How to create the most engaging market research survey

You might want to sell directly to consumers, release a new type of product, or want to ask a new demographic about their hobbies and buying habits. It’s tough, but your market research survey needs to focus on just one area. It can help to focus your mind when you consider how you’d name the survey. ‘Your purchasing habits’ is more enticing than a 15-topic dossier.

Primary research is where you undertake your own market research survey. This might be in the form of an online questionnaire, a question you pose in a web browser pop-up window, a survey in a video pre-roll, or questions you ask in person or via an online interview. You take the responses, and collate this data yourself. This gives you a lot of control, but means you do the legwork.

Secondary research is where you find results from other studies and sources and use that to extrapolate meaning. The dangers are, of course, that secondary research may use out-of-date information, unreliable methods, and offer little to no understanding of the origins or validity of such information.

Our take? Secondary research makes an ideal starting point to get buy-in before you get the time and investment to undertake primary research.

Market research is more beneficial when you extend it beyond your existing database. However, to reach more people, you need to spend more to be seen, to activate responses, and to encourage careful, considered feedback. It’s wise to spend time considering the value of the responses to you, and to create a suitable budget. Companies providing survey services can charge anything from around £8 per person through to £20,000 for full, qualitative research, so keep this budget in mind.

Let’s start with the basics, and get that background information. Your general demographic benchmarks, so you understand your target market, really do matter. Not all of these will be relevant to your business, but consider some of the basics that will apply to you. Not only is this good to know, it also reveals gaps in your approach. Perhaps your market research would be better presented in a new way or on new platforms to attract a wider spread of people.


2. We’re fascinated with the brands you choose to buy from and why. From this list, tick any you’ve shopped with in the last year and leave a note telling us which are your favourite and why.

This combo question asks for further information and a free-form text area lets them elaborate.

Don’t forget to say you’re fascinated by them too! It’s a great way to get the respondent on side, encouraging a longer answer.


3. Do you prefer this or that?

This or that questions are a great way to make an engaging market research survey. With the tools available nowadays, it’s so easy to create surveys that aren't just text, but use images to show the reader an option. Don’t ask if they like a red or a green widget, show them!

You can use images to do lots of engaging things and ask questions such as:

The right tools can make or break your market research survey. Not only do you need each survey to look interesting, it needs to be easy to use and the data needs to be collated and saved right where you need it.