Research Now’s Panel Recruitment Procedures
Background
Research Now began operating online research panels in 2000 and now offers access to more than 6 million panelists in 38 countries around the world. Our industry-leading programming and client services team manages approximately 2,000 projects per month.
With offices in 22 locations globally, Research Now employs over 1,000 experienced, research savvy professionals to manage our e-Rewards and Valued Opinions Panels, and serve over 700 clients and 40 panel partners.
Sample Source
In partnership with trusted globally recognized consumer- and business-focused brands such as AIRMILES, American Eagle, Best Buy®, Borders®, Continental®, Delta Air Lines®, JC Penney®, Macy’s®, Pizza Hut® and Virgin Atlantic Airways, among others, we are able to utilize a “by-invitation-only” panel recruitment model to enroll pre-validated individuals or individuals with known characteristics into our e-Rewards Opinion Panels. This specialized recruitment model enables us to strategically engage hard-to-reach audiences that typically do not seek out and join online panels. The individuals who have been invited into our panels have pre-existing relationships with the company that invited them. This recruitment approach has proven to yield the highest level of panel quality and representation, and guards against duplication, fraudulent respondents and professional survey takers.
We utilize multiple source recruitment methods to enroll individuals into our Valued Opinions Panel including e-mail, online marketing, and by-invitation, with over 300 diverse online and offline affiliate partners and targeted website advertising. By utilizing multiple recruitment methods we are able to recruit a diverse set of “everyday” consumers and decision-makers to participate in our Valued Opinions Panels.
All of our panels are actively-managed online access panels that include the e-Rewards Opinion Panels and Valued Opinions Panels. All panels are localized, not just translated, with native language panel support and country-specific reward choices.
Panel Recruitment
Research Now’s e-Rewards Opinion Panels utilize a “by-invitation-only” recruitment methodology — a method of exclusively inviting pre-validated individuals or individuals who share known characteristics to enroll into our e-Rewards panels. Through partnering with a large and diverse set of ubiquitous brands, we are able to invite everyday consumers and business professionals into our panels.
We tailor our recruitment partner strategy specifically to target groups that are not already represented in our panel. For example, we expanded our membership of 18 to 25 year-old panelists in North America by partnering with youth focused brands and creating a unique, youth-oriented panel experience. Our panelists are also among the industry’s most responsive. We believe our differentiated incentive models in which every member receives incentives for each interaction help ensure these members are retained and that Research Now achieves industry-leading response rates.
The Research Now e-Rewards Opinions Panel invitation explains the following:
“We’d like to invite you to join an online survey panel from one of the country’s leading market research companies, and earn rewards just for sharing your opinions.”
It is also explained that their privacy is guaranteed, there is no cost to join and they will never be asked to make a purchase.
Terms and conditions can be viewed at each panel web site, for example www.e-rewards.com and www.valuedopinions.com. Panel management is compliant with all relevant market research industry standards, data protection and privacy laws.
The Research Now e-Rewards Panel employs a double opt-in process. After receiving a personalized e-mail invitation to join the Research Now program, individuals must opt-in and agree to provide truthful and well-considered answers to online market research surveys.
After the first opt-in during the enrollment process, the individual is sent a follow-up e-mail confirmation that requests for him/her to click on a link to validate opt-in. After a member has double opted-in, he/she is sent a follow-up e-mail that provides them access to their member account. Once a member has completed the double opt-in process, they are then eligible to begin receiving survey invitations.
New panelists who enroll into our Valued Opinion panels complete our website panel registration form, providing their personal information (such as name, e-mail address, etc.), and then complete a registration survey. As part of the enrollment process new panelists are sent an e-mail with a link to confirm their desire to opt-in to the panel. New panelists who confirm their opt-in in this manner are counted as part of the active panel and are eligible to be invited to participate in surveys. Panelists who do not confirm their opt-in are excluded from the active panel and are not counted as active panelists.
Panel Retention and Management
As a cumulative result of the best practices in panel management listed above, we are proud that the average tenure of an e-Rewards panel member in the U.S. exceeds 3 years, and Research Now retains approximately 85% of its panel members each year.
Our average attrition rate across all Valued Opinions panels is between 10% and 50% per year.
Retention rate is calculated by the number of currently opted-in panelists divided by the number of panelists ever enrolled and attrition rate is defined as the percentage of panelists who have unsubscribed themselves or have been “unsubscribed” by our panel team (bouncebacks or panel offences.)
In the U.S., our average panel member qualifies for and participates in less than 6 full surveys per year. Our emerging and international panels have lower utilization than the U.S. Given that Research Now enjoys among the highest response and panel retention rates in the industry, we believe we are maintaining the appropriate balance of survey invitations and member communication.
Research Now uses frequency limiters regarding the number of times a panel member may be contacted to participate in a study. This is required to maintain a healthy balance of respondent “supply” versus client “demand”, as well as optimizing response and retention rates by balancing the need for engagement without the risk of panelist “burn out.”
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| Author | meggers |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2021-01-30 |