Survey prices will range depending a number of factors, including whether you purchase a mailing list, who designs the questions for the survey, what communication channel you use to send the survey, and how you want the results analyzed.

Costs are also dependent on the incidence rate, or the number of surveys that need to be sent (or calls that need to be made) in order to get a response. For example, if you send 100 surveys and 10 people respond, your incidence rate is 10 percent.

Phone

Phone surveys can cost anywhere from $5,000-$15,000. They typically cost an average of $40 per interview (or person surveyed).

However, this per-interview price can increase or decrease according to the success of responses. The fewer the responses, the higher the price. For example, if only 50% of the list responds, you'll pay a little more than $40 per interview.

Mail

Surveys via snail mail will run close to the price of phone interviews, usually about $5,000-$7,000 (for 200 responses).

Email

Email surveys are becoming more popular because their costs are lower - about $3000-$5000.

Costs are lower for two reasons. First, postage isn't a concern. Also, email has a higher incidence rate, since the option to answer questions on participants' own time makes them much more likely to respond.

However, a word of caution: Using email for surveys limits your population to those with email access (currently about 40 percent).

Options for cutting survey costs

To save some cash, design the questions for your survey in-house. Also, if you have a ready-made list of recipients (say a list of registered users on your web site), you can avoid the cost of purchasing a mailing list (usually five to fifteen cents a name, which can get pricey).