The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Building Effective Surveys

According to Content Creator at HubSpot, Allie Decker, a survey is a research method that gathers information, data, and feedback through a series of targeted questions. However, creating a well-rounded survey takes more than just picking a random tool, typing a few questions, and hitting send. It takes critical thinking, planning, and patience.

Defining the goals and objectives of a survey is one of the most important steps in the process. Clearly stated goals keep a study focused. It’s pretty easy to set a goal. All you have to do is ask yourself what you want to know and why. In this section, we’ll be going over the all-important first step in survey design: establishing goals and objectives.

The best survey is only as good as its design, so it’s important to be thorough from your initial design to data analysis. The way you structure questions and answers will define the limits of analysis that are available to you when summarizing results. By taking the time to plan out your research question and distribution model, you’ll be in the best position to get quality data. This section is important because we'll be going over how to design your survey to increase your response rate, which are the best questions to ask and, how to distribute your survey.

In conclusion, surveys are a very effective tool for gathering feedback from customers and reducing the uncertainty around important decisions. In this last section, we'll be going over what happens after you design and send out your survey --- analyzing the data. Now that you know how to conduct your survey, you must now learn to analyze the results.