Internet Research & Questions, Internet Market Research, Personal Email Surveys

Market research involving the internet falls into two categories:

Research about a company’s actual online activities, e.g. website usage, email newsletters / communications, and secure information services, e.g. customer account data, e-procurement and project management intranets.
Research about any other issues, which is conducted using the internet as opposed to options such as telephone interviewing.

Key to remember, not all internet research is conducted online, and not all online research is about the internet!

As a research and fieldwork option, surveying via the internet offers some key advantages:

Email surveying can allow for large numbers of respondents to be quickly interviewed.
Geographical location is not a barrier (although this can sometimes mean having to produce questionnaires in non-English languages).
Response rates are still, on average, higher than for some other methods, although the high rates originally recorded due to the novelty factor have faded, especially in the face of spam and over-surveying.
Significant cost savings can sometime be made, especially if the best alternative methodology is an expensive one, e.g. in-home, face-to-face interviewing. However, when the costs of questionnaire programming are accounted for, interviewing a small sample by telephone may still sometimes be cheaper than the online option.

The best approach will always be based upon a combination of factors – time, questionnaire complexity, sample profile, and budget.