Guide to Conducting Online Surveys

Free and low-cost tools make it easy to survey the world

By Marcia Layton Turner

1. What you're hoping to learn
2. Who you want input from
3. How you'll use the information

Depending on the information you're hoping to gather, you'll find there are a variety of online services available to assist you.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Are you a survey newbie or a market research whiz?

Choose a survey provider that can give you just the right amount of support.

I recommend: If you could use step-by-step instructions to guide you through survey design and distribution, try Web Online Surveys, which gives you the first 25 survey responses for free and charges $20 per month after that.

Do you need help designing your survey?

Some sites offer pre-designed templates into which you can plug your own questions.

I recommend: Your survey will be done in no time if you decide to customize an existing survey template at CreateSurvey, including questionnaires regarding customer satisfaction, advertising effectiveness or product evaluation, for example.

Evaluate your many options

Before committing to one online survey provider, consider running a test survey.

I recommend: With so many online survey companies available, including Websurveyor, Infopoll, Inquisite and CoolSurveys, sign up for a free trial and decide for yourself which is the best choice for your company.

Help finding survey participants

Sometimes you may need input from people who aren't yet your customers, or who are in a particular geographic region.

I recommend: Go with a company that can give you access to targeted survey participants if you know you don't have such a database. Zoomerang, one of the industry biggies, is a source, as is Greenfield Online.

Watch the answers roll in

After you've designed and distributed your survey, the next step is making sure people fill it out.

I recommend: Surveymonkey allows you to watch survey results as they are posted, in real time, so you can immediately start to see where your target audience stands on issues you raised in your survey.

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  To boost participation in your survey, offer an incentive, such as a free gift, to encourage people to answer your questions.
• •  Ask the tough or personal questions last, so if people opt-out at that point, at least you have their earlier responses.
• •  Make sure that your participant list and survey responses remain private and that your survey provider can't claim them.
• •  Let everyone who participated know that you've received their input and that you appreciate their help. That will up the odds of them participating in future surveys.