Conducting a market survey is a smart (and wise) approach prior to launching a new product or entering a new market. Indeed, launching a product based on your gut feeling makes it a rather risky venture. Unsurprisingly, research attributed failure of most product launches to the very lack of any consumer survey.
Marketing research typically offers critical data about potential customers such as their location, gender, age, profession, earnings and hobbies that could influence their purchasing decisions. This information offers you a peek into their current needs, buying habits and other data which is extremely useful in understanding the consumer behavior and demand for your product.
Until a few years ago, surveying potential customers used to be challenging as well as expensive. Many businesses had to hire specialized companies to conduct surveys on their behalf, get the results tabulated and make reports presentable and easy to work with. However, over the past few years, a slew of online survey tools have made it extremely easy for businesses to gather critical consumer data before launching their products.
Let’s take a look some of the more popular online survey tools you can choose from for conducting a market research in your industry.
SurveyGizmo: SurveyGizmo is an online survey software for conducting surveys , collecting data and performing analysis. It offers a wide range of survey software solutions catering to the needs of both individuals as well as enterprises. Some of its features include collecting a variety of data, asking over 40+ question types, integrating themes into your survey tools, conducting surveys in multiple languages, applying branching and skip logic, unlimited responses and questions, data analysis and reporting to name a few.
It also has a free survey package offering limited features such as conducting up to 3 active surveyed at a time, standard summary reporting, 8 most commonly asked questions types, 100 responses per survey, up to 25 questions per page, up to 5 pages per survey, and professional and accessible surveys.
SurveyMonkey: SurveyMonkey is one of the top online survey software tools trusted by over 30 million users worldwide. It offers both Pro and Free versions with the basic version offering 10 questions, 100 responses and standard email support. The basic version also allows you to customize your theme slightly and choose from the limited templates. The Pro version, understandably, offers many more advanced features such as skip logic, file upload, text analysis, questions & answers piping, and custom themes among others.
Zoho Survey: As a popular online survey tools, Zoho Survey allows you to not only create surveys with ease, but also enjoy added features including embedding surveys on any web page, creating mobile-friendly survey formats, collecting responses offline, conducting multi-lingual surveys, and sending email campaigns. It also has a free package which offers limited features such as 15 questions per survey, 150 responses per survey and conducting unlimited surveys.
Typeform: If you’re one of those who love creating beautiful survey forms with an attractive interface, Typeform is for you. Typeform stands out from other survey tools in more than one way. For starters, it focuses on creating beautiful user experience, which helps boost engagement and completion rates. As for the pricing, Typeform offers three packages such as Basic (free), Pro and Pro+. In basic package, you get 100 responses per month and 10 fields per typeform among other free features.
Survey Planet: Survey Planet is probably one of the few online survey tools offering many attractive features in their free version. The basic version includes options such as unlimited surveys, unlimited survey questions, unlimited responses, pre-written surveys and SSL security to name a few. With Pro version, you will have access to additional premium features including custom themes, CSV reporting, and unlimited survey storage.
SoGoSurvey: SoGo Survey is an easy-to-use online survey application which offers a wide range of solutions for conducting surveys. Survey tools from SoGo Survey help you gauge marketing trends, brand awareness, net promoter score, customer loyalty, campaign management and advance analysis. SoGo Survey offers a wide range of products including Free Student Plan, Free Non-profit Plan, Discounted Academic Plan, and Paying by a Purchase Order. The basic package is free and offers 15 surveys, 30 questions, 125 responses, and 125 email invitations to name a few.
Constant Contact: Constant Contact is a popular name among businesses in the market research domain. It allows you to create custom surveys and polls, share the surveys publicly, and track the trends in real time. Although it doesn’t have any free version, it has a 60-days free trial offer without any obligation or credit card.
Poll Daddy: Poll Daddy is one of the oldest online survey software tools, offering a built-in survey editor, 19 question types, password-protection, and support for adding multimedia content from YouTube, Google Maps and email notification. You choose choose from its Pro and Corporate packages based on your needs. It also offers a Free Forever package offering limited number of question types and pre-set themes.
Client Heartbeat: Client Heartbeat is a paid-only online survey tool with some advanced reporting features that make it stand out from the competition. For starters, it notifies you when you have unhappy customers. Moreover, you can compare customer satisfaction against your industry benchmark. Likewise, it also offers a testimonial widget to help you display endorsement on your website. While the advanced reporting features make it one of the most compelling online survey tools around, it also costs comparatively higher than survey softwares from other online survey tools. The good news is you can try Client Heartbeat for free for 21 days without any credit card.
Google Forms: Google Forms is one the most efficient online survey tools out there, available free of cost. In fact, it’s the only free online survey tool which offers free skip logic features. Immensely popular among Google users, Google Forms offers many attractive benefits including unlimited surveys, unlimited respondents, a wide range of theme options, skip logic and page branching. You can also add your own custom logo, image, videos, add collaborators, and embed surveys into emails and websites. The survey answers are collected automatically using Google Spreadsheets.
Additional Resources: There are many other online survey tools out there. If you want to compare different tools to see how they stack against one another, check out this resource.
Final Thoughts:
There are no best online survey tools as such – it all depends on your specific survey needs. However, if you are just a beginner, I’d highly recommend using Google Forms. Alternatively, you could also try free version of the other online survey tools to see if they match your requirements. What is your favorite online survey software? Please, let me know in the comments below.
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