MarketTools Blog

More and more panel providers are using Facebook as part of their panel management process – we need to be where current and potential panelists hang out in order to recruit and retain great panelists to respond to our customers’ surveys. 

But at ZoomPanel we want to do more than just use Facebook to broadcast announcements or as a channel for one-off surveys, as many panel suppliers do. The ZoomPanel Facebook application provides a complete panel experience within Facebook, allowing respondents to take surveys, answer polls, and check their reward status without leaving the Facebook environment.  Facebook’s interactive capabilities also allow us to interact with panelists and deepen panelist engagement – which in turn helps build longer-term relationships with them and fosters loyalty. 

An example: when ZoomPanel recently launched a new rewards program, we wanted to get real-time feedback from panelists to refine the program during the initial launch phase.  Our Facebook community provided the perfect medium to get real-time feedback from our most vocal user base to refine the program during the initial launch phase. 

Asking panelists to say whatever they want in a public forum about the panel for all to see is risky to say the least – but we decided to explore this avenue to gather constructive feedback to refine the new rewards program into a program panelists wanted.  ZoomPanel directly asked panelists to provide their feedback on the newly-launched incentive program on Facebook. This opened up the opportunity to collect real-time candid comments from panelists who were actively accessing and using the new program.  As soon as the program launched, we instantly found out what was working, and what wasn’t, from the panelist perspective. This quick feedback allowed us to fix bugs and issues in the short term, and make a positive impact on rewards and service for the long term. The instant feedback allowed us to offer rewards better suited to what panelists want, which in turn motivates them to take surveys.

Allowing panelists to speak their mind openly can be a big plus if you manage it correctly or a downfall if you don’t.  ZoomPanel was prepared for the inflow of comments by beefing up and training the support staff on how to add their own comments and avoid vague communication to panelists.  While the positive comments are nice to read and let you know what you’re doing right, the negative comments are very useful and can help guide next steps.  We listened to panelists, made changes and found common ground.  Being proactive, candid, admitting faults and addressing issues right away turned negative attitudes and angry panelists into positive and loyal panelists.  

Using Facebook as an open-book customer service tool allowed ZoomPanel to be reactive and proactive in providing a rewards program suited for our panelists. One of the best things that came out of allowing panelists to speak their mind? ZoomPanelists have become ‘experts’ and now answer each other’s questions, providing a new source of customer support for ZoomPanel!
 

Back when the Internet was young, finding people to take an online survey could sometimes be a struggle. Today, everyone has a long list of potential survey respondents. To recruit them, they use email newsletters, CRM systems, Facebook pages, Twitter feeds, corporate blogs and QR codes inserted into all kinds of places. The problem today, if anything, is that there are too many lists of survey-takers ‒ overlapping, constantly changing lists of respondents.

So where does that leave the survey panel provider? With so many channels that allow companies to draw in people using marketing content, why would anyone ever pay for survey respondents? The reality is that panel companies have become much more than just lists of survey-takers’ email addresses. They provide a controlled, carefully monitored environment for conducting research.  Sending out a survey on Twitter is a blind date.  Sample providers like ZoomPanel are matchmakers.

Like a matchmaker, ZoomPanel vets panelists before you meet them. We use TrueSample to eliminate frauds and duplicates.  We profile panelists and select the right ones for each panel based on the criteria researchers give us so that they get the respondents of their dreams. We also provide our respondents with a credible introduction to the researchers who want to survey them. The familiar ZoomPanel logo communicates to panelists that your survey isn’t an internet scam or marketing ploy, so they're more likely to share their honest opinions. And like a good matchmaker, we can tell you when your biggest problem in your interactions is you. We’ve got TrueSample Survey Score, which gives you a quantifiable measure of how panelists respond to your surveys and lets you know how you compare with other surveys. This kind of context and advice is something that you can’t get when your survey respondents come from a mailing list or posting a banner ad.

We believe that the result of good survey panel “matchmaking” is evident in the data. You see the effects in more completed surveys (fewer partial completes), successful recontact programs to bring good respondents back for additional surveys, and consistent results across multiple projects. We have created a reliable laboratory to do survey research.

A list of email addresses is a replaceable commodity.  But when you're looking at working with a sample provider, think about the many other benefits they can provide you in addition to a list of names.  Much like they way you'd approach a matchmaker, consider: What's their track record? What are their methods?  Do they really "get" what you're looking for?  This approach to partnering with a sample source and developing a client’s research capability is at the heart of ZoomPanel’s mission today.  And it’s what keeps us from being just another list.
 

