Creating an effective audience survey is essential for understanding what your listeners want and how to enhance their experience.

This episode dives into the crucial steps for crafting survey questions that engage your audience and encourage participation. Dave Jackson emphasizes the importance of knowing your audience and keeping surveys concise, ideally under ten questions, to boost completion rates.

He also discusses strategies for increasing responses, such as using incentives and clear communication about the benefits of participating. By the end, you'll have actionable insights to help you design a survey that not only gathers valuable feedback but also strengthens your relationship with your listeners.

Takeaways:

• Begin your survey with a concise opening paragraph explaining how respondents will benefit.
• Keep your survey short, ideally under 10 questions for higher completion rates.
• Incentives can increase survey participation but ensure they don’t skew honest feedback.
• Use relevant questions that engage your audience and avoid demographic questions at the start.
• Incorporate a progress bar to inform participants how far along they are in the survey.
• Make sure to remind your audience about the survey to boost responses regularly.

Links referenced in this episode:

• schoolofpodcasting.com
• schoolofpodcasting.com/contact
• schoolofpodcasting.com/survey
• podpage.com
• schoolofpodcasting.com/962
• schoolofpodcasting.com/961 (last week)
• Pointer Pro
• Survicate
• Edison Research Listener Survey Template
• PodPage.com
• Google Forms
• Jotform
• Tally
• The Audience is Listening Book by Tom Webster

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No Surveys For You?

If you're a person who has never done an audience survey, and don't plan on any in the future, I'd love to understand why (I'm always interested in different points of view). I'd love to hear why.

Mentioned in this episode:

Question of the Month August 2025

Mark form Podcastbranding.co wants to know if you've ever hired someone to help you with your podcast? If so, for what purpose and were you satisfied with the outcome?

Go to www.schoolofpodcasting.com and answer the question by August 22nd 2025. When you answer the question, tell us a little bit about your show (elevator pitch) and where we can find it (your website so I can link to it)

Question of the Month

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AUGUST 18-21, 2025 Podcast Movement, Dallas TX. (So Many Ways To Monetize Which One is Best For You? Talk).

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