Market Research Surveys for Validating a New Offer

You can spend months building an offer people will not buy. A short survey can test desire and the shape of the offer while the cost of being wrong is the cost of asking. The SBA says market research blends consumer behavior and economic trends to confirm and improve a business idea. It says that work reduces risk while the idea is new.

Ask the market question before you design the form

The SBA says market research helps you find customers. Competitive analysis helps you make the business distinct. Together they point to an advantage.

Answer these questions before you write a single item.

• Demand. Is there a desire for the product or service?
• Market size. How many people would be interested?
• Economic indicators. What is the income range and the employment rate?
• Location. Where do customers live and where can the business reach them?
• Saturation. How many similar options do consumers have?
• Pricing. What do potential customers pay for those alternatives?

A demand testing survey can attack the desire question. It is a weak tool for the size of the whole market. The SBA points to existing sources for general counts such as industry trends and demographics and household income. Those sources save time. They are less specific to your audience. The Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics are on the SBA’s list for segmenting a population. The Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Consumer Price Index are on the list for economic indicators. Consumer spending and gross domestic product are on the list for demand and costs and spending. Start there for the count. Go to people when you need a reaction they have not published.

Direct research takes time and costs money. The SBA says to use it for questions about your specific business. Its examples are a reaction to a logo and a change to the buying experience and the place a customer might go in place of you. Surveys and questionnaires and focus groups and in-depth interviews are the methods it names. The SBA says its resource-partner counselors can help you decide which method fits.

A survey is the wrong tool for some tests

AAPOR says a survey fits when you need feelings or thoughts or behaviors and you lack current data. Ask whether the objective is specific. Ask whether a focus group or an interview would serve better. Ask whether the survey alone can answer the question. The SBA’s saturation count may live in a competitor list. The income range may live in a federal table. Do not spend a customer research form on a number a public table holds.

AAPOR’s ethics code bars surveys used to produce predetermined results or to campaign or to raise money or to sell. If you will build the offer no matter what people say, you are not running a market research survey. You are collecting lines you hope will sound like demand. Decide the decision the answers can change. Drop the offer. Change a feature. Change who you serve. If no decision can change, skip the form.

Who has to answer

The people who answer are a sample of a larger group. AAPOR says the sampling frame is the list that lets you reach them. A frame of current clients answers what current clients think. The SBA’s demand question is about people who might want the offer. Those groups can differ. A startup survey of your own followers can miss the people who have the problem and buy from someone else.

AAPOR separates a probability sample from a nonprobability sample. A probability sample starts from a frame that covers the group you care about and selects people by a random method. A nonprobability sample includes an opt-in panel and people you recruit through social media or a personal network. AAPOR says nonprobability results require special statistical techniques and a clear account of the method. A post to your network is that second kind of sample. Report it as such. Do not treat it as the whole market.

An online form misses people who will not open it. AAPOR says older respondents and people with lower incomes and people in rural areas have reliable internet access less of the time and may be less comfortable with computers. If the offer is for those groups, a new product survey that lives on the web can hide them. A mailed form works when you have addresses and the path through the questions is simple. A call costs more and can help a person through a hard item. A complex skip fits a screen better than paper.

Typeform recommends at least 400 responses for market research. It says the right number depends on the audience and the goals. A narrow offer can draw a smaller set. Kantar says an acceptable response rate is between 5 percent and 30 percent. It calls anything above 30 percent excellent. It says there is no universal line. Audience and length and design and the day of the week all move the rate. Typeform defines a response rate as completions divided by invites. Its example is 45 completions out of 100 invites. That rate is 45 percent. Typeform says 33 percent is a common benchmark. Treat that as Typeform’s benchmark.

AAPOR says a very small response can miss whole types of people. The estimates can lean toward whoever had time to answer. Use a small offer testing form to hear the people who answered. Do not treat it as proof the market will pay.

Market validation questions that do not coach the answer

Ask about current behavior before you describe the new offer. AAPOR says a specific question can prime a general one. A glowing description followed by “would you buy” pushes people toward yes. AAPOR says to keep questions free of language that pushes a certain answer or presents one side. People may agree to please you.

Use this order to validate new offer details.

1. What they use now and where they would go in place of you. That is the SBA’s direct-research example.
2. What they pay for those alternatives. That is the SBA’s pricing question. It is the core of a pricing survey small business founders send before they set a fee. It is not a calculator for that fee.
3. The problem they want solved and what a good result looks like in their words.
4. A plain description of the offer. One concept at a time. Then a reaction.
5. One open comment. Kantar’s sample line is “Is there anything else you’d like to share?”

These sources do not publish a price ladder or a feature-ranking formula. They do not say a “yes” on a form equals a sale. State interest as interest. Pair it with what people pay now and with the competitor set.

Kantar’s warning is a double question. “How satisfied are you with the product’s quality and pricing?” Quality and price can diverge. Ask them apart. Ask people about an experience they have had. Kantar says awareness of a brand is not the same as using a service. A filter question can hide follow-ups about a feature they have not seen. A reaction to a logo or to a buying step is fair. Do not ask how satisfied they are with a feature they have not used.

Keep each item short. AAPOR says knowledge and literacy and English skill vary. Most national U.S. surveys offer English and Spanish. Offer the languages your audience uses. These sources do not set a language list for a local test.

Build the answer list so the options do not overlap and cover the reasonable choices. Include “don’t know” or “does not apply” when those fit. Kantar says to keep “Not applicable” and “I don’t know” and “Prefer not to answer” as separate choices. In a self-administered survey, AAPOR says people tend to pick the first option they see. Rotate the order if you need to check that pull. A five-point scale from “Very satisfied” to “Very dissatisfied” has a midpoint and matching poles. A 7 out of 10 can mean different things to different people. If you will report a yes or a no, ask a yes or a no.

