Unlocking Audience Insights: Crafting the Perfect Survey for Your Podcast

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

Join the School of Podcasting

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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: Got a Question For the Question of the Month?

We've done this before. What would you ask if you were me? What question would you ask a group of podcasters? Be sure to say a little bit about your show and your website so we can give you a shoutout. I need you to answer by May 23rd, 20225.

Question of the Month

2025 Audience Survey

Live Appearances

I'd love to meet you in person, I'm currently coming to July 12th, 20025 Higher Ed Podcon, Chicago, Ill AUGUST 18-21, 2025 Podcast Movement, Dallas, TX. September 26-28, 2005, Empowered Podcasting Conference, Uptown Charlotte, NC For more information and links, click the link below. If you'd like for me to speak at an in-person or online event, go to schoolofpodcasting.com/contact

Where Will I Be?

I Want Your Opinion

I am doing an audience survey and I want your input to help me make this show exactly what you want. If you have a few minutes, I have a quick survey at www.schoolofpodcasting.com/survey25

2025 Audience Survey