Whatever your niche, investing in market research surveys will help you get to know your target customers on a deeper level.
Online surveys and market research are also vital for identifying emerging marketing trends and making informed strategic decisions.
But, as useful as they can be for uncovering business-boosting insights, if your survey designs aren’t eye-catching and user-friendly, people won’t fill them in.
There’s lots to consider when it comes to market research survey design, and we’re going to cover it all right here in this guide. We’ll also tell you how you can use ScoreApp to streamline the process.
Why market research surveys are essential for business growth
The global market research industry is worth around $87 billion – and for good reason.
A well-designed online market research survey in particular offers a wealth of priceless consumer data you can use to shape every aspect of your business’s marketing communications.
Online market research surveys also help you:
- Dig deeper into your audience’s preferences or specific pain points
- Discover emerging trends and topics within your niche or industry
- Tailor your marketing communications to the exact needs of your prospects
- Improve the products, services, and experience you offer your customers
- Optimise the way you handle your business’s budget and allocate your resources
FYI: If you have a fundamental understanding of a particular market research topic you’re looking to explore, sharing an interactive quiz will prove effective for digging a little deeper while engaging your target audience.
But, if you have very little insight into the avenue of market research you’re digging into, an online survey is the way to go.
With a consistent approach and the right tools, creating an online market research survey is pretty cost-effective, too.
Defining your survey goals and objectives
Before you start the design process, you need to know exactly what you want to achieve with your online survey.
Defining your goals and objectives will ensure you ask the right questions and connect with insights you can actually use to develop your commercial strategies.
Do you want to:
- Improve customer satisfaction rates?
- Get a better understanding of your audience’s demographics?
- Gather feedback about a particular service or product?
- Scope out how people perceive your brand’s image?
- Discover themes, trends, and subject matter that currently interest your audience?
FYI: You may have more than two market research survey goals you want to achieve. As long as they complement one another, that’s fine. If you’re clear about your intentions, you’ll get the results you deserve.
Knowing your objectives will form the foundations of your market research survey. Oh, and once you’ve set your goals, you can use ScoreApp’s range of survey templates to start the design process.
Best practices for crafting effective survey questions
Asking your target survey recipients effective and insightful questions will prove essential to the success of your market research survey. There really is no wiggle room here.
Before you start crafting your survey questions (based on your theme and objectives), you should decide which type (or types) you’re going to use. These could include:
Open-ended: This type of survey question doesn’t require a set answer. Here, the recipient is free to type in a response of their choice. Open-ended questions are excellent for gathering detailed feedback, thoughts, or feelings.
Multiple choice: This type of survey question offers your recipients answers to choose from. Multiple choice questions are good for gathering slightly more objective data and making clearcut comparisons.
Likert scale: Likert scale questions are those that set a scale (one to seven, for example) based on how much you agree or disagree with a certain statement. Likert scale questions are ideal for measuring beliefs, values, preferences, attitudes, opinions, and satisfaction rates.
A few survey question examples
So, what are good survey questions, exactly? Let’s take a look.
Open-ended:
What are your thoughts on our new sustainable product range?
Multiple choice:
What else would you like to see in our new sustainable product range?
A: Bespoke bamboo kitchenware
B: Sustainably sourced retro tablecloths
C: Eco-friendly storage accessories
Likert scale:
I am satisfied with my new eco-friendly purchase.
Strongly agree
Slightly agree
Slightly disagree
Strongly disagree
You can use a mix of questions in your survey if you see fit. But it’s important that each question is easy to understand or interpret and avoids industry jargon. Confuse or frustrate your survey participants and they won’t stick around.
FYI: ScoreApp’s dynamic online survey tools and templates feature customisable pre-set questions that match a wide range of topics and objectives.
Optimising your survey structure for higher response rates
To earn consistently high response rates and engage your participants from start to finish, your survey structure needs to be fluent. Here’s what you need to consider.
Follow a logical flow
First of all, your market research survey needs to follow a logical flow. So, your survey questions need to follow a sensical format, with the easier or less thought-intensive questions featuring at the start.
