Building a Successful Survey Launch Strategy - It's Not as Easy as You Might Think

Why survey administration matters just as much as survey design

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You have spent hours perfecting your survey questions, carefully crafting response options and fine-tuning the flow. But now comes a challenge that can make or break your research: getting your survey into the right hands and encouraging people to actually complete it.

I have learned that even the most brilliantly designed survey will fail if your dissemination strategy is flawed. The way you distribute and promote your survey can be just as important as the questions themselves.

In this article, I share proven strategies for survey administration and dissemination that maximise the odds of getting responses from your target audience. Whether you're conducting market research, gathering employee feedback or exploring customer satisfaction, these approaches will help ensure your surveys yield meaningful results.

Step 1: Pre-Launch Planning

Experienced researchers think about survey administration long before they distribute their questionnaires, because this preparation positively affects response rates and data quality.

Before we go into more detail, let me share the most important aspect of survey planning: timing. Get this wrong, and the entire endeavour will be doomed. You should always consider seasonal factors when scheduling your survey launch and avoid periods coinciding with known holidays, industry-specific busy cycles (e.g. a known conference season) or high workload periods for your target audience. This will vary widely depending on who you are targeting, but isn’t something you can ignore. That said, it’s quite simple to get the timing right once you’re aware of the challenge!

Identify And Manage Your Target Audience

Before launching any survey, it's essential to clearly define your target audience. This involves not only identifying who should receive the survey, but also understanding their characteristics and preferences. As noted in the previous paragraph, the specifics of your audience will also affect when they are likely to be unavailable, so do keep this in mind.

To manage your audience, you will need to create a database of contact information, with all necessary details accurately recorded and properly organised. This database will serve as the foundation for all survey communications.

At a minimum, you should have the full name of your potential respondents, to personalise communications, and a primary contact method, which is typically their email. If you are targeting a professional audience, do try and capture people’s roles and affiliations, too, as that will help further personalise your messages.

Keep in mind that a vague definition of your audience almost invariably leads to vague results. Instead of targeting broad categories of "customers" or “users,” you have to define specific segments that reflect your research objectives and will enable meaningful analysis.

Choose Appropriate Communication Channels

Your choice of communication channels directly affects the likelihood of receiving responses from your target audience. In my experience, email remains the predominant method for most surveys, but do consider these key factors when selecting your distribution channels:

• Direct email: Most professional and trackable approach; enables personalised communication and automated follow-ups

• Internal communication channels (e.g. Teams, Slack): Reach limited to within organisational boundaries; may yield higher response rates compared to "cold" approaches

• Newsletters and mailing lists: Provide access to groups with shared interests; may complement direct email invitations

• Social media: Can help reach a very broad audience; depend on your own network and its features or a client’s social channels; do not allow for straightforward sampling

Overall, your choice of channels should reflect both your audience’s characteristics and research objectives. For example, you should consider factors like expected formality as well as your closeness with the audience - are these people in our network, or complete strangers?

It is quite common for a dissemination campaign to have to adopt different strategies. For example, in the case of a survey you’re running in your own field, you might send friendly emails to peers and colleagues, formal emails to less familiar individuals and a semi-formal announcement in a newsletter. On the other hand, a survey run on behalf of a large brand might require the combined use of their social media and email newsletter, each with its own branding, tone and style.

Step 2: Launch Your Survey

The launch phase sets the tone for your entire survey period. If you get this wrong, it will take a disproportionate amount of effort to fix things. It is especially important that, before launch, your survey is closely checked and tested - for respondent experience, there is nothing worse than receiving an invitation to complete a sloppy-looking or poorly written survey.

Craft Effective Contact Messages

Your first contact with potential participants should be comprehensive yet concise. Regardless of the channel(s) chosen, you will need to craft a message that clearly communicates the purpose and importance of your research as well as addressing potential concerns. Key elements to cover in initial communications for online surveys include:

• Research purpose

• Potential benefits to the participant

• Time commitment

• Compliance with relevant data protection regulations

• Submission deadlines

• Contact information for questions

The clarity and tailoring of this initial contact significantly impacts participation rates. When respondents understand why their input matters and how their responses will be used, they're more likely to engage.

