When researchers are planning an online survey, they need to consider who they want to interview. This means that they will have to decide who should be in their sample of respondents.
For example, if the researcher is interested in learning about the experiences of people who live in a particular country, he or she might choose to interview only those people who live in that country. Alternatively, if the researcher wants to find out about the experiences of everyone who has ever lived in that country (including children), he or she might choose to include children as part of his or her sample.
When choosing which respondents will participate in a study, researchers need to think about what they want their results to mean and how they will use them. For example, if you are interested in learning about how people feel about having pets at work and you only want to talk with people who work at companies where pets are allowed, then your sample should contain only these people.
LEARN ABOUT: Panel Respondents
There’s nothing more frustrating than spending the necessary time and energy on a survey research project, only to realize that your survey respondents don’t qualify for the survey. When using a survey to support a research initiative, it’s far too familiar for the researcher to focus on designing and building the survey, while neglecting the target audience.
No matter how well the survey is designed, all the effort is useless if you cannot put forward your questions to the right target. This article addresses the most suitable ways to identify survey respondents.
LEARN ABOUT: Survey Mistakes And How to Avoid
Let’s get into the 9 tips on how to target the right target respondents for an online survey
There are multiple options to recruit the right respondents for online surveys. Here are the top 9 tips:
1. Target the right group
One of the most important and first factors to consider is targeting the right group of people. You can get a higher response rate only by selecting the correct audience. Remember, only the appropriate audience can produce valuable information. Targeting the wrong respondents will deem your survey redundant.
2. Figure out the right balance of respondents
Finding the correct respondents is essential, but getting the right balance of survey takers is equally essential for the success of the survey. To get the most representative data, demographic segmentation is important. You must consider the percentage of male and female customers, or the percentage of teenagers and adults, based on the requirement.
3. Email campaigns
If you have an existing list of contacts that have opted-in to receive emails from you, you can send your survey to them. Just bear in mind to send your survey to a sample representing the population and not everybody in your contact list.
LEARN ABOUT: Survey Sample Sizes
It’s important to make sure that the people who are receiving your survey are representative of the whole population you’re interested in studying. For example, if you’re looking for information about how customers feel about their experience at a restaurant, it wouldn’t be appropriate to ask only those who had eaten there within the last week or month. You should instead ask questions of those who have eaten at the restaurant over a longer period of time, so as not to skew the results toward more recent experiences.
4. Social media posts
One of the easiest ways to get a lot of responses is to share your survey link on social media. You can also use paid advertising options, but this will probably cost you more money and it may not give you as many responses.
If you want to get responses from people who are already on Facebook or Twitter, this is a great way to do it. Be sure to add screener questions to the survey so that you do get the target audience that you were anticipating.
5. Take advantage of the website traffic
Organic website traffic is a viable and suitable method to identify survey respondents. Depending on the nature of the study, you could host a survey invitation on your website’s homepage, and allow potential survey respondents to choose whether they qualify or not to take your survey.
This method should not be used if your topic is relatively niche; but, if you’re interested in a broader and more approachable topic, it’s more likely that a random visitor to your website could provide you with the feedback necessary to derive some insight.
6. Use an online community platform
For online user studies, there are several platforms, the most popular being Reddit, Craigslist, Ethnio, QuestionPro Communities, etc. This is a great way to target the right respondents for an online survey. With close to a quarter-million unique users and thousands of communities or “subreddits,” Reddit can be used to target people over a range of niche topics. You need to gauge the motivation of participants to participate in your research. Some are focussed on making quick money, and getting feedback from those participants could be bad for your research.
7. Recruit from your panel
Depending upon the size of your company and customer base, you may want to set up and nurture your user panel. Although building a panel costs a significant amount of money and effort, the investment pays off in the longer run. The respondents are readily available. You also already have a pre-screened list ready. The challenge here is to keep the panelists engaged and make sure that all panelists evenly get the opportunities to participate in user research. Always avoid creating “experienced testers”. Engaging a company, specializing in UX or user research, to create and manage your panel helps you to focus on running other important aspects of research.
8. Use the existing customers
Existing customers are great at providing feedback on new features or upgrades to existing products or services because they already have first-hand experience using your platform. This approach doesn’t work too well due to the recency effect bias, etc., and definitely not advised as the only source when researching new products. In such cases, you need to opt for other sources for recruitment.
9. Use online panel vendors
In order to reach the right respondents for your online survey, you will want to make sure that your panel is up-to-date. The best way to do this is by using a panel recruitment vendor. Panel recruitment vendors are available online, and they provide you with profiles of respondents who have completed relevant pre-screening online questionnaires. These audiences are actively ready to partake in online surveys.
LEARN ABOUT: What Is A Panel Survey?
You can also check the demographic and psychographic segmentation of these participants to ensure that their database information is most up-to-date. This way, you can target the right respondents for an online survey.
Keeping up with the market trends
Have you ever had a survey that you just could not get to work? Maybe you were trying to conduct a survey for a specific group of people and could not find any way to identify them. Maybe you were trying to collect feedback from your customers but did not know how to find them.
Well, we have good news! There is an easier way to do this. Using panels, you can specify the criteria of your target respondents for an online survey. The panel service providers then take the lead on identifying groups of people that fit your needs, taking most of the work off of your plate. This helps you collect the data and analyze your project faster with more efficiency.
Interested in having a QuestionPro panel specialist walk you through the panel process? Fill out our Panel Request Form and a team member will assist you every step of the way.
