How to create a marketing research survey (+ free templates)

The key to business growth is in marketing research. 

While the key to business growth is in marketing research, the key to marketing research is in surveys. That is why every major company invests millions of dollars in designing surveys to increase brand awareness. This investment in survey design is because brands know that customers are the best indicator of success. 

In this article, you will learn how to create a marketing research survey. You will learn what a marketing research survey is, why you need it, and some example questions you can have on your marketing research survey. You will also learn how to craft a step-by-step marketing research survey and some tips to conduct a better marketing survey.

What is a marketing research survey?

A marketing research survey is a technique that companies use to collect information to understand their target market better. 

This technique aims to understand customer behavior in focus groups with open-ended questions, provide better customer service to existing customers, and attract more potential customers. 

These online surveys also aim to improve customer satisfaction by getting detailed customer feedback, developing new marketing strategies by reviewing the survey data from the conducted marketing research, and making a competition analysis with similar organizations.

Why do you need a marketing research survey?

One of the most important reasons why organizations or companies need a marketing research survey is information. Information controls the marketing industry: trends, buyer personas, and correct customer bases can all be examined by asking the right demographic questions. 

Advantages of marketing research surveys

Here are more important reasons why you need a marketing research survey:

Market research vs. Marketing research

As you can guess, “Market Research” and “Marketing Research” get mixed up often. Although their names are similar, the purposes of these researches are entirely different. Market research focuses more on economic decisions, such as market entry, expansion, or product development. Marketing research, on the other hand, is a social research method that focuses more on advertising, branding, or campaign decisions.

Most online surveys from companies are not market research survey examples; instead, they are marketing surveys. That is because market survey methods include economists, financial analysts, and accountants, whereas marketing survey methods use sociologists, advertising specialists, and data analysts.

15 example questions for a marketing research survey

The best marketing survey types are the ones with engaging questions that focus on collecting essential data and increasing customer satisfaction with feedback. Big corporations invest millions to find the right questions and get the best answers. However, having a good marketing research survey can be easy and cheap. Here are 15 example questions from forms.app that you can have on your survey.

1. What is your full name?

2. What is your e-mail address?

3. What is your phone number?

4. What is your age range?

5. Would you recommend our product/service to your friends or relatives?

6. What do you like most about our product/service?

7. What kind of improvements would make our product/service better?

8. How long have you been a customer of our company?

9. What factors influence your purchasing decision?

10. How satisfied/dissatisfied are you with our product/service?

11. How would you rate our company's customer service?

12. How would you rate the money for the value of our product/service?

13. Would you like to give any additional information or ask questions?

14. Would you like to follow our company on social media?

15. Are you familiar with our company’s membership program?

How to craft a marketing research survey (step-by-step)

Big companies spend millions of dollars on research and data analysis, working tirelessly to increase a small amount of profits. However, you can achieve the same results by using an online form-builder. 

forms.app’s online survey builder allows you to create and customize the perfect survey. Here are the steps on how to create a small business marketing research survey, which can be expanded for bigger businesses.

1. Choose a template, start from scratch, or use forms.app AI

Choose a beginning option

You can select a marketing research survey template from our website, start from scratch, create a survey, or use forms.app AI and let it help you create a unique survey that matches your organization’s needs. All three options are a great way to start building your survey.

💡You can also check out the online research survey templates from forms.app to gain inspiration on your process.

2. Edit the questions or add your own

Edit the marketing research survey questions

After you finish with the base of your survey, you can customize the questions and sections. You can edit the questions and sections depending on the types of marketing research that you will do or even write questions from scratch.

💡forms.app AI also helps you edit the questions! Simply click the colorful icon next to your question title to rephrase or rewrite your question with the help of forms.app AI.

3. Customize the survey design

Change the marketing research survey’s design

When you finish all your questions, it is time to edit and customize the visual aspects of your survey. You can make all of your visual customizations through the design tab. The design tab allows you to change your theme, color, font, and more.

💡 The design tab also allows you to have animated themes for your survey. Go to the end of the design tab to choose an animated theme.

4. Preview your survey

Test your survey

Right before the end of your creation process, you can preview your survey and look at it through the customer’s eye to spot any mistakes or parts you would like to change. The previewing tab can be accessed using the eye icon at the top right of the web page.

💡The preview page also allows you to see what your survey would look like on a phone or a tablet.

5. Share your marketing research survey

Share your survey

Ultimately, you can share your survey with your team or customers. You can customize or embed your survey's URL within the share tab. You can also use the connect tab to connect many different worksheet applications to build more automated workflows.

💡The connect feature is helpful to gather the data of your surveys after they are filled out. You can collect the data on the website or an application of your choice.

10 tips while conducting a marketing survey

While you can follow the steps and create a decent marketing survey, taking it to the next level requires some tips and tricks. Creating a memorable marketing survey that will encourage your customers to fill it requires knowing which questions you should have, which order to put them in, and even which visuals to use. 

Here are 10 tips to remember while conducting a marketing survey:

Tips for a better marketing research survey

1. Ensure to collect contact information: The first important tip is to have your customers' contact information. Additionally, you should have information about not just one but multiple places of contact, such as their phone number, e-mail address, or social media.

2. Keep it simple: No one likes to fill out a survey that takes twenty minutes to complete. Therefore, a short, simple, and engaging survey that collects all the necessary information is crucial not to confuse your customers.

3. Use clear language that encourages customers: Another essential tip is using positive language. A positive tone of voice that will not make the customer feel threatened encourages customers to talk about the issues of the product or the service.

4. Avoid leading questions: To get precise information and protect your organization’s reputation, try to avoid questions that can be understood differently. It will help your customers not to think differently about completing the survey.

5. Give your customers options: It is a vital tip not to force your customers to choose between two or maybe even three possibilities. That is why having multiple choices on questions such as satisfaction rates is essential to create a good average for customer feedback.

6. Have a section for additional information: Having a section where customers can write out their suggestions and questions is essential because it engages the customer with the organization. You might get a few unnecessary messages that contribute nothing, but it is generally a good feature to have.

7. Have a professional design that draws attention: The visual aspect of the survey is just as important as the questions. So, having a professional design that attracts attention but is clear will show how serious you are about getting feedback. 

8. Pay attention to analysis: Detailed information is good but should also be appropriately used. Therefore, correctly analyzing the data you collect and communicating with your team according to the results is just as important as the questions themselves.

9. Do not forget testing: Before testing, you cannot know if you have a good marketing research survey. So, even if you spend many hours creating your survey and are entirely confident, have a small group to test it on. It will allow you to get more personalized feedback from real people.

10. Try to give immediate feedback: Letting your customers know that you have received their message is crucial. You can achieve this by having an automated message pop up after they complete the survey or sending a message to their contact information to let them know you will work on the issue.

Final words

To summarize, a marketing research survey is crucial for both small and big businesses because of benefits such as helping to understand the customer base, increasing customer satisfaction, developing better marketing and advertising strategies, and generating more revenue. Therefore, a well-produced marketing survey enables you to achieve your business goals faster and with fewer issues.

In this article, you have learned what a marketing research survey is, why you need a marketing research survey, and the difference between marketing research and market research. You have also learned the example questions to have on your marketing research survey, how to create a marketing research survey, and some additional tips and tricks on creating the perfect survey. 

So, it is time to use this information and make the best marketing research survey for your organization with forms.app!