Create Effective Market Research Surveys (That Don’t Suck!)

TL;DR:

• Market research surveys collect information in a repeatable, scalable, consistent way so that you can spot trends over time.
• Common problems among market research surveys include biases, a lack of insights as to which respondents are buyers and which aren’t, and low response rates.
• For a market research survey to be successful, you need to distribute it through the right channels, create a great customer experience, and offer some kind of value to survey takers.

Surveys have long served as a fundamental component of any marketing strategy. Not only are they incredibly easy to create, but they are also one of the most direct ways to learn more about your target audience. It’s a tactic that has been around forever, though the use of market research surveys has evolved in recent years. 

Today, consumers are more aware than ever before about the aim of surveys to collect relevant information and power greater personalization. However, they are growing less and less willing to hand over their data so easily. Plus, if respondents don’t get some sort of genuine value in return, then your business will likely see low completion rates.

Whether your business is looking to gain in-depth insights or conduct market research on potential customers, it’s no secret that marketing surveys are a need-to-have versus a nice-to-have. That’s why we’re going to show you how to create effective market research surveys that will engage your audience!

What Are Market Research Surveys?

Traditionally, market research surveys serve two key functions:

1. They collect information from a person or group of people.
2. They do it in a way that is repeatable, scalable, and consistent so the information is useful over time.

Once upon a time, these surveys may have been mailed out to your target market or provided to customers after an in-person purchase. Today, however, online surveys have increased in popularity because they are much easier to distribute to your customer base.

3 Common Issues With Market Research Surveys — And How to Avoid Them

Market research surveys can be a tricky thing to get right. That’s why we’re going to highlight a few common problems that you could run into. Keep an eye out for these issues as you optimize your own market research so that you can head off trouble and collect the highest-quality data possible.

1. Biases

Almost all types of market research have an inherent bias of some kind. After all, everyone involved in this process is human, and as such, they all have opinions and perspectives that can skew things in favor of their biases. 

Where bias is concerned, the best piece of advice is to keep your guard up against it. In particular, take care to avoid selection bias (also called sample bias), which occurs when your sample size isn’t representative of your target market. Go over your market segmentation strategy to make sure it’s up to date, and then sample consumers according to your segments and their sizes.

Other types of bias to watch out for include:

• Confirmation bias: This is the tendency to interpret data in a way that aligns with your own assumptions.
• Acquiescence bias: This is a manifestation of the human need to be seen in a positive light and can lead respondents to be more positive than they actually feel, especially when confronted with question types where the answers include “Agree” and “Strongly Agree.”
• Questioning bias: This happens when you phrase questions so that they lead to a particular answer or when you provide multiple answers that could be true but the respondent can only provide one answer.

No matter the type of bias, the best way to avoid it is to simply stay aware and keep an open mind. Conduct research mindfully in order to prevent your own biases from slipping in — and examine the survey data that you gather with a critical eye.

2. Unsure Who Is Buying

This can be a big problem, but it has a super easy fix. Often when collecting survey results and market research data, marketers find that even though they got plenty of responses, they have no idea which respondents have made a purchase and which haven’t. 

That leads to another problem: the inability to sort through the data so that you can separate the potential customers from the paying customers. This distinction is a crucial one to make. When you can separate these two groups, you can get insights into how to convert potential customers and how to turn paying customers into repeat customers.

So, what’s the fix? Just ask! The common advice when developing a market research survey is to keep questions to a minimum. However, when you really need insights to help improve conversions or reduce churn, you should definitely ask the following:

• Have you purchased from this brand before?
• How often (or how many times) have you purchased from this brand?”
• If you haven’t made a purchase, tell us why from among the following options (too expensive, bought from a competitor, doesn’t fit my needs, etc.).

3. Low Response Rates

Low survey response rates can lead to trouble. If a marketing team has a limited data set to work with, they are forced to make assumptions about their potential audience.

