How to Conduct an Omnibus Survey?

Are you doing enough market research? If not, you should definitely boost your market knowledge. Running a business is virtually impossible without gaining an insight into market trends.

Even though most companies are interested in conducting such research, the budget factor impedes them from going through with it. However, omnibus surveys are budget-friendly yet effective in collecting data. They reach a large group of respondents by answering random questions.

The following tips will help you conduct such a cost-effective survey.

Table of Contents

Get a proposal

The initial step in conducting omnibus surveys is asking for proposals from market research companies. These proposals are supposed to consist of all the necessary details, such as the question number and the realistic size of the samples. Compared to other methodologies, this market research methodology isn’t as thorough. Therefore, the proposals you receive will probably be a short statement of work.

Have a kickoff meeting

Once you have reviewed multiple proposals, it’s time to schedule a kickoff meeting with the selected market research team. At this meeting, you should be discussing the question types you wish to ask, the information you plan to obtain, and the respondents you look for. There are various online providers of omnibus solutions, such as https://directionsresearch.com/xcelerant-rapid-omnibus-online/, offering questionnaire development, data analysis, and sampling. During these meetings, all parties should get on the same page to ensure long-term success.

Preparation

The step that follows is survey preparation. During this phase, the market research team will commence drafting a questionnaire. Some companies provide their own drafts, as they have already started working on them. In such cases, the market research team will analyze the draft you provide it with, make suggestions, and come up with improvements.

Moreover, the experience of these professionals enables them to suggest improvements that increase the amount of captured information. During this step, companies and market research teams go back and forth until they are happy with the final result. It’s absolutely important to be open to the suggestions of these teams due to their long-term experience.

Programming

After you have finished preparing your omnibus survey, the next task is getting it on the web, which is known as programming. You need to make sure you are satisfied with the document prior to letting the market research team load the survey into their online software. This part of the journey might not be as exciting as the others, but it has a major effect on the experience of respondents. Your omnibus survey has to be programmed adequately for the experience of respondents to be smooth.

Testing

Another crucial aspect of the process is having your omnibus survey tested. Just imagine a scenario of inviting thousands of individuals to take the survey only to discover some of the questions have been accidentally left out.Hence, companies should have their omnibus surveys tested a few times to check if everything meets their expectations. Click here to discover three ways of asking survey questions.

The testing process should involve scanning the questions for logic, grammar, and spelling mistakes. Also, the layout should be user-friendly for respondents not to feel frustrated while completing the questionnaire. The job of market research teams is to perform comprehensive testing of clients’ omnibus surveys. However, companies are encouraged to test drive it to get a better idea of the testing experience.

Consider the data you plan to collect

Prior to launching your omnibus survey, you should select the data you wish to collect to get the final results. Some of the most important demographic factors to consider are the age, gender, occupation, and household income of respondents. These data points are likely to prove useful in the final analysis. If you aren’t certain which factors to include in your analysis, the market research team is going to assist you in narrowing down the factors.

The launch

When your omnibus survey is finally written, programmed, and completely tested, you are ready for the launch. Market research teams recommend companies to start off with a soft launch, which allows them to monitor the initial results closely and make sure every aspect is going smoothly.

After the completion of the soft launch, they will check if everything looks good before proceeding with the full launch. The approximate time to finish with fieldwork is just one day, meaning you will get the results sooner than expected.

Analysis

The final results delivered by the market research team might be in different forms, depending on the chosen package. Some deliverables take the form of comprehensive reports, while others of executive summaries. Businesses can track their progress and view the final results in Excel, PowerPoint, or PDF documents.