Issue Strategically Timed Reminders

In a survey that’s open for four weeks (as an example), you are likely to see response patterns like this:

• Days 1-3: Highest response rate upon invitation (initial surge)

• Days 4-7: Steady decline in responses

• Mid-point: Secondary response peak following a reminder

• Final days: Final response surge after a last reminder

As you can see from these patterns, you will need reminders to maximise response rates; otherwise, the flow of responses will just steadily decline after your first invitation. Each reminder message should:

• Acknowledge that the recipient might have already responded

• Remind them of why it's important to complete the survey

• Mention the closure date and remaining time

• Include a link to the survey

For a four-week survey window, you can see from the above example that I would recommend a mid-point reminder (approximately two weeks after launch) and a final reminder 2-3 days before closure. For shorter windows, a single reminder a few days before closing may be sufficient, whereas longer surveys might require a more structured communications strategy with additional periodic reminders. Do remember that reminders can be issued through any of the channels we just explored, although the style and messaging will need a bit of tailoring to fit the expected communication style.

In any event, you should regularly monitor response rates (e.g. daily or weekly, depending on your survey window), so you can identify any issues early and adjust your dissemination strategy accordingly. Watch for:

• Overall response rates compared to expectations

• Patterns in completion versus abandonment

• Any notable differences in response rates across segments (e.g. people in a given age bracket submitting significantly more responses compared to others)

Based on this information, you can for example determine whether additional (and, potentially, more targeted) reminders or deadline extensions might be beneficial.

Step 3: Keep an Eye on Data Quality

Unfortunately, not all responses are made equal. In some cases, participants may enter cursory responses and rush through check boxes, perhaps because they are in a rush or not that interested in the survey. The risks here are particularly acute if your survey offers incentives (e.g. an entry in a prize draw for a voucher), as this might attract respondents who are only interested in that rather than willing to provide their honest views to support your research.

You can look for these signs of poor quality responses as you monitor your survey data:

• Unusually fast completion times

• Pattern responses (selecting the same option for all items)

• Inappropriate or nonsensical responses to open-ended questions (e.g. random letters)

Another possible sign of poor quality data is the presence of inconsistent or contradictory answers, but this is far more likely to be spotted after closure, as you start looking at the submissions more closely.

What can you do when you see these signs? Not much, unfortunately! The survey is already live, so any issues (e.g. burdensome questions, poor flow) should have been ironed out during testing. Capturing these signs is mainly for your information, so you don’t overestimate response rates and can better plan whether you need to issue more invitations or reminders.

Many survey platforms allow you to ‘disqualify’ poor quality responses (you have to do it manually, as you’d expect), so you are not deleting the data but this doesn’t get counted when creating summary charts and statistics.

Four Pitfalls To Avoid

If you’re just getting started with survey design, the above tips and strategies are quite a lot to grasp all at once. Here’s a set of mistakes that I recommend you avoid at all costs as a starting point.

1. The Single Invitation Approach

The mistake: Sending a single invitation and expecting optimal response rates.

The expert approach: Multiple touch points are almost always necessary for good participation rates, and reminders can significantly boost your final response numbers.

2. Vague or Impersonal Communications

The mistake: Using generic language that doesn't clearly communicate the purpose or value of participation.

The expert approach: Clear, personalised invitations that explain both the purpose and value of the research generate substantially better response rates.

3. Poor Timing

The mistake: Launching surveys without considering timing factors like workload cycles, holidays or industry-specific busy periods.

The expert approach: Strategic timing can dramatically impact participation. Avoiding known busy periods and planning around recipient availability shows respect for their time and increases likelihood of participation.

4. Inadequate Monitoring

The mistake: Launching your survey and waiting until the end date to check results.

The expert approach: Proactive management during the collection period allows you to accurately estimate response rates, adjust your engagement strategies and maximise participation.

Survey Administration Matters

I know, this part of a research project is not the most glamorous, but it does matter! How you invite respondents, who you target, when you send your survey and how you follow up will significantly impact both the quantity and quality of your data.

By approaching survey administration with the same care and expertise you apply to question design, you will gather richer insights that lead to better decisions. Remember that behind every data point is a person who has chosen to share their time and perspectives with you - their experience during the survey process influences not only their responses, but their willingness to participate in future research.

What survey administration challenges have you encountered in your work? Share your experiences in the comments below!

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I'm Andrea, a management consultant with over a decade of experience across industry and academia. I work with commercial, non-profit, academic and government organisations worldwide, helping them capture meaningful insights through mixed methods research.

I write about practical frameworks to help you discover what others miss. My main goal is to translate complex concepts into techniques that readers can use immediately.