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5 min

6 tips on how to create a successful B2B questionnaire

6 must-have tips on creating a successful B2B questionnaire

GrapeData
Jan 6, 2023
B2B market research

Introduction

A successful B2B questionnaire is one that provides the most value to both you and your respondents. This means it needs to be relevant, clear and concise, engaging, easy to understand, and answer. If you are designing a B2B questionnaire for research purposes then use these tips! These suggestions will help you create an effective tool that will generate useful insights from the data collected.

1. Be clear, specific, and relevant for your B2B questionnaire

To start, you need to define your goal. Creating a B2B questionnaire requires thinking about your goal. If you are experiencing a problem with your business and want to resolve it, then think about what you hope to achieve from solving that problem. Then, break down your goal into smaller steps. For example, if one of your goals is to determine market size, then those smaller steps might be:

  • Determining the number of players in the market
  • Analysing the size of each player in the market
  • Understanding the competitive strength of each player in the market

Once you have those smaller steps, you can start working toward your goal. The next step in your B2B questionnaire would then be thinking about the kinds of questions you want to ask. When you have a clear goal in mind, it is easier to figure out how to achieve it. You will also be more likely to stay on track when working toward that goal. By breaking down your goals into smaller steps and taking action on them every day, you can get one step closer to getting answers for your B2B questionnaire.

2. Write with a purpose for your B2B questionnaire

When writing your questions, you should always have a clear purpose for each one. For example, if you want to learn about how people use your product, make sure that your first question is something like: “How do you use [product name]?”

If you need more information about the demographics of your audience or what channels they prefer to use, start with those questions. Also, keep in mind that you don’t have to ask every single question listed in this guide; just remember that if a template doesn’t fit with your goals and focus on the most important ones.

You can also find inspiration from other questions you’ve seen asked on social media. If you have a list of brands or influencers who consistently engage with their audience, check out what types of questions they ask and why they seem to work well.

If you’re still having trouble coming up with questions, you can always use some of the ones listed below. These are just a few examples of questions you can use for a B2B brand perception survey. If they don’t work for your brand or audience, feel free to modify them or create something completely new!

  • Are you familiar with our products or services? Yes or No?
  • What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of our brand?
  • How would you describe our product to someone who doesn't know it?
  • How did you become aware of the products or services we offer?

3. Keep it short and simple

You want to make the questionnaire as short as possible, but you also don't want to leave out any important questions. The best way to do this is by keeping it simple and easy to understand. Use bullet points instead of paragraphs, use a friendly tone of voice, and be clear with your wording. This is so that respondents don't get confused or need additional clarification on what you're asking them to answer.

-Ask open-ended questions

-Use a friendly tone of voice

-Make your B2B questionnaire easy to understand

Before you begin writing your survey, think about the information you want to gather from participants and how it will be used. Make sure that your questions are specific enough to elicit the responses you need from people. For example, if you wish to know what B2B buying habits look like, don't simply ask "What are your B2B buying habits?". It is also important to keep your audience engaged throughout. In addition, you can use bullet points rather than paragraphs in your B2B questionnaire.

Looking to develop a B2B buying campaign? Check out this article on how the B2B buying journey is changing by Forbes magazine.

4. Add visual cues for the B2B questionnaire

To help make your survey more effective, add visual cues. This can be anything from charts, graphs, and images to highlight important information. For example, adding a table that highlights the results of a customer satisfaction survey could make it easier for researchers to find out how many people said they were satisfied with a particular aspect of your company's service or product. Find more information on customer satisfaction surveys here.

Including images is also helpful when you're trying to illustrate concepts that are difficult to describe in words. You can also add images when you want to add some human element to an otherwise impersonal questionnaire.

Another way to make your survey more effective is to ask questions that respondents can answer quickly. If a question takes a long time to answer, people may get bored and not want to finish the survey.

5. Make it interactive

It is important to keep your audience engaged throughout the questionnaire, and there are several ways you can do this. First, make sure that every question has a clear call to action that tells participants what they should do after answering the question (e.g., "Click here if you agree with this statement"). Next, you should ask questions that require more than a yes or no answer. If all options are limited to yes or no responses, participants may feel like they are being forced into choosing an answer. Rather, you should make them feel that they have options and the chance to elaborate on why they responded in one way or another. Finally, consider adding visual cues to make your survey more interactive. These could include images or charts where applicable and infographics where appropriate (for example when explaining an idea).

If your survey is too long, people won't want to complete it. Keep questions short and concise, the shorter the better. This is because shorter B2B questionnaires help you get a higher response rate.

6. Add a call to action in the B2B questionnaire

The final step in creating a successful B2B questionnaire is to add a call to action. The purpose of the call to action is to inform your respondents what you want them to do next and why they should do it. You can achieve this by adding an email signature with instructions. Alternatively, you can also ask them to take another survey that has more questions about their experience with your company or product.

The most common ways of doing this are:

  • Provide an email address where respondents can reach out if they have any questions or concerns (this is particularly important if you have created a complex questionnaire)
  • Ask them if they have any questions about the survey itself, such as: “Do you have any suggestions for improving our questionnaire?”
  • Encourage more participation by those who found the survey easy and useful not only because it helped them save time, but also because it helped them learn more about the market situation and trends in their field. On the flip side, you can also encourage people who did not find it helpful. Perhaps, changes to the survey design can be made based on their feedback!

In addition, you should also provide an incentive to take the survey. This can be anything from a coupon code for your company’s products or services to a chance to win a prize. You could also offer them something else, such as an ebook that they can download right away.

Lastly, consider offering a follow-up survey. This is an effective way of gathering feedback not just from people who took your quiz, but also from those who didn’t and are interested in doing so at some point in the future. 

Looking for more information? Check out our article on the ‘5 Advantages and Disadvantages Of Doing B2B Questionnaires In Research That You Can’t Miss Out On

A B2B questionnaire can be designed for effective research but requires careful planning

As with any marketing research, it is important to know the purpose of your questionnaire. This will help you shape your questions accordingly, as well as ensure you cover all relevant areas. Similarly, it's vital that you clearly understand who you are targeting with your survey and what their motivations are for taking part in it. These points will serve as a foundation for designing your questionnaire and can help inform decisions about which questions should be asked and how they should be asked.

Looking for different types of marketing research? Check out this post by Qualtrics.

Depending on how high-level or specific you want to get with this data collection method, there are different types of people who may take part in filling out a B2B questionnaire: employees from multiple departments within one company; employees from one department within multiple companies; or individuals who work directly under another individual (such as an assistant). For more information on data collection, check out this guide.

Overall, the demographic of B2B survey participants will depend on who you are targeting and what type of data you need to collect. For example, if you are conducting a general survey to gain insight into how your audience feels about a new product or service offering, then any employee at a company would be able to fill out this type of questionnaire. On the other hand, if you wanted specific information about employees’ skill sets and abilities in an industry-specific area (such as IT), then only those who work in that field would be able to answer these questions accurately.

When it comes to getting your B2B questionnaire filled out, the best way is to reach out directly via email. If you want to get even more specific with who fills it out, then consider sending an email blast to a group of people instead of individually targeting each one. This will help ensure that every person on your list has an equal chance of participating in the survey.

Conclusion

Now that you have an idea of what to include in your questionnaire, it’s time to get it out there. Don’t forget to make sure your questionnaire is free from typos and errors! It will help people take it more seriously and improve their response rate.

We hope this article has given you some insights into how to create a successful B2B questionnaire. If you need some inspiration then don’t hesitate to contact us here.

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