A new survey by the Kaufman Foundation shows Americans see entrepreneurship as the “silver bullet” for our troubled economy–but they’re afraid to take the plunge themselves.

What’s holding them back?  We think it’s a lack of information:  They’re not taking action because they don’t know how to find out if their ideas will fly.

According to Kaufman’s CEO, “More than 70 percent of voters say the health of the economy depends on the success of entrepreneurs, and a full 80 percent want to see the government use its resources to actively encourage entrepreneurship in America.”

The survey shows that, despite Americans’ belief that entrepreneurship can get us out of this financial mess, 71% also believe that recent events make it more difficult to become an entrepreneur.  “The study shows a gulf between those who see opportunities and those willing to seize them; 49 percent of respondents see opportunities for entrepreneurial ideas in the current economy but only 26 percent said they would actually consider starting a business within the next five years,” says Kaufman’s head.

What a sad commentary:  Nearly half of Americans see the opportunity that lies out there, but only a little over one-quarter are even considering seizing that opportunity.

It’s the same old story that we see over and over in Internet marketing:  So many people see the opportunity in front of them, but so few take action.

What’s holding them back?  Fear.

What do they need to overcome that fear?  Information.

Let’s take MySurveyExpert.com as an example.  We had an idea for a new venture:  Putting survey science in the hands of Internet marketers, showing them how to get the information they need to make their businesses thrive.

Did we say “Oh, wouldn’t it be nice?” or “maybe someday . . . ” or worse yet, “people probably wouldn’t buy it?”  No.  We got information, to see if our idea would WORK.

We did an opinion survey.

• We asked Internet marketers if they were doing surveys frequently in their businesses–three-quarters of them aren’t.
• We asked them if they had a system in place for doing surveys–more than two-thirds of them said no.
• We asked them if they WOULD do surveys more often if they had a system in place for doing surveys easily–82% said yes.

Bingo.  Houston, we have a market.

• We found a major problem in Internet marketing:  Internet marketers aren’t getting the information they need because they don’t have a system in place for getting it.
• From there, we went on to measure the width of the problem, the depth of the pain.  In other words, we asked more survey questions.
• Based on the results, we’ve created a product, a survey system that will let Internet marketers get the information they need, on an ongoing basis.  And it’s about to hit the market.

It’s so simple, so basic:  Take your idea, get the information you need to see if it will work.  Do a survey.  If that idea won’t fly, do a survey about another idea–after all, one thing entrepreneurs DON’T lack is ideas.  But what they DO lack is information to help them hone those ideas and turn them into products.

Don’t let that happen to you.  Seize the moment, get the information you need to bring your ideas to reality.  Put a survey system in place.  See your business soar–and help our economy recover, in the process.

So many people out there are looking for the “magic bullet,” the “hidden secret” that will let them achieve the success that top Internet marketers enjoy.

The simple fact is, the “secrets” are there, for everyone to see, if you know where to look.

Listen to any of the most successful marketers for more than 5 minutes and you’ll find the secret quickly:  They recognize Internet marketing is a business and they approach it as any good business person would.

They may jump out of airplanes, play video games, strum a lap guitar, film themselves on ski slopes or beaches–that’s the “hook.”  But right after that comes the “pivot,” the serious information about how to succeed in this business.  And you can bet that, while they enjoy thoroughly the fun from their Internet profits, they work hard.  More importantly, they work SMART.  As I heard Frank Kern say recently, “When it’s time to get funky, it’s time to get funky.”

These folks have some very important traits in common–and doing surveys is among those traits.

What are the “4 S’s” that distinguish successful Internet marketers?  Successful Internet marketers are

Schooled–They invest time, energy, and money in learning all aspects of their businesses.

Selective–They’re careful about where and how they invest their time and money.

Serious–They treat their businesses with the care and attention they deserve.

and they have

Systems in place–They recognize that systems and processes make it all work.

And one of the systems that they have in place is surveys.  Most successful marketers use surveys in all phases of their businesses, to

• Find out what their customers want, so that they create those products;
• Find out how their customers like their products and services,
• Learn how to refine their products,
• Generate systematic evidence that their products work,
• Produce case studies and testimonials to support the systematic evidence,
• Generate referrals.

They recognize what many business people do not:  That the days in which only the Fortune 500 companies could afford this kind of information are over.  And if they want to succeed, they must put this information at their fingertips.

Stay tuned.  We’re working on a product that will help put these systems to work for you in your business.

How do you get a customer to open your e-mail and take action?  Simple:  Show him or her why the information you’re providing is significant, why it matters for his or her business or life.

That DOESN’T mean

• why it’s significant for everyone on the planet,
• why it’s significant for the Internet marketing world, in general,
• why it’s significant for your target market,
• why it’s significant for your customer base, as a whole.

Because, to put it bluntly, Jill Customer doesn’t care about any of those things.  She cares about what will

• make her more money,
• make her life easier,
• solve her problems,
• ease her pain.

She wants information that’s significant to her.

But how do you ensure that your messages will seem significant to your customers?  After all, you can’t write a separate e-mail message to every customer on your list.

The answer is simple: You focus your messages on particular “segments” of your list.  Doing so can produce dramatic results, because you’re targeting your message at groups of people with similar characteristics.

This isn’t difficult at all to do.  Here’s a simple, two-step process:

First, know your customers–through customer surveys.   To make your messages relevant, it’s particularly important to know such characteristics as the age, gender, race/ethnicity, what kinds of products/services they produce, etc.  Customer surveys, done well, provide that information.

Second, segment your list, using the information that customer surveys provide.  That allows you to target your messages to people with particular characteristics.  You might pitch messages differently to men and women, to people with different kinds of products, to people living in particular geographic areas.  You might also think about crafting different messages for your “frequent buyers” than you do for those whom you’ve not yet turned into paying customers.  You simply collect the most important characteristics in your customer surveys.

So now you know what kinds of information to get in your customer surveys.  The next question is, when do you get the information?

You don’t want to turn your opt-in forms into customer surveys, because asking for too much information will discourage prospects from signing up for your list.

Instead, invite them to take a brief customer survey at some point AFTER they opt in (and after you’ve given them some valuable content).  Give them some sort of reward–like a free report–for COMPLETING the customer survey.

In the survey, you can get basic characteristics about your new prospect, find out what prompted him or her to join your list, and assess his or her needs.

Then, you can use that information over and over again, to target your messages in ways that will show specific groups of your customer base why they should open your e-mails and buy your products.

How do we know this works?  We looked at the data.  Here are some statistics:

• In the first 30 days of an e-mail campaign, open rates for e-mails sent to lists that are targeted or “segmented” in the way we described are as much as 20% higher, on average (Marketing Sherpa, 2008).
• Open rates are more than 12% higher on days 60-90 of a campaign(Marketing Sherpa, 2008) .
• In the first 30 days of a campaign, click rates for a campaign that uses segmented lists are double those for non-segmented lists (Marketing Sherpa, 2008).
• Segmenting your list can quadruple conversion rates (Jupiter Research, 2006)

Bottom line, if you want to increase your sales, use customer surveys to know your market.  Customer surveys can provide the data that let you show your prospects why your messages–and your products–are relevant to them.