just put the participants into RandomPicker and it will randomly select winners and generate a certificate that your drawing was without any bias.

 

How do I conduct the survey?

You probably know many survey tools: SurveyMonkey, Survio, SurveyGizmo, Google Forms, Typeform, Lime Survey, OpenSurvey, Qualaroo, and many others. They are easy to use and provide all common question types and functions you will need.

 

Which one is the best survey software?

It depends on what limits and features you need. Most survey apps have a free version so you can test them and choose the one which works best for you. Here are the main factors:

• How many participants do you expect to take part in? Usually, there is a limit of 100 free participants; you will need to buy a paid plan if you need more
• Is it a simple and straightforward questionnaire, or do you need some survey logic? Skip questions, answer piping, and other functions are usually included only in paid plans.
• Do you need some advanced question types?
• Will you customize the look and feel of the questionnaire?
• Do you want to include the questionnaire in your automation process? Then check if the survey system supports Zapier, IFTT, or other automation platforms.

To get a detailed overview of survey systems and their features, we recommend this article.

If your survey platform supports a third-party code, you can embed the RandomPicker form in your questionnaire. Just put the iframe code snippet into the last page of the survey, so your respondents fill in their contact or phone. They will be automatically uploaded to the RandomPicker drawing. It will help you make the winner drawing much easier, and their answers will stay anonymized (not connected with the contact information).

The right selection of prizes is essential for a successful raffle or giveaway. Raffles are often used for fundraising and charity activities, but companies and agencies use raffles as well. The more attractive the prizes, the more people the raffle will attract. Here are some raffle prize ideas:

Electronics, gadgets

• iPhone
• Tablet, iPad
• Flat TV
• Gaming console (Playstation, Xbox, Nintendo)
• Camera
• Smart watch
• Bluetooth headset
• Home, kitchen or garden appliances
• E-reader, Kindle

Tickets for sport events

• Super Bowl
• Footbal, soccer, volleyball, hockey game in the highest national league
• Season ticket for a local sport team
• F1 or Moto GP tickets

Trips and vacations

• Trip to the mountains
• Weekend in a romantic chateau
• Sport, wellness or meditation weekend
• Tropical or exotic places

Adventure, adrenaline

• Paragliding
• Scuba diving
• Flight simulator
• Survival course
• Go-kart racing
• Ski lessons
• Canoe tours
• Flight in a baloon, glider or small aircraft
• Indoor sky diving
• Bungee jumping

Culinary, beverages, food

• Dinner with a celebrity (singer, youtuber, actor, writer, sport star, entrepreneur)
• Dinner in the Sky
• Culinary course
• Lunch in a Michelin-star restaurant
• Gift baskets with alcohol and foodies
• Cakes
• Workshop – cooking, coctail

Local services

• Hairdresser
• Cosmetics, makeup
• Massage
• Physioterapy
• Yoga lessons
• Spa and wellness subscription
• Gym membership
• Coaching
• Car washing

Culture

• Tickets to the most expected pop music concert
• Opera, ballet
• Cinema tickets
• Symphony orchestra
• Theater tickets
• Books, gift vouchers to a bookshop

Virtual gifts

• Apple Store or Google Play gift card
• Online game gift cards
• e-Books

Money

• A fixed amount of money
• A flexible amount of money (for example 50/50, half of the proceeds)
• The winner’s choice – the winner can choose a prize from several raffle prizes

We are going to add even more raffle prize ideas soon.

What prize to choose for your raffle?

Costs – your prizes must reflect your budget. To offer a brand new car in a local raffle doesn’t make much sense.

Target group – not all prizes are not suitable for all people. The prizes should reflect the target group.

Prize size and portability

Legal: If you consider organizing a raffle, consult the condition with your local raffle advisor. Raffle laws vary by country and by state! Sometimes, you need to register at the local office, some states or countries prohibit money as the prize, etc.

 

How to choose a raffle winner?

There are several ways how to choose raffle winners. You can draw tickets from a hat, you can use various gadgets or you can do it online, using our random name picker. It will randomly select winners and generate a certificate for each drawing. It is free for charity and nonprofits!

