The best way to get feedback and learn about your audience is by asking them.
It isn't easy, though! People don't naturally want to sit down and spend 5-10 minutes filling out a boring form.
You're competing for people's time and energy when you ask them to complete a survey (and you can't expect them to want to do it just because you're sharing free content).
So, what's the best way to survey your audience?
There are many ways to do it and I don't think there's a right or wrong answer. But, here are a few tips:
Define your goal - what info are you looking to get out of the survey?
Make it easy for them to fill out.
Be very clear about what you're asking.
Ask at different times & in various ways - your audience is always growing & changing so maybe run surveys every fall & spring via an email survey & Instagram polls!
Provide an incentive.
How I Surveyed My Audience
The other week I sent a survey to my email subscribers. I wanted to know their baking preferences, holiday traditions, and how they experience my site & recipes.
First, I made a form using Fillout. I like it because it's free, pretty, and easy to use.
It also integrates with my Notion dashboard so responses can automatically be imported to a table there (systems FTW!).
I asked questions like... -what recipes do you go to brokenovenbaking.com for? -what ingredients do you like/avoid baking with? -what holidays do you celebrate? -what baking equipment do you use? -have you made any of my recipes, and if so how'd they turn out? -what parts of blog posts are helpful to you?
And more! I used a mixture of multiple choice, checkboxes, short answers, etc. to keep it easy and engaging.
I didn't make any of the questions required, and I let them know they could answer as many or as few of them as they'd like. Most people answered almost all of them!
Next, I sent it to them in a newsletter and hosted a giveaway as an incentive!
My subject line mentioned that it was a giveaway to try to reel them in, and then I had a Giveaway section!
I let them know how much I appreciate them, included one clear CTA, and a date to enter by. Plus, the prizes helped promote my brand!
I also only sent this to my email subscribers because my email audience is different from my social audiences and I wanted to know that specific audience's preferences and how they engage with my content/site.
I received 40 responses in the first few days and it was so helpful to see whether or not people use a digital scale or cups, what kinds of recipes they go to my site for, and if they actually find ingredient & process shots helpful (spoiler alert: they do 😅).
Results from my audience survey.
How Bianca Surveyed Her Audience
Bianca from Bites by Bianca recently surveyed her audience too, so I asked if she had any tips she'd like to share in this newsletter! She sent her survey to her email subscribers and shared it on her Instagram stories.
She has some great tips to share with you! ⬇️
1️⃣ Use ChatGPT!
I asked ChatGPT this question: "I'm a dessert blogger and I want to send out a survey to my audience to ask them questions about my blog. I want to know their interests in flavors, types of desserts, what recipes they'd like to see, and things about holidays, website usability, etc. What questions should I ask?"
It compiled a huge list of questions that I didn't even think to ask. If you ever need more questions/ideas, you can always ask ChatGPT "Give me 10/20/30 more questions"!
2️⃣ Include a giveaway
My form was a bit long, so I was worried people wouldn't want to fill it out without an incentive. I was planning on hosting a giveaway anyway, so I used my survey as a step for people to enter it. In 24 hours, I got +140 submissions and all of the feedback has been SO helpful.
I think me emphasizing that there are multiple winners is what helped get more submissions because it gives them have a higher chance of winning, so they’re inclined to fill it out!
3️⃣ Link your blog... a lot
Make it easier for your surveyors to visit your blog as they fill it out. For example, if you're asking for feedback on a specific post, link to that exact one. This will make the survey more user-friendly and not give them an extra step of searching something up on your site.
4️⃣ Share it everywhere!
I immediately sent out my survey to my newsletter audience, then later posted it on my Instagram as a reel + story set. For Instagram, I used GrocersList to automatically send out my survey to people who commented "link". I found this to be a super easy way to get people to fill out my form!
I hope you found all of these tips helpful and that you have a better idea of how to survey your audience!
Everyone's audience is different, so it's important to engage with and get to know your own 😊
Happy blogging!
-Kayla
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I'm a baking blogger and food blog coach based in Chicago! I've been sharing easy, sweet recipes since 2020. In 2023 I started helping other food bloggers grow their businesses. You can find blogging tips & resources in my weekly food blog newsletter and coaching website!
