Sparq: Sneak Peek
Coming this Fall our flagship product, Panel+ becomes Sparq - the world's first online research platform to unite one off surveys, custom panels and private online communities.
Articles
Telephone Refusal Rates on the Rise
A study conducted by the PMRS Response Rate Committee further
According to a 2003 report by the PMRS, refusal rates for telephone surveys have been increasing incrementally since 1995. The published findings cover the period from 1995 to 2002, and show a distinct trend towards increased refusal rates.
The report revealed that researchers are often refused even before the reason behind the call is fully understood. Unsolicited calls are viewed as 'nuisance' calls, due in part to the increase in the amount of solicitation that has been imposed on households in recent years.
The Committee has also reported that response rates vary substantially by whether the sponsor is identified or not and by whether the sample is from a list or randomly dialed. This makes it very difficult for marketers to remove bias by conducting any sort of un-branded research.
Increasing phone refusal rates, don't call lists, and number portability have had a very negative impact on telephone research. At the same time, the increase in Internet usage among North Americans is proving to be the great equalizer in the research equation. Some key reasons include lower sample costs, timeliness of results, the unobtrusive nature of completing surveys, and the ability to show images and videos.
The bottom line is that truly random sampling in telephone research no longer exists.
To access the full study by the PMRS Response Committee please click here
Posted on March 29, 2005
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Email Incentives Work, Study Shows
Not that you should be surprised, but we now have definitive proof that email promotions work.
We have good news for those of you who have been using incentives to recruit and maintain your panels. According to a study by Advertising.com, including a promotional offer in your email campaign can improve your open rates by more than 100%, and click-through rates by up to 1,000%. Now, of course, the type of promotion being offered plays a significant role in the success of your campaign, but it seems frequency is not a major factor.
Researchers analyzed four different combinations of promotion and frequency, across 6.2 million opt-in email messages, to arrive at their results. A bi-weekly newsletter with no incentive offered achieved the lowest open and click-through rates, while campaigns with incentives achieved incremental increases in performance based on the type of incentive being offered.
A monthly newsletter that included a coupon showed a 40% increase in open rate over the newsletter with no incentive, and a 398% improvement in click-through. However, a one-time mail out that included an instant win game won the day with a 133% improvement in open rate and 1,143% increase in click-through rate!
The point we're trying to make here is not that you have to give away huge prizes in order to increase your response rates, just that if you are going to give away prizes you should use them to your advantage. The key to making good use of this information is to tell your audience what your email contains before they open it. If you wait until the third paragraph to get to the point, you'll find yourself in the recycle bin almost every time. Write a catchy subject line, and the rest should take care of itself.
Posted on March 3, 2005
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Michael Jackson for Governor
Providing the name of every contender and party can become impractical in a telephone poll. Online surveys provide a welcome solution for companies and voters alike.
During last year's presidential campaign in the United States, the CPOD Global Scan Inbox frequently received messages from discouraged American voters. Many of them complained that, once they got a chance to voice their opinion to a pollster, they did not hear as many options as they hoped for. Independent candidate Ralph Nader was sometimes left out of surveys, as well as Libertarian Michael Badnarik, Constitution Party nominee Michael Peroutka and Green Party hopeful David Cobb.
A voter from Arizona described how he tried, in vain, to have an interviewer register his choice. He was unhappy with his support for Badnarik being sent to the 'Other' column, or worse yet, to be branded as one of many 'Undecided' citizens.
A woman in the swing state of Iowa - possibly one of few Americans who received phone calls from two distinct pollsters - discussed how subtle differences in the way candidates were described could have had an effect on respondents. Once she was asked to choose between George W. Bush, and John Kerry. The second time around, it was George Bush (no 'W' this time) and John F. Kerry. The 'F' -she contended- recalled the Kennedy mystique. She blamed the inclusion of Kerry's middle initial for a noticeable tilt in the sample to the Democratic nominee.
Still, no single election in North America proved more of a challenge for telephone pollsters than the October 2003 California gubernatorial recall. From a simple Yes-or-No question regarding the dismissal of Gray Davis, interviewers had to ask a subsequent query that defied patience on both sides of the line. With 135 candidates running for office, it was hard for anyone to figure out where to establish a cut-off point. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Cruz Bustamante were the established frontrunners, but the 'Other' column could have easily received more responses than the first seven or eight favourite contenders.