For instance, you might kick things off with some simple multiple choice questions and save your opinion-based ones for the end – once your participants are warmed up and immersed in your survey.
Making sure your questions flow seamlessly from one to the next will not only keep your respondents engaged from start to finish, but will also create less friction. As a result, more people will fill your surveys out in full – which is the main aim of the game.
Yes, your questions should loosely relate to one another. That way, you’ll offer your participants the best possible user experience while connecting with the most valuable insights for your business.
Limit your survey length
Typically, shorter market surveys boast the best response rates. Keeping your survey succinct and only including questions that are directly relevant to your objectives will avoid confusion, boredom, or overwhelm.
Survey fatigue is a genuine phenomenon where respondents become mentally drained mid-way through the process. The main culprit? Long-winded or repetitive questions. Oh, and too many questions.
Not only will survey fatigue kill your response rates, but it could prevent people from filling out future surveys – harming your brand reputation in the process.
Naturally, you’ll want to gather as much information as possible from your survey. But you must make sure your questions are on topic.
As a general rule of thumb, between five and 10 survey questions is considered the engagement sweet spot in terms of survey length.
Ultimately, you should choose a length that suits your needs and objectives. But it’s always worth reviewing and editing your questions before signing anything off so you can remove any content that isn’t relevant to what you’re trying to achieve.
Use visuals and branding effectively
Weaving your branding into the mix will not only make your surveys more attention-grabbing, but it will create a level of consistency that will boost your response rates.
Remember, your survey is another asset for building commercial awareness and connections with your prospects – so, using your branding is a sensible move.
A mix of unique branding and well-placed visuals will increase survey engagement while keeping your business at the forefront of your prospects’ minds. But don’t overdo it.
Always ensure your visuals complement your survey’s design and feel rather than overpowering it. Test your survey and if your visual assets cause confusion, create distraction, or disrupt your flow, remove or replace them. Sometimes, less really is more!
Inspiring accurate and honest market survey responses
Your marketing research surveys are only as good as the quality of the insights they offer. To earn valuable data, your participants’ answers need to be accurate and honest.
Encouraging consistent or objective answers can prove easier said than done. But there are ways to tackle the issue – and we’re going to explore them now.
Allow anonymity
Did you know? Anonymous surveys are proven to return honest answers and improve participation rates.
Giving your survey participants the option to provide their answers anonymously will encourage honest responses. Why? Because they’ll feel more comfortable to express themselves without worry of being judged.
Yes, offering anonymity gives people the freedom to navigate sensitive topics and give genuine feedback with confidence – giving you a wealth of well-rounded survey insights in the process.
Use neutral wording
It’s also important to ensure the language you use is neutral and isn’t designed to sway your participants’ responses in any way.
Your market research survey copy should avoid any statements that express personal opinion or bias so you get objective insights for improving your product service or business.
If you’re unsure whether your questions are neutral, have two or three trusted (and impartial people) review your copy. That way, you can make any necessary tweaks before sharing your survey with the public.
Be clear. Use examples.
If you’re not completely clear with your audience, their answers are unlikely to be as honest or coherent.
In addition to using simple neutral wording, you should avoid questions that cover two ideas or concepts. Split them up to request one piece of information at a time.
Oh, and when you’re covering sensitive topics, third-person scenarios or examples will make your audience feel at ease when they’re answering your questions while ensuring clarity.
FYI: Featuring short and simple open-ended questions will help you gather thoughts or opinions that offer more depth.
Try ScoreApp’s customisation features
Using trusted online survey tools such as ScoreApp will streamline the content creation process for consistently valuable consumer insights.
With ScoreApp’s ever-expanding library of templates, you can make slick market research surveys and customise the structure – as well as the questions you ask – for feedback that will boost your business growth.
How to analyse and use your survey data efficiently
When you earn a solid response rate for surveys, you gain access to the level of data required to meet the needs of your customers head on.
