Surveys are a great way to find out more information about your customers or industry.

The results of a survey can be used in many ways such as to improve your products or services, target communication more effectively and market your brand.

Did you know survey results can also help you to gain media coverage and build your brand?

You can create a media release with the results of a survey and send it out to relevant media publications. Journalists often publish survey statistics in their articles to support their points. You can also use a surprising or newsworthy statistic from the survey as a story angle to pitch to the media and offer your spokesperson as an expert to discuss the results.

Talk to a PR professional about how to write your survey questions so the results are more likely to produce media opportunities for your business.

Here are some tips to think about when creating a survey with your PR professional.

Think about your wording
It’s important to carefully think about the wording of each question as it can have an effect on the results. You may also need to use the wording in your media release or media angle to inform journalists about the results. It’s then necessary to have well-written questions to have a better chance of journalists publishing the results.

Who is your target audience?
Your survey should be written so that it clearly targets a specific audience. This will help with pitching the results to the media as it will more likely give you a stronger story. It will also assist in getting quality results as the survey questions will be more targeted. Understanding your target audience will also help ensure that if your survey results get published, the right people read the story.

Have an adequate sample size.
Having an adequate sample size of survey respondents will help you to ensure the results are accurate and credible. Journalists are more likely to consider your survey results if it’s credible.

What media do you want to target?
Think about the publications your target audience reads and the publications you want to be featured in. Then think about the types of issues and topics these publications cover. You can then create questions around these topics to have a better chance of gaining media coverage in these publications.

The topic you choose should also be relevant to your business so your spokesperson can comment on it in media interviews.

What message does your business want to communicate?
Think about the message you want to communicate to your customers. For example, if you are a business who offers financial advice to retail businesses, include questions around whether retail businesses think they need financial advice, how many retail businesses seek financial advice or how retail businesses manage their finances.

From these results you can create a media angle using a newsworthy or interesting statistic. For example, 80 per cent of retail businesses think they need financial advice but only 20 per cent actually seek financial advice. You can pitch this angle to relevant media publications and offer your spokesperson as an expert to discuss the results.

This is an effective way of raising your business’ profile as an expert in their field and getting a message across to your target audience via the media.

Don’t force the results.
Don’t ask radical questions to try and force a media angle out of the results. Journalists are only interested in objective results that have been gained accurately.

Gaining media coverage from survey results can help to position your business as an expert in its industry and raise awareness of your brand. So make the most of a survey by gaining the assistance of a PR professional.

Sydney Public Relations Agency, CP Communications provides specialist media, traditional and online PR strategies that get amazing results. Contact us today. For more PR tips see www.PublicRelationsSydney.com.au.