When is the last time you participated in survey? Chances are it was recent. As the New York Times points out, businesses are clamoring for your input, and “their requests for feedback, like relentless tugs on the sleeve, now seem to come with every purchase, every call to a customer service department and every click of a mouse that is followed with a pop-up ad pleading with users to take a survey about the ‘Web site experience.’”
Just yesterday I had three different requests to provide feedback on a variety of things – my ordering experience for holiday cards, my recent experience with car service provided by Carter Volkswagen, and my perspective on 2015 PR business.
Beyond getting a sense of customer satisfaction or perspective, surveys can be a wonderful fodder for PR campaigns. Just check out this case study published by the Bulldog Reporter about how an SAP company leveraged a single survey to drive more than 54 articles, many in top-tier news outlets, as well as to secure more than 1100 visits to its web page, and generate 41 leads and approximately 800 report downloads.
As we look to the coming year, we have several clients who have interesting survey data to release or who have plans to design, develop and implement a survey to position their company as a news source. It was with this in mind that I thought it would be helpful to revisit best practices for survey development. Here are my tips:
1) Know your objectives for gathering the information.
The folks at Survey Monkey suggest that you spend a few minutes thinking about “the point you are trying to prove, or the question you’re trying to answer.” Having clarity around what you are trying to achieve and how you will use the information will have a significant impact on the types of questions you ask.
For instance, let’s say you want to know how people feel about their cellphone bills. The first thing you should figure out is why you and others in the media might be interested in this information. Is it because bill shock impacts a large percentage of Americans or cellphone users? Or because more kids are getting mobile phones at a young age and don’t understand how they can run up a surprisingly high bill?
2) Carefully design your questionnaire.
Make sure your survey length is appropriate. With a longer survey (more than 20 minutes in length to complete) you run the risk of respondent fatigue, which can impact response quality. Some market research experts believe “if researchers work to keep surveys shorter, it will not only help ensure response quality, but it will also make for more motivated and responsive respondents.” Keep in mind, “yes/no” questions can be good because they can be very quickly answered and are easily quantified. Other easy, and often important, questions might include participant gender, age and geographic location.
It is also important to minimize question bias. Question bias is the ability of a question’s wording or format to influence respondents’ answers. For example Stephen Colbert is a master of inserting the question bias with his question: “George W. Bush: Good president? Or best president ever?”
3) If possible, make it a statistically significant sample.
For many researchers, the decision about sample size comes down to a decision between what is theoretically picture-perfect and what is realistically feasible. It would be realistically impossible, not to mention ridiculously expensive, to survey the entire population. A random probability sample is truly representative of a population, and the larger a probability sample is, the more accurate it is. The bottom line is that samples that are too large may waste time, resources and money, while samples that are too small may lead to inaccurate results. Given this, you may want to enlist the help of a statistician with a market research firm or use an online sample-size calculator. Survey Monkey has a good one.
Lastly, remember when you are publicizing your findings, you are likely to receive questions from journalists about your sample size and methodology.
4) Determine how you’ll recruit and incent people to respond.
There are many ways to do this. For instance, Tiny Prints recently sent me a survey with the goal of improving its stationery shopping experience. In appreciation for my feedback, Tiny Prints offered to send me $20 off my next order of $49.99. I am sure the lure of an additional $20 off will motivate some people to take the survey. Beyond offering a discount for a future purchase, you might consider sending recipients a gift card or reward one respondent with a prize.
5) Analyze results and package them into a story.
Once you have the data, make sure you spend time carefully analyzing it. You not only need to make sense of the numbers, but you need to be able to explain why they are important. For instance, if you find out that 50 percent of all families have experienced bill shock, you may also want to explain why this is significant and the impact this bill shock has on their finances.
The bottom line is that the information gleaned from surveys can be very powerful when used in well considered PR campaigns. Survey data can back up claims in press releases and pitches, may be the basis for an entire campaign, or can be used for graphics. The next time you’re brainstorming ideas for your client, make sure you think about conducting research via a survey and keep these tips in mind!