Survey research

Survey research allows you to gather critical insights from a target audience. This guide will walk you through the three main types of surveys—exploratory, descriptive, and causal—to help you determine the right approach and application to meet your research goals. 

Surveys are primary research tools that provide data as part of overall research strategies. Survey research is critical to getting the answers you need, yielding valuable primary research data to make informed decisions about everything from product development to marketing campaigns.

Regardless of how you conduct survey research, it should have the following characteristics:

Usage: surveys are used to gather information about human behaviorSystematic: survey research follows proven procedures to collect evidence Replicable: applying the same methods more than once should achieve similar results.

The most crucial and integral reason for conducting market research using surveys is that you can collect answers regarding specific, essential questions. You can ask these questions in multiple survey formats as per the target audience and the intent of the survey.

A key advantage to survey research methods is that they can  collect both quantitative and qualitative data to provide a complete picture of your target audience.

Descriptive research is the most common and conclusive form of survey research due to its quantitative nature. Unlike exploratory research methods, descriptive research  utilizes pre-planned, structured surveys with closed-ended questions. It’s also deductive, meaning that the survey structure and questions are determined beforehand based on existing theories or areas of inquiry. The data gathered is then used to test hypotheses or assumptions.

Causal research 

Causal research is also quantitative, pre-planned, and structured like descriptive research. For this reason, it is also considered conclusive. However, causal research goes beyond observation to determine the cause and effect relationship between variables.