If you speak with anyone around you, chances are that someone within the crowd has done an online survey within the past month. These inexpensive marketing tools are easy to set up, administer, track, and analyzed by students, employees, and analysts anywhere.

Online surveys have grown rapidly in popularity over the past few years. Quizilla, a popular spot for teens and young adults, is an online source for quizzes, surveys, and polls. While the majority of these surveys result in comical or humorous results (e.g. “What is your Pirate Name?”) online market research is a powerful tool when used correctly.

Online survey providers such as Zoomerang and Survey Monkey offer a variety of packages that allow anyone to administer an effective questionnaire. Free services are provided by each of the companies, but paid packages allow for a larger number of surveys to be administered simultaneously, and more survey participants. However, the far more beneficial aspect of these survey providers is the analysis tools that are offered for post-survey research purposes. From the convenience of a web browser, users are able to compute cross tabs and regressions to easily compile valuable market research data with a few clicks.

However, having a full array of analysis tools and easy administration are only benefits to the administrator. In order for data to be gathered, people need to participate in these virtual surveys. So why are online surveys so popular? The answer is in survey distribution.

Online surveys allow individuals to easily develop questionnaires, save them, and place the links directly into mail merge documents. From the convenience of a single personal computer, a user is able to reach out to anywhere from a sample population of a few individuals from an address book, to a mass email with a limitless survey group. Emails containing these links are easily passed on by initial participants, and given the topic, may become a topic of discussion amongst social groups.

Of course, there is always the question of validity and reliability in survey results. No one is saying that online surveys are entirely accurate and that upper level corporate strategy should be based on this data. However, if one were to step back and look at the possibilities of online surveys, they will quickly see an alternative use.

That's what Illuminated Technologies has done with its newest product, Lumaganda. This lead generation and marketing system takes advantage of surveys and polls as a method of lead generation. Taking part in the survey does not require you to provide a name and/or email address. However, if a participant wants to view survey results, then they must provide a valid email address and have a URL emailed to their inbox. This method of generating leads is intuitive – if you came across the website from a search engine query, then you may be interested in taking part in quick survey. However, if you came across the website from a search engine query, but with a purchase intent, then you would be interested in survey results (especially if the results would be relevant to you).

So while online surveys continue to grow in popularity based on informal market research, individuals who take advantage of such a tool as a lead generation tool may realize its true potential.