Editor’s note: Researchscape International is an agile survey research consultancy and SaaS firm.

Surveys are a proven and cost-effective method of generating publicity for organizations yet many public relations professionals, marketers and marketing researchers struggle with creating and maximizing coverage when doing survey work.

This article will cover 10 tips for creating an effective survey press release including:

A goal focuses your efforts and saves time and money that might have gone to extraneous details. Long-term goals include building brand awareness, demonstrating thought leadership and developing content to support lead generation. Common short-term goals include providing support for a product launch or for entering a new geographic region or for event promotion.

With your goals in mind, brainstorm the possible headlines or key findings you would love to see and find intriguing. Let your imagination go wild in envisioning the results that will best drive coverage. 

Rein in that imagination now by drafting questions that are easy to understand and free from bias. Once done, make sure a professional market researcher reviews them for errors or biases and rewrites them if necessary.

Business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) surveys have their own DNA and different sample sizes should be considered for each. For example, in conducting an analysis of 3,106 newsmaker press releases issued between 2013 and 2023, we found a wide range of consumer survey sample sizes but 80% of them had at least 1,000 responses. For B2B surveys, the number of responses is typically lower due to the higher cost of reaching specialized audiences. Fifty-six percent of B2B surveys had 500 or more respondents.

Credible survey releases and content marketing material should contain the information reporters are trained to ask for including how many people were surveyed, from ...