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Guides
7 min

A comprehensive guide on how to run a global software survey

A guide on ways to run a global software survey

GrapeData
Jan 21, 2023
IT/Software

Introduction

A global software survey is a tool that helps you survey the market for your product. Businesses use many different types of software for their day-to-day operations, be it payroll, accounting, or project management. Whether you're looking for more leads or want to produce an updated software market report, a global software survey is a great way to get the information you need. A global software survey can help you understand your current market position and boost lead generation. It also helps determine if your brand is well-known across borders and what regions are most interested in your products or services.

A well-designed survey can help you understand how customers feel about your product or service and what they'd like to see in it. If you're thinking of launching a survey, the first step is choosing the right platform. We'll start with that and then walk through the rest of the steps needed to create a successful global software survey.

With this guide, you'll learn how to create, promote, and analyse the results of a global software survey.

The goal of this guide is to help you:

-Create a survey that will generate useful results for your company

-Promote the survey globally and analyse the results

-Use the results to improve your product or service

Select your target audience and decide a topic for your global software survey

Understanding your target audience is crucial to running a successful global software survey. Who are they? How old are they? What do they do for a living? How much time do they spend at work each day? These answers will help you determine what types of questions to ask during the survey. In addition, it'll help you determine when to send it out. You can find this information by using tools such as Google Analytics, which will let you see where most of your users live and how old they are.

You can also use tools like Google Trends to see what types of questions people are asking. Alternatively, you can conduct your own research by conducting surveys within your target audience.

Design your questionnaire

Now that you have decided on the topics for your survey, it is time to design the questionnaire. This section will guide you through this process. It will also help you avoid common mistakes such as asking too many questions or not providing enough detail.

When designing a questionnaire, there are two main things to consider: what type of information do you want? And how do you get it? The answers to these questions directly influence how many questions should be in your survey, as well as what kind they should be. Here are certain points to keep in mind while designing a global software survey:

  • Open-ended vs closed-ended questions. An open-ended question allows respondents greater freedom in answering than a closed-ended question does. For example, if you ask “How old are you?” then you only need one choice for my answer; however, if you ask “What age range do most people fall into when using Software X?” then your respondents can choose any number between 1 and 100. Because open-ended questions offer more flexibility than closed-end ones (and therefore usually take longer), they're best used when trying to gather highly detailed information from users who know their stuff (like professional software developers). Closed-enders are better suited for gathering quick answers from less technical users who may have less specific needs (like nontechnical business owners).
  • The number of choices per question. There's no hard rule here. It depends entirely on what type of information needs collecting and how much detail each answer needs to provide before moving on to another topic.

Prepare a way to distribute your survey

While the web is a great place for distributing surveys, it's not the only option. If you're going to be surveying people who are outside of your immediate geographic area and don't have access to the internet, or if you just want an alternative way of reaching them (e.g., because emailing every single person would take far too long), then consider these options:

  • Phone call: Get in touch with everyone one-on-one on the phone. This is usually a last resort but can work if necessary. After all, most people do have smartphones these days!
  • Postal mail: Ask participants to send back a written response through regular mail service (snail mail). You may want to use a postage meter so that they don't have to pay anything extra for sending their responses back to you at all. This will save both time and money when trying out this method!
  • Face-to-face conversation: Go visit each potential participant in person and ask them questions one by one! It'll be fun :)

There are many different ways to distribute surveys. The best option will depend on the type of people you’re surveying and how much time and effort you want to put into it.

If your global software survey is very short, then it might be okay to just post it online and see what happens. If you’re surveying many people who are spread out over a large area (e.g., everyone in the U.S.), then consider sending it as an email attachment or as a link to an online form on a website. These tend to be much more effective than just posting something on social media because they allow people to respond at their leisure. Additionally, they don't require them to make an active effort of looking for the survey themselves.

Launch the global software survey and collect feedback

To launch your survey, you'll need to use a third-party survey tool. Once you've created your survey, it's time to send it out! To make sure people actually see the email, send it during peak hours when most of your audience is online—for example, Monday at 12 p.m., Tuesday at 1pm, or Wednesday at 2pm. Make sure there's a clear call-to-action in the email so users know exactly what they should do next (e.g., click on this link).

