Online White Paper:

Finding a needle in a virtual haystack

Left-handed scientists who drink carbonated beverages only on weekends -- How in the world are we going to find a whole group of these people? One of the best places to find difficult respondents for an online study is, of course, online!

Many online focus groups or bulletin board projects take place online because their target respondents are geographically dispersed, highly specialized (not enough of them in one location to make in-person research feasible), or just plain low-incidence.

Using online resources for recruiting hard-to-find respondents goes beyond using an email sample provider or sending invitations to a client database. Recruiting for difficult online projects requires thinking creatively, using both “traditional” methods - good old-fashioned telephone recruiting, emailing invitations to an opt-in database, etc. - and web-based approaches such as:

• Posting information about a study on specialized message boards/forums
• Contacting professional association websites for posting/distributing study information to members
• Partnering with well-organized online member groups to include study information in e-newsletters and other communications (sometimes for a small fee)
• Placing banner ads on special interest websites (usually less expensive and more targeted than search engines)

Over the past five years 20/20 Online has used innovative online recruiting efforts such as those outlined above to find respondents with rare medical ailments, businesspeople in highly-specialized industries, managed care decision-makers, DNA scientists, as well as early adopters for countless consumer products/services. By using the Web to work for your recruiting efforts even the hardest online projects can become do-able!

For more information about Qualboards or online qualitative research, contact by email or call her at 800-737-2020 ext 23