Years before I worked in market research, I was a member of an online survey panel.  I took enough surveys to get a $20 check in the mail and once got a bag of potato chips as part of an in-home usage test. Perhaps my early days as a panelist have left me particularly attentive to the panelist’s point of view. 

Panelists have a lot to tell us about online market research and they find ways to make their opinions known.  Whether it’s through our panel support team, our ZoomPanel Facebook page, or the dropout rates in a survey, panelists make themselves heard. I’d argue that our industry is better for it. 

Here are four things our panelists tell us that make us better researchers.

1.  Be Consistent
We’ve found that even small changes in the survey-taking experience provoke lots of comments from our panelists. Whether it’s an addition to our panel info webpage or a tweak in our incentives, panelists are quick to let us know what they think. This makes us thoughtful in the way we approach change and the way we communicate our practices to our panelists and clients. When we roll out a new feature in our panel program or in the survey process, we’re careful to keep as much of our old system in place as possible.  We find it is important to set clear expectations for our panelists and to meet those expectations.

This stability is good for our research too. It assures that our customers get consistent results across months and years of work with MarketTools. And the promise of reliable insight is what’s built our reputation in the research industry.

2.  Be Efficient
More than anything else, online survey takers complain about screening out. From a panelist’s point of view, a screen out is a failed survey experience.  The panelist was ready to take a survey, but three questions in they are told they didn’t fit our target. In their mind, we sent them the wrong survey! We find the same expectations from our clients.  They look to us to identify niche audiences accurately and bring them exactly the respondents they need.

As a result, we’ve deeply profiled our panel on hundreds of different traits. It’s the kind of precision that our customers have come to rely on from ZoomPanel.

3.  Create an Engaging Survey Experience
Panelists have limited patience for long, tedious and boring surveys. When a particularly lengthy and painful survey goes out the door, panelists drop out in droves. These patterns remind us that part of what surveys provide is entertainment. If we want our panelists’ help, we have to provide them with an engaging survey experience.

That basic truth has driven us to create better surveys, utilizing innovative formats like card sorts, shelf simulators, image highlighters and other visually attractive, game-like exercises. Not only does this keep our panelists happy, but it also gives our clients access to data that they never would have been able to capture before.

4.  Focus!
It’s the invisible hand of the panel that makes every researcher ask, “Do I really need that last question?”  The pressure to keep surveys short and focused makes us more thoughtful as researchers. It helps us to zero in on the essential questions of a research project before we hit launch. 

At MarketTools, we’ve taken that one step further and turned panelist feedback and signs of disengagement into TrueSample Survey Score. This tool gives researchers a means to adjust and improve survey design, and increase the likelihood that survey respondents will complete your survey.  Consider it the voice of the masses providing feedback on your questionnaire before it’s launched.  When you keep your survey focused, you’ll provide panelists with a better survey experience – and they’ll be more likely to give your questions the considered response you’re looking for.  In the end, you’ll get higher-quality survey results.
 

Although it’s hard to imagine now, an article in Wired Magazine reports that “there was a time when casinos only grudgingly tolerated slot machines”.  Now slot machines represent two-thirds of all gaming revenue and three-quarters of the gaming floor acreage in Vegas. Market Researchers could learn a lot from the evolution of slot machines from novelty to casino gaming staple. 

Here are three slot machine innovations that have some interesting parallels in the market research industry:

1)  Going digital
The first big leap in slot machines was the jump from mechanical machines to digital ones. Mechanical machines were expensive to build and needed almost constant maintenance. In addition, the parameters of the slot machine games were restricted by the movement of physical reels, which spun to determine the game’s outcome. The only way to create bigger jackpots (with longer odds) was to add more reels or put more pictures on each reel.  But players didn’t like the looks of those complicated machines, even if they wanted the bigger payoffs. 

Digital slot machines, patented in 1984, solved those problems.  Today the payouts are determined by computer chips running sophisticated software and relying on random number generators. The chips require less maintenance than physical gears and can be programmed to pay out at any odds no matter what the physical devices looks like. Going digital reduced the costs and removed the biggest limitations to slot machine gambling – and transformed slots into a revenue powerhouse.