Analysing your survey data efficiently will empower you to:
- Connect with actionable audience insights
- Personalise your marketing communications
- Get inspiration for your future campaigns and content
- Uncover emerging market trends and identify patterns you can use to your strategic advantage
- Keep developing your products or services to meet constantly evolving market demands
To analyse your market research survey data effectively, you need to work with tools that will arrange, visualise, and present your responses or insights in a way that makes sense.
You also need to dig into your market research data regularly to keep your strategic efforts consistent while jumping on potentially business-boosting trends as they emerge.
Gain greater survey insights with ScoreApp’s analytics tools
ScoreApp’s easy-to-understand analytics features offer access to a wealth of priceless visual insights from one central location.
Armed with access to plenty of powerful visual data from one central dashboard, you’ll be able to make sense of your survey data and use it to take your marketing communications to the next level.
Tips and best practices for designing a successful market research survey
In addition to getting your questions spot on and analysing your responses effectively, making your market research design slick, intuitive, and user-friendly will ensure you earn impressive response rates.
Let’s take a look at the market research design essentials – starting with a little testing.
Know your audience
Yes, the aim of launching a market research survey is to understand your target consumers on a deeper level. But if you don’t have an idea of who you’re aiming your questions at, you’ll never get the answers you need.
Do you want to reach out to people who fall into a certain demographic? Are you looking for opinions from consumers in a particular geographic location? Are you targeting new or existing customers?
Take the time to consider who your ideal survey respondent is and create questions for them. To do this effectively, you can create a survey respondent profile (a spin on a ‘buyer persona’).
To build a profile for your ideal survey respondent, you should include:
- A name to bring them to life
- An age range
- A geographical location
- An occupation
- A round-up of their interests, insights, and pain points
Coupled with your main survey objectives, creating a profile (or profiles) like this will help you understand exactly who you’re aiming your efforts at – and why.
The bottom line? Define your audience. Then your survey design – and questions – will fall into place.
Pre-test your survey
Before you finalise your market survey design and press the ‘publish’ button, you should run a test.
Send a test version to a small group of people within your business and ask for feedback around the flow of your design and the clarity of your survey questions.
That way, you can catch any design snags, poorly placed visuals, and clunky or confusing questions. As a result, you’ll ensure your market research survey is slick, engaging, and optimised to return the data you need to get ahead of the competition.
Best practices for market research survey design
To help guide your survey design decisions, here are a few best practices you should follow:
- Make sure there’s plenty of white or blank space to improve clarity and readability
- Aim to be minimal rather than cluttering your survey with graphics and visuals
- Craft questions that are clear, objective, and easy to understand
- Use your business’s branding tastefully for engagement and awareness
Incentivise participation
To design a marketing survey experience that delivers healthy response rates, you should offer potential participants an incentive.
Whether it’s a discount code, access to exclusive content, or a free trial, dangling a virtual carrot in front of your prospects will encourage them to take part.
Decide on what your target prospects are likely to find most valuable or rewarding and you’ll come up with an incentive that will maximise survey participation.
Tip: Check out our official guide on how to use a gifted quiz or survey to increase your conversion rates for added inspiration.
Create impactful surveys with ScoreApp’s ready-to-go templates
A well-designed market research survey will return plenty of top-notch insights that will help you refine every key aspect of your business strategy.
From crafting effective campaigns and developing personalised marketing content to improve key aspects of your products or services, market research surveys provide informational gold dust.
By understanding your goals, asking the right questions, choosing a solid structure, and designing the best possible market research experience, you’ll earn the results for getting ahead of the game.
To recap: Follow these essential steps and you’ll create market research surveys that offer the best possible return for your efforts:
- Define your goals and objectives
- Know your audience
- Choose your question types
- Map out a logical question flow
- Make sure your survey isn’t too long
- Check your questions are clear, neutral, and unbiased
- Use your branding and follow best design practices
- Test your survey before launch
- Offer incentives to boost response rates
- Analyse your data and insights effectively
- Use the right tools to streamline the process
ScoreApp’s dynamic market research survey templates and range of accessible analytical insights will help you streamline, as well as optimise, every stage of the process for the best possible outcomes.
Are you ready to boost your business growth with market research surveys? Try ScoreApp for FREE.
