Market Research Panel for Online Surveys

Market research panels are groups of individuals recruited to provide feedback and insights to organizations, or researchers as part of a market research project.

The goal of using such panels is to gain qualitative and quantitative information that can be used to make crucial business decisions, such as, informing the direction of marketing campaigns or new product design. Leveraging, or investing in a market research panel is an excellent way for companies to gain insight into target markets, assess customer needs, and better understand consumer behavior.

The panel members are usually recruited from various backgrounds and experiences to ensure a wide range of thoughts and opinions. The panel must be large enough to account for all possible demographics and small enough to ensure effective management and analysis of responses. Members of market research panels may be required to participate in both online and in-person activities, such as surveys or focus groups.

The collected and analyzed data from the panels are meant to provide insight into various topics. Companies may wish to measure customer sentiment towards the company’s products or services, gain feedback on product design, gather thoughts and opinions on new campaigns, and more. The data can also provide information regarding customer preferences regarding pricing structures, packaging, advertising, etc.

Market research panels are an essential and beneficial tool for companies, organizations, and researchers. Not only do the panels provide a comprehensive understanding of customer behavior and preferences, but when used correctly. In the proper context, the data collected can be highly valuable and often provide insights that can make all the difference in a successful business strategy.

The need for panel research is expanding rapidly as market researchers, and other business professionals demand quality samples to conduct online surveys, polls, in-depth interviews, and focus groups increases.

Essentially, decision-makers are looking for actionable insights related to customer experience, employee feedback, product development, marketing strategy, and organizational planning from:

• Customers
• Potential Customers
• Stakeholders
• B2B Supply Chain Partners
• Constituents

Online survey panels are an effective, low-cost solution for reaching a broad range of consumer and B2B target audiences for online research projects while promising reliable data quality for ad-hoc and longitudinal research studies.

While a panel database is not the only method to reach a group of people for online surveys, research buyers will likely achieve significantly improved outcomes over alternative methods of sampling and recruiting for data collection via quantitative questionnaires and qualitative interviews .

And whether you are contemplating an In-house Panel or using a Research Vendor with panel expertise,  a panel will ensure you are achieving speed, respondent data quality, and cost-effectiveness with your research projects for these principal reasons:

• Quality B2B and consumer surveys start with knowledge and experience:   A survey is a research sampling resource representing an actual population.
• Panel research companies who focus on the Consumer Online Panelist classify and segment by targeting profile attributes like: demographics (age, gender), geography, product usage, behaviors, and voter constituents. B2B panels classify by: job title, industry, and other firmographics.
• Panel research enables convenient sampling from a target population to determine the likely attitudes and behaviors of people which it represents. Using an online panel lets you sample your target audience and reach people using simple market research survey software tools.
• You can perform quantitative data analysis with confidence leveraging data collected from surveys completed by panel members. Alternatively, you may explore via focus groups; participant attitudes and behaviors more in-depth, using qualitative data analysis.
• Save time and money when reaching survey respondents or focus group participants when conducting online research using a market research panel.  There are various alternative ways to survey people online, including:

1. sending invites to lists of email addresses,
2. placing survey links on websites or social media sites,
3. and sending mobile text messages with a survey link.

These can all be valid, low-cost ways to obtain responses, but they come at a cost. More Time. Less Feasibility. Accuracy.

• It is essential to follow market research methods and standards to achieve representation and reduce non-response bias. Ensuring everyone who qualifies also has the chance and does respond to any given survey opportunity. 
• It is crucial to have a holistic and inclusive master design. For your research project to succeed, the panel must operate in a way that meets the needs of researchers and participants together. 

How and when are market research panels used?

Survey research projects today examine a broad spectrum of subject areas of varying complexities.  Data collection for commercial research, social, and academic study covers needs ranging from diverse B2B Audiences & Topics to such as

• Study Healthcare Matters with Physicians, Healthcare workers, and the Patient voice as well.
• Improve Products & Services with B2B Brand Tracking and Consumer Audiences by understanding awareness, attitude, and usage within a target market, industry sector, or region.
• Strategize and Plan Public & Social Policy issues among constituents about events that affect them.

Even the simplest of market research studies require experience with sample planning and questionnaire screening design. In addition, market research panel companies must provide panels that offer recruitment balancing to a representative audience and using probability sampling techniques once the sample frame has been set.

A market research firm will leverage a Panel Management Software System to pre-recruit participants. Whether you’re starting a market survey or planning to conduct an online focus group to connect with the target audience, it’s crucial to organize and leverage your panel and an online survey to work together in the following way…

• It is essential to re-screen for the online survey’s qualifying responses as a best practice.
• Updating participant profiles, particularly product usage and changing demographics, or matching customer personas (in the case of corporate or organizational panels), is essential to panel health and data quality.
• It is equally essential to profile the panel membership for attributes to target their behaviors, preferences, ownership, other group identifiers, and demographics.
• For each live survey, every respondent, whether pre-targeted or not, are taken through online survey screeners blindly for study qualification.

Who can benefit from solutions offered by panel research companies?