How to create a good market research survey

Conducting market research through surveys – known as quantitative market research – can give you valuable insight into who your customers are and what they need from you.

With a structured approach, you can gather reliable data to shape your business strategy and gain a competitive edge.

But how do you create a market research survey that delivers meaningful results? Let's dive into the key steps to putting together create a compelling survey that will help you better connect with your customers.

Understanding the market

Whether you're a start-up aiming to carve a niche or an established business planning to expand, market research is the foundation for success.

For new businesses, surveys can reveal potential customers' preferences and needs, helping you tailor your products or services. If you're more established, you can use market research to identify opportunities to innovate, improve or set your business apart.

What is quantitative market research?

Quantitative market research involves gathering numerical data through structured methods like surveys or polls. It's ideal for answering questions like: 

• Is this product or service viable?

• How should I adapt my strategy to better serve my target market?

Creating a survey for market research typically involves three steps:

1. Defining objectives (what you want to know).

2. Reaching respondents (carrying out the survey).

3. Interpreting results (analysing the data).

Creating a market research survey

Step 1: Design the questionnaire

The success of your survey depends on your asking the right questions. Start by identifying your goals. For instance:

• Who are your target customers?

• What are their preferences?

• Where and how do they shop?

• What do they think about your product or service?

Here are some tips to guide you when designing your survey questions:

• Screening questions: Make sure you're reaching the right audience by including eligibility questions upfront.

• Question types: Use a mix of multiple-choice, rating scales and open-ended questions (see below) to gather varied insights.

• Keep it simple: Avoid overly technical or complex questions, so people know exactly what you're asking.

• Keep it short: The longer the survey, the harder it'll be to get people to complete it. You have to balance how useful the information is with getting enough responses. Don't ask for information you don't need.

• Start broad, then narrow down: Begin with general questions about the industry before diving into specifics about your product or service.

• Be strategic with open-ended questions: While these provide detailed feedback, they're harder to analyse. Use them sparingly.

• Include demographic information: Demographic information like age and address help refine your target audience and improve your marketing plans. People will be more willing to select an age bracket or region than giving exact answers.

The role of online surveys in getting feedback

Customer conversations and surveys explore the problem your product solves. Surveys provide quantifiable data to help define the opportunity and how you're going to approach it.

There are free tools that make it easy to create a market research survey, such as Typeform and JotForm. Look for every opportunity to share the survey, from your social media and product pages to asking organisations in your space to help. 

VIDEO: How to craft smart customer surveys

Katie Tucker tells you how to create smart surveys that will increase your chances of getting the right insights for your business:

Step 2: Conduct the survey

How you distribute your survey is as important as its design. Consider these options:

• Online survey platforms: Tools like Google Forms, SurveyMonkey and LimeSurvey are cost-effective for reaching your existing customer base.

• Social media and quick polls: Platforms like Facebook or LinkedIn are excellent for engaging broader audiences with short, targeted questions.

• Professional services: If you lack a database or need deep insight, consider hiring experts like Marketest, who can handle everything from designing the survey to administering it.

To get the best possible survey responses:

• advertise your survey via newsletters, social media and your website

• set a clear deadline to encourage people to take part in plenty of time

• offer incentives (like entry into a prize draw)

• make sure you're keeping to GDPR rules when collecting personal data

Step 3: Analyse the data

Once your responses are in, the next step is to interpret the data. Quantitative analysis revolves around identifying trends and drawing out actionable insights. Here's how to approach it:

• Frequency tables: These breaking down each available response option to show how respondents reacted to each question. In essence, it provides a list of all the potential answers with the number of people who picked that answer, perhaps expressed as a percentage.

  Use these to show how respondents answered each question. For example, what percentage prefers option A vs. option B?

• Cross-tabulation: It's then relevant to create cross-tabulations, getting the trends according to sociodemographic information. Cross-tabulation is a table that compares two sets of data – for example, the level of responses to each option in a question and the level of the responses to each option broken down into age categories.

Analysing the information in this way can reveal clearly identifiable trends. It's also interesting to cross-tabulate the answers of different questions. Compare responses across demographics (for example, preferences by age or location) to uncover deeper insights.

These kinds of tables and graphs are easy to create via Excel spreadsheets, though the more complex your survey, the more likely you are to benefit from professional support.

Practical example: Creating a small business market research survey

Imagine you're launching a new coffee subscription service. A well-designed survey could help you understand:

• which coffee blends customers prefer

• how much they're willing to spend on subscriptions

• where they currently buy coffee online

By collecting and analysing this information, you can tailor your offerings, pricing and marketing strategy to better meet customers' expectations.

Relevant resources

• What is small business market research?

• What are the benefits of market research?

• Lunch and Learn: How to craft smart customer surveys