How to discover your target audience's interests and launch a promotion in 5 days: “Realweb” and Yandex Surveys

Learn how to quickly survey hundreds of people, get honest responses, and select the most effective promotion strategy.

The “Realweb” agency surveyed more than 300 respondents from Russia in 5 days' time

Using Yandex Surveys, “Realweb” found out why people participate in promotions, what's the best way to organize giveaways, and which strategies to use to attract more participants.

Here we share our colleagues' results and analyze which Yandex Surveys tools can help you study the audience just as quickly.

What motivates people to take part in promotions

“Realweb” found that respondents are more willing to take part in giveaways with a guaranteed prize and in promotions where they can win a valuable gift.

There are lots of prize options: a free course, a big discount, or a simple checklist. Such prizes attract more participants and help to keep the audience interested. After giving out the prizes, you can continue to communicate with your audience, offering them a chance to compete for the main prize.

A gift certificate for a large online store can attract 15% of potential respondents, and only 13% indicated that interesting knowledge and experience can motivate them to take part in a giveaway.

• 60%: A guaranteed prize.
• 37%: A large, valuable prize.
• 15%: A gift certificate to a popular online store.
• 13%: An opportunity to gain interesting experience and knowledge.

^*What motivates people to take part in giveaways. “Realweb” agency survey data, 2020

Participation mechanics

If promo organizers don't provide a guaranteed prize, 35.5% of the survey participants refuse to take part in the giveaway. The condition to share a post on social media will be refused by 30.7% of the respondents. Complex competitive mechanics (19.9%) and concerns about personal data security (19.9%) may also cause respondents to refuse to take part in the promotion.

Participants are most willing to agree to upload receipts to a website.

It turned out that, of all the options suggested in the survey, the most popular one was the “receipt promo” where participants just need to upload a copy of their purchase receipt to the website. The top 5 most attractive mechanics also include sharing the promotional post on social media, posting a photo with the product, uploading a photo of your work to a website, and writing about your experience of using the product or service on social media.

77.9% of participants are willing to make several attempts at a promotion if this increases their chances of winning.

The most attractive participation mechanics. “Realweb” agency survey data, 2020. Multiple choice questions. Without taking into account the response options “I don't want to participate” (31.1%) and “Other” (1.3%):

Packaging is the best place to tell people about the promotion.

61.8% of participants learn about brands' promotions from their product packaging. They can also learn about promotions from ads on social media, the brand's website, a QR code on the package, or video ads on the internet.

Where participants learn about promotions. “Realweb” agency survey data, 2020. Multiple choice questions. Without taking into account the “Other” response option (5.1%):

Men are more likely to take part in promotions

Most promotion participants are men aged 25–34 with a below-average income. They usually learn about promotions from product packaging and take part in such activities several times a year.

Men prefer giveaways where they need to register a receipt on a website, play an online game, or take a quiz or a test.

Male, 25–34 years old.

Below-average income.

Takes part in several promotions per year.

Learns about promotions from product packaging.

Main channels of communication.

Ads on social media.

Brand website.

Video ads on the internet.

Top 3 favorite ways to participate.

Register receipts on the website.

Play the brand's online game.

Take quizzes and tests.

^*“Realweb” agency survey data, 2020

Recommendations for holding promotions

1. The simpler, the better. Simple mechanics are easy for people to understand and follow to take part in a promotion.
2. Offer a valuable prize. What would you like to compete for — a family trip to the sea or a bathroom shelf? Your prizes should be something that people really dream to have.
3. Guaranteed prizes attract more participants. Even a small guaranteed prize makes a promotion much more attractive to participants. There are many options for a prize: it may be a file with recipes, a promo code for a discount, or a checklist.
4. Gamification is the key to success. Introduce the audience to your brand using game mechanics. If your promotion involves a lecture on the health benefits of milk, your customers will likely be bored. Instead, make them build their own farm online to get a chance to win your dairy products. Playing games is always more interesting.

It's easy to launch a survey in Yandex Surveys

• We have templates for typical tasks, an easy-to-use survey constructor, and convenient filters that will help you find your target audience based on their gender, age, geography, interests, and other characteristics.
• The survey prices start at ₽1000.
• The results will be ready in 1–3 days. The response data appear immediately after the survey is launched, and the results are constantly updated.