The most common ways to get responses for a survey are to use a contact list or an online survey panel.

Contact lists work well when you have developed the list yourself and know that the members are engaged and would be willing to receive a survey invitation from you.

Often, people don’t have a good contact list and use an online survey panel instead. Online survey panels are networks of people who are willing to take surveys on a regular basis, typically for some compensation.

There are many different panels, such as Survey Diem. All you have to do is tell Survey Diem the length of your survey, how many people you’d like to survey, and the demographic/behavioral characteristics of the people who should qualify to complete your survey. Contact us at info@surveydiem.com to scope your next project.

A representative survey sample is one in which the key characteristics of those invited to your survey match those of your target population.

In many cases, clients want a general population (“gen pop”) sample at the national level. This means they want people to be randomly selected from the panel to receive the survey but that as a whole the sample should match the US consumer population in terms of age, gender, and race/ethnicity.

You can also request a sample that mirrors the population of a state or metropolitan area, for example. Survey Diem will use the latest available Census data to determine the right sample composition.

If our sample in a particular area is not big enough to meet your needs, we will always let you know before starting a project.

Avoid convenience sampling whenever possible. That means surveying whoever is at-hand and then trying to adjust the data to match your target population. Surveying your friends might be easy, but it’s not going to get you a representative sample, unless your target market is very similar to your friend group.

You can ask survey participants just about anything you want to know. You cannot, however, ask for information that would clearly identify a person, such as their name or social security number. It is also best not to ask health-related questions unless you have robust data protections in place so you are in compliance with HIIPA regulations.

Common survey types include:

• Brand awareness and use surveys,

• Product concept test surveys,

• Customer journey and segmentation surveys, and

• Opinion polls

Panel surveys are considered quantitative versus qualitative, meaning they are not focus groups or interviews in which a lot of open-ended data is collected. Thanks to AI, however, it is getting easier to administer a “quantitative” survey where the questions and answers are conversational and a data analysis is conducted at-scale by the technology.

Costs range depending on the following:

• The amount of support required to develop the survey

• The incentive offered to respondents, which is based on the length of the survey

• Whether the survey is for consumers or business contacts (business-to-business, aka “B2B,” surveys pay more)

• The number of survey responses you would like

• The format and type of analysis you would like

A 30-question US consumer survey and analysis generally costs between $2,000 and $7,000.

We are primarily focused on building a panel of US consumers and supporting B2C research studies.

However, we do collect information about panelists’ jobs and are happy to scope potential B2B projects. Let us know at info@surveydiem.com.

Note that panelists’ job information is self-reported and not currently LinkedIn-verified.

Yes, and in fact, online surveys have some advantages over phone, in-person, or paper surveys. For example, studies have shown that participants are more honest taking a survey online than they would be talking to a person.

People also often prefer to take surveys on their smart phone. That’s why we created the Survey Diem app. All Survey Diem panelists complete all of their surveys on their phones, providing the most convenient user experience.

There are a few potential sources of bias in online panel survey data. One is that online panels exclude anyone that does not have internet access. If this is an important population for you to survey, you must find another way to administer the survey. 91% of US adults have smart phones. *

There is also the potential that panel members are different in terms of personality and behaviors from the average US consumer. That’s why we work so hard to make surveys and panel membership attractive to people like you and your friends and why we prevent people from taking more than one of our surveys a day. We don’t want to have a panel full of “professional” survey takers. We want to have a panel full of everyday people. We want a quick survey in the morning or at lunch or at night to be a part of a normal day.

*Pew Research Center “Mobile Fact Sheet.” November 13, 2024.

Survey fraud occurs when a respondent answers some or all of your questions with no regard for the truth. This includes instances where the respondent is not who they claim to be in order to access the survey.

Survey designers, panel companies, survey software providers, and data analysts all have a role in preventing fraudulent responses from being included in the final data set that is used for analysis. You should not have to pay your panel partner for fraudulent data!

Fraud is different from bias in survey data. Depending on how the sample was developed, the respondents to your survey might have a bias in some way even though they have answered all questions sincerely. Be sure to ask your panel provider about bias mitigation for every project.

There are many options when it comes to online survey panels. Key features to look out for:

• They verify the identity of panel members at the time of registration. Survey Diem requires a valid US state-issued driver’s license or ID card to register. You have to actually scan your ID in the app. This is not the norm in the panel world!

• They do not allow VPN access.

• They are transparent about pricing and panel composition.

• You only pay for the survey responses that meet your quality standards.

• They are responsive and easy to work with. Most surveys can be launched same-day. If you find yourself waiting several days to hear back about pricing and feasibility, it’s time to consider another partner.

• Note that panels cannot see respondents’ answers to individual survey questions. Panels therefore need to work with research clients to set up automatic disqualification for speeders, flat-liners, and people that fail basic logic checks.

VPN stands for virtual private network. Savvy fraudsters in other countries often use VPNs to make it look like they are in the US when they are actually somewhere else.

Be sure to work with a sample partner that bans VPNs. This may disqualify some legitimate survey takers, but the resulting bias will be much smaller than the problem of bad data resulting from letting international fraudsters into your US consumer surveys.

Yes, our ESOMAR 37 document has answers to all of ESOMAR’s recommended questions for buyers of online sample.