Here are the most common broad survey topics that can help you learn more about your business and your target audience so you can reach your goals.
In the words of the late Professor William Arthur Ward, “Curiosity is the wick in the candle of learning.” Similarly, a survey question or questionnaire can be thought of as the flame with which we melt through the wax of ignorance.
In our digital age, it has never been easier or more cost-effective to collect quality information; the kind of data that can be used to develop our business designs, drive the growth of our consumers, and allow us to better meet the needs of our audiences. There exist a a number of different types of survey questions that can also be applied to practical, personal concerns - like to help us get feedback on our new living room remodel, or helping us choose a color for our hair.
For those of you who are familiar with how surveying audiences works, this will be a brief refresher for you; for those of you who are new to surveying, we are going to quickly go over what kinds of surveys are out there and what their purpose is.
Most often, businesses utilize survey questions to conduct market research. Surveying our target audience allows us to garner the insight and feedback we need to keep our business afloat. With market research surveys, we are looking to capture a deep and fully realized understanding of our customers desires, needs, values, and buying behavior. This information will allow us to better meet the needs of our customers, thereby capturing more of our market and increasing the longevity of our business.
Throughout all levels of education, schools and learning institutions utilize surveying to stay informed about their student’s concerns. Surveying allows administrators to give the student body a chance to have their voices heard in the form of open ended questions ; closed ended rating scale questions can even be used to gather metrics about academic success and mental health.
Surveying is everywhere in the news and entertainment industries. Professional journalists, news pundits, executives, television stations - they all rely on surveying their audiences in order to get valuable information about their audiences.
Journalists use survey questions to gather thoughts and opinions from citizens & voters on the issues of current events, political races, and other issues of cultural significance. Media companies utilize surveys to gauge how effectively they are reaching their audiences, and to stay aware of what kinds of content they should be putting out. Surveying is by far one of the most affordable and reliable ways for professionals in these industries to gather feedback to scale.
One last broad category of survey question types are those we conduct to help us solve problems in our own lives. Sometimes, it helps to get an unbiased, outsider’s perspective on what ails us; in these cases, we can draft surveys designed to help us tackle any number of life’s problems.
Sometimes, we like to survey just for fun. Conducting quirky, low-stakes surveys on social media or with free surveying software is a great way for us to discover things about the communities we take part in.
How do we choose the right survey question that is going to give us the relevant details we need to inform our decisions?
There are plenty of great survey questions and surveying formats available for free on the internet. Knowing how versatile and informative surveying people can be, it’s no surprise that there are dozens of different survey types; each template is designed to gather information from a particular kind of audience, to utilize unique rating scales, or to gather data about a particular issue or point of interest.
The best way to differentiate between the survey question formats is by their intended user. We’ll take a look at three of the most common survey question users: brands, start-ups, and individuals. From there, we’ll discuss some of the most often-used survey questions each respective user can draw from to integrate into their research tool-kit.
Companies regularly utilize surveys in their operational activities. Surveying employees with multiple choice questions one of the best paths an employer or leader can take to gathering important and necessary feedback.
Another type of survey question brands can ask are what are sometimes refereed to as "a CEO's favorite question" - that is, open ended questions that allow employees or customers to share their personal feelings about the brand.
Employee evaluation surveys, performance reviews, and employee exit surveys are just a few of the ways businesses measure the health and performance of their company.
Along with its use as a method for collecting data on internal processes, surveys are most often utilized by companies to gather information about their customers. In order to market productively in the 21st century, brands seek to gather as many intimate details about their customers’ preferences and buyer behaviors as they can.
This kind of consumer data is worth its weight in gold, as it can be used to develop extremely targeted and effective advertising campaigns. These campaigns can be focus-tested to the point of near-universal acceptance with audiences; or they can be so niche and targeted that no two users will be exposed to the same set of advertisements.
Here are a few of the survey question types that brands can utilize in order to more effectively market to their target audiences.
Demographic survey questions are a great tool for gathering basic information about your target audiences. The most common form of demographic survey questions seek to gather information about: age, sex, ethnicity, level of income, marital status, political affiliation, and more.
Demographic survey question types allow us to gain a better understanding of who our customer is. Once we can identify what our audience’s needs and desires are, we can more effectively market our products or services to them.
A Net Promoter Score (NPS) survey is used to gather data pertaining to customer satisfaction, brand loyalty, and brand affection. NPS can be thought of as measuring the likelihood of your customers to recommend your brand to their family or associates.
NPS is very important to brands because it serves as one of the key metrics for evaluating the health of our business.
An NPS survey question is likely to look like:
We can also use Likert scale questions to measure customer satisfaction. Using a Likert scale questions involves providing your audiences with closed ended answer options that follow a sliding sentiment scale. Likert scale questions are often are more flexible than questions that use traditional rating scales, and provide us much far more quantifiable data.
