Market Research Marketing Surveys: 8 Mistakes to Avoid
Posted: Tue Dec 03, 2024 7:20 am
In the past, on this blog, I have spoken at length about the usefulness of surveys as a australia phone number list tool to support business decisions: they can help to resolve many of companies' doubts and create a better, more valid and more efficient strategic marketing plan .
To date, in fact, they are one of the most immediate and safe ways to deepen the knowledge of the current reference market and any potential expansion.
In this article I have illustrated all the steps to create an effective and reliable survey based on the established knowledge objectives. However, it is not enough to know what to do. It is equally - and perhaps more important - to know what not to do. There are a series of choices, some very frequent, that can invalidate a question or, sometimes, the entire questionnaire. These are errors that are often the result of inexperience but that sometimes even the most established companies make, because they do not have an expert and specialized team behind them: it happens every time you proceed with the do-it-yourself without turning to professionals in the sector. The heterogeneity of the audiences and objectives that can identify a survey makes it difficult to give precise rules on what to do and what not to do, but we can still try to draw up a list of 8 errors to absolutely avoid.
Prepare the questionnaire
Once the objectives of the survey have been established, the target audience, the reward for those who complete the questionnaire, the practical method of administration (paper, submitted to those who enter the store? Online?), the last phase of the preparatory work is the actual writing of the questions.
An operation that may seem simple but is actually extremely complex. The risks of doing it yourself are many:
Not getting the information you were looking for because the questions were poorly posed (incomprehensible, misleading, not taking into account all the answer options, etc.);
Having unreliable data, because they lack parameters to cross-reference as a form of verification;
Having unreliable data because, without realizing it, we have implicitly oriented the answers.
All these errors derive from the simple fact that the human mind is not rational: neither that of the person who writes the questionnaire for a market survey , nor that of the person who responds. Consequently, arriving at a result that adheres to the reality of the phenomenon that one wants to investigate is not at all a given. Neuroscience teaches us that the cognitive biases that come into play when faced with a very banal question are enormous. The simple form in which it is proposed can radically change the results, even when addressing the same people.
The problem is that none of these possible errors will be noticed before. Only afterwards, after the fact, will we realize that we have spent money on useless answers. Or, even worse, we will consider reliable answers that are actually oriented by ourselves and our preconceived visions, with the consequence of building incorrect marketing plans.
YOU KNOW YOU NEED A MARKET ANALYSIS BUT YOU DON'T KNOW WHO TO CONTACT? WE ARE HERE FOR YOU!
My advice, therefore, is to turn to expert consultants and to always review everything with the utmost care.
The 8 Mistakes to Avoid in a Survey
And finally, here we are, with the errors to pay particular attention to!
1) Length: questionnaire too short or too long
We would all like to have as much information as possible, but how much time or attention is our interviewee willing to give us? Obviously it depends on the target, the reward, the methods of administration of the target... Too many questions will lead to sloppy, inattentive and, in essence, less reliable answers (especially as you proceed) or to questionnaires not completed.
2) Not paying attention to tone and language, forgetting to adapt th
To date, in fact, they are one of the most immediate and safe ways to deepen the knowledge of the current reference market and any potential expansion.
In this article I have illustrated all the steps to create an effective and reliable survey based on the established knowledge objectives. However, it is not enough to know what to do. It is equally - and perhaps more important - to know what not to do. There are a series of choices, some very frequent, that can invalidate a question or, sometimes, the entire questionnaire. These are errors that are often the result of inexperience but that sometimes even the most established companies make, because they do not have an expert and specialized team behind them: it happens every time you proceed with the do-it-yourself without turning to professionals in the sector. The heterogeneity of the audiences and objectives that can identify a survey makes it difficult to give precise rules on what to do and what not to do, but we can still try to draw up a list of 8 errors to absolutely avoid.
Prepare the questionnaire
Once the objectives of the survey have been established, the target audience, the reward for those who complete the questionnaire, the practical method of administration (paper, submitted to those who enter the store? Online?), the last phase of the preparatory work is the actual writing of the questions.
An operation that may seem simple but is actually extremely complex. The risks of doing it yourself are many:
Not getting the information you were looking for because the questions were poorly posed (incomprehensible, misleading, not taking into account all the answer options, etc.);
Having unreliable data, because they lack parameters to cross-reference as a form of verification;
Having unreliable data because, without realizing it, we have implicitly oriented the answers.
All these errors derive from the simple fact that the human mind is not rational: neither that of the person who writes the questionnaire for a market survey , nor that of the person who responds. Consequently, arriving at a result that adheres to the reality of the phenomenon that one wants to investigate is not at all a given. Neuroscience teaches us that the cognitive biases that come into play when faced with a very banal question are enormous. The simple form in which it is proposed can radically change the results, even when addressing the same people.
The problem is that none of these possible errors will be noticed before. Only afterwards, after the fact, will we realize that we have spent money on useless answers. Or, even worse, we will consider reliable answers that are actually oriented by ourselves and our preconceived visions, with the consequence of building incorrect marketing plans.
YOU KNOW YOU NEED A MARKET ANALYSIS BUT YOU DON'T KNOW WHO TO CONTACT? WE ARE HERE FOR YOU!
My advice, therefore, is to turn to expert consultants and to always review everything with the utmost care.
The 8 Mistakes to Avoid in a Survey
And finally, here we are, with the errors to pay particular attention to!
1) Length: questionnaire too short or too long
We would all like to have as much information as possible, but how much time or attention is our interviewee willing to give us? Obviously it depends on the target, the reward, the methods of administration of the target... Too many questions will lead to sloppy, inattentive and, in essence, less reliable answers (especially as you proceed) or to questionnaires not completed.
2) Not paying attention to tone and language, forgetting to adapt th