An online survey could have saved time, money, and sanity in California, especially had they taken advantage of the medium and accompanied the lengthy list of names with candidate's photos. That way, people would have been able to verify that Republican contender Michael Jackson was not wearing a silver glove, and that Robert Dole was not the Republican who fell off the stage in the Golden State before the 1996 presidential election.
Online polls conducted last year in the U.S. proved more accurate in predicting the outcome of the national race than traditional telephone polls, as well as being able to predict the outcome in some of the key battleground states. Hopefully this trend will continue in the future, allowing many more voters to become part of the political process without being inconvenienced.
Posted on March 2, 2005
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Panel+ Case Study : Women’s Voice Online
The first decision to be made was to decide upon the target audience. Women, aged 18-54 years of age, were chosen to represent the TV viewing audience of the specialty channel reported by Nielsen audience measurement data. Based on the research requirements of Corus Entertainment, it was determined that approximately 2,000 respondents would be necessary in the panel. With the assistance of Vision Critical?s panel consulting and implementation team, respondents were recruited from a variety of double opt-in email lists over a five week period.
It is important to remember that such high response rates are not always possible in custom online panels, and are the result of a good recruitment strategy, well-designed surveys, and frequent contact with panelists. Some of the comments we've received from panelists are included below.
Also, see what Feldman Research had to say about Women's Voice in their newsletter by clicking here.
I also answer online surveys for three other consultants, but my favorite is by far, Women's Voice. Your surveys are interesting, have easy to understand wording for the most part and are not too cerebral. Other surveys I've participated in require a contract lawyer just to figure out what the heck is being asked!
I look forward to participating in future surveys online.
Very sincerely,
SK
Thanks for sending such an informative and funny email for February, sounds like we've been reporting to quite the zany and fun loving crew. Kudos and keep up the good work!
KL
Your pal in surveyland.
Just finished the shopping survey, unfortunately no option for 'I hate grocery shopping.' (I'll bet you would get a HUGE response to that option!)
I enjoy the newsletters and I do the surveys because I said I would. As a rule, I'm not a big fan of them, but I do find them interesting. I would like to see the results from the shopping survey.
Thanks much,
SMT
I'm glad to have a survey site that deals strictly with women's issues. I really enjoy filling out your surveys and the best thing is it makes you stop and really think about some of the things that are asked.
Thanks again,
JM
Eckville, AB
Posted on February 28, 2005
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Panel+ 3.0 : Advanced user Tip #2
Keep your panelists engaged using email.
Did you know that you can send emails from within your surveys? Ok, you may have known that already, but have you given any thought to why you would want to do this? I can think of three simple reasons off the top of my head.
ONE: thank your panelists for taking time out of their busy days to complete your surveys. This may sound like overkill, but you would not believe the number of panelists we have had write our support addresses thanking US when this has been done. These panelist's emails are much more positive than the ones we get from panelists wondering if their survey responses were recorded properly, or if they were really finished the survey. Let them know!
TWO: further your recruiting dollars. Every person out there that joins your panel has friends and family that may be equally as interested. Now, of course this technique depends heavily on the type of panel you are recruiting, and how random you want your sample to be. However, if you were recruiting a panel of expecting Mothers, for example, it would be quite easy to send out an email at the end of each survey asking your panelists to forward a link to their friends, or even their entire Lamaze class.
THREE: trigger a follow-up action. If a respondent takes the time to inform you of how disappointed they were in a product or service they received, they have provided you with an opportunity to easily turn their experience around. Trigger an email informing the respondent that the customer service department will be receiving the results of your survey and will look to improve their service around the specific areas in question. This will quickly help to reinforce your customer responsive image. Don't forget to actually send the results to your customer service department though.
In case you've gotten this far, and still aren't quite sure what we're talking about, go to the questionnaire builder. Under the far right icon there is an option to 'send an email'. From there, all you need to do is enter your email text, and each panelist will be sent a copy when they reach the email item in your survey - the end is usually a good place to put it.
So, as you can see, keeping your panelists engaged is as simple as good manners - my Mother always told me to send thank you notes. Consult your manual or call your Vision Critical representative to learn more about the new features in Panel+ 3.0.
Posted on February 15, 2005
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