Engaging your audience through polls is a proven strategy to increase interaction and enhance user experience on your site. Asking your customers about their opinions is simple and powerful: You can transform passive readers into active participants who spend more time on your site and share content more frequently.
Creating a poll is straightforward and efficient, enabling you to connect with your audience in under five minutes.
Why online polls work
Online polls leverage basic psychology principles. When you ask for someone’s opinion, it’s flattering. Suddenly, a casual browsing experience turns into an interactive one and does more than just engage. It changes the nature of the user’s relationship with your site. By providing feedback, they feel like they are part of the conversation, establishing an emotional connection with the content.
This leads to three significant benefits:
- Increased time on site: Engaged users stay up to 34% longer on your site.
- Enhanced sharing: Users who participate in polls are 21% more likely to share your content.
- Higher return rates: Users often return to see how others voted, fostering repeat visits.
Best practices for creating effective polls
1. Avoid over asking
Balance is crucial when incorporating polls into your content. Too few questions can mean missed engagement opportunities, while too many can overwhelm your audience. Aim for the perfect middle to maximize attention spans and interest.
2. Limit poll choices
Keep your poll choices concise. Psychology professor Barry Schwartz pointed out in his book The Paradox of Choice that people like choices, but not too many. An overload of options can overwhelm users and lead to decision paralysis. The ideal range is two to four options to maximize participation without causing stress.
You could also think more outside the box and use reaction polls instead of standard multiple-choice questions.
3. Delay showing the final online poll results
Humans are inherently curious, and they want to see the results immediately after voting. However, delaying the final results can be advantageous. Depending on your use case, announcing that results will be shared in a few days could encourage more participation. When outcomes are uncertain, users are more likely to invite others to vote, increasing viral sharing. Moreover, this delay gives you additional content to share:
- Initial post: the original story and poll
- Reminder post: encouragement to vote
- Follow-up post: results and analysis, e.g., “With 76% of the vote, our community picked “The Joshua Tree” as U2’s best album!”
Further reading
Choice overload in the field of consumer psychology
Choice Hacking by Jen Clinehens
The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz
Building poll sequences – best practices guide
