PR Agencies are Increasingly Turning to DIY Survey Software but Must Avoid the Pitfalls of Obtaining too few Opinions, says Cint

Research is a fundamental part of public relations and, in particular, peoples’ opinions assist in telling a story; decreased budgets mean that PR agencies are using do-it-yourself survey software for consumer research more than ever before to create news but they must ensure enough people are polled to make the research valid, says global provider of market research tools, Cint.

Employing a market research company to develop, field and analyze results of a survey can be an expensive and lengthy process depending on the number of questions asked and the number of respondents required. The DIY route is, therefore, becoming increasingly popular within the PR industry but conversely, the sector is suffering criticism for not securing reactions from enough members of the public, unfortunately making much survey-led news invalid.

Having a sufficient number and wide range of people to poll is often why survey-led news fails to be covered in the media and why public relations professionals traditionally have had to turn to research companies to handle the collection of opinions. Nevertheless, some such companies, as well as most free survey software providers, do not offer enough transparency for PR agencies to ensure those polled are from a breadth of backgrounds, ages, of an equal gender split, plus other important groupings; this also is leading to the belief that a percentage of PR research is biased or bogus.

Bo Mattsson, CEO at Cint, commented: “It is understandable why many PR professionals are choosing to do more research themselves, predominantly for budgetary reasons. By running survey-led stories that are not substantiated with a wide selection and large enough numbers of respondents, however, it can be damaging to their industry and ultimately impede the chance of the news being used by the media. If PR agencies want to deliver meaningful coverage for their clients, they should be opting for DIY software solutions that give them access to representative target groups comprising real people whilst not draining financial resources.”

Cint Access is a DIY solution for gaining market insight, which is linked to OpinionHUB, the only transparent marketplace containing over 7 million people who are waiting to offer their views.

For more information visit www.cint.com.