How to Create an Online Survey in 7 Steps

1) Define your goal before writing questions

Before you start creating questions, it's important to clarify why you're creating the survey in the first place. A clearly defined goal will help you decide what questions to ask respondents, who to send the survey to, and what purpose the results will serve. Without a clear goal, you often end up with a survey full of unrelated questions that won't give you the data you actually need.

Examples of possible survey objectives

• You need to find out why customers are switching to competitors.
• You are interested in how satisfied employees are with the work environment.
• You want to validate whether a new idea meets market needs.

2) Determine who you will ask

Another important step in creating a survey is determining who your respondent will be. In other words, who will be answering the questions. Choosing the right target audience has a crucial impact on the quality of data you collect. If you're asking the wrong people, the results can be misleading and unusable for your decision-making.

Examples of target audiences

• New customers who just made their first purchase.
• Customers who abandoned their cart.
• People who signed up for the newsletter but haven't purchased yet.
• New employees before the end of their probation period.
• Long-term employees with low engagement.

There's a simple rule for surveys: 'When you ask everyone, you learn nothing.' The better you define your target audience, the more relevant your results will be. To make this easier, personas are often created. A persona is a fictional character that represents a typical person from your target audience. They get a name, age, job, motivations, and problems. Instead of an abstract term like 'customers aged 30-40,' you have Petra, 35, who is furnishing her new modern home and looking for decorations. She works in an office, has little time for shopping in physical stores, so she buys online. She values quality and uniqueness, and is frustrated by ordinary and uninteresting things. She wants fast delivery and easy returns if something doesn't work out.

3) Think about the structure and length of your survey

The quality of your survey structure has a major impact on whether respondents will complete it. If the survey is too long, confusing, or contains complex questions right at the start, many people will close it without hesitation. Keep in mind that completing the entire survey should ideally take no more than 3–5 minutes.

The overall impression is then shaped by a clear introduction that motivates the respondent and explains the purpose of data collection, and a polite conclusion with a thank you that leaves the respondent with a positive feeling about the time they've invested.

4) Choose how you'll create your survey

Modern feedback collection platforms like SentiSnap now offer new survey creation options thanks to advanced technologies. You can accomplish the design process in two ways, depending entirely on your preferences.

Custom creation: This approach is ideal if you already have a clear plan. You build the questions yourself in exactly the order that makes sense to you. You have complete freedom in whether to ask for star ratings or let customers write their answer in their own words. It's all up to you.

AI-powered creation: Sometimes you simply don't know how to start, or you're pressed for time. That's where artificial intelligence steps in. Just tell it in a few words what you want to find out (e.g., 'Customer satisfaction with purchase'), and it will instantly generate a set of well-structured questions for you. You then just review the result, make minor adjustments if needed, and you're ready to send. This is the fastest way to your first response.

Using survey templates: Templates are the ideal solution if you don't want to waste time creating a structure from scratch and want to ensure your survey is professionally built. In SentiSnap, you'll find an extensive library of pre-made templates that cover the most common needs.

5) Create questions and choose appropriate question types

If you've chosen custom survey creation, it's time to formulate and create specific questions. Keep in mind that not only the choice of format, but also the wording of the question itself fundamentally affects the quality of data you collect. Carefully think through what exactly you want to ask, so the question isn't misleading and respondents can easily understand and answer it correctly.

Note: If you're creating a survey using AI or a template, you can safely skip this step.

Types of questions

• Closed-ended questions (multiple choice, star ratings, scales): Offer predefined answers. They're ideal for quickly gathering data that can be statistically analyzed immediately.
• Open-ended questions (free text): Give room for personal opinions and detailed suggestions. They're crucial for understanding deeper motivations and obtaining specific feedback.
• Semi-closed questions (with an 'Other' option): Combine the advantages of both approaches. You get clear data, but don't limit respondents from adding their own input.

6) Publish and collect responses where your respondents are

Once your survey is ready, there's one last and most important step—getting it to the right people. SentiSnap offers several ways to start collecting data within seconds.

Survey sharing options

• Universal link: The easiest way. You can insert the generated link into an email, social media, or private message.
• QR code: Ideal for collecting feedback directly in the field, at a store, or at the end of a presentation; just scan it with a phone.
• Website embed: You can elegantly integrate the survey directly into your website as an interactive element without distracting from your content.

Tip for you: Before launching, go through the survey yourself in preview mode to make sure everything works exactly as you intended!

7) Analyze responses and turn data into informed decisions

Now comes the most important part. The moment you created the entire survey for. In this step, we'll look at what the collected data is actually telling you.

Open-ended response analysis: Analysis allows you to understand not only what is happening (e.g., 40% of people are dissatisfied), but also why it's happening thanks to open-ended response analysis.

Visualization for quick insights: Modern analytics in SentiSnap automatically turns raw data into clear charts. This saves you hours of manual processing and allows you to immediately see trends, such as seasonal fluctuations or changes in customer sentiment.

Tracking over time (Benchmarking): The greatest power of analytics lies in repetition. By comparing this year's results with last year's, you'll find out whether your strategic changes are actually bearing fruit.

Data segmentation: Data filtering in SentiSnap allows you to look at results from different angles (for example, how men vs. women responded, or how opinions differ between loyal clients and new ones).

The collected data is a universal tool for improving products, identifying market trends, and fine-tuning marketing (pricing, promotions). It helps companies stay competitive through precise understanding of customer needs and efficient development of new offerings.

In the HR area and non-profit sector, surveys are used to evaluate company culture, employee satisfaction, and measure the impact of public programs. Proper analysis reveals strengths and weaknesses in internal communication and guides your organization toward better strategic decisions.

Quality analysis will help you uncover hidden problems, understand the real needs of customers, and identify opportunities that would otherwise go unnoticed. Data isn't just statistics—it's a compass for your further development.

Create your professional survey with SentiSnap

In this article, we've shown you how to create an online survey that delivers quality and actionable responses. We've covered the entire process, from defining your goal and choosing the right questions to sharing and analyzing results.

It's important to remember that a successful survey isn't just about the questions. Equally important are its structure, length, how you share it, and how you work with the collected data. A well-prepared survey can help you better understand your customers, employees, or service users.

With SentiSnap, you can create online surveys quickly and easily. The tool helps you design questions, share your survey in various ways, and clearly analyze the responses you receive. Gather insights effortlessly and make better data-driven decisions.