 

Related articles:

How to pick a winner for your raffle or contest

 

In 2019, Black Friday will be on November 29th. It is followed by Cyber Monday on December 2nd. Both dates are great opportunities to promote your business and increase your sales and customer base. Thanksgiving, followed by Black Friday, Christmas, and New Year promotions are incredible opportunities to make sales for all kinds of businesses – from retailers, local businesses, services, SaaS, and digital companies.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are mainly connected with massive discounts. There are several ways how to offer discounts:

• Flat discount: lower prices for everything, the discount is usually in % of the total value
• Selected deals: some items are significantly discounted
• Gift coupons – customers get a discount voucher of a specific value, it can be used for the next purchase
• Customers get an extra gift with their purchase
• Free delivery or other services

Nowadays, the event is not limited only to Friday and Monday, but it is extended for the whole week or even longer! This gives you an opportunity to make an interesting mix of different deals. For example, you can create a sequence of daily offers from the lowest value to the highest value.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are often connected with various contests, giveaways, and raffles. It can help you get more leads or increase your mailing list, as well as increase the engagement of your current customers.

Include as many customers and leads into your Black Friday giveaway for the best results:

• All people who purchased during the Black Friday automatically enter the raffle.
• Customers can get a different number of tickets depending on the amount of their purchase.
• You can also make separate giveaways for various customer segments.

Giveaway ideas which can enrich your Black Friday or Cyber Monday

• Offer a freebie to your customers – it can be an e-book with a useful guide, tips and tricks or other useful content. Use the download form to get new leads.
• Quiz – create an interesting or funny quiz that is related to your business. Correct answers will qualify them to be involved in the drawing.
• Giveaway – customers can win an extra gift with their purchase. The gift should be ideally related to your business – for example, a clothing store can offer a free fashion consultation as a prize.
• Photo contest – users will make their photo with your product
• Gift guides – help users select the right gift for their family or friends
• Guess the number of Black Friday customers in our shop and win.
• Contests on social media (share and win)

How to promote Black Friday and Cyber Monday on your website?

• Welcome popups with a discount announcement
• Discount page with the list of deals
• Top or bottom bars
• Time countdowns
• Discounted prices next to common prices
• Landing pages

According to the McKinsey survey, 90% of consumers plan to get involved in Black Friday.

We recommend using our online random picker to select winners of your Black Friday and Cyber Monday giveaways. You can easily import the contestants into a drawing and let it choose the winner. You can use weights to adjust the chance of winning based on the purchase amount.

RandomPicker also offers a registration form you can embed into your website. You will get the certificate of validity so you can prove that the drawing was unbiased.

Related articles:

How to pick a winner for your raffle or contest

 

A quick guide on how to choose a winner. There are many ways how your raffle concept can look like. Here are several of the most popular approaches for your raffle.

• Choose a winner at random
• Choose a winner by votes
• Choose a winner by exact guess
• Choose a winner by activity
• Choose a winner who selected a correct answer
• Choose a winner by subjective factors – judges
• Choose a winner by an exact time

Let’s look how each concept works:

Choose a winner at random

This concept means you take all your participants and select winner(s) randomly. You can do it manually or use an application (read more in the next chapter).

Choose a winner by votes

You can engage people by letting them vote for a winner. Every participant gets one, two, three or more points and can assign them between participants. Of course, every participant will vote for himself, but also gives other points to competitors.

Choose a winner by exact guess

Raffle participants must give their estimate to a quantitative question – for example how many people will be in the raffle? How many golf balls can fit in the trunk of a specific car? The closest answer wins.

Choose a winner by activity

Reward the most active participant. Activity means the number of tickets purchased, number of comments, volume, etc.).

Choose a winner who selected a correct answer

Ask a question or a sequence of questions. It can be easy or hard to answer. If several people answered correctly, reward them all or select one random winner.

Choose a winner by subjective factors – judges

Suitable if you organize a creative contest (photography, written content, design, hackathlons, …). Create a jury and let the judges select the winner.

Choose a winner by an exact time

You set the exact time which will determine a winner. A participant must submit his entry in an exact time to be eligible to win. This approach is used rarely as it creates waves in your campaign traffic.

 

Need to pick a winner at random?

Here are several tips for choosing the right raffle app. Sometimes you don’t need any software, just write all names on small papers and pick the winner from a hat. In some occasions, you will need a more sophisticated way to select a winner.

