Audience research, surveys and segmentation
Find out who your customers are and what they need before you write a word: pick a research method that fits the decision, write survey questions that don't steer the answer, report response figures with their denominators, and build segments and personas from evidence rather than assumption.
- Level
- Intermediate
- Length
- About 60 minutes
- Contents
- 3 lessons · 1 video · final exam
- Status
- Published · updated 1 Oct 2026
Skills you'll practise
- Choose a research method (interviews, survey, behavioural data or records) that fits the decision to be made
- Identify leading, double-barreled and agree/disagree questions in a survey draft and rewrite them neutrally
- Calculate completion figures with a stated denominator and recognize when respondents don't represent the audience
- Size a segment from stated inputs and assumptions, and rank segments by fit, size and reachability
- Write a persona summary that cites its evidence and sample sizes
Course outline
- 1.Audience research that holds upVideo · 3 min
- 2.Start from a decision, then choose the methodLesson · 16 min
- 3.Survey questions that don't steer the answerLesson · 18 min
- 4.Segments, sizing and personas from evidenceLesson · 18 min
- 5.Audience research, surveys and segmentation: knowledge checkKnowledge check · 22 questions
- 6."9 in 10 customers love it": a survey headlineScenario
- 7.Final exam10 questions · passing it completes the course, so people who already know the material can test out
Sources it draws on
The lessons and questions are written from these references, so learners can go back to the original.
- Pew Research Center: Writing survey questions (open vs closed, question order, wording, double-barreled questions, acquiescence, pretesting)
- AAPOR: Standard Definitions, final dispositions of case codes and outcome rates for surveys (10th edition, 2023)
- Market Research Society (UK): Code of Conduct (2023 edition)
- General marketing and sales practice (starter content; have a subject expert review it)
See it with your own jobs and topics
Tell us about your team and we'll walk you through setup, from choosing jobs to your first skills check.