The research survey parallel:  When surveys went online – for example, when Zoomerang pioneered a self-service online survey solution in 1997 – that digital technology helped remove the physical limitations and costs of conducting surveys via mall intercepts, call centers and on paper. As a result of going online, the market research industry was able to scale survey-taking in dramatic ways, and the data from online surveys is what powers most market research today.

2)  Getting rid of the cheaters
The Wired article describes early slot machines as “magnets for cheats". Scammers would affix coins to fishing lines or pry open service doors to tamper with the reels of slot machines. Cheaters represented a serious risk to casinos.  And no casino would invest heavily in slot machines until they knew that they could mitigate that risk.

The research survey parallel:  Boy does that one sound familiar!  Market researchers have spent a decade trying to reduce the risk of fraudulent responses (and bad respondents) in online surveys.  While the debate continues, TrueSample has emerged as the “security system” of choice for respondent validation and data quality – and it’s helping customers place big bets on the future of online data.

3)  Customizing the experience
Once the slots went digital and casinos knew they could stop the cheaters, slot machines represented a highly controlled, easily scalable gaming environment. That foundation made it possible for slot machine makers to produce a huge variety of games. The player experience can be customized to present a bet in an infinite number of ways. Now, every gambler can find a machine that fits his or her exact tastes whether they prefer simple traditional machines or machines with lots of variations, mini games and free spins. In fact, slot machines are so adaptable that individual machines can be programmed to change their payouts based upon user information – such as the data stored on “player cards,” which are smartcards given to gamblers as rewards in casino loyalty programs.

The research survey parallel:  The challenge of the online survey industry today is to take the scale that’s possible with online research and the confidence that’s provided by automated data quality tools, and create a variety of customized survey experiences that can cover all potential survey respondents.  Similar to the way the variety of slot machines proliferated in the casinos, we’ve seen an explosion of new data collection techniques across online qualitative work, communities, virtual shopping experiences, mobile surveys, gamification and customer satisfaction programs.

The challenge now is to develop guidelines for consistency and quality that work across these modes.  At MarketTools, we’re working with our partners to prepare for that future by developing online market research quality standards that can be applied across even more formats and in more places. With that assurance, the expanded variety of survey options could result in a surge of willing survey participants and a bounty of available data.
 

Online research panel providers haven’t always had a straightforward process for researchers to identify the right panel attributes for their research projects.  Traditionally, sample vendors have used a book format – which can make it difficult to understand the full scope of attributes you have available to choose from.

MarketTools decided to try something completely different: an Online Market Research Menu that centralizes the majority of panel attributes for ZoomPanel Online Sample on a single sheet of paper. 

Whether you need to gauge consumer interest in new product ideas, gather data to develop a stronger business case, or collect compelling statistics for a PR strategy to tie your brand into the latest trends, the Online Market Research Menu makes it easy to quickly identify your target audience.

That means that if you’re looking for a panel of IT professionals with iPads, cat owners who drink champagne, expectant parents who shop at Home Depot, you’ll be able to quickly find who you’re looking for.

MarketTools ZoomPanel Online Sample, an online panel of 2 million real and unique survey respondents, is tracked on more than 500 attributes in nine key areas:
1. Demographics
2. Internet & Technology
3. Health & Medical
4. Products & Purchases
5. Business & Industry
6. Information Technology (IT)
7. Food, Beverage & Dining
8. Financial Services
9. Home & Vehicles

With ZoomPanel Sample, you’re also assured of the highest-quality research sample in the industry: all panelists are validated with the patent-pending TrueSample data quality process that uses the same automated, real-time, large-scale validation technologies that help prevent credit card fraud and identity theft.

The Online Market Research Menu is available as a PDF and can be printed on demand. (Important: Print your copy on 11” x 17” paper for optimal results.)  This makes highlighting key attributes for each new research project simple and straightforward.

► Click here to download the Online Market Research Menu

Guest blogger Jennifer Becker is the Director of Research, Brand Strategy at Airfoil Public Relations, a high tech firm in Detroit and Silicon Valley – and a MarketTools customer.

If you think that creating online surveys for public relations is totally different from market research, think again. Whether creating a survey to support media relations or launch a new product, the design fundamentals and purpose – to gain brand exposure – are the same, even when the end audiences are not. Whether it’s a story, or your product or service that you’re selling, you want that audience – be it media or customers – to buy!

