Recruiting families to participate in market research often comes with unique challenges.
When our client, a large educational non-profit organization, needed a recruitment partner to locate families to participate in research, they reached out to our qualitative recruiting company.
Continue reading this case study to learn more about our approach to recruiting families to participate in remote research.
Study Overview
The main objective of the study was for our client team to understand how media (more specifically, podcasts) can help families learn at home.
To secure 100 study participants, we recruited 120 participants for a six-week study. Families were asked to participate in an initial group orientation call via Zoom.
Following the six-week orientation call, families were sent a podcast to listen to every two weeks, for three total podcasts. At the end of each two-week podcast period, they were sent a brief survey to complete.
In addition to the six-week usage period, half of the participants were invited to participate in additional research interviews about their experiences with the podcast(s), or study in general.
Defining the Recruitment Criteria
Recruitment criteria have a direct impact on the project. Based on the client’s objectives, the criteria will ensure that the proper target audience is selected to participate.
This approach ensures that there will not be participants outside the target audience, saving a significant amount of time. Because of this, the client can be sure they’re receiving relevant feedback from their desired audience.
To reach their objectives, our client’s target audience was defined as the following:
- Parent or legal guardian of a child between the ages of four and eight years old.
- Parents can communicate in English.
- Family is defined as low-income: those with a household income of $80,000 for a family of 4 people, or are eligible to receive state or federal programs such as SNAP, CHIP, WIC, SSI, and so on.
- Families have access to wireless internet or cellular data service and can participate in Zoom meetings.
In the recruit, there were also quotas to ensure a representative sample:
- Mix of child’s age, with a focus on families with a five to seven-year-old child.
- Mix of rural, suburban, and urban locations.
- Mix of race/ethnicity.
- Mix of podcast usage, including those who are already podcast users, and those who are new to podcasts.
Creating the Recruitment Screener
A recruitment screener is a critical piece of each qualitative recruitment study.
Recruitment screeners are documents, surveys, or call scripts designed to qualify participants for market research projects. Screeners filter respondents to ensure the proper demographic is reached during the research process.
Drive Research consulted with our client to finalize the screening document as the initial step to vet families for the research.
The screening questionnaire included questions such as:
- Do you have Wi-Fi internet access at home?
- Do you have cellular data service?
- Are you able to connect to video calls without trouble?
- Do you feel comfortable having a conversation in English?
- Are you the parent or legal guardian of a child under the age of 18?
- What are the ages of your children?
- Including yourself, how many people live in your household?
- Does your family receive any state or federal benefits, such as SNAP, WIC, SSI, CHIP, TANF, FRPL?
- Over the past 12 months, what was the total income of all people who live in your home?
- What month and year was your child born in?
- How would you describe your child’s race or ethnicity?
- How many times in a month do you listen to podcasts with your child/children?
Programming and Launching the Screener
Once the recruitment screener was finalized, our team programmed the document in our online survey platform.
This process included thorough testing and quality checks to ensure the program was operating properly before launching to potential study participants.
Once programming was finalized, we launched the screener using a mix of targeted social media ads, and our in-house panel.
Re-Screening and Scheduling Phone Calls
As the next step of our high-touch recruitment process, we conducted re-screening/scheduling phone calls.
This additional step confirms all participants are qualified, engaged, and able to complete the research as designed.
In these calls, we give a thorough overview of the study requirements, which informs all participants what is expected of them. Next, we ask for the same core qualification criteria to confirm accuracy.
As a final checkpoint before scheduling, our recruiters use an articulation screener.
With this open-ended question, we are looking for respondents to be thoughtful, open, engaged, and creative in their response (i.e., looking for more than a “yes,” “no,” or “I don’t know” answer).
Due to the topic of this study, the following articulation screener was used:
- Tell us about some of the media you use at home.
- What are your favorite TV shows or podcasts?
- What devices do you use to access media?
Once a participant passed all re-screening criteria, they were scheduled for the initial orientation call with a researcher.
Confirmations and Reminders
Our rigorous recruitment process doesn’t stop there!
We used a combination of both confirmation emails and phone calls to ensure participants stayed up-to-date with their involvement, which we’ll discuss further in the following sections.
Confirmation Emails
After completing the re-screening/scheduling phone call, participants were sent a confirmation email and calendar invite.
Confirmation emails cover the essential information about the research project. They will often include details about where and when the research is taking place, length of time, special requirements for the participants, point of contact information, and incentive information.
For this project, our confirmation emails included:
- An overview of the study, including a breakdown of required tasks they should expect over the six weeks.
- The day, date, and time of the initial orientation call.
- A copy of the consent form participants would need to complete following the orientation (which also included an overview of the study requirements).
- The meeting link to join the orientation, with the request to join a few minutes early.
- A reminder of who their single point of contact would be throughout the remainder of the study.
We ask for all study participants to reply to their confirmation email, and use these confirmations as an additional checkpoint to ensure participants are engaged.
If a participant does not respond, various reminders will be sent. If they remain unresponsive, they are ultimately removed from the study and replaced.
Confirmation Phone Calls
The day before the orientation calls, study participants received a reminder phone call with best efforts to reach them live on the phone.
On the day of the research study, participants received a reminder text. All of these follow-ups were conducted by their personal point of contact.
By using this multi-step opt-in process, we can achieve minimal drop-off once we begin the initial orientation calls.
Participants can opt out of the study at any time by letting their point-of-contact know, in addition to becoming unresponsive in this process.
Live Coverage of the Scheduled Research Tasks
Where other firms may consider their role in a project completed once they have finalized scheduling, we take another approach.
Live coverage is provided for each scheduled research task, such as the initial orientation calls, follow-up interviews, or focus groups.
This way, our team can work with the study participant to troubleshoot any technical issues or answer any questions, and the moderator can focus on, well, moderating!
The Outcome
In less than two weeks, Drive Research was able to recruit all 120 study participants and complete the initial orientation calls.
Of the 120 families recruited and scheduled, 110 showed up and continued in the study (a 91% show rate)! Those who completed the 6-week study received a $200 eGift card.
Below, you’ll learn about our scheduling method for additional research along with a (very happy) client testimonial.
Scheduling and Timeline
Our team was also able to quickly turn around scheduling the 50 families for the additional research interviews and focus groups, by scheduling the client-selected families within an average of 2 days.
Those who participated in the additional interviews or focus groups were provided with an additional $100 reward.
Client Testimonial
Here is what our client had to say about our work on this study:
“I am so impressed with your work on this, and really appreciate it. You did an amazing job with recruitment in general under the tight timeline, but also with achieving our study requirements, including our ask of a wide range of prior podcast experiences among families!! Thanks so much again for your work on this.
Data collection for the podcast study is officially complete! Thank you so much for all of your hard and impressive work helping make this study happen. It was awesome to work with you on this project and get to see your recruitment and logistical magic first-hand.”
Conducting Research with Families? Contact Us.
With our systematic and thorough approach to recruitment, our team works to build a mini-relationship with each study participant throughout the entire market research process.
Our single-recruiter approach leads to a higher level of comfort with the research process, and an increased likelihood of show rates.
For more information about our services, use the information below to contact us:
- Message us on our website
- Email us at [email protected]
- Call us at 888-725-DATA
- Text us at 315-303-2040
Ashley Reynolds
With nearly 10 years of experience in market research, Ashley has worked on countless quantitative and qualitative research studies. As a Fieldwork Manager at Drive Research, she’s involved in every stage of the project, especially recruitment.
Learn more about Ashley, here.
