banner

How to Use Survey Incentives to your Benefit

Offers or gifts are given to survey participants as survey incentives. These promotional items encourage people to fill out surveys and give honest feedback to businesses. 

Table of Contents

Incentives for surveys come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Some businesses employ monetary incentives, while others advertise free product trials. Your rewards should be unique and reflect the effort that participants will put into your questions, depending on the survey and information you’re attempting to acquire.

 

A few of the most basic questions when it comes to offering incentives for your survey are: Are incentives needed? 

How to determine if incentives are needed? And, if you want to employ survey incentives the right way, what are the best ways to do so? 

Let us explore some common methods which you can employ when offering incentives for your survey.

Determine if your survey needs an incentive

Avoiding an incentive is the greatest method to ensure that your data is unbiased. There is no need for an incentive if your survey has a high response rate and clients are eager to fill it out. NPS® surveys, for example, rarely require an incentive. These are one-question forms that may be completed in a matter of seconds. Including an offer here is pointless because it will not result in a significant increase in responses. 


Choose a survey that you know your clients will be hesitant to fill instead. These could be product reviews, usability tests, or any other activity that needs the participant to devote a significant amount of time. If your participants are coming to your office for a focus group or a testimonial, this is a great time to lure them with an incentive. The aim is to express gratitude to customers for taking the time to provide insightful feedback to your company. 

Select the type of survey incentive

 It’s critical to think about your target audience and select an incentive option that corresponds to their individual demands and interests. Here are a few options for you to consider: 

Monetary Incentives

Monetary incentives are offers that are based on money. Customers may redeem these discounts, coupons, and giveaways at your business. Alternatively, you can team up with another company to offer discounts on each other’s items, thereby broadening your reach and pooling prospective leads.

Non-Monetary Incentives

Non-monetary rewards are usually more distinctive than monetary rewards. This is because these offers are tailored to the needs and objectives of the participants. They assist respondents in completing activities that they were unable to complete prior to finishing the survey. 

Estimate the value of the incentive being offered

When implementing survey incentives, this is likely the most crucial stage. You must ensure that your offer is worth the time and effort that participants put into your surveys. People will be uninterested if it is too little. If it is overly valuable, you might lose money in the long run. 


A few variables must be considered when looking for a suitable reward. First, consider your budget and what you can afford to offer. Next, consider the size of your target audience and what you could offer if everyone took part in your survey. Finally, think about how you’ll provide your reward and whether you’ll need additional funds. 

Decide on an effective delivery channel

After you’ve decided what you’ll offer, think about how you’ll deliver it to your participants. This is mostly determined by the medium in which your survey is conducted. 

 

If your survey is sent via email, for example, your incentive should also be digital. It would be strange to mail a coupon or discount when you’ve just sent the customer an email, unless you’re offering a significant incentive. 

In-person rewards work the same way. If you are asking participants to come to your offices, don’t have them leave empty-handed. It’s an unsatisfying experience to arrive expecting a present only to be told that it will arrive three days later in the mail.

Pick a suitable time to offer the survey incentive

The final stage is to choose the time of what you’ll offer and how it’ll be delivered once you’ve decided what you’ll offer and how it’ll be delivered. The timing of your offer can have a significant impact on how your customers respond to your survey. You have two possibilities for disseminating your offer, as shown below.

Prepaid Incentives

Prepaid incentives can be monetary or non-monetary, and time is what sets this type of offer apart. Participants are provided pre-paid incentives before the survey is completed. This is done with the hope that the respondent would finish your survey completely and without skipping any questions.

Promissory Incentives

Promissory incentives are the polar opposite of prepaid incentives. They’re introduced at the start of the survey, but they’re only given out at the end. This encourages participants to finish longer, more boring, or repetitive forms.

How can MIMO help?

MIMO offers premier Data Collection solutions that are both qualitative and quantitative. Our Survey and Data experts coupled with our tech-enabled platform have ensured successful survey data collection across various geographies within specified timelines. We assist our clients in gaining access to their target respondents and collecting the required data in a simple and efficient manner. 

Like this article?

Share on facebook
Share on twitter
Share on linkedin

More To Explore