A strong survey is a strong survey, regardless of how your business ultimately leverages the data. In fact, if you can approach a publicity-based research project with the same objectivity as a market research survey, you will ultimately produce the highest-quality data possible, something media gravitate toward. Your sample should be representative of the population and your questions as focused as possible to elicit data meaningful to the story you hope to tell.

I’ve always believed that surveys are a form of advertising/marketing/public relations themselves. By asking for someone’s opinion, you’re telling the survey taker that your brand cares about their opinion – even if they don’t know who you are until it’s complete. 

Following are some guidelines for quality PR survey design, all things you and a trusted research partner should consider before your next project together:

• Chart a course: Be diligent about identifying the true survey objectives and ensure research goals are appropriate for the recommended methodology.
• Sharpen your sample: Consider the target audience to make sure that those who respond provide information that may lead to actionable insight. While some client lists can be used as a sample, purchasing a quality panel of survey respondents from an online sample provider ensures that you’re talking to the right people. And this could help validate the client’s list in the process.
• Be choosy:  Make sure you apply the right screening criterion to the panel before the survey ever launches.   Are you sure the potential respondents in the panel are representative of the population? Does the panel represent the type of respondent you want as a customer or someone you trust to be at the forefront of a trend?  An online survey panel provider should be able to help you find the right people to take your survey, whether they are IT professionals with iPads, home owners who wear glasses, or business travelers who have taken a trip in the past six weeks.
• Engage the respondent: A survey must be as interesting for the survey taker as the results are for those consuming the data.  Using plain language, rotating question types and avoiding repetition encourages survey takers to be more thoughtful about their responses.

A well-crafted survey can provide data that can be used to change perception of your brand; shape a story around a trend or issue; or prove the efficacy of your offering. Do everything possible to ensure those data points are viable so that your message around them can be received with confidence.
 

So, you’re proactively using online surveys to get quick answers to questions about what your customers are interested in, or what they think about a product or service. Brilliant! Online survey tools like Zoomerang and online panels such as ZoomPanel sample are used by some of the world’s most respected brands and market researchers to conduct fast and easy online research.

But before you field your next survey, here are six signs your survey results may not be all that useful.

1.    Your mom is the only person that completed your survey
Um.  Yeah. At least she loves you, right? The truth is that relying on friends and family to help make product, marketing, or business decisions is probably not the best way to roll.  An online sample provider can provide survey respondents who are truly representative of the audience you want to reach. 

You also want to ensure that you’ve calculated the correct size for your sample population, which has a major impact on the statistical validity of your results.  Zoomerang offers Sample Size Calculators to make it easy to understand how many survey respondents you need to get more accurate survey results.

2.    mickeymouse@fake-email.com, elvis@junkmail.com, and santaclaus@northpole.com contributed to your research results
It happens. Some people actually create multiple fake aliases in an effort to complete as many surveys as humanly possible. The good news is that if your online panel provider uses TrueSample to filter out fake panelists, you can be sure that your respondents are real and unique. Otherwise there is no telling whether your survey results are all that useful. 

3.    Your respondents’ ultimate goal is to earn the points to buy enough crockpots to fill a crockpot museum
In a mad dash for panel points and rewards, some people may straightline or speed their way through surveys.  They’re not really interested in your survey subject – they may be just looking for goods or cash.  The best panel providers have the online data quality technology to screen out these unengaged folks.

4.    You have no idea who has completed your survey
If you haven’t asked your sample provider to profile your survey sample on basic attributes (like age, gender, zip codes, or income), make sure you incorporate basic demographic and behavioral information into your survey questions.  In fact, it’s a best practice to always ask for the basic attributes in each survey you send out.

5.    Your survey sample wasn’t balanced
It’s extremely important to balance your sample—in other words, to make sure it’s representative of the entire population you want to reach. But it’s not enough for a vendor to tell you that they have a balanced sample. You should always ask how the sample is balanced for age, gender, race and other demographics.

6.    You’re using paper surveys
At least it’s an improvement over stone tablets.

For more serious advice on best practices for conducting online surveys, check out The Essential Guide to Online Market Research.
 

How can online market research help or hurt a new fad?

Probably one of the most unique and interesting fashion statements in the last decade comes from a small town in northeastern Mexico called Matehuala.  If you haven’t seen these bedazzled pointy-toed boots yet, the image posted here alone is worth 60 seconds of your day. There is something about these boots that absolutely fascinates me – yet just as quickly as they reached Yahoo News’ most popular stories, that same article explains that they are already being replaced by “high-heeled Ropers”.

