Reaching the right audience is crucial for any research project, embodying the principle of “Quality In, Quality Out.”
B2B International excels in recruiting and researching diverse target audiences, and engaging senior professionals is among the most challenging. The more specific the audience, the tougher it is to recruit participants, especially those in senior roles.
Despite the dominance of online methods for a wide range of target audiences, high-level executives and decision-makers are often time-poor and hard to reach. Experienced recruiters can target specific individuals based on their professional backgrounds, roles, and interests.
Where appropriate, B2B International deploys a human-led recruitment approach, which helps to break through the noise of everyday life to encourage participation. This approach also acts as an initial quality control checkpoint, ensuring that the right person is recruited into studies.
Targeted recruitment can provide audiences with different opportunities to participate—completing immediately in real-time, being invited to complete a follow-up online survey, or arranging a pre-scheduled interview at a convenient time. The key is to allow participants to feel empowered by the research and the decision to contribute, rather than sending an easily deleted unsolicited email (we’ve all been guilty of this).
Central to recruitment in market research is the question of incentivizing participation to recognize the time given in sharing their views. Traditionally, online panels tend to offer lower incentives (with incentives varying based on agency and budget restrictions), which generally have low appeal to senior professionals. Personal recruiters can aid this by establishing a personal connection, building trust and rapport, which encourages participation.
This can be coupled, where possible, with offering participants a unique incentive linked to the research. Sharing a summary of the results, or a subset of results with those who contribute, can encourage participation as it can be positioned as an exclusive or early view of insights relevant to them, their role, or their industry. And who doesn’t like a sneak peek!
There will always be a place for online research; the ease and speed will continue to be appropriate for a large proportion of audiences. However, where audiences can be considered hard to reach, the benefits of targeted recruitment should not be overlooked.
B2B International benefits from experienced in-house CATI and interviewing teams. Reach out to the B2B International team when you are next planning to talk to the people that truly make the decisions and help guide your strategy.
Readers of this article also viewed:
How to Ensure Representativeness of Samples in Customer Research AI in Market Research: The Challenges and Limitations of Synthetic Data Going for Gold: A Lesson in Poor Survey Design B2B Insights Podcast #62: How to Achieve World-Class Quality in B2B Market Research
To discuss how our tailored insights programs can help solve your specific business challenges, get in touch and one of the team will be happy to help.
