Crafting the Right Questions for Financial Polls

Trapti Kaushik  30th September 2024
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While choosing the type of the poll, it is important to focus on the fact that polling your audience about their financial habits can be a great idea to determine their preferences. But as always the success of your poll largely depends on the questions that you asked. Some of the important tips to ask are as follows: It just shows how asking the right questions can help you find the right data to support you business strategy. Here’s a list of sample questions that may help you or your financial polling agency when doing your financial poll.


1. Demographic Questions


Using demographic questions as the primary questions helps in contextualizing your data. These questions make it possible to divide your audience and try to find trends among them. Consider asking about:


- Age: “What gender and how old are you?” (Which age range 18-24, 25-34, 35-44, etc.)


- Income Level: “How much do you make in a year?” (Under $30K, $30-$60K etc.)


- Education Level: “What is your highest level of education?” (High school, Bachelor’s, Master’s, etc.)


As the results, knowing who your respondents are will enable you to track to deliver customized services to your target market.


2. Financial Behavior Questions


To know the financial status of your audience, use questions that elicits the right kind of behaviors on their part. These can include:


- Saving Habits: “Do you commonly save the following percentage of your monthly income? Less than 10%, between 10 – 20%, more than 20%?”


- Spending Patterns: “Which of the 5 categories do you spend most on monthly?”


- Debt Management: “In what debt status do you currently find yourself?” (having no debt at all, having some controllable debt, having too many debt which controls you)


These questions can help to identify what it is that your audience may need help with or may not fully understand.


3. Attitude and Confidence Questions

It is as important to know how your audience feels about their finances as much as it is to know their behaviors. Use questions like:


- Financial Literacy: “On average, from the total of respondents how confident are you or your peers in personal finance?”

- Investment Comfort: “How much risk are you willing to take in your investments”? (Low risk, moderate risk, high risk)


- Future Planning: “To what extent are you ready to retire?” (Ready; somewhat ready; not ready).


These questions could show the lack of knowledge or confidence in areas that you can then provide content or services for.


4. Technology and Resource Usage


In today’s technologically advanced world, it is essential to find out how your target market engages with the industry. Ask about:


- Investment Platforms: “Where do you invest?” (In traditional brokers, robo advisors, no investments)


- Budgeting Tools: “Did you answer on using any tools or applications to handle your budgeting?:” (Yes, No)


- Information Sources: “From what source do you mainly turn to for advice about your money?”


These questions can navigate your marketing approach and enable you to develop material that speaks directly to your audience’s platforms and resources.


5. Open-Ended Questions


Multiple choice questions give quantitative data while the open-ended questions provide qualitative data. Encourage your audience to share their thoughts and experiences:


“What more would you like to learn about finance?”

“Tell me what you think the greatest problem facing you financially is at the moment?”

“Which elements would you expect if you had a financial application?”


These questions can produce detailed and valuable feedback that can generate new concepts in your products or services.



6. Future Intent Questions


To understand your audience's future financial behaviors, consider asking questions about their plans:


- Investment Goals: “What are your major financial targets over the next five years?” (To buy a house, to save for pension, etc.)

- Education Plans: “In the next one year, are you likely to look for information on financial literacy?” (Yes, No, Maybe)


- Savings Targets: “Do you plan on saving less than $1,000, between $1,000 and $5,000 a year or even more than $5,000 a year?”


You can use these questions to identify what your audience may require or want in the future, so you can be in a position to provide the solution.


Conclusion


The kind of questions that you should be asking your audience in your financial poll can help you understand them. Demographic questions are more specific whereas behavior, attitude and other questions open-ended help you to have vivid picture of your audience in financial reports. It will help you better understand the ways to position and promote your services for the desired demographic to achieve success with the business. Begin today to poll, and see an increase in how well you know your audience!



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