I am going to show you a survey selling technique that is actually an upselling technique in disguise, and more! Plus I am going to explain why Frank Kern was wrong (a strategy I modeled from his Mass Control seminar)…

I use this exact strategy in 4 different niches, and on 7 different lists in these niches. I have had it on autopilot for years and it’s bringing an extra several hundred dollars a month.

But that’s actually not the best part of this strategy. The best part is I am getting data from my lists that help me find and create products and content that I never would have thought about in these niches.

So take action on this.

It’s very cool, and it will help you in several ways:

• It will increase your sales (I can’t guarantee it but it works for me).

• It will get you more ideas for content.

• You’ll improve your business.

• Yes, it will help you in all these areas. But first:

Why This Frank Kern Mass Control Technique Was Wrong!

It’s no big secret that surveys are a great way to get your list to give up information about themselves, and what they want and don’t want in your niche.

That is basically what this is about. But with a small twist. First let me give you some background information.

For years I’ve been using surveys in my offline business, and I was using it on my online niches as well. And I was getting some pretty good information. I kept the questions to a minimum because I didn’t want to bother my customers and subscribers.

A couple years later I bought Frank Kerns first Mass Control information product and Mass Control Monthly. In the DVD’s series he explained a technique he used in his Dog niches where he said he asked his list to take a survey.

He said to ask them two or three questions like, ‘What would it feel like if your dog obeyed your every command’. The main emphasis was to get them to ‘feel’ what the result would be if their dogs were trained well (I am paraphrasing and I may have left a few things out, but that was the gist of it I believe).

After they finished the quick survey they were redirected to a thank you page that gave them a discount on his dog training course, and apparently he made a boat load of money or something.

So, I created 5 different surveys in 5 completely different niches and asked 2 or 3 questions just like he suggested.

The Results From Frank Kerns Mass Control Survey Marketing Idea:

Fail.

It totally bombed. I got some people to fill out the survey (and as you can tell by the questions the answers we totally useless), and the sales were minimal. So you might be thinking, ‘maybe you don’t have a good relationship with your list’, or ‘maybe you didn’t send quality information to your list prior to asking them to take the survey’. That may be true in one niche that I have neglected, but not all 5!

This survey technique was in my autoresponder sequence and I kind of forgot about it for a few months.

Then one day I decided to take the survey out of my auto-responder sequences.

But then I thought to myself, ‘why put this to waste? Since I do have a thank you upsell page set up, and the whole thing took me several hours to set up, why not actually ask a dozen or so questions of my lists that will give me information that I can actually use to help me grow the businesses? And if I make a few sales, great!’

So I did this in one niche, and guess what? It worked! I got more people to take the survey, and my sales spiked and results have been consistent for several years now.

Why Did It Work?

I can only guess. I think people are smarter than we realize sometimes and the first survey had no real substance to it. Maybe they feel like since I am asking ‘feely’ type questions and only 2 or 3 of them and then they are directed to a sales page that all I am doing is trying to sell them something.

Conversely, when I ask meaningful questions that actually help me understand their needs, maybe they feel like it’s more legitimate. I don’t know. But even if they don’t buy it’s still a win for me because I now know my list better, I know my niche better, and I have new product ideas and article or video ideas that I would not have had if I didn’t make this change. Remember that when you do put this technique into action.

So not only did my sales improve, but I get quality data from the survey that has resulted in helping me come up with product ideas and content.

But I don’t want to trash Frank Kern because ‘Frankly’ I wouldn’t have pursued this avenue had I not watched the Mass Control DVD.

I must say, I haven’t even checked the survey results in a couple of niches because I am too busy. But it’s on autopilot and the upsell/thank you page is working well enough. So I have a treasure trove of content and product ideas waiting for me!

What Questions To Ask On Your Survey Marketing Strategy?

Instead of asking useless questions in your survey like ‘How would it make you feel if…”, I asked real survey questions like:

• What Is Your Biggest Problem When It Comes To (Niche)?

• What Is Your Biggest Expense When It Comes To (Niche)?

• What topics are you interested in the most? Please rate the choices:

• What is your biggest frustration when it comes to your (Niche subjects)?

• What is/are your favorite hobby or hobbies outside of (Niche)…

• How would you rate the quality of information you have received from us so far?

• If you were to buy a (name of product or service) how much would you spend for it?

• What services or products do you wish we had for you?

Some questions had an essay box, some had a rating scale that they had to navigate, and others were a simple yes or no question.

I have other questions, and I present more to you if you are interested. For example, we have a different set for our local business, and some different questions in other niches.

As you can see, all of these questions can provide us with good detail.

To come up with your own questions, just ask yourself what you need to know in order to find out what your list wants in terms of products, services, and information (article/video ideas).

Let me know if you need assistance with this.

What Email To Send To Your List?

I am not a world class copywriter, although I have been paid to write copy. But I do know that writing email copy doesn’t have to be complicated. Just tell the truth, and try to be compelling, and get to the point.

Anyway, here’s a two email sequence that I have been using for years with this technique:

Subject Line:

{!firstname_fix}, can you please complete this (name of) survey?

Body:

Hello {!firstname_fix},

We want to write articles that you want
to read. This simple survey will help
us create them for you…

Link

Can you fill it out? It will only
take 5 minutes or less…

Link

Thanks for your trouble 🙂

Name
Website

PS: We do this once per year so we
can really nail down what you really
want to read and see. Thanks 🙂

Second Email about 4 days after the first (I might change that):

Subject Line:

{!firstname_fix}, I have a favor to ask…

Body:

Hey {!firstname_fix} –
If you have 5 minutes can you
please complete this (name of)
survey…

Link

(If you already did, thanks
very much!!!)

Your answers will help us
fine tune the articles
and videos you’ll get
from us…

OK, yes, I’m begging…
PLEASE COMPLETE THIS SURVEY
(I am now off my hands and knees…
hey no jokes)…

Link

Thanks for your trouble 🙂

Name
Website

PS: We do this once per year so we
can really nail down what you really
want to read and see. Thanks 🙂

Here’s How To add An Upsell Thank You Page Using SurveyMonkey!

Log Into Survey Monkey and on the Survey you created click ‘Collect Responses’:

Click on New Link:

Click on Change Settings:

Scroll down the page and select Redirect To Your Own Page, and put in your thank you or upsell page:

Here’s A Few Examples Of Survey Results and What You Can Do!

You can analyze results by clicking in the Analyze Results Tab under My Surveys:

Here is the first question in one of my many surveys. You can see the percentages, or you can create a chart (either a pie chart or a column chart):

Here is what the pie chart looks like. It’s a pop up window:

Here’s an example of a question that requires quite a bit of answering:

Here’s the pie chart:

Pretty Slick, right?
Let me know if you need any help 🙂
Brian Maroevich

PS: By the way, the weird thing about this is that two weeks after I changed my survey to a more meaningful survey, Frank Kern or maybe it was his cousin Trey (I forget which), sent me a more meaningful survey like mine with a thank you upsell page. This was a several years ago and I was thinking about creating a report just like this one for the Internet Marketing community. But when I got this from them I was thinking ‘are they on my lists?’ So I buried it until now. Anyway, that really happened 🙂