Introduction
Market research is a critical process for figuring out how to understand and meet the needs of consumers. It’s used by companies large and small, in industries ranging from tech to clothing. But with budgets tight and margins often slim, how can you afford market research? The answer: panel providers. You’ve probably heard of these services before. They’re the ones that ask you to complete online surveys in exchange for points redeemable toward gift cards or other rewards. A panel provider can be a great resource to help you conduct fast, cheap market research on your target audience.
What is market research?
Market research is a process of gathering data to inform business decisions. Market research can be used to understand the needs of customers, find out what people think and feel about a particular product or service, and evaluate marketing activities. You might use market research when researching new products or services, determining which products are most popular with your customers, or planning how you’re going to promote a new product in print media.
When conducting market research, it’s important that you gather accurate information from people who represent your target audience. This means speaking directly with potential customers rather than asking them questions via email or phone calls when they won’t be able to provide the level of detail needed for meaningful results (for example: “What do you think about our company? Would recommend? Why/why not? How would explain why someone should buy from us instead other companies?). In order to achieve this goal effectively without wasting time on irrelevant interviews, it’s necessary to use a panel provider.
Panel provider characteristics and sample quality
Panel provider characteristics include the panel’s size, the way it is recruited, and its demographics. The larger the panel, the more reliable its results. Your target audience size should determine the size of a panel for your research project. For example, if you need to survey 1,000 people in a particular region of Canada and have a limited budget for sampling costs (ie postage), then you should use a very large sample size (ie 10K+ people) to reduce sampling costs through economies of scale. However, if your target audience is only 100 people in that same region but has high income levels and spends significant amounts on travel or entertainment activities such as golfing at country clubs or attending concerts at local concert halls then these higher income consumers are worth surveying with smaller sample sizes. This is so that there will be less cost per completed survey for each respondent reached through mailings sent out via postal mail or email blast campaigns with these smaller target segments available from some online panels. Panels can choose from different sample sizes depending on their budgets while still providing accurate data on behalf of their clients who want to make sure they get real answers from actual customers. In this way, they are not relying on data collected using traditional methods like focus groups where participants tend not to say negative things about products offered by competitors because there could be repercussions.
The primary benefit of using a panel provider is fast, cheap access to consumers who have agreed to complete surveys as part of their participation on the market research panel
Panel providers also provide access to other types of data, such as product reviews and social media posts that can be used for market research purposes. One benefit of using a panel provider is that they can help you identify new sources of information that you might not have been aware existed previously.
Some panel providers offer qualitative methodologies as well as quantitative methodologies. This means that you can use it for both primary and secondary data collection methods, which will allow for improved accuracy in your overall findings about your target market.
Conclusion
In summary, there are a number of different approaches to conducting market research. The primary benefit of using a panel provider is fast, cheap access to consumers who have agreed to complete surveys as part of their participation on the market research panel. However, there are drawbacks to this approach as well. If you want more detailed information about what kinds of B2B survey respondents are available through panels and how they can be useful for your business needs, contact us today!
