Marketing research helps businesses identify consumer needs and wants so a company can develop and promote products more successfully. Such research also provides the information upon which important advertising and marketing decisions are based. Surveys are used by manufacturers to understand how their customers use their products or how would they respond to a new product. This information is invaluable for a business.

Surveys play a vital role in giving the exact picture of a business’s current standings. A good survey points out the loopholes of a business and also indicates the areas of opportunities. The concept of Marketing totally changed after World War II. In fact it was a selling concept earlier which changed into marketing concept. Now competition is every where and only the fittest survives. The market surveys for a home-based business work best when they are integrated at the stage of product development. To identify the target market and needs of market a survey is extremely important. For a market survey following points should be kept in mind:

1. The survey should have an appropriate Title so it does not take much of the time of responder in understanding that what is it all about. Title should be short and must prepare the responder’s mind for upcoming questions.

2. Market survey for a home-based business should be free of any bias. The responder should be free to answer instead of being lead. It’s better to have a pilot of survey instead of a complete survey so that all the shortcomings could be identified.

3. The questions should be simple in nature and in a single question only highlight one idea.

4. The Jargon (technical language) should be avoided as it would confuse the respondents.

5. Strictly avoid slang. Slang sounds good when you are in social circle but business means something serious so behave professionally.

6. Avoid words having more than one meaning. Ambiguous words confuse the mind of responder and such words can greatly affect the results as different people would take it differently.

7. Try to make the questionnaire having multiple choices as people would be more interested. Time is an asset and people would not easily spare it for a survey, therefore; make your survey as user friendly as possible.

8. Always ask for the personal comments of a responder. It is the best way to get new ideas and the areas left uncovered in your survey. Mind is a machine of ideas and may be the brainstorming of any responder may lead you to completely new arena.

9. Ask for personal information at the end of a survey and it should be optional. Demographic information is very important in online surveys as it gives you a complete picture. This data can be easily converted into information by assessing the response.

So prepare a survey keeping in view the above listed points. After which rationally analyze the surveys keeping in view the complete background of responder. The identification of target market is a very helpful outcome of a survey.