Exacerbating this problem, we’re now well into the digital era. Consumers’ attention spans are not only shorter, but they’re also becoming less tolerant of data collection without express consent. That’s why marketers across all industries are working hard to create surveys that, put simply, don’t suck.

Often, the questions being asked are useful and important, but they’re presented in a one-sided way that only offers value to the brand, not so much the consumers taking the questionnaire. That’s not to say you need to offer monetary value in exchange for customer feedback or participation (although some brands have done exactly that). Instead, focus on creating marketing surveys that seem more conversational than transactional. This can help you create a more fulfilling customer experience.

What does that mean? Transactional surveys can feel impersonal or dispassionate — just asking questions to get results. A conversational approach frames questions to appeal to customer needs and wants, which helps you gain an instant engagement boost.

How to Create and Distribute Market Research Surveys that Engage

To gather the kind of data you need to drive smart business decisions, you must do three things:

• Prioritize the customer experience.
• Ensure consumers receive value in exchange for their data.
• Get your survey in front of the right people.

Create Surveys That Prioritize the Customer Experience

Take a quick look at the GIF above to see what we mean about creating a better customer experience. You’ll notice that this survey is framed as a personality quiz. It leads customers through a series of fun, engaging questions — and it also gathers zero-party data by asking for things like email addresses or the respondent’s age. 

Additionally, the experience shows a balance of open-ended questions as well as multiple-choice and select-all-that-apply formats to keep the experience interesting. By the end, customers get their results, which lets them learn a little bit about themselves and their personal parenting style.

This is a great example of how to create a balanced market research survey that combines fun with actionable insights for the customer. It provides respondents with a much better user experience than they’d get from a generic set of questions — and that helps to improve both customer satisfaction and brand perception.

If you’re looking for a way to create surveys like this with ease, try the Jebbit Experience Builder. With it, you can create engaging surveys complete with custom branding and all the bells and whistles needed to create a great customer experience. Plus, the no-code drag-and-drop builder paired with the pre-built quiz and survey templates allows you to get up and running quickly. 

Offer Consumers Value in Exchange for Their Participation

Above, we demonstrated how you can design a survey to improve the customer experience. These techniques also work well to offer value to the customer through both entertainment and information about themselves.

Beyond that, there are other ways you can offer value. For example, maybe your customer wants to learn something new — like if a skincare brand used a market research survey to also educate customers about different ingredients that could be beneficial for their skin. It could also be used as an opportunity to showcase new products that knowledge seekers haven’t seen before.

Another way to offer value is to help customers save time. Thus, you can combine market research with a quiz that gives them a personalized product recommendation quickly and efficiently — instead of them having to scroll through all the options on your site. 

When you offer value, it doesn’t have to be monetary. Information, time savings, and entertainment are all things that can make it worth someone’s while to spend a few minutes responding to your survey.

Distribute Your Market Research Surveys to the Right People

Distribution depends in large part on the type of survey that you’re creating. For example, if you’re launching a post-purchase feedback survey or follow-up questionnaire, email will likely be your best bet. However, if you want to collect data on your target customers or get insights into current market trends, then you may want to launch your survey on your website — and encourage visitors to take it via a pop-up with a CTA.

In general, it’s best to use a survey tool that provides the flexibility to allow you to launch your survey anywhere. This way, you have the freedom to launch wherever you’d like, and you can even incorporate surveys into an omnichannel marketing campaign, if needed. 

That’s another reason why we recommend using a tool like the Jebbit Experience Builder. It lets you create and launch assets on-site, across social media, via email, and so much more.

Create Better Market Research Surveys with Jebbit

Market research surveys are essential if you want to stay competitive. They’ll help inform everything from product development and improvements to your marketing efforts. However, many marketers make the mistake of creating surveys that not only aren’t particularly engaging but also contain excessive biases or other problems. 

With Jebbit, you can create thoughtful market research surveys that engage your customers and offer them something of value — be it entertainment, knowledge, or time savings in helping them find the perfect new product. To learn more about what you can do with Jebbit, schedule a strategy call today with one of our Experience Experts!