Promote the survey

Now that you’ve done the hard work of creating your global software survey, it’s time to promote it. Here are a few ways to do so:

  • Post on social media. Social media is a great way to let people know about your survey and help them spread the word. Use Facebook and/or LinkedIn groups, Twitter hashtags, and other networks where software industry professionals hang out.
  • Post on software industry websites. If you have a blog or website in your niche, consider posting an article announcing that you’re running the survey—then link to it from there (and from any other places where you promote the survey). This will help drive traffic back to your site for months afterward as well as show everyone who visits that they can trust what they read there!
  • Email software vendors and other companies within your niche who might want in on this opportunity! It doesn’t hurt anything if someone else were partaking in this project as well; after all, we're all trying our best here!

How can you get responses quickly for your global software survey

If you want to get a lot of responses quickly, it's best to send out paper surveys via postal mail. This is especially true if the survey is long and complicated since people will take more time reading through a printed copy than they would on a computer screen. If you need to keep costs down and don't mind spending extra time on data entry, then you can use an online survey service (like Google Forms) instead. These are helpful because they allow you to easily customise your questions, collect responses in real time, and share results with others (e.g., by embedding them on your website).

Depending on the nature of your company and its audience, you’ll want to choose a communication channel that is easy to use and convenient for them. For example, if you are running an online survey that requires people to log in with their email addresses, then sending an email campaign is probably not going to work well. This is because not everyone uses emails as their primary means of communication. In this case, using SMS or Facebook Messenger may be more effective since they are much more widely used by today’s millennials than older generations.

Analyse and share the results of your global software survey

Once you have gathered all the data, it's time to create a report and share it with your team. The report should include the following information:

  • Who was surveyed (location, role, etc.)?
  • How many people were surveyed in total?
  • What questions were asked and what were the responses?

You can then use this information to make strategic decisions about future products or services. For example:

  • Do you want to add more features that are popular with customers from France?
  • Do you want to start selling products in China?

If you’re thinking about conducting a global software survey, here are some tips to help make the process easier.

  • Email software vendors and other companies within your niche who might want in on this opportunity!
  • Make sure you have a clear purpose for the survey.
  • Why do you want to conduct the survey? What questions will it answer?
  • Think about how you’re going to share your findings with others. Will the report be shared with everyone in your organisation or just a select few people?
  • Give respondents some time before starting the survey so they can prepare their answers.

A global software survey exposes the results that help you understand your current market position and boost lead generation

It’s important to consider that a global software survey is not only a way to gather data, but also an opportunity for you to make informed decisions. You should use the results of your global software survey in order to improve your marketing strategy and target audience, as well as improve your product or service.

For example, if you notice that there are certain features that are lacking in one region or another, then it may be time for you to prioritise their development in order to better serve those customers who are looking for them. Or perhaps one of the responses indicated that there was a problem with how one feature was implemented, even though this person wasn’t part of the target audience at all! This could mean something went wrong during implementation and needs fixing before releasing it again into production environments. The bottom line is: use these surveys wisely!

Here are some of the ways you can analyse your global software survey results:

  • Compare this year's results with previous years' data. Did anything change? If so, what caused this change?
  • Compare company-wide data with department-specific information. What are the key differences between teams or departments when it comes to performance and satisfaction on key metrics?
  • Analyse respondents' answers by demographic factors such as age and gender. Are there any significant differences based on these attributes? If so, why do you think this is the case?

Conclusion

The best way to ensure that your software survey is successful is to make sure it's easy for your audience to complete. If people don't have time, they won't take the survey! To learn more about Software Product Evaluation Survey questions to ask, check out our blog.

Hopefully, this post has given you a good overview of how to run a global software survey. The most important part is testing your survey for usability and clarity before you send it out. Remember, people are busy and may not have the time or interest in completing long surveys. Make sure your questions are short and simple as well as easy to understand so that participants don't get frustrated with them or feel overwhelmed by too much information at once.

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