For many business owners and entrepreneurs hoping to capitalize on flash fads, this is a common dilemma.  How much should you invest in mass-producing or retailing a new product like this?  Should you sit on the sidelines until you can be sure they will sell? Unless the recent press suddenly inspires people to take a leap of faith, there will likely be shelves full of similar boots in small stores waiting for someone brave enough to put these bad boys on.

This is where a little customer input – through online market research – can go a long way.  Asking your target audience a few well positioned questions could help you make more informed business decisions.  MarketTools' Essential Guide to Online Market Research points out that online surveys offer an element of real-time analysis, allowing researchers to view results as they come in. And, when done correctly, surveys can be used to do a type of concept testing that can also help you discover what small changes would have a greater appeal to a wider audience.

But don’t get me wrong. I don’t believe for one minute that all fashion, art, or other types of personal expression should be subjected to market research. And I don’t think that these types of sudden and wonderful creations should undergo rigorous testing. For instance, if the mysterious masked man cited as being responsible for starting the pointy-boots trend on a small dance floor in Matehuala had conducted online market research first, these amazing boots might have never seen the light of day. However, for those people seeking to invest significant amounts of their hard-earned money into the mass production of an idea, a little online research can go a long way.

^{Photo credit: Associated Press}

Want to learn more about online market research?

The just-published first edition of The Essential Guide to Online Market Research offers practical advice to help you take full advantage of everything online market research has to offer. Although the world of online surveys and online market research is a vast topic, this e-book offers some nuts and bolts in a condensed format that’s easy to read.

Beginning with the basics, you’ll get a thorough understanding of why you should conduct market research (in case you are on the fence) and why online market research is taking the industry by storm. Then the book covers the pros and cons of “do it yourself” research versus hiring a service bureau or a full-fledged online market research firm to handle the heavy lifting for you.

“Effective Surveys 101” offers up insider secrets about creating and deploying online surveys that deliver the information you need. You’ll discover best practices that will help drive greater success in all your market research. An “Introduction to Online Panels” lays out everything you need to know about survey samples, from calculating sample sizes to the characteristics of high-quality survey panels and more.

Finally, the book takes a look at the cutting edge of online surveys, including how social media and the iPad are impacting online market research right now, ways to spread your online survey (and results) across the Internet, and possibilities for the future of online market research.

This free e-book is also meant to serve as a starting point of conversation with our customers and prospects. The field of online market research changes rapidly from day to day and we welcome all comments and suggestions.

• Download your copy of The Essential Guide to Online Market Research today.

Chapter Overview
• Understanding Online Market Research
• How to Approach Online Market Research
• Effective Surveys 101
• Introduction to Online Panels
• Exploring Social Media-Driven Surveys
• The Future of Online Market Research

The latest GreenBook Research Industry Trends (GRIT) Report got me thinking about the differences in the way market research clients and research suppliers think about online sample.

If you ask clients, data quality is high on their list of concerns: in the GRIT Report, 90% of research clients rated “provides highest data quality” as an important or very important quality in a research provider.  They ranked data quality 5th out of the 25 qualities tested in the survey, and only qualities related to customer service rank higher.

But suppliers placed much less importance on data quality.  Only 69% of the suppliers who provide clients with online survey sample ranked data quality as important or very important, placing it 18th on their list of priorities. Suppliers are also more likely to see market research as a commodity while clients are more likely to see distinctions amongst suppliers in the market.

The report also indicates that both groups believe that clients are left out of the conversation about data quality. 71% of all survey respondents think that “the quality of online panel sample is worse than most clients believe.” 

Research suppliers play an important role in the debate about online sample quality.  Full service research firms, consultants and technology providers often act as brokers and buy online sample on their clients’ behalf. Suppliers have an opportunity to educate their clients about the difference in online sample providers, but the survey shows that these conversations aren’t happening.

So what’s behind the disconnect between the two groups? Are research suppliers asking their clients the right questions?    Do clients wish for quality, but select vendors based on price and timing?  And when it comes to selecting sample sources, who’s really setting the criteria?

Suppliers take a big risk by keeping their clients in the dark about sample quality issues. 40% of clients responding to the survey say that the “quality of sample” is forcing them to change their data collection methods and 31% of clients say they are “actively looking for better sample.” Suppliers should see these numbers as a threat to their business and an opportunity to take a lead in the sample quality conversation.