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Establishing and Maintaining Online Panels

by Albert Fitzgerald

Editor's Note: Orginally published in the San Diego Daily Transcript, June 2000

You have been asked to conduct a research study among a specific segment of information technology decision-makers in Europe and the study is scheduled to start next week. Where will you find qualified respondents in such a short time? Fortunately, a while back you planned ahead and established an online panel and are confident you'll make the deadline.

At first glance, the thought of establishing and maintaining a research panel can be time consuming and overwhelming, but you will soon see that your efforts will pay dividends by significantly reducing the amount of time and money necessary to conduct market research studies.

An online panel consists of a group of specifically targeted individuals in a particular field who have agreed to participate in ongoing market research via the Internet. They can be grouped by profession, income level, gender, age, and almost any other factor you are interested in. The panel can be utilized for a variety of research studies including new product concept testing to complex conjoint studies.

There are many benefits of establishing an online panel. Not only do you have instant access to a specific type of respondent, but, by definition, the panel members are matched to the targets you are trying to influence. In other words, you don't have to spend valuable time locating and recruiting specific hard to reach individuals-they have already agreed to participate and belong to the group you're interested in hearing from. In addition, online panels offer lightning fast data capture, increased accuracy, and nearly instantaneous reporting.

So, you agree that setting up a panel could save you time and money, but you don't have a clue as to how to go about it. The first step is to ask qualified individuals to participate. You can contact respondents who have participated in previous studies as well as obtain names from published lists and directories or the yellow pages. The next step is to send them an invitation via mail, email or telephone to participate in the panel. Interested individuals are asked to provide their email address and complete a brief online registration questionnaire. At this time, all demographic, firmographic and contact information is obtained. Once the panelists have registered, they are ready to receive an invitation to a particular study.

It is important to ensure that the panel is balanced demographically and according to other key variables such as region, firmagraphics, etc. In order to obtain balanced data, it is essential that the panel be broad enough to encompass the range of people in your target audience.

Once you have established the panel, the question becomes how to maintain it. Even the best panels will eventually become worthless if care is not taken to retain and replace members on a regular basis. A variety of methods can be employed to maintain panelist participation. Cash, gifts, products, lotteries or access to study results can be offered as an incentive to participate. These should be distributed very soon after the survey data is collected to maintain trust and interest. Often a simple thank you email can go a long way in making participants feel appreciated and valued and maintain their obligation to participate. Also, reminding them that their opinions are helping shape future products is a benefit. Keeping surveys short and simple can also be effective. Finally, it is important to limit the number of times individuals are asked to participate in research studies. Typically, asking panelists to participate a maximum of once every three months is a good rule of thumb to follow. This will eliminate the possibility of participant burn out or of any one person having undo influence in a particular area.

Regardless of the strides taken to retain panelists, you can expect approximately 30 percent of the panel to drop out each year. Metrics can be developed to determine at what point a member is considered a drop out. For instance, you might decide that they are no longer interested after they fail to respond to three invitations or after receiving an email bounceback. When this happens, it is important to replace these individuals.

My company has successfully established and maintained numerous panels in the United States and Europe and we are currently establishing panels in Japan and Mainland China. The process can be challenging, but when you think of having to recruit from scratch for each study, the idea becomes more and more appealing.

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