Surveys and Market Research 101

Competitive analysis is an important part of market research. Identifying what the current market landscape is, and how your client is perceived within it, is key to completing a thorough study. You need to know how they stack up against the competition if you are going to analyze results and offer ideas for improvement.

Public opinion polls can be posted on the client’s home page and on other applicable sites.  You can also send the web survey link to a sample respondent group. However, leaving the opinion survey poll open to the public really allows you to get the full picture of your client’s place in the market. Keep opinion polls short and to the point. A longer online questionnaire is more appropriate for a full study, but opinion polls are meant to be quick and simple. Ask one to two questions and gather the pertinent demographics (i.e. if age is an important factor, or location, find that out).

When it comes time to do a full competitive analysis of the market, you will have the opinion poll results to help you design the questionnaire. Don’t fall into the trap of  taking poll results as gospel. They are intended to be used as a tool, not for hard-and-fast analysis.