One way that companies gather ongoing insights from customers is by conducting panel research. This type of information gathering is a great way to accrue filtered information from pre-recruited individuals who are segmented into different categories. Because these individuals need to participate in ongoing research, recruiting for panel research is a bit different than recruiting for a general market research study.
There are a number of different ways to conduct panel research, and depending on the information that the company is hoping to collect over a period of time, the participants for panel research studies may be selected from the company’s target market segment, a current customer database, or may be expanded to include users of a competitive product.
As with any market research study, the quality of the participants can make or break the study. For participants who have previously taken part in qualitative research studies, being part of panel research may look and feel a little different. When recruiting participants for panel research, we can share with you some tips that we’ve learned over the years.
Your opinion matters—Excite candidates by demonstrating how their participation may help influence the brand. Insights gathered from any market research study are invaluable to companies, especially when developing marketing campaigns or strategic planning.
Be clear about requirements for participation—This holds when recruiting for any type of market study, but especially for panel research, since it often requires ongoing participation. Make it clear to participants that they won’t be paid the incentive unless they complete all, or most, of the study requirements. With panel studies, it’s rare that participants complete 100% of the assignments, surveys, or tasks, so think about the percentage of participation you’ll require for their input to be useful. Some companies are okay with a 60% participation rate, while others require closer to 90%. Depending on how stringent the requirements are will influence how you recruit. The higher the required percentage of completion rate, the more back-up recruits you’ll need. Most participants start out thinking they can meet the targets, but life often gets in the way and it isn’t unusual to have a number of participants fall out of the study due to unforeseen circumstances. This reality doesn’t need to doom your panel research, but you do need to be prepared for no-shows!
Recruit from known and reliable sources—If you’re recruiting from internal databases, then it’s likely you have some way to filter your data so that you can select participants based on demographic or psychographic information. If you’re recruiting from external sources, you’ll need some guardrails to ensure that you’re targeting the right audience. This is where it pays to partner with an experienced market research recruiting firm!
Panel research is a powerful tool companies can use to get quick feedback from a vetted pool of participants. Like any type of quantitative or qualitative study, the quality of your participants will greatly influence the results, so it always pays to select candidates carefully.
Considering a Panel Research study? Contact us today to see how our recruiting teams can help!
