Marketers, researchers, and anyone who gathers data now has a new way to entice people to participate in surveys and studies. Marketing startup Rybbon has recently unveiled an incentive management integration with SurveyMonkey, a leading web-based survey and questionnaire tool, that allows organizations to use digital gift cards to encourage individuals to provide their opinions and answers.
Rybbon, which also integrates with marketing platforms like Marketo and HubSpot, began previewing its SurveyMonkey offerings several months ago with a small group of customers and has now announced the general availability of the program. Marketers who create a Rybbon account connect it to surveys they run on SurveyMonkey, deciding which surveys to incentivize, and what type of digital gift card to provide -- possibilities include Visa, Amazon, Hulu, and iTunes -- among others, and can customize the email the participant receives.
"Everything is automatic," Jignesh Shah, CEO of Rybbon told Incentive. "Instead of waiting two weeks after they fill out the survey to get a gift card in the mail, it's five minutes -- 'thanks for taking the survey, here's a small reward.'"
The integration allows marketers to add payouts to projects as needed, customizing messaging with their logo and images. The platform also allows marketers to track the performance of the incentives and surveys, making adjustments as needed.
Shah pointed to the experiences of Wi-Fi company Xirrus, which tapped Rybbon to help it gather customer feedback about its product offerings. The company sent Amazon.com gift cards automatically to customers who answered its survey, coming from a Xirrus.com email address (rather than Rybbon or SurveyMonkey), and tracking its results.
"I think our customers really felt that we appreciated their time," said Oscar Sanchez, digital marketing director at Xirrus.
Shah agreed, adding that, "It's become almost good etiquette in the survey world that if you're asking people to spend time in their lives, you should thank them and incentivize them."