In an effort to help better promote and communicate with businesses within its district, the Oxford Downtown Development Authority (DDA) has sent out a survey.

Approximately 150 printed surveys were mailed on Friday afternoon.

“The primary goal of this survey is to ensure that the Oxford DDA has an up-to-date contact list and business directory that includes what business is in each storefront, who the primary contact is for that organization and a short promotional description of that business,” wrote Assistant Village Manager Drew Benson in a memo to the DDA board.

In addition to basic contact information, the one-sheet/two-sided survey seeks other information such as what type of social media accounts businesses have (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram), what the primary methods they use to market themselves are, what goods and/or services they provide, how long they’ve been located downtown, what their preferred method of communication is and how frequently they feel the DDA should be communicating with them.

“The idea is that (it will be) filled out by the business owner so that we can have an idea of who the best person to contact at that organization is,” Benson said.

April 6 is the deadline to respond.

Business owners can return them either via mail or by dropping them off at the village office (22 W. Burdick St.). They can also respond to the survey on-line via a link that is printed on the paper survey and available on the DDA’s website www.downtownoxford.org.

Benson understands that it “will definitely take a little bit of legwork” to gather responses from all of the businesses within the downtown district.

“There’s no way around that,” he told the DDA board. “I wouldn’t come up here and tell you that we sent out 150 surveys and they’re all going to come back in a week.”

With regard to those who don’t respond, Benson said “we’ll have to go talk to them in person and offer them the opportunity” to fill it out either on the spot or on-line.

DDA Executive Director Glenn Pape will keep track of who does and does not answer the survey. He will provide a list of the latter to the DDA’s volunteer “block captains,” who will then visit the businesses to solicit responses.

“This would be a work in progress,” Benson said.

Benson was asked if the surveys would be sent to downtown property/building owners as well because they and the business owners are not always one and the same.

“Ideally, we want these to go to the tenants, the occupants of the building, because those are the businesses that we would be representing,” he replied.

DDA officials voted 6-1 to approve the survey and allocate an amount not to exceed $200 to conduct it. That includes mailing out 150 surveys at 47 cents each ($70.50) and a two-month subscription to Survey Monkey, an on-line survey service, for a total of $50.

Benson noted updating the DDA’s contact list and business directory can’t just be a one-time thing.

“This has to be an ongoing process,” he said. “I’m not saying (do) a survey every year or every other year, but updating your contact list and your business directory is an ongoing process. There’s no other way around it.”

“It’s a lot easier to do one business at a time as opposed to doing 150 at a given time,” Benson noted.