How to Find People to Take Market Research Surveys

Market research surveys are the bedrock of all company strategy decisions. Finding respondents, particularly a set that stratify the major demographics of race, age and socio-economic background, can be tricky. The key to finding market research survey respondents is to utilize a variety of different contacting methods. Not only will this help you find more people, it also adds weight to the data eventually collected, as that data can be analysed in a variety of different ways.

• 1

  Decide whether face-to-face interviews are necessary--recruiting people for face-to-face interviews is inevitably more difficult. Determine target demographics. If the survey is aimed at wealthy businessmen, there is no point targeting single mothers. However, most surveys are aimed at a variety of respondents to ensure balanced data.

• 2

  Advertise for potential respondents on job sites. List your contact e-mail and website (if you have one) under the part-time or freelance jobs category. People looking at these category are more likely to be interested in a single reimbursement and can be flexible with their time.

• 3

  Send a blanket e-mail to your address list. Ask recipients to forward the e-mail to anyone else that might be interested. If you are involved regularly with finding survey respondents, you should begin collating e-mail addresses for your own personal database.

• 4

  Go out onto the street with a questionnaire. Stop people and ask them if they can spare five minutes to take part in the survey. This method is only practical if the survey is genuinely short. Do not stop people if your survey takes half an hour to complete.

• 5

  Cold call people. Go through the phone book, dialing numbers and ask people if they would like to respond to your survey. Use the phone call as an introduction, if your survey is longer. Ask people if you could send them a survey. Offering a small monetary incentive will help.