7 Deadly Sins Of Online Surveys

Online surveys have become the digital marketer’s chainsaw.

A terrific research tool that can butcher marketing strategy with bad techniques and bad assumptions.

“Research is the foundation of marketing strategy, providing real insight into customer needs and motivators. However, with do-it-yourself online surveys, it can go seriously wrong,” says John Parikhal, partner with Breakthrough Management. Parikhal has been conducting marketing research for over 35 years for organizations such as Viacom, Scholastic Publishing, and Pepsi.

“With so much at stake, it’s really important to involve experts in research design and analysis. Unfortunately, there are too many online “research” studies that just don’t meet statistical criteria for reliability, and are often filled with bias-generating questions. Sometimes, I suggest that marketers might want to shout ‘Get this Survey Monkey off my back’.”

Why do so many earnest survey efforts sail off the rails?

Author Notes:

Jeffrey Henning

Jeffrey Henning, IPC is a professionally certified researcher and has personally conducted over 1,400 survey research projects. Jeffrey is a member of the Insights Association and the American Association of Public Opinion Researchers. In 2012, he was the inaugural winner of the MRA’s Impact award, which “recognizes an industry professional, team or organization that has demonstrated tremendous vision, leadership, and innovation, within the past year, that has led to advances in the marketing research profession.” In 2022, the Insights Association named him an IPC Laureate. Before founding Researchscape in 2012, Jeffrey co-founded Perseus Development Corporation in 1993, which introduced the first web-survey software, and Vovici in 2006, which pioneered the enterprise-feedback management category. A 35-year veteran of the research industry, he began his career as an industry analyst for an Inc. 500 research firm.