Top 3 Benefits of Online Survey Research in 2024

Conducting survey research helps businesses collect data from customers, employees, or the public. Important business decisions require comprehensive research on the market, customers, or any other factor that could be related so that they are data-driven, objective, and evidence-based.

Collecting data with traditional methods, such as paper-pencil or telephone, is costly, time-consuming, and cannot keep up with the digitally transforming world. Thanks to online survey research tools, businesses can quickly reach a broad audience’s opinion and make necessary adjustments. 

In this article, we will explore:

• Why is conducting surveys important?
• The reasons why online surveys are more desirable than traditional surveys.
• How online surveys can help make critical business decisions?

Conducting surveys is a great way to understand the public’s opinion. Two approaches can be considered:

Approach 1

Instead of talking to every single person or business, you can give a survey to a representative, homogenous sample and use their answers to make predictions more generally. 

Approach 2

On the other hand, if you are interested in a more specific sample, for instance, Forbes 500 CEOs, you can talk to them directly and get a grasp of their thoughts as they are a considerably small sample compared to people aged between 25-34.

However, conducting surveys with traditional methods (e.g., interviewing people face-to-face or through the phone and waiting around them to fill out the survey) leads to social desirability bias and does not allow participants to solve the survey at their own pace or in their own time. Traditional methods are also disadvantageous as they:

• Don’t allow for screening of the respondents while filling out the survey
• Aren’t guaranteed to be opened and filled by the participants 
• Offer fewer feelings of anonymity and privacy
• May include errors in data entry and coding

Online surveying is a very useful tool for companies as it is convenient, easy to create, cost-effective, and saves time. Online surveys can be shared with the participants via e-mails and social media or embedded on the company’s website.

Some advantages of online surveys

• They allow for skipping some questions to hide irrelevant follow-up questions based on respondents’ specific characteristics (e.g., age, gender, income, etc.)
• Multimedia elements can be added (e.g., images, videos, audio, etc.)
• Involve less yes-saying bias, so respondents are more truthful
• Do not include interviewer bias, as the interviewers can be biased toward respondents based on age, race, gender, etc.
• Respondents are more willing to disclose sensitive information.

There are different online survey methods that you can use based on your company’s needs at the moment. For instance, if you want to launch a new product targeting the 25-34 age group, high-income people, you can focus on a specific (e.g., customers between 25-34 living in New York Metropolitan Area) group and learn about their preferences, opinions, or their feedback. 

How online surveys can help make critical business decisions?

With the insights you get from the survey results, you can:

1. Observe your products or services deeply

When you launch a new product or a service, it is always a good idea to observe the customers’ reactions, suggestions, or complaints closely to gain insights about your products or services. This can allow you to improve your least favored products or services and hear your customers’ voices to take necessary action against their complaints.

Also, check our article on why customer insights are important and learn the top 5 data sources.

2. Change marketing strategies

Let’s say that despite your great efforts and hopes for your latest product, survey results show that people did not even notice it. Then, you can check your existing marketing strategies and understand why your strategy does not work and what could be changed or implemented.

You can also check our comprehensive article on data collection for marketing.

3. Understand the trends in the market

Even though you have powerful marketing strategies that make your product or service stand out in the market, the needs and trends in the market are constantly changing, and you should keep up with them. Thus, understanding your target group’s needs, expectations, preferences, or inclinations with the surveys is crucial to keep your business strategies in line with the existing trends.

To learn more, read our comprehensive guide to survey analytics.

If interested, here is our data-driven list of survey participant recruitment services and survey tools.

Here is also our data driven list of market research tools.

Please contact us if you have any additional questions about conducting surveys: