Financial Advisor Marketing: How to Create a Voice of Customer Survey

As a content strategist for financial advisors, I’ve always been surprised by the results I get back from voice of customer (VOC) surveys—and so have my clients. If you create a VOC survey for your business, I guarantee you’ll be surprised too, even if you’ve been serving your ideal clients for years. 

A VOC survey can provide close-up insights into what your ideal clients know, value, and fear when it comes to their financial planning. And while I’m sure you know your clients very well, you’ll absolutely discover some nuggets of wisdom that can strengthen your entire marketing strategy.

In this article, I’ll help you craft a VOC survey that’s sure to help you create more tailored content and messaging that resonates with your ideal clients. Why is this important? Because messaging that resonates results in more booked discovery calls.

What Is a Voice of Customer Survey?

A voice of customer (VOC) survey is a market research tool that provides you unique insights into your ideal client—and tons of ideas for content that you know your audience will find valuable.

To create a VOC survey that provides you with worthwhile responses, be strategic about the questions you ask. Vague questions or questions that don’t elicit completely honest responses can result in unhelpful VOC data, so it’s important to be deliberate. 

How to Create Voice of Customer Survey Questions

Depending on your audience, there are different categories of questions you’ll want to include in your voice of customer survey. These categories include:

1. Demographic questions
2. Values questions
3. Service-specific questions
4. Consumer information questions

Let’s dive into each question category below.

1. Demographic Questions

Demographic questions are useful for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, demographic questions make it easy to filter out any responses from demographics that don’t fit your ideal client. If you post your VOC survey on broad platforms such as your social media accounts, you’ll want clear insights into who’s actually responding. 

Demographic questions also allow you to segment your audience and take note of any trends that are specific to sub-demographics within your ideal clients. For example, simply asking your respondents to choose their gender may help you notice significant differences in the values and preferences between men and women.

Below are demographic questions I recommend for most VOC surveys:

• What is your age range?
• What is your gender?
• What is your household income range?
• What is your education level?
• What is your profession?
• What is your marital status?

As you craft these questions in a survey tool like Google Forms or Jotform, format them as multiple choice whenever appropriate. Multiple-choice questions allow you to organize and sort responses more easily. Additionally, be inclusive as you create your multiple-choice options, and consider including a “Prefer not to respond” option for most demographic questions.

2. Values Questions

While demographic questions are important, your ideal clients are much more than a demographic. Asking questions about their values gets to the core of their closely held fears and goals. Below is a sample of 10 open-ended values-based questions I like to ask:

• If you didn’t have to work for money or worry about money, how would you spend your days?
• What challenges do you face in your personal life?
• What are the top 3 values that guide your daily decisions and goals for your future?
• What do you value most when it comes to your money and finances? (e.g., security, freedom, clarity, generosity, flexibility). Please explain.
• What are your top 3 financial goals?
• What are some current financial challenges you’re experiencing?
• What are your biggest financial worries?
• When it comes to money and finances, what do you wish you knew more about?
• When you think about your money and finances, do you generally feel optimistic or pessimistic? Please explain.
• What motivates you to make changes to your financial situation? 

As you’re writing these values questions, don’t worry about coaching respondents to think about their answers deeply. In fact, you want to avoid that.

It’s better to hear from your prospects where they are, how they feel, and what they’re thinking before they meet with you or any financial professional. Raw, unfiltered responses allow you to craft content and messaging that meets them in exactly the right place.

3. Service-specific Questions

In addition to the values questions, you should also ask a few questions relevant to the services you offer and the problems you help solve. For example, if you help your clients plan their equity compensation, it’s a good idea to gauge their knowledge of and feelings about their compensation package. 

The answers to these questions will reveal how you should be talking about these problems and opportunities in your messaging. If your ideal clients are knowledgeable and confident about their equity compensation options, your messaging will be very different than if they’re unsure about how their benefits work. 

4. Consumer Information Questions

Finally, take the opportunity at the end of your survey to find out where your ideal clients hang out online and consume information. These responses will help you determine where you should be spending your marketing energy. Below are a few ideas for questions you might add to this final section of the survey.

• During a typical day, how do you search for and consume news and information?
• What social media platforms do you use most often?
• Which publications or online blogs do you read regularly?
• When you face financial challenges, where do you turn to for help?

How Long Should Your Voice of Customer Survey Be?

In general, most VOC surveys should be no longer than 25-30 questions. While shorter surveys are likely more enticing for respondents, this is your one chance to ask your ideal clients everything you want to know. 

To make your survey easier to respond to quickly, divide it into sections: one page for demographic questions, one page for values questions, one page for service-specific questions, and one page for consumer information questions. Most survey creation tools make it easy to format surveys in this way.

How to Distribute Your Voice of Customer Survey

More answers are better, but even a few responses from the right people can reveal valuable information. I recommend distributing your voice of customer survey in multiple places. First, post your survey on your social media platforms. In addition to asking your immediate network and connections to take your survey, you might also consider posting it in Facebook groups or LinkedIn communities where your ideal clients hang out. 

Second, identify specific people you’d like to take your survey and ask them for responses directly, either through an email or a direct message on a social media platform.

In both situations, use copywriting techniques to entice respondents to take your survey by highlighting what’s in it for them. While it’s not necessary to offer any sort of incentive to potential respondents, creating a raffle for a $25 or $50 gift card can be a good way to get more responses. Here are some examples of how to request responses for your survey:

Broad Social Media Request

📣 Anyone willing to take a quick 10-minute survey for me? 

I’m redesigning my services to help high-performing sales professionals do more with their commission checks, and I need your input.

If you’re a star sales pro willing to share your thoughts in 10 minutes or less, comment with a raised hand ✋ below and I’ll send you the survey link!

Thanks in advance!

Targeted Email Request

Hi [first name]!

I hope you’re having a great week. I’m reaching out to ask for a quick favor.

I’m in the process of improving the content I create for my business so I can provide more value and insights to high-performing sales professionals. To achieve this, I’m conducting a survey to gain a better understanding of my target audience and their needs.

I want to emphasize that this is not a solicitation for your business. In fact, I’m specifically looking for unbiased feedback from non-clients to ensure the survey results are honest and objective.

Since you’re the type of person I love to work with, though, your opinion and input would be highly valuable to me. The survey should only take about 10-15 minutes to complete, and we’re looking to get responses by the end of the day next Monday.

Is this something you’d be willing to participate in? I want to assure you that all responses will remain completely anonymous—I’m not collecting names or email addresses.

Thanks in advance for considering this request! If you have any questions or need further information, don’t hesitate to let me know.

Here’s another link to the survey if you’re willing to take it: Jennifer’s Market Research Survey

All my best,

Jennifer

How Gale Creative Agency Can Help 

A voice of customer research survey is integral to any content marketing plan, and it can provide an abundance of content ideas you know will resonate with your target audience. However, crafting a strategic VOC survey takes time and thoughtfulness. If you simply don’t have the bandwidth to craft a well-designed survey for your firm, let us do it for you.

At Gale Creative Agency, our Content Strategy Package includes a VOC survey that is highly customized to your business and target audience. In addition to creating and designing your survey, we write your social media and email requests, analyze your data, and create detailed Ideal Client Profiles based on the responses. 

Does outsourcing this critical piece of your marketing strategy sound like the path for you? Book a free discovery call with us to share your needs and get a quote.

This article reflects the insights and opinions of its author and is not a recommendation or endorsement of their views or services.