Make few items required. AAPOR says a required answer raises the chance someone leaves. Code a blank as a blank. That blank needs a different value from “I don’t know” or “I prefer not to answer.”

How long the form should be

Typeform’s research says surveys with more than six questions have a completion rate under 50 percent. Forms with six or fewer questions had the highest completion rates in that research. Forms that took under a minute had a completion rate 15 percent higher than longer forms. Asking one question at a time keeps the screen from becoming a wall.

Kantar says there is no exact time limit. It recommends under 12 minutes and prefers a survey under 10. The concern is sharpest on a phone. A long grid invites straight-line answers. Kantar says a bank of similar statements should stay at or under 12. Open questions are harder on a phone. Use one at the end.

Typeform says a welcome screen can name the purpose and who you are and how long the form should take. A progress cue shows how much remains. Tell people how you will use the answers. A public file can identify someone even after you remove a name. AAPOR says demographic details plus the answers can do that.

An incentive can be money or something else. Typeform lists a coupon or a freebie or a chance at a prize. Put the reason on the first screen. Keep the coupon from turning the form into a sale. AAPOR’s ban on selling surveys covers that line.

Kantar says an invite at a fitting day and hour works better than a blast. Typeform says the time of year can change engagement. AAPOR says to contact people more than once and in more than one way and at different times of day.

How to read the answers

Sort the file into three piles. People who have the problem and pay someone now. People who like the description and do not pay for a similar option. People who do not have the problem. The first pile is the SBA’s demand question meeting its pricing question. The second pile is interest without a current spend. These sources do not tell you how to convert that interest into revenue.

Check the question people quit. Kantar says to treat a question as a problem if more than 2 percent of people leave on it. An answer option that fewer than 3 percent of people pick adds reading time and weak data. Kantar says the average miss-click rate on multi-choice questions is about 2 percent.

If two descriptions of the offer might work, AAPOR says an experiment during collection can compare two or more wordings or designs. Field both. Keep the other factors as similar as you can. If the answers diverge, the wording may be the cause. Do not crown a winner from a handful of replies.

AAPOR says to pretest with people like the ones in the sample. A pilot checks the invite and the form and the cleanup of the file. Kantar says to take the survey yourself and to cut what you would not finish.

If you repeat the test next quarter, keep the wording stable. AAPOR says a wording change can look like a change in opinion. A move from a call to a web form can do the same on a personal question.

The same findings feed a plan. The SBA says a market analysis covers the industry outlook and the target market and what successful competitors do. Its lean plan asks for a value proposition and a specific customer segment. It says the business will not be for everybody. A survey that tries to please every segment hides the segment that would pay.

A week you can run

1. Write the decision the answers can change. If the answer is none, stop.
2. Pull the public counts for market size and income and employment. Use the SBA’s federal sources for those counts.
3. List similar options and what they charge. That is the saturation check and the price-of-alternatives check.
4. Draft six questions or fewer. Ask what they use now and what they pay. Then show a plain description and ask for a reaction.
5. Add an opt-out. Leave hard items optional. Say how you will use the answers.
6. Pretest with a few people who match the audience. Take it on a phone.
7. Send the invite at a time you can explain. Tell readers whether the list is your network or a broader frame.
8. Read the three piles. Compare them with the competitor prices. Change the offer or the audience or the decision to build.

You can host that market research survey as a link with Jotform. The person opens the link. You read one set of replies against the decision you named at the start.

Pitfalls

You survey to confirm a choice you will not change. AAPOR bars surveys aimed at a predetermined result.

You ask your fans and call it the market. AAPOR treats a social or personal recruit as a nonprobability sample. The SBA’s demand question is about people who might want the offer.

You ask two things at once. Price and quality need two questions.

You describe the dream and then ask for a yes. AAPOR says leading language and a specific prompt can shape the answer.

You skip the price people pay now. The SBA’s pricing question is about alternatives. A hoped-for fee is not that number.

You treat a thin set as proof. Typeform’s market-research count is 400. AAPOR says a thin response can miss types of people.

The form is a coupon with questions attached. AAPOR bars surveys used to sell.

You ignore who the online form cannot reach. AAPOR flags internet access for older people and lower-income people and rural residents.

Trade-offs

Public data versus a survey. Existing sources take less time to gather and are less specific. The SBA says direct research gives a finer read of your audience and takes time and money. Do the public counts first. Survey the gap.

Six questions versus a full picture. Typeform’s completion finding favors the short form. Kantar’s clock allows a longer instrument under 12 minutes and prefers a survey under 10. A demand check can be short. A feature study can be longer if every item can change a decision.

Your list versus a broader frame. Your list will answer. It may not represent the buyer you do not know. A broader frame is harder to build and closer to the SBA’s market question. Say which one you used.

A survey versus a conversation. A survey can produce a count you can compare if the wording stays stable. A focus group or an interview can show why people hesitate. AAPOR says to pick the method that matches the question. The SBA lists both.

An incentive versus a plain ask. A gift can raise participation. A coupon for the new offer can turn the form into a sale. Use an incentive that pays for the time. Keep the buy decision off the form.

What you walk away with

You test the offer by pairing a short reaction with public counts and with the prices people pay now. You drop or reshape an offer before you build it. You tell the truth about who answered.

These sources leave the exact fee and the sales forecast to you. They give you the questions and the sample limits and the wording rules. Use those. Then make the build decision in writing so the file has a job.

If you want one link for the customer research form, Jotform can hold it. The judgment about whether to build stays with you.