"How likely is it that you will recommend our services to other potential clients?"
Exit surveys are a very specific type of survey that are used to uncover underlying issues with our current business model. We use exit surveys when our employees resign, so we can better learn if there was something we did that caused them to pull away from our workforce.
Brands can also use exit surveys to identify what issues are critically important to the client. Businesses will usually ask customers to fill out a short exit survey when unsubscribing from a mailing list, or ending their subscription for a product or service. Keep in mind - if we can identify what went wrong, there is a chance we can re-invite them back into our business by offering them some kind of remedy for their woes. A discount on membership fees or special product offers made at the last minute to the customer just might be enough to make them reconsider leaving.
An exit survey question might look like:
The following surveys can be utilized by businesses at any level - but they are especially useful to start-up firms looking to bolster the success of their marketing efforts.
Identifying who your target audience of customers are is one of the most critical activities undertaken when starting a new business venture. These surveys help us to identify key qualities and shared characteristics between our customers - thereby allowing us to tailor our marketing more effectively to their tastes. These surveys not only help us to reach new customers; they also allow us to better meet the needs of our most loyal supporters, so that they may continue to invest in us long into the future.
The term “market research survey” refers to a wide range of different survey formats that share a common purpose. They are all designed to gather important information from consumers; data that we can then use to develop consumer profiles for our audiences. These consumer profiles include demographic information like age and gender, shared geographic location, and common buyer behaviors.
For a deeper look at the importance of market research surveys, click here.
Psychographic surveys are designed to give you details about intangible qualities your customers share. Beliefs, attitudes, values, emotional connections, and buying habits all fall underneath the umbrella of psychographic data.
If our company’s core beliefs more closely match those of our customers, then they are going to be far more likely to patronize our business; on the other side of that, some audiences may express apathy or even hostility towards our brand if we offend them.
By using psychographic survey questions, we can better navigate the waters of changing consumer tastes - and ensure that the decisions we’re making will be well received by our audiences.
The user experience survey allows us to find out how our users interact with our business. Whether we’re a service-based platform operating digitally, or we’re a manufacturer selling products - our customers will be interacting with our designs.
As such, it’s vital that we ensure people can easily and efficiently navigate our processes. User experience surveys help us to identify bottlenecks both in the buying process and with our internal mechanisms.
Some people may believe that surveys are only used in the workplace, or for educational projects. On the contrary - there are many instances where individuals can utilize surveying to gather pertinent information that will help them solve their problems.
For homeowners looking to undergo a renovation project, surveying an audience of your peers can get you the feedback you need to make your decor decisions with confidence. Testing mock-ups of your home improvement designs before you commit can save you money, time, and a sanity.
Choosing a new career path can be a major, life-altering decision. If you’re unsure about your latest job prospects, or would simply like a second opinion about your career choices - look to survey your community.
You’d be surprised how many people are willing to share their advice and experiences with you. The guidance from members of your community can help steer you on the path to life-long career satisfaction.
A career advice survey question can seek to gather information about course loads, the quality of the professors and administration at an institution, or even act as simple poll - gathering votes on where the community believes you should go to get the best education.
There are over 4,000 degree-granting post-secondary colleges and universities in the United States alone. Choosing the college that’s best for you requires careful research and thorough self-searching. With a targeted survey, you can measure the merits of each of your school choices by gathering thoughts and opinions from other college students.
Whether you’re a professional artist, designer, freelancer, or hobbyist - getting feedback on your designs is one of the best ways you can hone your skill and improve your craft. Getting constructive, measured feedback from your key audiences will allow you to identify what elements of your creative process are working, and which elements need tweaking.
Design survey questions can be used to gather sentiment about your designs, gather advice about what changes you can make, and measure how effectively your projects resonate with your target audiences.
Surveys are an extremely versatile method of information-gathering that we can use to improve our decision-making in nearly every facet of our lives.
No matter what field of study or employment you might find yourself in, there will come a time when you are tasked with gathering feedback from people. These people might be your employers, your co-workers, your students, or even your close friends and family. It pays to have the tools, knowledge, and experience necessary to identify what types of surveying will benefit you the most.
Not all digital surveying platforms are created equal. If you want to get the most out of your time and effort, then you’ll need to pick surveying software that is going to provide you with the tools you need to succeed.
Helpfull is the premiere surveying software for anyone looking to get the most out of their marketing efforts. With a vast variety of different question types to choose from, Helpfull surveys can be generated and delivered to thousands of panelists in minutes.
With Helpfull’s open-ended survey design, users can design visually-striking, multi-question surveys for any occasion!
An intuitive user-interface, coupled with the ability to gather hundreds of consumer responses in just minutes, are just a few of the features that make Helpfull the ultimate tool for any artist, designer, marketer, or inquisitive spirit.
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