The survey soft launch: Dip your toes in the respondent pool

In the realm of market research, soft launching is akin to a dress rehearsal before the grand opening. It’s a strategic approach that allows researchers to fine-tune their surveys, ensuring they’re not just ready for prime time but also poised to deliver accurate and reliable insights. By testing surveys on a smaller scale, researchers can identify and address potential pitfalls, ultimately enhancing the quality of their data collection efforts.

Looking for something more interactive? Try our 10-minute Soft Launch course in the Lighthouse Academy!

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What is a “soft launch”?

A soft launch helps researchers decide whether their survey is ready to full launch or if changes are required to ensure research success. Soft-launching is crucial to avoid potential mistakes and ensure better quality data.

Using a soft launch approach, researchers test their survey on a small percentage of the total sample pool. The small sample results help identify and address potential issues in survey design, question clarity, and technical issues. More importantly, a soft launch helps researchers mitigate risks, make critical adjustments, and ensure an effective and reliable data collection process before deploying the survey to a larger audience. The variability of incidence rates in different types of surveys underscores the importance of assessing this during a soft launch.

The smaller test group audience must be representative of the desired larger target population and is typically capped at a specific percentage, around 5%–10% of the total sample. Once this limit is reached, the survey automatically pauses and alerts you to review the initial results and determine if it is ready to be launched to the entire sample.

Benefits of a soft launch

A soft launch can help you get the results you need while improving survey performance, providing important benefits.

Monitoring the response rate during a soft launch can help identify areas for improvement before wider distribution.

1. Survey design

• Accurately estimate completion time, set respondent expectations, and evaluate survey fatigue.
• Uncover design issues, including question clarity, survey logic, and overall functionality.
• Improve clarity, highlighting confusing or ambiguous questions or wording, and ensuring unbiased questions for better comprehension.
• Confirm all answer choices and response options are included in the survey.
• Test that the survey flows logically and smoothly, minimizing respondent fatigue and dropout rates.
• Test skip patterns during a soft launch to prevent issues where respondents accidentally skip questions that should be answered, ensuring more accurate data collection.
• Determine the effectiveness of open-ended questions.

2. Target audience

• Confirm that the survey reaches the intended demographic.
• Adjust target strategies before a full launch.
• Enhance user experience, engagement, and user-friendliness.

3. Technical issues

• Test survey under real-world conditions to evaluate respondent load on the survey platform.
• Reveal data inconsistencies.
• Check conditional routing with the option to show or hide logic.
• Collect survey metrics, including IR and LOI.

 A soft launch of an online survey is crucial to test its effectiveness and identify potential issues, ensuring the survey meets objectives and obtains accurate sample representation before full-scale distribution.

A soft launch can boost the researcher’s confidence by refining the critical design, user, and technical issues before a full launch, improving overall survey results.

Soft launch considerations 

While a soft launch has many benefits, researchers should evaluate potential drawbacks.

Small sample size.  Researchers may be unable to identify all potential issues from a small sample size. They must evaluate if the sample size is representative of the entire population, which is typically more extensive and diverse.

Response bias. Respondents may respond differently to a test phase than to a full survey, skewing the broader audience’s reactions. Researchers may also overreact to small sample results and make unnecessary changes to the survey.

Time and cost impact. A soft launch requires additional time and resources to identify survey gaps, make revisions, collect data and insights, and achieve overall research objectives.

Researchers should consider these impacts prior to including a soft launch phase. However, in many instances, the benefits of a soft launch phase outweigh the drawbacks, and it helps researchers achieve their survey goals.

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Soft launch best practices

Many best practices for full-scale surveys also apply to a soft launch phase. At aytm, we recommend that researchers follow proven best practices, which include the following.

• Define clear objectives. Clearly outline soft launch objectives such as testing survey functionality, question clarity, or respondent engagement.
• Select a representative sample. Choose a small, diverse group of respondents that closely mirrors your target population to ensure the feedback is relevant and applicable.
• Limit the scope. For best results, test 5–10% of your target population, which is usually sufficient to identify major issues without using too many resources.
• Test technical aspects. Ensure that all technical aspects, including skip logic, branching, and response recording, function correctly. Test on multiple devices and browsers, if applicable.
• Assess completion rates and times. Analyze the completion rates and times. Evaluate if the survey is too long or too burdensome for respondents.
• Monitor responses closely. Regularly check responses to identify and address technical glitches or confusing questions quickly.
• Analyze data thoroughly. Carefully review the data to identify patterns, inconsistencies, and areas for improvement.

Soft launches allow for adjustments to be made based on initial feedback and help identify any issues in the survey flow or structure.

• Be prepared to make changes. Use the insights to refine and improve the survey and address rephrasing questions, adjusting response options, or modifying the survey flow.
• Iterate if necessary. If significant issues are present, consider conducting another round of testing after making improvements.
• Document findings and changes. Keep detailed records of the feedback, issues, and changes to ensure the success of future survey projects.
• Communicate adjustments to stakeholders. Share the insights and adjustments with relevant stakeholders to maintain transparency and build confidence in the survey’s final version.

These best practices will ensure you conduct a successful soft launch and achieve your overall research objectives.

Conduct a soft launch with aytm

Remember, you don’t have to go alone on a soft launch. The experts at aytm are here to help.

1. The first step is to reach out to your aytm account manager with the Survey ID, total N, and the number of completes desired for your soft launch.
2. The survey will then transition to the Panel Operations team, who will monitor both the soft launch and subsequent full survey launches.
3. When your soft launch is complete, we’ll contact you to ask you to review and complete a data check.
4. When you are ready, let our team know to proceed with the full launch. If adjustments must be made before the full launch, we can discuss options and pricing to improve feasibility or narrow the search, as appropriate. Keep in mind that cloning and editing may be required depending on the changes needed.

Ready to get started on a soft launch—or deploy your next survey?  Just download aytm’s guide, The marketer’s jumpstart survey guide: Reviewing the fundamentals of quantitative market research, here.