Deep data is the new black — and there’s nothing like getting instant, deep insights into what your customers are really thinking and doing right now. No matter how powerful your analytics are, incorporating data from your actual customers and visitors in real time paints a powerful portrait of where your startup is — and what it can do better.
For entrepreneurs about to bring a new product or service to market, the data can make or break your launch. I asked a panel of successful young entrepreneurs the following question:
What is your favorite service for conducting/collecting survey-based market research online and why?
Here are their 8 favorite Web tools for collecting customer data in real time:
1. Wufoo
The 💜 of EU tech
The latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!
Wufoo (wufoo.com/) is a great form service that comes with lots of pre-baked templates and it’s easy to build and customize your own. I have dozens of Wufoo forms running at any given time for ad hoc research on lots of different things.
2. SurveyMonkey.com
We’re huge fans of SurveyMonkey.com. We use their service to gain customer insights about new products and services before we launch them (to reduce marketing risk) and to collect feedback and product testimonials from our customers (to increase conversions). With SurveyMonkey.com, you can set up a survey in seconds and it’s free to get started. Hard to beat that!
– Pete Kennedy, Main Street ROI
3. AYTM
Though definitely not cheap, Ask Your Target Market (http://aytm.com/) is definitely most reasonable online market research tool I’ve found. You can dive super deep, and results are delivered within days.
4. PollEverywhere.com
We love PollEverywhere.com. You can create real-time surveys at live events which everyone can participate in through basic SMS texting, web or Twitter. You can use the service to engage the audience with a goofy question, or create serious real-time research. We love how easy it is to set up and the affordable price point.
– Aaron Schwartz, Modify Watches
5. Qualaroo
Qualaroo (formerly KISSinsights) is great because you can put it on your site or blog and have surveys show up on any page on your site you’d like. This can lead to some amazing, super-targeted research from the audience you already have but may not know as well as you’d like. It takes only a very minimal amount of engineering setup then anyone on your team can start surveying.
– Jason Evanish, Greenhorn Connect
6. Polls.io
Polls.io is an incredibly simple and easy way to collect survey research. It’s free and takes a second to set up.
7. Google Consumer Surveys
Google Consumer Surveys is like SurveyMonkey on crack. Not only is it a great tool to create surveys, but guess what — they also brought in, AND segmented the folks who can answer your survey. Google Consumer Surveys is expensive, but worth it — you can use the data to gain a better understanding of your own business, but also create some fodder for blog posts.
– Sunil Rajaraman, Scripted.com
8. iContact
Since I already send out my e-mail newsletter using iContact’s services, it’s easy and convenient to also send out surveys through this tool.
– Elizabeth Saunders, Real Life E®
Image Credit: Kirill Kudryavtsev/Getty Images
Get the TNW newsletter
Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.