 

Case 1: You don’t plan to show the drawing live or prove the fairness of the drawing to anybody

If this is your case, you can do it quickly in an excel spreadsheet. We have prepared a simple excel randomizer template to download t. Put your entries there and excel picks a random winner for you.

You can also use a simple online randomizer – there are many of them available. You can choose for example this random name picker to help you do the task instantly.

The obvious problem is that you don’t have any evidence that the drawing was unbiased, and the prize didn’t go to some of your friends.

 

Case 2: You want to prove the drawing was unbiased

You will need a clever tool that can identify when somebody is trying to cheat. Such a drawing platform should detect when somebody is trying to repeat the drawing to get the “right” winner or do other bad things to trick the system.

We created our random picker app exactly for this reason –to prove that your drawings are fair and unbiased. There are many measures that RandomPicker includes in order to prevent cheating.

The system also generates a record for each drawing so participants can check that everything went right, and they were in the drawing. You can sign up and try it for free.

Case 3: You want to show the drawing live or publish the recording

You can use any of the above-mentioned approaches and stream the drawing sharing your laptop screen to the canvas or internet. You can also use a live event randomizer that is suited for these opportunities.

It shows the drawing process, countdown and animation on a customized page.

You can share the page with your audience so people can watch the drawing without any special device or software.

The recording is available so people can watch the drawing later.

Do you need a simple random name generator in Excel to quickly select winners offline?  Here is a guide on how to do it yourself. It can be used as a lucky draw generator, raffle generator and you can randomize any items, not only select winners.

 

A simple guide on how to make the random name generator using Excel

Type or copy your list, each name comes into a separate row.

Put the following formula into a cell in the second column (B):

=INDEX($A:$A;RANDBETWEEN(1;COUNTA($A:$A));1)

This screenshot clarifies everything:

What does the formula do? Let’s split it into several parts to explain how the randomizer works:

• COUNTA($A:$A) – this part counts the number of your participants or entries in the first column (and excludes empty cells)
• RANDBETWEEN(…) – generates a random number between 1 and the count of your entries (calculated in the previous step)
• INDEX(…) – returns the value of the randomly selected item from the first column.

Every time you do some action, Excel recalculates all formulas and you will get a new winner.  You can also do the recalculation manually – just press F9.

Download the excel template with the formula: Excel-Randomizer.xlsx

You can read more about excel RandBetween formula here.

The Live Events module provides an easy way how to present drawings at your meeting, during the streaming or for other situations.

 

How it works

This module uses the same drawing method as common RandomPicker drawings, but it adds the visual layer. We recommend using Live event if you have a raffle with more than one prize.

All winners are generated during the initial phase (when you see the turning animated wheel) and in the next phase you can see the presentation of winners.

 The animation looks much better if you added an image to your prizes (at the Add prizes page).

Sharing

Each Live event drawing has its unique link. You can publish it or send it to your audience so they can watch the drawing remotely in real time. Or you can use this view on the projector and control the drawing from your panel on the laptop. You can find the link before the OK / Cancel buttons. Its format is https://www.randompicker.com/live/project-number

Here is an example of how a Live event drawing works. You can see the organizer’s panel and the public preview on the right during the final drawing: 

The time delay between the organizer’s panel and public view depends mainly on the quality of internet connection. 

 

Customization

Several attributes can be customized in the Live events module (available for Standard and Advanced plans only). Go to Project Overview > Custom design button > Live Events module section.

You can change attributes for the following elements:

Current prize (prize located on the top):

• text color and size
• background color of the box and the background image
• border size of the box

 

Assigned prize(s) (boxes located on the bottom):

• text color and size
• background color of the box and the background image
• border size of the box

 

Background of the working area (where the boxes are flying):

• background color and the background image
• logo or another banner which will be placed above the working area

 

The background images have the CSS property set to “background-size: 100%”. This means browser will scale the image to cover the whole width of the element (page or box).

 

Availability

The Live Events module is available for the following plans: Standard Plan, Advanced Plan and RandomPicker for Nonprofits. See Pricing for further details.

 

Beta testing

This module is still in the development phase and we will bring new options and adjustments in the near future.