How To Use Surveys To Take Your Business To The Next Level

If you're sitting there wondering what the heck you need to do to make your course business a success…

I can tell you what made a gigantic difference for me about 10 years ago (when I had made only about 20 sales and still worked my full-time job):

Surveys

The headline kind of gave away the surprise. But that doesn't change the following fact:

Way too many course creators try every trick in the book (tech stuff, adding new features, "revolutionary" marketing strategies, revamping funnels, etc.)…

Yet forget to do the simple thing that moves the needle:

Ask their students about their thoughts on the course. 

This ensures you gather feedback on expectations, actual results, what they found lacking, what they’d improve, etc. And it doesn’t have to be anything fancy or involve scientists in lab coats…

You just need to talk to people like one human being to another. 

Sure, you can't and shouldn't believe & act based on what every customer says…

But if you start to get insights that repeat over and over….

You might have some game-changers on your hands.

Today, I'll show you simple ways to get to such game-changers and conduct surveys that can skyrocket your business's growth…

Without breaking the bank or spending a ton of time preparing & analyzing responses.

Plus, I'll show you exactly how I did it for my two course businesses and the difference it made for me.

Let's dive into it.

How To Collect Game-Changing Insights From Your Audience

There isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution here. But one factor is crucial for determining what would work best for you insights & time-wise:

How many students have gone through your course so far?

The smaller the number, the more individual and one-on-one you should get. 

When I had only 20 students, it made sense to reach out personally via email and either chat or schedule one-on-one calls. You can glean the more general rule from this:

Up until 20-30 sales, I recommend reaching out to EVERY person who bought…

And having thoughtful conversations with them that help you gather insights to improve your offer and course.

Yet, chatting with every single student isn’t sustainable as your course business grows. I know I don’t do it now that I have thousands of customers.

But this doesn’t mean you should give up on surveys altogether because their significance for your business is still huge.

You should just do everything more strategically and at scale. There’s no need to analyze every single insight individually…

Instead, you look for common threads and reoccurrences you can use to improve your offer, course content, and the entire business.

Sounds complicated, but it actually isn’t. Let me show you a simple method for getting valuable survey insights regardless of your audience size…

And the time you can afford to spend chatting with your customers.

How To Organize Surveys That Guarantee Valuable Insights 

For me, the answer was hiding in Ryan Levesque’s “Ask” book. If you haven't read it, I suggest you carve out the time to do so. That’s because it’s, IMO, the top resource on how to conduct surveys that lead to game-changing insights.

Yet, just telling you to read a book would be kind of underwhelming and not in line with this article’s promise. So, don’t worry — doing so isn’t a must.

In fact, you only need to use one question from the book to start getting those game-changing insights NOW:

What are you struggling with most as it relates to (insert your course’s topic) right now?

Pose this question to your audience…

And if they are at least a bit interested and have a solid opinion of you & your course…

Insights will start pouring in. (When you think about it, a lack of responses is a valuable insight too.)

The great thing about this method is you can simply shoot everyone an email — no complicated tech required. Sure, as I mentioned in the previous section, it pays to schedule Zoom calls and have deep conversations if your audience is small…

But for starters, just sending out that one question to your students can do wonders for your course business. And even if it doesn't…

You lose absolutely nothing by trying.

However, students aren’t the only group you can & should ask the above question. Here’s how to use it and a couple more probing questions to get useful insights from your entire email list:

How To Get Useful & Actionable Insights From Non-Buyers

Whenever you run a launch to your email list, most people don't buy. 

That's reality, and it’s perfectly normal.

But the thing is, as soon as that launch is over, everyone who opened your emails has fresh impressions on why they decided not to act.

This is where surveying non-buyers comes in. If you do it at the right time and in the right way….

You can get valuable insights that help not just improve your course's deliverables…

But the way you pitch your course too.

Yet this survey doesn't have to bore your subscribers or be awkward for you in any way.

