MarketTools Blog

Guest blogger Jennifer Becker is the Director of Research, Brand Strategy at Airfoil Public Relations, a high tech firm in Detroit and Silicon Valley – and a MarketTools customer.

If you think that creating online surveys for public relations is totally different from market research, think again. Whether creating a survey to support media relations or launch a new product, the design fundamentals and purpose – to gain brand exposure – are the same, even when the end audiences are not. Whether it’s a story, or your product or service that you’re selling, you want that audience – be it media or customers – to buy!

A strong survey is a strong survey, regardless of how your business ultimately leverages the data. In fact, if you can approach a publicity-based research project with the same objectivity as a market research survey, you will ultimately produce the highest-quality data possible, something media gravitate toward. Your sample should be representative of the population and your questions as focused as possible to elicit data meaningful to the story you hope to tell.

I’ve always believed that surveys are a form of advertising/marketing/public relations themselves. By asking for someone’s opinion, you’re telling the survey taker that your brand cares about their opinion – even if they don’t know who you are until it’s complete. 

Following are some guidelines for quality PR survey design, all things you and a trusted research partner should consider before your next project together:

• Chart a course: Be diligent about identifying the true survey objectives and ensure research goals are appropriate for the recommended methodology.
• Sharpen your sample: Consider the target audience to make sure that those who respond provide information that may lead to actionable insight. While some client lists can be used as a sample, purchasing a quality panel of survey respondents from an online sample provider ensures that you’re talking to the right people. And this could help validate the client’s list in the process.
• Be choosy:  Make sure you apply the right screening criterion to the panel before the survey ever launches.   Are you sure the potential respondents in the panel are representative of the population? Does the panel represent the type of respondent you want as a customer or someone you trust to be at the forefront of a trend?  An online survey panel provider should be able to help you find the right people to take your survey, whether they are IT professionals with iPads, home owners who wear glasses, or business travelers who have taken a trip in the past six weeks.
• Engage the respondent: A survey must be as interesting for the survey taker as the results are for those consuming the data.  Using plain language, rotating question types and avoiding repetition encourages survey takers to be more thoughtful about their responses.

A well-crafted survey can provide data that can be used to change perception of your brand; shape a story around a trend or issue; or prove the efficacy of your offering. Do everything possible to ensure those data points are viable so that your message around them can be received with confidence.