Up your online survey response rate
It’s not what you ask, but how you ask it. With our survey maker, your questions will pop up one at a time—just like a real conversation. The result? You get more responses!
An online survey is not just a tool that helps you jot down a list of questions. It's a great way to get customer feedback and gain insights into what your audience thinks, feels, and most importantly-what it wants. Below we'll go through some tips for creating a free survey and using our easy form builder. Suffering from writer's block? Take a look at our survey questions examples and tips, or if you want to get stuck in with our survey maker straight away, get started. Not sure whether you should be making a survey or a questionnaire? Check out our guide on survey vs questionnaire.
Templates for our free survey maker
Take a look at our list of survey & questionnaire templates and examples or pick a template below, use the builder to tweak the questions, touch up the design and you’re good to go. Looking to make a poll? Take a look at our Poll Maker.
Employee Engagement Survey
Measure employee engagement with a beautiful template that doesn’t bore people to death. Build a happier and more productive workplace.
Employee Satisfaction Survey
Easily measure employee satisfaction to build a happier, more productive workplace.
Brand Awareness Survey
Measure brand awareness to navigate the competitive space. Measure brand awareness to navigate the competitive space.
Voice of the Customer Survey
Listen to what your customers think about you – and find out what’s important to them.
Website Questionnaire
Use this website questionnaire template to get honest feedback from your customers.
Product Research Survey
Create a great product by asking the right questions to your target audience.
Before you launch, remember
Taking an online survey is probably not the highlight of someone’s day. Respect people’s time and attention. How? Try to consider your target audience as well as what you want from them.
→ How much time and attention is reasonable to ask of my audience for the survey? → How motivated are they? → Which questions get me the most nuanced and honest answers for the least effort? → Will my questions give me information I need to know, or information I just want to hear?
The point of every survey is truth, not approval or validation.
Survey friends, not strangers
If you want people to engage with your content, treat those who take your survey like a friend—even if you don't know them. To personalize your survey, use Typeform's Piping feature to address people by name throughout it. Make sure they feel welcome with the right question choices and they'll return the favor with honest answers.
Open-ended questions provide depth
Surveys can include a number of different question types. A lot of them are "closed", such as ratings, multiple choice or yes/no questions. People's attention spans are short, so stick to these for the most part.
The open-ended question (How do you feel about ...) is a CEO's favorite because it invites people to share and go deeper than yes or no. Create a survey with open-ended questions for spontaneous, organic responses. Just be aware that answers might snowball off topic.
Reducing dropout rates
Some surveys (hopefully not yours) don't give enough options, and sometimes the options given aren't appropriate. It leaves people feeling like they have to either lie or just drop out of the survey. To prevent this, include an option for Other or None of the above where appropriate.
Survey makers often ask for pointless information, too. Empathize with your audience and cut questions that don't add value.
How to be conversational
Always use simple, direct language and avoid jargon whenever possible. Using fancy words like tech specs, acronyms or inside jokes makes people yawn. Be clear, casual, and transparent. That way your survey will get more, better quality answers.
Ambiguity is the enemy—no exceptions. All questions and answer options should be crystal clear.
Avoid leading, evocative, and biased language. It ruins people's trust and compromises the data.
Stay consistent with rating points. Measuring the answer in question A from 1-5 but in question B from 1-25 makes life harder for everyone.
It's okay to ask a sensitive question, but don't expect everyone to answer. Give people an out-make sure to add a Prefer not to answer option.
Make it feel good
Here’s a few handy tips on how to use design and style to help people along.
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Shorter and smarter
Nothing kills a fleeting attention span like a long chore. Use Survey Logic in our survey software to make your typeform survey more interactive by allowing it to respond based on how people answer. You can also use question branching and conditional logic to make sure respondents see only the most relevant questions.
Ideally, an online survey should take a maximum of 5 minutes to complete.
A progress bar helps people understand where they are, how much is left, and whether they want to finish the survey.
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Personality is the new black
Typeforms let you express yourself while doing valuable data collection. To create a survey that feels like you, use your brand guidelines or other visuals like images, GIFs, videos, and more.
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Welcome and thank them
Don't forget to state the purpose of your survey. Briefly explain why your answers will be helpful to you and what it means for them before they take your survey. Add a customizable Welcome Screen to get people going.
Last impressions matter, too. Once your survey's completed, say hasta la vista and thank them for their time in a Thank You Screen. Include a link to a web page, add social media channels, or some other call to action.
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It’s not just what you say, it’s how you say it.
Start off with easy, no-brainer questions before you go into sensitive or specific topics. If you want a soft landing as well, you can save demographics questions (age, gender etc.) for last.
However you approach your survey, make sure to treat the it as a conversation, not an interrogation—typeforms let people focus on one question at a time.
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Guide your audience with multiple choice questions
Multiple choice questions are easy and quick to take. They're a natural way to move people toward the finish line, without getting survey fatigue.
This question type is a great way to test what an audience remembers or prefers, but it's an ineffective way to explore complex ideas and thoughts.
So what's the right way to ask a multiple choice question? Your questions should provide purpose and context. The answers have only one job: be different from each other.
Don’t do this:
Regarding citizenship, which of these applies to you? Choose one or several. *I am a European citizen *I am an African citizen *I am an Asian citizen *I am a North American citizen *I am a South or Central American citizen
Do this:
Which citizenship(s) do you hold? *European *African *Asian *North American *South or Central American
Structure your question clearly enough for people to understand it right away. If your audience gets confused or annoyed by repetition, they’re likely to ditch your survey.
Integrations are the cherry on top
Integrations help you do even more with the data you collect. Here’s a few ideas you could do once people have completed your survey.
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Use Google Sheets to keep data tidy
Analyze on-demand. If you're a marketer or entrepreneur, use our Google Sheet app integration to manage your results or share them with someone who doesn't have a Typeform account. If you're sending out customer satisfaction survey questions, you'll want to know where the most pain points are. If you're a teacher, you may want to track student results or feedback for you.
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Send captured leads to Mailchimp
If your goal is to collect leads, our survey creator's Mailchimp integration is just what you've been looking for. After setting up the integration, all you need to do is include questions for name and email, and your typeform will automatically send the contact info straight to Mailchimp.
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Update Intercom contacts with new leads
If you use Intercom, you can transfer valuable customer data from your survey straight to your Intercom CRM account.
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Send certificates or vouchers via Gmail
Once someone has completed a survey, you might want to automatically send them a voucher or certificate of completion. Just craft up a nice email, and integrate your Gmail account with Typeform.
This advanced feature is only one of the hundreds of free online tools you can use with Typeform to make your survey, form, or quiz even smoother. Others include Google Drive, Dropbox and Salesforce.
Qualitative or quantitative, what's the best option?
If you're looking to understand more about how to structure your surveys to get the best data, take a look at our guide on qualitative vs quantitative research methods.