All it takes is a simple email with 3 questions (you can also use Survey Monkey or a similar tool if it’s more your cup of tea):

1. What are you struggling with most as it relates to (insert your course’s topic) right now?
2. In your own words, explain why you didn’t buy (insert your course’s name). Please be as specific as possible.
3. What do you think you will do about the challenge from question 1 instead of going through my course?

Feel free to tweak the wording and approach based on your voice & tone. But the gist is simple:

Gain an understanding of your audience’s biggest challenge and collect their thoughts on why they didn’t use your course to tackle it while they are still fresh.

Sure, you can ask question 1 anytime and get useful insights. But the rest is most close to the actual truth when the decision not to buy is recent & fresh.

Okay, now that you’ve seen how simple it can be to survey both your buyers and non-buyers for valuable insights…

Let me show you how I’ve done it for my course businesses in different stages of their growth. 

What Surveys Have Done For Taking My Course Businesses To The Next Level

That realization I had 10 years ago about the power of surveys didn’t come from me. In fact, I couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought of it earlier when my mentor at the time suggested it.

Still, I had no idea how to organize "official" surveys and haven’t read the “Ask” book yet. 

So, I sent a regular email to all of my 20 “Piano In 21 Days” course students about their experience with my program so far.

The feedback was mostly positive. But the negatives were super consistent…

And suggested unexpected areas of improvement. 

I prided myself in how short & effective my course lessons were. A couple of minutes of exercises, and you're good to go.

Yet, many people said they felt the instructions were too short and lacked exercises to ensure they could apply what I taught. On top of this major insight, I also uncovered some curriculum errors, hard-to-follow parts, etc.

All this led to me creating version two of “Piano In 21 Days”. One backed on actual feedback and solid confirmation of what people wanted and needed. 

The sales skyrocketed, and my business took off as a consequence. 

So, yes, sometimes a simple conversation with people can do wonders for you. 

A couple of years later, I conducted an "official" survey using the "Ask" book as a guideline. This revealed both my buyers and non-buyers struggled with one concept:

Hand coordination.

I must tell you this was way off of my radar. Especially given that I had already included everything I knew about the topic in the course. 

So, I reached out to a hand-coordination expert to learn more and eventually had him do a mini hand-coordination course I included in my offer. 

That was 7-8 years ago, and that mini course is still an instrumental part of my offer. One that has both eliminated virtually all hand coordination-related questions…

And performed amazingly as an upsell in my “Essential” course package. 

Lastly, the success I had with my “Next Level Coaching” program inside the OCG business can be traced back to surveying the audience you’re a part of. 

Actually, it goes back to that one question I outlined above: 

“What are you struggling with most as it relates to building an online course business right now?”

I thought the answer revolved around tactics, strategies, and info. Yet, the survey showed that while these were undoubtedly important…

The most common challenge by far was the fact course creators saw a million things they could do… 

But didn't know what to focus on first and in which order, so they ensure they move the needle the most.

This insight was both critical for my course's deliverable quality…

And for pitching it in an appealing way.

That's precisely my point when it comes to surveys…

If you do them right, the insights you get both make your course better and more valuable for your students (hence leading to more success stories and testimonials)….

And help you say the right things in your marketing to get people intrigued & eager to buy what you're offering.

Conclusion

Asking students what they thought of your course (the bad and the good), how they'd improve it, etc., sounds simple and like everyone is doing it.

Yet most of my course creator students haven't been doing it. And neither have I before my first mentor brought it to my attention.

But when I did do it — the insights I got turned my business around and skyrocketed its growth.

Here's to acting on this realization and surveying your audience NOW instead of later…

While using the methods I introduced above to boost the chances of getting game-changing insights that will help take your course business to the next level. 

At the very least, send out an email to your audience (buyers and non-buyers) along the lines of:

What are you struggling with most as it relates to (insert your course’s topic) right now?

Then, look through the responses carefully and thoughtfully.

I'm rooting for you. 

-Jacques