For too long, media organizations operated on instinct, leaving editors to wonder what stories would resonate and business teams to guess who their audience really was. The solution is audience research, a process that replaces assumptions with data.

While research can take many forms, one of the most powerful tools is a direct audience survey. It’s an effort that’d provide immediate feedback and tangible value to both your editorial and business teams.

In this guide, learn how to create and distribute an audience survey for your student media organization.

For the editorial team, a survey could help you:

• Uncover story ideas or specific information gaps within your community
• Prioritize your coverage
• Build loyalty, as when readers see their feedback reflected in the story, they’re more likely to be engaged

For the business team, a survey could help you:

• Gather demographic data to build an audience profile for your media kit
• Strengthen your sales pitch by being more specific about your reach
• Generate leads by asking students about their preferred brands

How to build a survey?

Creating an effective survey is about asking the right questions. The goal is to keep it short, something a reader can complete in 5 to 7 minutes. But the platform you choose, how you push the survey out and the incentive you provide to get people to respond matter too.

1. Choose your tool 

You don’t need expensive software. Free platforms like Google Forms, Survey Monkey and social media polls totally work.

‍2. Create the right questions

Organize your survey into sections like “demographics,” “news habits,” “spending habits,” and “consumer behavior,” for example. Remember that each question you come up with should have a purpose. 

If you’re asking your readers what their favorite place to get coffee or a meal off-campus is, your goal could be getting local business leads or learning where they hang out. 

If you’re asking about their preferred ways of getting news, your goal could be to determine which product to focus on.

We’d recommend making demographic questions optional and assuring respondents that their answers will be kept anonymous for internal use.

Demographic question examples:

• What’s your class year?
• What is your major? Or: What do you study?
• Do you live on- or off-campus?

Media habit question examples:

• How do you primarily get news about campus/your community/insert topic here? (This could be a “select all that apply” type of question)
• How often do you come to our site for news?
• How often do you read the news?
• What is a piece of information on campus that you find difficult to find?
• What is one question you have about the university that you’d like to know the answer to?

Consumer behavior question examples:

• What’s your favorite off-campus place to get coffee or a meal?
• Where do you typically shop for groceries?
• Are you planning to live off-campus next year?
• How much do you have in discretionary spending?
• What services/products do you consider “essential” for your college experience?

3. Offer an incentive

To maximize responses, offer a small incentive. A raffle for a $25 or $50 gift card to a local, student-favorite business can be effective. 

You can also create a lead magnet like “if you complete our survey, you’ll get a guide about top off-campus hangout spots.”

4. Distribute your survey

A great survey is useless if nobody sees and responds to it. Use a surround sound approach to get it in front of as many students as possible.

• Your owned channels: Promote it heavily on your website, social media and your email newsletter. If you have a print version, include a QR code and a shortened link on a house ad.
• Go physical: On top of including it in the print version, you could make flyers and hang them in high-traffic areas like the cafeteria and the library. You can ask people walking by to complete your quick survey too.
• Ask for help: Ask your professors to share the link with their classes and reach out to other student organizations to post it in their group chats.

What’s next?

Audience research shows your commitment to serving your community and advertising clients. You’d create more valuable journalism and build a stronger financial foundation.

If you’re on a business team, you can compile the demographic and consumer data into clean charts for your media kit. Create a one-pager to summarize your audience at a glance for your ad representatives.

If you’re on the editorial side, your survey data should provide a roadmap for you to identify stories with a clear tie to campus that’s relevant to your readers.

Want to work on an audience research project but not sure where to start? Reach out to your account manager for help.