SurveyMonkey

Survey Monkey is a popular online survey creation tool available for free and in premium plans with tiered features accordingly. It's super simple to use with a lot of options available. The user interface is very fast and straightforward. I was pleasantly surprised with the customization options to use when I built my first survey. There are five main components including the builder, question bank, logic, options and themes. And there so many options available to be creative with your survey. You have the capability to use preset questions which I think is a cool feature. First you choose your broad category and then it instantly provides you with a choice a relevant questions to ask. This feature will undoubtedly save some time in the future. The editor itself is incredibly simple to use but it's very comprehensive. Once again I was slightly surprised at the amount of choices and the amount of options inside each survey type. You can't use the logic tab until you upgrade to a paid plan but it's good to know there is logical tracking too. I think that would most useful for surveying an internal team but I'm sure there are other uses. The options tab has items like having a footer area or an exit URL available with solid functionality features available. The themes tab is another cool feature where you can select your color for the survey and at least include some branding this way even in the free account. Other free softwares usually disable or greatly limit any sort of theme customization but that's not the case with Survey Monkey which is good to know. Once you've setup you're survey it's as easy as sharing a custom link to it they give you in your account. The reporting can be utilized once shared and there's a lot of very helpful data to help you gain deeper insight into your survey campaign. You can link to your MailChimp account which is another great free software so that makes this an awesome free value combination of softwares available to anyone who wants to start a project or business inexpensively. What a great couple of options to have. The provide free email support too which says a lot about the direction of the company. It's not just about profits but it's willing to nurture and help free leads even if it's just email. I like that the split testing is included in the free plan too. There is a another benefit to using Survey Monkey worth mentioning and that's brand association. Survey Monkey is a strong, trusted brand name and I've been surprised at how much so over the last few months having been offered a several surveys by various corporations or internet marketers almost always powered by Survey Monkey. I've also read that the brand association has helped some companies to have better survey completion rates so that's a huge plus to know and leverage in the business world.

It would be cool to see Survey Monkey integrate with more than just SalesForce as a CRM. Unless I'm mistaken it's the only choice I saw when viewing their complete list of features. I didn't realize there were so many options available for creating surveys. The customization possible had me re-think my entire approach for a campaign. It was a good problem to have because it opened opportunities I wasn't previously aware of, but this did take some valuable time and effected speed to launch of my product. The pricing is not viable for small businesses who want to utilize surveys only casually perhaps once a month, or so.

Overall there is a lot of value in Survey Monkey. The free plan will allow the casual user to utilize complex surveys and the Survey Monkey branding doesn't hurt it actually helps by some accounts so that's great. The paid plans are going to suit larger companies who complete a lot of market research surveys or have other ways to utilize it and justify the price. I recommend it, starting with the free trial in either situation to learn whether it's the best option for your project or business.