How do you design questionnaires that engage without leading or confusing?

Questionnaires are a common and effective tool for market research, but they can also be tricky to design. You want to ask the right questions, in the right way, to get the most accurate and useful data from your respondents. But how do you avoid leading or confusing them, and keep them engaged throughout the survey? Here are some tips to help you create questionnaires that get the results you need.

1 Know your objectives

Before you start writing any questions, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to learn from your questionnaire. What are your research goals and hypotheses? Who is your target audience and how will you reach them? How will you analyze and use the data you collect? Having a well-defined purpose and scope will help you focus your questionnaire on the most relevant and important topics, and avoid wasting time and resources on irrelevant or redundant questions.

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Taylor Butts

Manager of Global Competitive Intelligence at Starcom
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You can create a simple template of these above questions for you yourself to fill out before starting to write the questions. I’d also suggest adding in what your target sample size is. You can find some sample size calculators online to help determine sample population sizes for statistical relevance. How will you find your audience (first party consented data collection like newsletter signups or 3rd party collected data like purchased event registrations list)? What means of delivery will you use to administer the questionnaire? What are the expected rates of completion for your selected delivery channels? What incentive is there for your audience to fill out the survey? From what date to what date will you collect the data?

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2 Choose the right format

Depending on your objectives, you may want to use different types of questions and formats for your questionnaire. For example, you can use closed-ended questions, such as multiple choice, rating scales, or yes/no, to get quantitative data that is easy to measure and compare. Or you can use open-ended questions, such as text boxes, to get qualitative data that is more detailed and nuanced. You can also mix and match different formats, but be careful not to overload or confuse your respondents with too many options or variations. You should also consider the length, layout, and design of your questionnaire, and make sure it is user-friendly and compatible with different devices and platforms.

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Taylor Butts

Manager of Global Competitive Intelligence at Starcom
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If your questionnaire is long, you can experiment with splitting the survey up into sections and administering them one screen at a time. Start with the higher value questions that the target audience will be more eager to answer up front. Save any demographic questions and audience-perceived lower value questions for the end. Having completed the high value questions and wishing to have their voice heard, they’ll be more inclined to trudge through the less exciting questions to complete the questionnaire.

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3 Write clear and unbiased questions

One of the most challenging aspects of designing questionnaires is writing questions that are clear, concise, and unbiased. You want to avoid any ambiguity, jargon, or technical terms that may confuse or mislead your respondents. You also want to avoid any leading, loaded, or double-barreled questions that may influence or distort your respondents' answers. For example, instead of asking "How satisfied are you with our amazing product?", you should ask "How satisfied are you with our product?" Instead of asking "Do you agree that our product is better than the competitors'?", you should ask "How do you compare our product to the competitors'?" Instead of asking "How often do you use our product and why?", you should ask "How often do you use our product?" and "Why do you use our product?"

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4 Test and refine your questionnaire

Before you launch your questionnaire, you should always test it on a small sample of your target audience. This will help you identify and fix any problems or errors in your questions, format, or design. You can also use this opportunity to get feedback from your testers on how they found the questionnaire, how long it took them to complete it, and how they interpreted and answered the questions. Based on this feedback, you can refine and improve your questionnaire to make it more engaging, clear, and reliable.

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Taylor Butts

Manager of Global Competitive Intelligence at Starcom
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You can test the placement of questions, the effectiveness of randomization, the use of screens, if a progress bar increases completion, and what kind of secondary action (if any) in the Thank You message at the end elicits the highest completion rate. You can also test how the questionnaire looks across an array of devices and optimize the format of each one. The amount of testing you can do is only limited by you imagination and time. Don’t try to test everything at once, but iterative testing across many questionnaires and surveys will yield the highest level of optimization.

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5 Motivate and thank your respondents

Finally, you should also think about how to motivate and thank your respondents for taking part in your questionnaire. You want to make them feel valued and appreciated, and show them how their input will benefit them or others. You can do this by providing incentives, such as rewards, discounts, or prizes, for completing the questionnaire. You can also do this by explaining the purpose and importance of your research, and how you will use and share the results. And of course, you should always end your questionnaire with a sincere and polite thank you message.

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6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

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How do you design questionnaires that engage without leading or confusing?

1

2

3

4

5

6

1 Know your objectives

2 Choose the right format

3 Write clear and unbiased questions

4 Test and refine your questionnaire

5 Motivate and thank your respondents

6 Here’s what else to consider

Market Research

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How do you design questionnaires that engage without leading or confusing?

1

2

3

4

5

6

1 Know your objectives

2 Choose the right format

3 Write clear and unbiased questions

4 Test and refine your questionnaire

5 Motivate and thank your respondents

6 Here’s what else to consider

Market Research

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